Eternally North (38 page)

“When I was young, I
was very poorly, and in theory I shouldn't be here today talking to
you, but I am. You are strong and will get through this, even if it
doesn't seem like it at the moment. You will have days when it’s
harder than others, but on those days you rely on your family and
friends to get you through. You can even talk to me."

I took both her hands
in mine and made her look up. "You're strong, Boleyn, you are
going to get through this, and when you do and you come back to
school, I am going to help you in any way I can. Oh, and you are
soo
gonna be singing again. Now you've shown the world your talent,
they're going to want you to keep going, to keep showing off them
pipes."

She giggled a little at
that. "Thank you, Miss," she sniffed.

I stood, pulling her
off the sofa and giving her a cuddle. "Don't thank me yet, hun.
I brought Tink with me this evening, and you won't be too grateful to
me after a few hours in his company!"

She giggled again, with
more energy this time.

"Now come on, let's go
downstairs – I'm bloody starving!"

Boleyn and I entered
the room, her arm linked in mine, and everyone seemed relieved at the
sight. As we began making our way through to the dining room I felt a
tug on my arm.

“Everything okay with
Bee?” Tudor asked, turning me around and bending his knees so he
was level with my line of sight.

I pressed a kiss to his
inviting lips and nodded. “Yeah, she apologised, but I told her
there was no need.”

I wrapped my arms
around his neck. “The room is lovely, babes.”

He kissed me on my
cheek, my lips and my neck. “Thanks, we just wanted her to be
happy, you know? Well, as happy as she can be after what she’s been
through.”

I placed a hand on his
cheek in comfort. “She will be, in time.”

He looked off to the
distance, clearly fighting the horrific images of his sister being
attacked. I pulled his face back to mine. “She showed me something
else too.”

He looked intrigued.
“She did?”

I smiled and reached
back, taking one of his hands and entwining his fingers with mine,
his other hand lying flat on my back. He looked down, content at the
feel of our hands playing together. I met his questioning eyes. “She
showed me the glass sunflower you gave her today.”

“She did?” he
whispered.

I pursed my lips. “Mmm…
Hmm.”

“
And?
” he
pushed.

“And, she told me
what you said about it… about me.”

I could see his blush
rising up his body, smothering his face, and he buried his face in my
neck in embarrassment. I let out a loud laugh at his reaction, my big
softie getting all coy, and I stroked the back of his head.

Putting a hand under
his chin, I forced him to look at me; he was rubbing his lips
together with nerves. “What you said, it… it was the most
beautiful thing I’ve ever heard,” I whispered.

He lifted his lip in a
lopsided smirk and shrugged, glancing up at me shyly, “You’re the
most beautiful thing in my life. It’s all true. I… I just love
you, that’s all.”

My gaze softened, and I
teased. “Soppy, Cheddary Tudor!” and wasted no time in crushing
my lips against his, losing myself in his taste. Tudor groaned at my
sudden attack and pushed me to the corner of the room, a large
cabinet hiding us from view. He stepped back and leered at me before
he opened the top few buttons of my shirt and launched his tongue at
the tops of my super-pushed-up-boobs currently spilling over my black
lace balcony bra.

My eyes rolled back in
my head as I whispered, “Tudor, what the hell are you doing?”

He mumbled around a
mouthful of flesh. “Just having a little taste to get me through
the night.”

“What if someone
comes in? Boleyn’s here for god’s sake!”

“She’s with my
mother and we’re hidden, no-one will see. Now be quiet, I can’t
talk with my mouth full.”

Screw it. No-one
will miss us for five steamy minutes!

We were wrong. Dead
wrong.

We heard a surprised
cough, and I pushed Tudor’s puckered mouth off the top of my
slightly exposed Ta-Tas to see Henry with his hand over his eyes,
facing the opposite wall. “Not again! Tudor, Mom said can you stop
making out with your girlfriend for once and please let her eat and
actually spend time with other people?”

My hot and bothered
boyfriend never looked back at his massively embarrassed big brother
and instead pounced on my lips, ignoring the intrusion.

I giggled against his
mouth when I heard from the next room. “Mom!!! I can’t go back in
there again. I think I just got knocked up from watching them! There
are just some things you shouldn't see your little brother doing -
heavy petting being top of the list!”

