"Luke!" I ran out the door and chased after him.
He shook his head and kept walking down the driveway.
"Luke, look at me." I pleaded as I tried to keep the same pace as him. He wouldn't look anywhere near me, it was like I was repelling his gaze.
"Luke." I grabbed his wrist and stopped as he started walking down the sidewalk.
Luke still didn't look at me, which worried me. "Luke." I whispered and walked up in front of him, placing both my hands at the sides of his face. Wiping away the evident tears that trickled down his cheeks.
He shook his head a little and finally looked at me through his watery eyes. He hiccuped and licked his chapped lips repeatedly, it hurt seeing him like this.
"Please don't leave." I begged, my voice was shaky now.
"Its clear that I'm not wanted." He tried to scoff but it came out as more of a whimper.
"I want you." I leaned our foreheads against each other, managing to still hold eye contact with him.
"Some effort you've made." He rolled his eyes at me.
I was taken aback by his remark. Was he being serious?
"Luke, you know how much you mean to me." I said sternly.
"Why do I feel like you're just leading me on again?" He sobbed.
"Again?" I croaked, now noticing that tears were streaming down my face as well.
"No, Maia. I didn't mean it like that." He tried to take back what he said when I dropped my hands back to my sides, now creating a distance between us as I pulled away.
"Then what did you mean?" I asked quietly.
He didn't reply. The only sound between us was his constant gasps for breath.
I didn't want to leave him. Things didn't turn out well the last time I did. I don't want to ignore him anymore. It was pointless and would only make me miss him even more.
But I didn't know if his words hurt a lot or just temporarily stung me.
"Luke," I sighed, "come back inside." I outstretched my hand for him to take.
He looked down at my hand and hesitantly took it, slowly intertwining our fingers.
I led us back inside the house, Luke was still recovering from his sobs moments ago when we reentered the dining room.
I found Dad sitting on the stool of the piano they brought out from Mom's library, Janet beside him, whispering things into his ear calmly.
I cleared my throat to indicate our presence. Dad shot up from his seat and awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.
Janet sighed and stood up as well, giving Dad a small shove. I looked over to Luke, who was just staring at our shoes the whole time.
"Luke, um-I-" Dad stuttered, "I'm sorry for... my behavior tonight." Dad muttered the last part under his breath.
Janet nudged Dad's shoulder, encouraging him to go on, earning herself an eye roll from him, "And, I would like to give you another chance."
I looked back over to Luke, noticing that his eyes grew in eagerness, but stayed glued to the floor. I gave his hand a small squeeze, which made him look up at me with a small smile which I returned.
The rest of the night was good.
We sat down and had a proper dinner.
Dad asked Luke some real questions like about his education and his life ambitions.
Luke's medication was never mentioned.
And with a firm handshake from my dad and a sweet kiss on the lips from me, Luke left the house.
With a great smile.
-
That night I was stirred out of my sleep when heard my phone ring on my bedside table.
"Hello?" I answered the phone in a hoarse voice.
"Maia?" Calum's voice desperately rang through the phone.
"Calum? Are you okay?" I asked, now sitting up on my bed.
"Can you open the front door?" And with that, the line went dead.
I stared at the phone in confusion, but got out of bed and walked downstairs to the front door quietly.
I unlocked the door and opened it ajar, when I saw Calum with two beer cans in each hand, I whipped the the rest of the door open.
"Calum? What are you doing?" I asked, grabbing his wrist and pulling him inside. "Where's your shirt?"
"I did it!" He said loudly, so I had to shush him.
"Did what?" I closed the door behind him and stared at him in bewilderment.
"I dropped her." Calum said with a smirk.
"Connie?" I whispered, remembering his personal relationship problem at the moment with her.
He nodded furiously with a proud smile before handing me one of his unopened beer cans.
"What's this?" I scanned the beer can, like it was poison in a can.
