Chapter Thirty Five
= MEG's POV =
Ellison's talking to Louis. I'm actually more convinced now something's going on. I turn my attention back to Doris when I met Louis' gaze. She's struggling in my arms so I stand up and walk over to the only person I've actually talked to. Besides Louis and Ellison, of course. Irene.
I hesitate for a moment, thinking I've only met Irene and I don't want her to think that I already feel like we're best friends. The way she reacted when I approached her eased my hesitation. She immediately smiles at me and asked me if I'm enjoying myself.
"Actually," I start. "I want to ask you, if you don't mind, how long have Ellison and Louis been friends?" I ask her. She turns around and sees the same thing I'm seeing. Ellison looks pissed and Louis tries to say something but is always cut off.
"Hmm, a few years ago, I think. Something happened between them but I shouldn't say anything. It's their business, not mine.." She says, the feeling of disappointment I feel is there. "Look, I like you, Meg. I don't know if Louis told you I'm a chatter box and a major gossiper but I know my boundaries. You should just wait until he starts it and when he gets caught up in the moment, he'll eventually spill. No secret stays secret for long."
It felt like it hit me more than I expected. Not only because Louis' hiding something from me but also I'm hiding something from him. Only, I've done it longer and only feel the guilt coming back now. I sound and feel like a total hypocrite. Karma does its job well and I just got slapped in the face. Hard.
Anxiety was my biggest weakness and it probably still is. I avoided anxiety for a while now but it doesn't mean it's gone. And I can feel it coming back. For all I know, I might have anxiety disorder. My chest, little by little, pounded furiously like my heart was going to rip itself out of my chest.
I turn around and went to the bathroom. I can not break out here. Not infront of Louis' family, I can't. I leaned on the wall and recited a mantra in my head. More like a scold, telling me to control myself before I lose it. I stumbled when the bathroom door opened.
"Meg? Are you okay?"
That's Ellison's voice. I felt her grasp my arms and push me onto the sink. I shake my head, snapping myself out of my own negative thoughts. When I look up at her, she looks worried. It was seemingly noticeable in her eyes.
I have a downing feeling that she knows everything. She knows what Irene was talking about so why not just ask her.
"What... What happened between the two of you?" I ask her.
= ELLISON'S POV =
I was taken back when Meg asked me that. How can I explain to her that I was the one who broke Louis' heart a few years ago?
I'm sure Louis has said something and I'm also sure he didn't tell her it was me he was referring to.
"It's not my place to tell you that." I say, feeling completely defenseless. She's going to call me out. Meg's smart, she's going to figure that out.
"Not your place? If you were involved, you have as much place as he does to tell me." She says, her voice sounding pained but at the same time afraid.
Meg's my friend and I feel horrible for lying to her. I didn't want things to lead this way or get in between them somehow. I don't like lying. It's not something I'm used to especially after what I've done to Louis, I tried to avoid it as much as I can. The feeling of guilt is coming back to me. Well, past is past but you can't exactly run away from it.
All of the sudden Meg looks at me as if she just realized something. "Oh my god, I think I understand now." She wraps her arms around herself. She looks afraid and bewildered. I take a step towards her but she grabbed both of my arms and I swear the tears she was holding back just kept pouring.
"You're the one who cheated on him, are you? You're the El he keeps talking about. You're the one who hurt him..." Her voice is soft but panicked. When I didn't give an answer, her questions were confirmed. I might have just lost her trust but I'm more worried about what Louis would say when he finds out Meg knows.
"At the party? The closet?" She asks me and I'm about to defend myself but she bursts into hysterics.
"Wow, I feel so stupid." She says to herself through the mirror. This is a side of Meg I've never seen before.
"I tried to tell him to tell you but-"
The bursts open and, wow what perfect timing, Louis came in. He looks surprised to see us in the same room. I look back at Meg and she looks like a lunatic. I swear I've never seen her like this before, she looks like she's going to turn into a cannibal any second and devour me piece by piece.