That did it; I burst
out laughing and rushed to fasten my gaping top. I grabbed Tudor’s
hand and led him to the door. “Come on, my horny man. We need to
go.”

He stopped and turned,
adjusting his trousers. “Erm… you go ahead, I’m just going to
need a few minutes.”

That made me giggle some more, and
as I was walking away I heard, “This is going to be a real long
friggin’ night!”

Pamela brought out the
first course, and my stomach rumbled in appreciation of the
cantaloupe melon wrapped in Parma ham. Tudor was sitting beside me
and Tink opposite.

Once everyone was
settled and tucking in, Pamela began the grilling. “So, Tink, how
are you finding Calgary?”

He tipped his head and
smiled. “Well Pam-Pam, I’m loving it! It’s colder than a
witch’s tit, but at least I have this gorgeous guy here to keep me
warm at night, and he can make me hot in no time!” He put an arm
around his Pookie’s neck and planted a wet smacker on his cheek.
Tate didn’t at all see the inappropriateness of his beloved
boyfriend’s comments and continued to smile sweetly as if the fairy
had just spouted something profound and with substance. The rest of
the Norths gaped. Tink, being Tink, didn’t have a clue that most
people around the table weren’t yet accustomed to his ways, and he
carried on shoveling his starter into his mouth.

Pamela just stared at
me, and I grimaced and shrugged. That was Tink – direct and
unapologetic.

She continued. “So
how did you two meet?” smiling at both me and the other Geordie
gobshite.

Shit! I hate this
story.

I went to speak, but
Tink beat me to it. “Well Pam-Pam, funny story. We were twelve, it
was a typical hard Northern winter, and we were both getting bullied.
We met in the school’s ‘Beat the Bullies’ group.”

Tudor looked at me in
shock. “You got bullied in school? Why?”

I opened my mouth to
explain, but once again Tink dived in. “Because she looked like the
arse-end of a truck, that’s why! Can you say ‘Wide-Load’?”

I dropped my fork and
it clattered on the plate, making everyone freeze. I glared daggers
at my soon-to-be-dead bestie. He looked back at me blankly.

“Thanks, Tink, why
don’t you tell them why you were there?” I challenged. His eyes
narrowed. “
Because
the kids at school were homophobic,” he
delivered regally, a smug expression on his face.

“Oh, really? Nothing
to do with you strutting your stuff in a bikini, fairy wings and a
tutu, hiding in the rugby team’s shower offering baby oil rub-downs
with guaranteed happy endings?”

He let out a soprano
shriek, making everyone flinch in their seats – well, apart from
Tater-Tot, who was gazing lovingly at his boyfriend, chin supported
on his hand.

“You bitch! At least
I wasn’t tied to a goal post and prodded with a stick!”

I laughed
sarcastically. “You bloody wish you got prodded with a stick, in
fact, you dreamt about it didn’t you?”

He put a hand across
his chest and opened his mouth in shock before snapping it shut and
nodding in agreement. “True, Boo. Loves ya.”

I winked and smiled
lovingly. “Loves ya, too,” and we carried on eating our food.

I looked up after a few silent
seconds and noticed several sets of eyes frozen on us, especially
Boleyn’s –
whoopsy!
I just shrugged. This was normal, they
had better get used to us, and what’s a family dinner without a bit
of friendly banter?

As the night went on,
we chatted about all sorts of things. Pamela was very easy to get on
with. For the mother of my boyfriend, she was pretty awesome. I think
she even got used to Tink and his…
unique
personality.

Henry proved to be an
excellent story-teller, and he was regaling us with a tale about the
time he had taken Samantha to Mexico for her thirtieth birthday. At
the mention of that, Tudor swung his chair around and gripped my arm.
“Shit, Sunshine, I don’t know the date of your birthday. How did
I forget to ask that?”

I shrugged and patted
his leg. “It’s okay, I don’t know yours either – though I
could probably Google it. I’m sure the Tudor Chicks have that date
tattooed on their weirdly obsessive little hearts,” I teased.

He leaned towards me,
narrowing his eyes and dismissing my dig. “Mine’s April
nineteenth.”

“Okay, mine’s
January ninth.”

He shot back in his
chair, nearly taking the tablecloth with him. “That’s in a couple
of days.”

I grimaced. “Ugh, I
know; I’ll be twenty-nine, last year of my twenties,” I said in a
grumpy mood.

