Wait a Minute!

"Andy!" a familiar voice called. The door swung open to reveal Leah's aunt, stood in the doorway of their new home. She looked quite different from when Leah last saw her; her hair was cut to shoulder length and had been dyed a bold, ombre, electric blue. She'd had her nose pierced and now wore a silver nose ring and Leah thought she noticed what looked like a tattoo peeking out, just at the end of her sleeve.

"Jackie, it's so good to see you.", Mr. Brennan smiled. Jackie looked at Leah, grinning uncontrollably. Her arms were open and outstretched, begging for a big, warm hug, "Aww, and my wittle mwunchkin!" She wrapped her arms around Leah.

"Gotta be honest, that nickname hasn't aged well", Leah complained.

"Really?" Jackie began to look around.

"What? What is it?"

"Oh, nothing, I'm just looking for who asked. Help me look, will you? Andy, can you find who asked?"

Mr. Brennan joined in, turning his head in all directions, "Hmm...Nope, nothing."

"I just can't seem to find who asked.", Jackie repeated.

"...On second thought, I quite like it. "Munchkin." Yeah, it's a good nickname, good nickname..." Leah squeezed past Jackie and shot up the stairs to see her new room.

"Top of the stairs, first one on the left!" Jackie called out.

Mr. Brennan and his sister followed after her into the house.

A massive wave of nostalgia hit Mr. Brennan as soon as he walked through the door. He strolled through his childhood home, reminiscing about all the memories he made there. To his left, was the sofa where he sat on the edge of his seat watching Doctor Who (now his favourite show) for the very first time. Just down the hallway was the table at which his family would hold their weekly board games. Like clockwork, they'd all come down at 7pm on Friday evenings. A different member of the family got to choose the game every week and Mr. Brennan specifically remembered his own father picking Scrabble every time.

"Dad always won Scrabble." he said to Jackie.

"Of course he did, Andy. He knew he was the best at it, why else would he pick it all the time for game night?"

"He was an English major too."

"Oh, yeah. He was, wasn't he...the cheating bastard."

Elsewhere in the house, Leah had already begun unpacking. She placed a framed photo of her and her parents on the chest of drawers next to her bed. She stared at the picture – a frozen second in time of a moment of pure joy. Her parents looked so happy together. Leah was saddened for a second. (A hot second.) Once her situation truly dawned on her, she struggled to contain her excitement: she was finally in NI. It all felt like some sort of dream: things like this only ever happened in the movies. She sat alone with her thoughts,

"Nothing special ever happens to me, but now all of a sudden I'm gonna meet the love of my life? Love of my life? I sound obsessed! I'm really not, it's just...I've never seen anyone quite like Kian. Of all the guys I've ever liked, he's the most special. I love everything about him; from the way he talks to the way he dresses, his cute smile and his icy, silver blue eyes. Don't even get me started on his hair. He could dye it any colour he liked and I'd still be mad for him. This boy has been blessed with such good looks, my poor heart is so overwhelmed every time I see his face, every time I hear his voice...I feel so in love with him and yet, he doesn't even know I exist..."

Leah pondered on that thought and soon realised that there was no happy ending for her because Kian could never give her what she wanted.

You see, even if she did meet him,

he would never look at her the same way she looks at him.