"You know what? I'm done. When you have something to speak for yourself, come and find me." She says and walks out. Louis didn't bother to go after her instead, he looks down at me.
"Didn't I tell you not to tell her?!" He yells. I narrow my stare and shove him off.
"Excuse me but Meg is a smart woman, she figured that on her own." I yell back.
"She wouldn't have if you haven't filled her head with clues." He says, his voice is lower but deadly.
"Clues? You think I gave her clues? Weren't you the one who told her about the demon girl who broke your heart? Only, you didn't tell her it was me. Oh, and the party thing? You didn't even explain to her what happened, didn't you?" I ask him and his silence confirms it.
"And don't give me a crappy reason that it was not the right time, you had all the time in the world. So go ahead, waste more time than you already have because you're this close to losing her." I snap.
Not bothering to hear him say anything, I stormed out of the bathroom, looking around for any signs of her. She's gone. I went over to the table where she used to sit. My assumption is that she stormed off when she came out of the bathroom, not bothering to pick up her purse or her phone.
Wherever she's gone, she sure doesn't want to be found.
= MEG'S POV =
The streets are familiar. If this was in London somewhere, I'd be lost. But this is my hometown. I grew up here and I know exactly where to go. I find the small pub near Rick's house and that's exactly where I need to be.
Before, the place was occupied by younger people my age but now, I guess a new group has made it their turf. People gave me looks. Is it everyday you see a young woman walking into a low-class pub in a lacy dress? I don't think so. Based from experience, people look at you when you enter a pub in jeans and sweater. Imagine the attention I got in a lacy dress made for a wedding.
"Well, well, if it isn't little old Megan." I turn around and see a familiar man walking towards me.
"It's nice to see you too, Victor." I say sarcastically and sat on the bar stool. Victor's one of my classmates in high school. Carrie and I 'victimized' him more than twice and.. Yeah, that's about it. He looks the same as he did. His hair is longer, though. His blonde reaches his shoulder and a light stubble has grown on his chin. Regardless of the years I haven't seen him, I still recognize him.
"I haven't seen you around here for a while." He sits infront of me and orders my favorite lime-tropicana cocktail.
"I moved to London 4 years ago. What's going on with you, though?" I ask him.
"Ah, I work in TESCO. Pretty glamorous job, if you ask me. You?" He asks, taking a sip of his beer.
"I got in a design corporation a couple weeks ago so I guess I'm stuck there for a while."
"I heard you graduated Uni last month." He says and I nod. "Really? We didn't think you'd amount to anything."
"Well now I've got a better job than most people who judged me. In their fucking faces." I say, downing the glass of cocktail in a few seconds. I'm already from the wine at the wedding. And I'm also pretty sure Louis has gone looking for me. I have 20 minutes max in this pub.
"If I know you well," he takes a step closer to me. "You don't come here if you haven't got anything bothering you. So, why?" He asks. I shake my head. I don't trust Victor. He's a sleaze ball and clumsy with information.
I order another bottle and downed on it a couple seconds later. I need an escape.
My mind is reeling back in darkness and I can't let that happen. I'm so hurt. I can't believe they'd both lie about their 'history'. In the party, the closet thing, I manage to push that away and told myself it was just a dare because that's the right thing to do, isn't it? A silly little dare Carrie made to make me spill but now, after finding out, it's giving me a hunch that something might have happened in there.
The thought makes me nauseous that I have another bottle. The lump in my throat was drowned down by the burn of the alcohol. Little by little, I find myself fading out of reality. My mind has gone foggy and my sight made me see things lopsided.
"Hey, take it easy. You're going to kill yourself." I hear Victor say. My feet touch the ground but it gave way and I knocked out the bottles on the counter. I feel him grab my arms and pull me up. I leaned back on the counter, can't even keep myself on my own two feet.
I groan and pulled my heels off. "These shoes..." I dangled them in front of Victor. "These are shit. You know... How difficult... It is to... Walk in high heels? Huh?!" I drop them on the counter and took another swig from my bottle.
