BLACK

Chapter 24

After cleaning up and changing into her night clothes, Megan went to see Daniel as planned. She could not imagine what he could want to talk about.

She knocked on his door and entered.

"Daniel?" she said lowly.

"Hey, you are here. I did not think you'd come" he said switching on his bed lamp and sitting up against the headboard.

"Yeah, well. I was curious to know what you wanted to talk about" Megan smiled giving the impression that she was here just to satiate her curiosity.

"Okay, but please don't speak after I start talking until I ask you to. If you interrupt, I may lose my nerve to talk. Can you please do that?" Daniel asked. He had gone pale and Megan dreaded what he was going to unload on her.

"Okay, my lips are zipped. Start talking then" Megan said and encouraged him.

"So well... umm... I know Luke must have told you about my and Juliet's issues. So well, he doesn't know the whole story and I don't know why I feel as if I can't tell him that. I feel that the truth may get me off of the pedestal that he places me on. You know? Maybe he will think that I am stupid or something. I was going to stay mum about this forever but then you came today and I get a kind of vibe from you, Megan. A vibe, that tells me that Luke will listen to you. No matter how angry he becomes at you, you will be able to get through him. I know it is selfish of me to ask, but would you try to talk to him about what I am about to tell you?"

"I can try to help" Megan nodded and motioned with her hand to continue.

"So, around two years ago I went to New York to see Luke, I was super excited and everything because it was my first time there. When we met at the campus, he brought a friend Aaron,who is amazing, by the way. After a few days, his sister also dropped by. She was visiting her brother as well. That girl is an angel, Megan. I swear, when I saw her, all I saw was beauty. Natural beauty. She had grace, poise, perfect features and confidence. We got introduced and to my surprise she was interested in me, we were both juniors at that time. Fast forward a few weeks and we started to go out. Video calls, phone calls, texts and occasional meetings. It was all great for a couple of months, then shit went down" Daniel stopped to breathe. He seemed to be gathering courage to speak about the next part. Megan stayed mum as decided. It was hard to process what Daniel was telling her, he had a completely different perspective of Juliet than Luke's.

"We met in New York just in the beginning of our senior years. We were both alone in a hotel room, our brothers were taking us out after a few hours. One thing led to another and we ended up sleeping together. I don't regret it at all. I love her"

He is using present tense. Warning bells were ringing in Megan's head.

"After a few weeks, when she broke the news to me that she was pregnant, I was so scared and not because I was going to be a father. No, but because Luke would be disappointed with my irresponsible behavior. That guy has been a father to me since I was four, Megan. He means everything to me. In this chaos, I forgot about Juliet, how she must have felt. She had another person growing inside of her. I forgot that what Luke was to me, Aaron was to her. We both made up lies, Megan. We both lied to our brothers. She said I raped her when I couldn't ever dream of harming her and I said she cheated on me when I knew I was the only one out there for her. We made each other look so bad in front of the other's family. When she miscarried, I didn't know how I could breathe let alone stay alive. That was my baby that had died. All the lies and the stress caught up to me and I punctured this artery in my brain, that is why I am repeating my senior year this year because I could never return last year. Juliet, however, is stronger, she completed her senior year on time and now she is taking a year gap so we can go to university together"

Megan gasped at that. What? It was so much to process. Her image of Daniel fell through so many levels because of his selfish behavior. Not once did he think of the toll this would take on Luke's life, his friendships and his trust issues. He ruined the one friendship that Luke could have had for himself and he had no ounce of regret for that.

"Yeah, we have been speaking again. In fact, we started talking again about two months after this incident. It took a lot of time to forgive each other but we did it. And, we have decided to tell our families the truth so we could both be together again and work towards mending our relationship. The day she called recently, the nervous breakdown was due to the pressure I felt knowing that I had to face Luke. I owe it to her. But, I am not strong. I have been hiding behind lies all this time and I don't know how to face this, Megan. I don't know how to face Luke" Daniel said and he hung his head in shame.

"By the way, you can speak now" he said.

"You are by far the most selfish bunch of teens I have ever seen. Not only did you make each other look so bad that your brothers ruined their friendship but you made your families so worried about you that they think they have to baby you" Megan whisper yelled at him. He opened his mouth to speak but she put up her hand to stop him.

"Let me talk now. You had your turn, now it's mine. You are scared to face Luke? Damn right, you should be. If it was my sister in your place, she would have gotten hit by now. No one should take their families for granted. All because, you thought they would be disappointed and not respect you that much? And now, you have the audacity to say that you want to tell them but not because they have the right to know but because you both dysfunctional people want to be together again? How messed up are you? And you want my help with this? I will help you, Daniel. And this help will be in the form of a time limit. Tell him before we leave or I will. I promise, I will be there for your brother but I won't help in altering his decision. Twenty four hours Daniel. Starting now. And let me tell you one more thing, you don't deserve Lucas" With this Megan left the room leaving Daniel shocked and on the verge of tears. Now, he had himself a time frame to tell Luke the truth. Great help, Megan.

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Adrianna <3