"A celebration toast?" Calum answered in almost a question, cocking one of his eyebrows at me.
"For what? And why are you shirtless?" I giggled as he linked his arm around mine and dragged me into the kitchen.
"Well, my dear Maia," He set the rest of his cans down on the kitchen counter and gripped my waist, hoisting me up next to them, "the answer to both of your questions is simple." He smirked up at me and picked up a can again, he was now standing in between my legs.
"And...?" I encouraged him to continue as we both cracked our cans open at the same time.
"I have nailed a girl, not so long ago." He was now giving me the goofiest grin I have ever seen.
I raised an eyebrow at him, still not getting it.
"And... it wasn't Connie." He continued.
"Nice." I playfully rolled my eyes at him, he motioned his can towards mine, wanting to bump them.
I rolled my eyes at him again, but bumped cans anyways.
"Cheers." He chuckled and we both chugged down the contents.
My low tolerance for beer prevented me from finishing the whole can, but when I set it down beside me, Calum already finished his own.
He dropped the can to the floor and reached out for a second one. I didn't want to stop him, three cans of beer won't hurt him.
He cracked open and took a huge swig of it and before I knew it, Calum finished three cans when I finished my first.
"Wow, good stuff." He muttered, squinting his eyes shut and clenching his jaw.
I giggled at him, knowing Calum, he probably got wasted at some party, let a girl take him home, and robbed her parents' alcohol storage cabinets.
That's the old Caum I love and knew.
"What are you planning on doing now?" I giggled at him, pushing him aside so I could hop off the counter.
"Don't know, I'm tired." He rubbed his eyes and yawned.
"Do you wanna stay over?" I grabbed his hand, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah." He mumbled as I tugged him back into my room.
I sat on the edge of the bed, Calum following my actions, both of us not ready to go to bed yet.
"What did you do tonight?" I asked him, gesturing towards his bare chest.
"I told you, I nailed a girl." He groaned. "I forgot my shirt somewhere at her house, but it doesn't matter." He waved his hand around dismissively.
"Other than that." I rolled my eyes at him.
"I talked to Connie at Jody's party." He struggled keeping both eyes shut, so one was squinted shut like someone staring at the direction where the sun shone.
I nodded. I was invited via a text, but to me it was obvious that having dinner with Luke and Dad was more important.
"She admitted some things to me." He continued.
"Like...?" I tried to keep him talking, he omitted a lot of details.
"Yeah, so we were talking and talking and talking..." He fiddled with his hands and chuckled, probably at the amount of times he'd said 'talking'.
"And then she blurted something out about being a lesbian and then she left." He mumbled so fast I barely understood him. "Ooh, and then Jody did this thing where-"
"Hold up, hold up, hold up..." I placed a hand over his mouth to shut him up, "Lesbian?"
He nodded, "She also said something about a girlfriend..." His voice came out muffled with my hand over it, so I removed it from its place.
"Girlfriend?" I said barely above a whisper.
How come she'd never told me anything about this?
She hurt Calum... and Cameron!
And now she confessed about not liking either of them because she was a lesbian?
I support her decision, I have nothing against it. I'm glad she decided to talk about it to someone, but why not me?
I have been there for her, even though I was crap at it, I still tried to help.
Is that why she left?
Because she thought that I couldn't help her?
Or because she thought I would judge her?
"She, um, told me how she didn't feel anything towards guys anymore." Calum said quietly.
I only nodded, still speechless by this information.
"She didn't tell you this because she knew how much you preferred dicks over vaginas." He laughed heartily.
I knitted my eyebrows at him, not seeing why this was so funny to him.
"Calum, this isn't funny. She's probably scared." I fumbled with my fingers, intertwining them with each other.
"No, she's not. You and I both know how confident she is about her opinions." Calum grinned. "I told her that I respected her decision and everything, she left with a smile, Maia."
"What about Cameron?" I asked, worried about how he might react to all of this.