"Don't you want to tell me why you're in a pub in a lace dress?" I feel his breath so close to my face. He smells of cigar and I can't hide the disgust from my face.
"You.... You... Smell... Atrocious." I slur. My body feels like a rag doll. Where have my limbs gone? Add the horrible taste rising in my throat.
"Big words, huh? You know before I thought you were only pretty hot but now, you got brains? That's sexy." He murmurs in my ear.
"School.... Does that... To... You... Y'know? You should try it."
I struggle to open my eyelids and when I do, his face is merely inches from me. "Do you wanna go upstairs? Like old times?"
Why have I heard those words so many times? I shook my head and shoved him off but my body's too limp for that.
"Come on," he grabs my waist and that's when panic sets in. "Just because you're a big university girl now, you can't have some fun?" His hand trails up my thighs and grabs the bottom of my dress. I narrow my eyes at him and struggled out of his grip.
"Go away..." I push him off but he doesn't budge. "Go!" I yell but my voice was muffled by the loud music.
"Oh, you got feisty. I like that!" He smirks deviously. "Stop struggling, love. Just think about before, yeah? You loved it."
Bile rises in my throat and I feel a horrible bubbling feeling in my stomach. I push him off. He wasn't prepared this time so I managed to get away. I have to get out of here. I push through the crowd of people but my mind's so foggy that I collided with a few. They gave me dirty looks but I still managed to get out of the building before I threw up.
I yelp when I felt someone grab my elbows from behind. I scream and struggled out of their grip but they're too strong. "Meg, come on! Just once, I missed you!"
I turn around and slapped him on the cheek as hard as I can. The strong blow hit him hard and he dropped me & I fell back. My wrist took most of the blow then I felt a great pain wrapping from my wrist, to my hand, and to my elbows. Tears sprung to my eyes and held my broken wrist to my chest.
When I open my eyes, I see another figure in front of me. I squint and manage to get a glimpse of whoever that is. A hush whisper came from behind me and relief flushed over me. I turn around, using a lot of effort. I feel calmer when I saw my mother's face.
She pulled me up and lead me to the car that's parked up front. She sat me in the back seat and sat beside me. I haven't said anything and neither has she. She examined my wrist and flexed my hand back. The wince I made convinced her enough that it's something serious.
Rick drove me to the local clinic. Mum sat beside the examination table while the nurses and doctors checked my wrist. They said it wasn't serious so they only wrapped it with bandages and gave me pain killers.
Mum held my uninjured hand and gave it a light squeeze. "Do you want to tell me why you were there? Alone?" She asks. I'm not even sure why I was there.
I might have over reacted and jumped to conclusions. My confusion is no excuse for the pain I felt because of that lie. At the moment, I still don't know how to feel. Should be glad that it didn't take this long for me to find out about them or should I be devastated that I had to find out myself?
I shake my head and picked on the loose string of the bandage. She pulled me into an embrace and I put my head on her shoulder. "Please be careful, Meg... I understand you're capable of handling yourself but please don't do anything stupid." She says, stroking my hair.
My body feels so weak and my eyelids begin to close. Must be the alcohol taking over me again.
"Promise." I murmur and I instantly drift off.
<<<***>>>
Don't hate me, please! Meg's drinking again, Ellison's guilty, Louis' a jerk (I guess) for lying ANYWAY....
So, in the previous chapter... Yeah, I asked which of you guys would want to have; one shots or sequel.
And if ANYONE actually read the responses.... I guess I'm doing a sequel then. *CLAPS* I can't promise a certain length because one time I promised this book won't be long but then it turns out to be longer than the first story so that's that.
AND I FINISHED READING THE REVENGE OF SEVEN IT WAS PERFECT!! Seriously, though, if you were a sci-fi lover like me, you really need to grab a copy and read the first 5 books of the Lorien Legacies because it is amazing! And we can Fangirl over Six together and tell Loric stories in the campfire or something
I know what you might be thinking: hey let's leave before Faye talks absolute dork right now Hahahaha...
And you should because I am and goodbye.