Dear, Luke

Chapter Two

Dear Luke,

I know it's been a while since we talked, five years exact. And our last time talking wasn't exactly pleasant, since you had dumped me. However that was a long time ago, and I'm sure we could both move past that.

Well, next month I'm getting married, crazy huh. Remember we always used to say it would be us on the aisle together, how we had planned to move to England, and have two kids, a boy, and a girl. Things are different now, I've moved on, and I hope you have found someone as well. I would love for you to attend my wedding, I've missed you dearly, you were also my best friend, and I want you to be here. I hope you come and bring a date.

Sincerely, Meredith

Luke reread the letter multiple times, hoping the words on the page would change, that she would be begging him to take her back, that she wanted only him to be at the aisle with her, but it wasn't. That was not going to happen, and Luke had to accept that. He could not let her know that he was in love with her this whole time, he couldn't ruin the happiness that he could never give her. He did not want to go, but he knew he had to.

Luke stepped out of his dressing room, which he had gone to read the letter to himself, he didn't want to boys all over him about it, they were too nosy for their own good. Luke crumpled up the letter and threw it in the garbage, hoping he could erase the words from his head. He knew what he needed to do, he needed to show her that he was happy too, that he had moved on more than she has. He knew what he needed, he needed a date.

*

"Don't you just love your dress, sweetie?" Ana, Meredith's mother, asked her as they walked out the dress store, her dress folded over her right arm.

"Yeah, it's beautiful" Meredith smiled weakly before taking a sip of coffee to warm up her body. It was freezing outside, considering it was December, unique snowflakes falling from the sky and blanketing the trees and streets and everything in its path. Meredith pulled her coat closer to her, trying not to freeze to death.

"I can't believe you and Richard are getting married, seems like only yesterday you two started dating" Julie, Meredith's younger sister, and Michael's girlfriend said. Her long golden hair wrapped up into a bun, her hazel eyes gazing into Meredith's eyes.

"Yeah" Meredith sighed, she knew deep down that this wasn't what she wanted. She was only twenty-four years old and already she was being forced into a marriage she didn't want, that was how it worked in their family. Marry young, and have as many kids as you can and until you can't anymore.

Her mother had four kids, her, Julie, Calum and Sasha. Calum and Sasha were born to a different man, but he abandoned them and dumped them on Ana. Ana had to raise four kids on her own until she met Adam, her new husband, and their stepfather. He was a good man and a loving father, until he passed away a year ago, leaving Calum to pick up the pieces as the man of the house.

Then when Calum left for tour, everything changed, Meredith had to stand up and help her mother with bills, while balancing out her job as a kindergarten teacher, and going to community college. She wasn't able to continue going to Stanford because they couldn't afford it anymore. It was always her dream to become a teacher, but putting in the work, and having to do her own school and help out at home was too much for her.

So her mother decided that needed to marry now, marry someone who could help out in the house financially and mentally, also known as she had to marry someone rich. And that's where Richard came in. Meredith didn't even love him, not even a little, he was a good man, but he wasn't Luke.

It seemed silly for her to still be hung up on her ex-boyfriend, but he was her first love, and her first heartbreak, but she needed to move on. She couldn't let anybody know how she was feeling, she couldn't let her mom down.

Meredith climbed into the driver's seat of her car, her mother sitting in the passenger and her sister Julie and two of her cousins filled dip the back. She started up the car, and pressed on the gas, driving down the street, her wandering to places it shouldn't.