MILES
A loud ring on my cell phone broke us from our happy bubble once again. When I ignored it for the third time, trying to concentrate on the girl who was holding a shy smile on her lips, I thought it would be the end of our disturbance.
But I was so wrong.
Megan's phone started to ring again. I let out a frustrated groan, cursing the ones up above for not letting us have a peaceful time. I had almost gotten her excited when the call had reached.
Megan got up, chuckling at my dismay as she tried to retrieve the call. "Don't pick it. They all can wait, can't they?"
"Come on, don't be a baby now." She teased, as she pulled herself up. As soon as she stood up, I pulled her hands towards me. With the sudden motion, she stumbled and fell back on my chest with a gasp. "Ouch!"
"Now, that's the place you are supposed to be right now." I murmured, pulling her closer. My lips traced her ear, slightly biting it as the ringing continued behind us. For a moment, we both had forgotten the world outside of us where the phone continuously rang for our attention.
My hands reached for her waist, as she found my lips, kissing and sucking until we were both out of breath. When I pulled apart for a breather, she caught my shirt in fists as she urged me to kiss back pressing me to her.
I was only more than happy to oblige her request. But just as my lips were about to meet hers, this time my phone rang.
"Fuck!" I cursed out loudly for the continuous cock blocking ceremony that was blessed on us.
"Just get the call, we can continue this after." Megan breathed as she pecked my lips one last time before going away to pick her own phone which had been ringing too. "We won't be disturbed after."
Her whisper sent chills down my spine and I hurried to get the call done and be back at her arms. As I went ahead to pick my call, she had already received the call.
My phone which already had six miss calls were my close friends and only one from my Dad. My eye brows scrunched together in wonder. Calls from friends and Dad one after another wasn't really a great combination.
Friends, I could understand. Given how only Joe or Dylan called me at both my times of need and want. But my dad? He only called when his reputation was on line these days.
That only meant one thing. I had screwed up again and I wondered if the building that I was working on had some issued to deal with.
My phone blared again. This time the call was from Dylan. I rolled my eyes. Only he could cock block me and say he was doing me a favour.
"What is it, Dill?" I asked, impatiently. "You are taking away my precious time with my girl. This better be important."
"Finally! Joe, he picked up!" Dylan shouted. "You are all over the media, Miles!" Dylan said, directing his words to me.
I raised one of my eyebrows still not convinced by his urgency. "What's it now?" I groaned out loud, tired of the media. "I was all over the news last week too. My charity had raised a lot of money than what it made last year."
"It's not the time to boast, you idiot!" Dylan scolded, his voice still laced with a hint of hurry and annoyance. "Go, switch on the television or Facebook or twitter, I don't' care. But you need to see this before you get out of the house."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, a little alarmed by his words. "What's going on?"
"It's about you and Megan." He said.
That was enough for me to understand the underlying need to make me aware of certain facts. But before I could turn around and head to the living room to see what the fuss was all about, Megan had bet me to it.
She was still holding her phone by her left ear as she switched on the television, worry etched on her face. Her hands slightly shook as she changed the channels from one to another.
"I need to go, Dill." I muttered, hardly concentrating on what he was telling me. "Thanks for the heads up."
I cut the call even before he could say anything. Megan needed the moral support more than anything else right now. She looked so scared like she could cry any minute.
"Darling." I said, walking closer to her, but her attention was all on the screen that whispered the news in hushed tones. I turned to her line of sight only to see our photo on the screen.
It was one of my favorite photos of us. It was from the charity ball a few months ago. I was holding her by the waist, putting on a possessive arm around her, while she was smiling shyly. As I faced the camera in the picture, she looked at me the same way she did only a few minutes ago. With love and adoration.
How lucky was I?
Just as I appreciated the photographer's skill, in big bold letters, a tag line fell on our perfect picture. The graphics was done very well, because just as the line fell on it, the picture broke in two, separating me from her.
'Megan Taylor, not so innocent anymore.'
"What the heck is going on?" I muttered, falling in line with Megan. My eyes were hooked to the screen, understanding what gimmick this whole publishing industry was playing at, only to get their TRPs raised to the sky levels.
"We got hold of Megan's mother. There is no wonder why Megan was keeping her family far away from town." A young reporter started with a smile on her face. "It's the news that no one has heard of. Welcome to the show at eight. We are going to look at Megan's life before Miles today."
"No, no, no." Megan muttered, taking her steps back. I held her as she shook her head in disbelief. "This is not happening, no!"
"Megan, relax. Nothing has happened." I said, pulling her close to me. But the next scene that the television played, made me not to have said those words to her at all.
It was Eleanor, Megan's mother who was smiling at the camera. There was a small picture of her and Megan taken way long back. I could tell so as Megan looked too young.
"We are so happy to have you here." One of the camera men whose face wasn't shown spoke up. "Our whole town is a fan of your daughter and we couldn't help but take up your offer."
"That is really nice." Eleanor said, smiling brightly at the camera. For someone who didn't know how to portray herself in front of the camera, Eleanor was doing a great job. If I could be brutally honest, she was even better than me when it came to face the paparazzi.
"Tell us something about Megan Taylor." The guy behind the scene asked her, trying to get all details of her.
"Megan is one of a kind." Eleanor said. I swear it was the first time that her mother had told something respectful of her. I could tell that because, next to me, I heard Megan gasp, as if she was dreaming it all. "I saw potential in that girl the first day I saw her at the adoption center."