"He's sort of a thing with Savannah, now..." Calum scratched his shoulder.
"Savannah?" I gasped.
I didn't think he would go for someone as low as her. He could honestly do better.
"Yeah, and he was with us when she admitted her true sexual orientation."
"Is he happy?" I asked.
"Never better." Calum chuckled.
"How long has Connie felt this way?" I asked, hoping to get more information out of him.
"Um, about a year now. I guess ever since she broke up with Cameron at the start of the school year, when she hooked up with that- oh..." He cut himself off, suddenly not wanting to continue.
"What?" I was growing tired of his constant forgetfulness in important details.
"Remember that guy she hooked up with at that party? When she was drunk and cheated on Cameron?"
I nodded, recalling the night she came over here with taco bell and when she suddenly bursted into a fit of uncontrollable sobs.
"Yeah... he was actually a she..."
I stared at his blank expression, he probably didn't realize how I felt right now.
Was I that bad at keeping company?
Was I just there for her for the movie criticizing and cuddles?
Nothing more?
I can't believe she told Calum and Cameron, but not me.
I don't know whether to feel happy for her or feel sort of betrayed.
She still meant a lot to me. This is why my mind was racing with questions.
"I miss her." I blurted out.
"So do I." Calum sighed, running a hand through his hair, ruffling it up and make it even messier than it was before.
"I hope she's happier." I mumbled.
Calum chuckled, "Maia, you worry too much. We're all happy. Me, Connie, Cameron, Dallas..." He trailed off.
"How is he?" The question escpaed my lips before I had time to rethink. He may have been an asshole to me, but I hope he's pampering some other girl and making her feel like a queen right now. Because I knew that deep down, he was still good at heart.
"He's with some other girl, I don't remember her name. But he sure looked happy, it was pretty clear that he was in love by the way he looked at her." Calum chuckled.
"That's good." I said, and I was being honest. I bit on my bottom lip, hoping that maybe Luke would look at me like all the galaxies and stars were nothing compared to me.
Just like the way I looked at him, like he was a God and I was thankful for being under his favor.
I heard a small whimper from across my room and looked back to find Bran, sleepily make his way out of the dark corner and in between Calum and I.
"Aw, did we wake you up?" I cooed into Bran's ear and his head dropped in between his paws.
"Oh my God, hey buddy!" Calum exclaimed, pulling Bran onto his lap and running his hands through his fur.
I stared as he happily mumbled things into Bran's ear and hugged him tightly.
"Cal?" My voice was now weak.
"Yeah?" He didn't bother tearing his eyes off Bran.
"Bran is leaving." I sighed.
"They're taking him away?" Calum snapped his head up, clearly upset about what I was telling him. He seemed to already grow attached to Bran, although he had only met him not so long ago.
"No, he's, um..." I struggled to find the right words, "really really sick."
Calum pouted, like the four year old he was, and dropped his head onto Bran's back. Nuzzling his face into Bran's furry coat, sniffing him during the process.
"He smells like oats." Calum stated in a sad tone.
"I know." I nodded.
"Maia?"
"Yeah?" I looked down at Calum, who was already looking up at me from where his head rested, his big brown eyes were wide yet puffy and red.
"Promise me you'll try and make him stay longer." He buried his face into Bran's coat, who was already drifted off into another deep sleep.
"I promise."
-
okay okay. i feel really upset. like i've disappointed you. because in the previous chapters i received no comments :(
I MISS YOUR LOVELY COMMENTS :( they make my day, even the smallest and shortest ones.
i will try and update regularly again. sorry for the long period of time of being inactive. i had no reason :(
the story would be ending soon... this breaks my heart because i love laia. idk how you feel about connie's sexual orientation twist.
tell me? please?
i planned it from the start actually.
but other than that... check out my fanfic etched memories. i know i said it before, i would just like to hear more opinions on it.
bye. love you.
- mackkk.