Tink butted in. “Mine’s
February fifteenth in case you wanted to put that in your calendar
too. And I like diamonds, FYI.”

Tudor held in a laugh.
“Oh, yeah, thanks Tink, that was my next question.” The fantastic
fairy nodded his head, face smug, completely
not
getting that
Tudor was being sarcastic.

Tudor took my hand.
“What are you doing for it?”

I looked at him like he
was crazy. “Erm, nothing, except probably crying myself to sleep at
the loss of my youth.”

Tink took a swig of his
Zinfandel and whistled low. “I hear that sister, I’d be worried
too with titties that size. Gravity will
not
be your friend,
and you’ll be tucking your droopy nipples into your socks in no
time, hey Pam-Pam?” He held up a hand for a high five. Pamela
paused for a moment before clapping Tink’s hand in an awkward
fashion and mouthing 'sorry' to me.

I took a deep, calming
breath. Tudor kissed the back of my hand, pulling me from my
Tink-induced mood. “We’ll do something nice, Sunshine, and you’ll
have a good time.”

I smiled. “Thanks.”

We all finished at the
table, and before long everyone was ready for bed. It had been one
hectic week.

I found out that Henry
and Samantha lived two doors down in a smaller three-bedroomed house,
and Tate was going to go back to ours with Tink.

Pamela said her
goodbyes and headed off to bed, taking Boleyn with her. Tudor
whispered in my ear and asked me to stay with him, and I agreed,
although I really didn’t need much persuading. Tink’s ‘surprise’
for Tate had arrived that morning, the box reading, ‘Premium Plug
Pleasure Pack’. Staying at Tudor’s that night was something I
deemed to be essential.

Grabbing a bottle of
wine and two glasses, we headed down to the basement and curled up on
the sofa, listening to Newton Faulkner on the iDock. Tudor placed me
on top of him. I had come to realise that he couldn’t be near me
and not touch me, and most nights he wrapped me around his body like
a curvy Geordie blanket – which was absolutely fine by me!

He had also shown me
his newly organized room, which caused the butterflies in my stomach
to go all Cirque Du Soleil. Tude, being the sweetie that he was, had
cleared some of his closet and drawers and had bought me toiletries
and basic clothes for the nights I would stay. I was so beyond happy
with everything in my life at that moment – especially my big
cuddly bear.

We were snuggling in
each other’s arms when he spoke. “My mother and I spoke to
Boleyn’s doctor today. He’s recommended that she goes to a
retreat in Toronto for abuse victims for a few weeks, to help her
deal with everything that’s happened. Mom takes her tomorrow –
the sooner the better.” He paused. “My agent also called this
morning, and I need to go to LA a weeks’ time for read-throughs and
costume fittings on
The Blade Reaper II
. I knew I’d have to
go soon, unfortunately."

I nodded slowly against
his stomach, and my heart fell at the thought of him leaving for a
prolonged period of time. I had gotten so used to him being here
twenty-four seven and sleeping with him every night. I guessed this
would be the start of the reality of our relationship: me being here
and him being wherever it was that movie stars needed to go.

He lifted me up to his
face. “Is that okay?”

I kissed him and
smiled. “Of course, babes, it’s your job.”

He frowned. “I don’t
want to go without you. I’m already dreading leaving to shoot this
friggin’ movie. I wish I hadn’t signed on to do it and just taken
a year off or something to be with you.”

I put my hand on his
cheek. “Tudor, don’t be daft. You agreed to this before you even
knew I existed, it’s your job. This is how our lives will be, and
sooner or later we would’ve had to deal with it.”

He pecked a chaste kiss
on my head. “I’d rather it would’ve been later,” he sulked.

I sighed. “I’ll be
okay with the Tinkster; he’ll be pining for Tater-Tot too, but
we’ll come and visit you guys any chance we get.” That made him
somewhat brighter. I hated seeing him all sullen and down, but at the
same time, it was reassuring that he was dreading being without me.
But he will have a lot of… distractions out there.

Tudor shuffled down to
meet my worried eyes. “What is it, gorgeous?”

I tucked my hair behind
my ear, fidgeting. “I just worry that I’m not cut out for
Hollywood. It’s a bit daunting for a northern girl from England to
wrap my head around. But at the same time, I’d do anything to be
with you.”