"Adoption?" The guy asked, and I was sure that his mouth had hung open at that. It was a part of information that Megan had never revealed it out. I knew that this part of her life was bound to come out, one day or the other, but I never thought this was how it saw light.
Megan trembled next to me and it got me worried.
"Darling, we don't have to watch this." I said, going towards the television to switch it off, but she held onto my arm. "Megan, I will personally deal with this. It will be as if it never aired. I'll make sure of it, don't worry."
"N-no." Megan stammered; her eyes still hooked to the idiotic box. "I want to know... I want to know what she tells them."
She let go of my hand and sunk on the ground, clearly not able to stand with the news that she was being poured on.
"Okay, okay." I crouched down next to her, pulling her to me, rubbing her hands in a soothing gesture. "I'm right here with you, okay? We can deal this together. You are not alone."
But Megan was still not listening to anything that I was telling her. Her eyes were glassy and were hooked on the screen. I could see the screen reflecting the images off on her eyes and it pained to see her like this. So scared and... weak.
"Oh, yes." Eleanor said, shaking her head. "My husband and I had chosen adoption before I had my daughter, Rose. But Megan was really a lucky girl. She went to the best of schools, but she never had it in her to... you know, work it out."
"But she is doing more than great in her flower business." The guy said, his voice had wonder, as if he couldn't believe that Megan didn't do well in school during her initial days.
"Yes, she is." Elanor said, putting her left leg over her right. "I saw her potential and told her to go to the town. Giving her handful of money, I sent her away only to not have her back."
Megan put her hands on mine, curling her arms as her nails dug on my skin biting sharply. As Eleanor further went ahead to discuss how she had helped Megan get on her legs, supporting her mentally and morally, Megan's grip on me tightened.
Even when I put my hands on her, trying to get her distracted, she didn't blink at the screen that showed how brutal one could be if they wanted.
Eleanor went on about how Megan had ignored her mother who had picked her up from the rags once she had found the lime light. How Megan had never once returned her calls or invited her in when she had come to the town.
"This show is in a way reaching out to her. I want my daughter back in my life." Fake tears escaped Eleanor's eyes as she dabbed on it, before giving a sad little smile to the camera.
The scene changed to a big house. This time, I was in for a shock.
The house was big. Literally. A big lawn in front and a backyard space with a barbecue grill at one corner while a small pool took the rest of the space - it was elegant. I could tell that Megan's parents were well off.
I spared to look at Megan, who had now closed her eyes, trying to get herself together. I could tell that she was doing her best to not have a break down right then and there. Her nails bit my skin over and over again making me wonder if she was sucking the blood out.
All this while, she had never once made a sound of pain while she held it all in, absorbing it like a sponge. She had never once said it was all a lie, or how her mother had manipulated the situation to her needs. She just took it all in.
It alone made me wonder how patient one could get. How easy it was for people to walk over Megan without a second glance. And the worst part? Megan would take it all in and still smile the next time she met that one person without any hindrance.
When I shifted my focus back on the screen, Eleanor had toured the house to the camera guys sauntering her way, showing off the wealth she possessed.
It alone made me want to puke. All this time, when I had thought that Megan was a gold digger, it was clearly the opposite. She was taken into a world of wealth and had seen the worst after effects of it. She had quit it all to start fresh in a small town and she had won her battles only to go back in circles to find herself in the middle of her fears.
And who did it start with?
Me.
I had slowly pulled her into the fame world, getting attention on her. The same attention she had quit to save herself from.
I now understood the reason why she had told me she never liked the paparazzi and the attention she received. The reason why she had told the media in her first interview that she was my girlfriend. The reason why she always had second hand stuffs in her house when she could buy an entire cloth line.
It all became clear.
"This is where she learnt her first bike ride." Eleanor continued, showing her a pathway across the lawn with a proud mother façade. "See this one, it's her picture with the bike. She loved it."
There was a picture shown on the screen. The little girl's blonde hair and twinkling eyes had the charisma in them which had been lost in the years. It looked like she was five years old and I did a little math to know that Rose hadn't been in the picture yet.
Perhaps, that was the reason why she looked happy and content? Even Eleanor seemed to have a genuine smile on her face.
"This is where I had found her with Billy the first time she kissed." Megan's mother giggled like a school girl. "And this is where I caught her with the raven-haired boy, Riley. See, she had even carved her name on this tree."
Megan's head snapped up in a quick motion. For a second, it had got me worried about her getting a sprain with such swift movements. Her eyes were now hollow with no life. It was only a few hours ago that we were having such a wonderful time. Now, suddenly, I couldn't recognize the girl who sat next to me.
Back in the screen, the camera zoomed on an old tree bark. There was a heart carved on the tree with a R and a M written on it with an & sign.
To be honest, it looked very cute. Something that she might have done when she was a teenage girl with a boy she really liked. Though I knew it was a long time ago, I couldn't help but wonder if she really loved that guy called Riley to carve her name with his on a tree trunk.
I involuntarily pulled her closer to me, putting my arms around her protectively. But Megan seemed to have gone numb, but her tears never stopped.
"Megan, let's switch this off now, okay?" I slowly asked her, scared for her.
"Is there something you would like to say to your daughter?" The guy in the background asked her.
"Yes." Eleanor brought forward a practiced face - the one of a longing mother. "I love you, Megan. We all do. Please come home. I forgive you for everything. Just don't push us away."
When Eleanor said she would forgive her again, Megan took the remote in her hands. Before I could register what was happening, the remote flew across the room and landed on the television, breaking the screen in two and eventually switching the damned thing off.