No Matter What 2 | Donah Meavey

e i g h t

Jonah's pov

"Are you okay?" I asked actually worrying cause after Daniel checked the message he got, he literally froze so I immediately thought of something bad. "Hey..Dani what is that?"

"It's...a message from....from my mom." he responded, still staring at the screen of his phone.

"What does it say?" I asked curiously. I just hope that nothing bad has happened with someone in Daniel's family. Cause why would his mom text him then if she was the one saying she doesn't wanna see him again. I mean she haven't said it out loud, but it's basically equal to those stuff what she really said.

"It says..that I'm invited to a dinner with the family this Saturday, to...introduce my girlfriend Angi to them. Everyone is excited to get to know her." he read it and we just looked at each other, not knowing even what to say to this.

"Girlfriend? What is she...? And who's Angi? Where did she get this name from?" I asked like a million questions. No answers.

"I..know where she got that name from." Daniel said and looked down. This sentence honestly surprised me.

"Explain it then, please." I responded, wanting to know more about this girl. Cause obviously it's not just a totally random name.

"It's a long story." he said and I shrugged my shoulders.

"We have time. I need to know Dani." I replied.

"I know, babe. Just please don't be mad." he said, looking up at me just under his eyelashes and it both scared me and confused me.

"I'm getting afraid of what you're gonna say now." I said honestly.

"Well..that day when we broke up..I was helping my mom with packing her things up cause she was about to leave the next day and...while packing we talked about a few things. She suddenly asked me her usual question if I have a girlfriend..and this time, I don't even know why...I said yes, I am dating someone. She got happy of course and started to ask me more about it. In that moment I regretted it all, but there was no way back. When she asked me about her name, I just said the first one that came to my mind. Angi was my friend and classmate in high school. Since we graduated, I haven't heard about her. So that's where the name comes from. Nothing more than that..I swear." he explained and it was actually a big relief. When he started with that day when we broke up, I thought he hooked up with this girl or something. But that's bullshit.

"I understand that in a situation like you were, this was a good cover up." I acknowledged and we smiled at each other. It was for sure a relief for Daniel as well that I understood it. "But she haven't said she wanna meet her or something?" I asked.

"Of course that was her first question. I said Angi's visiting her family in Vancouver until next week or something like that. Cause I remember back in school she mentioned that she's from there. Then my mom wanted to see at least a pic of her." he said and it made me laugh. I would panic and mess it up. I could not lie under pressure.

"What have you done? You don't have a pic of her, do you?" I was curious like a little child.

"No, but I have an instagram account my dear." he replied.

"Ah of course. I never had one. In jail every social media is useless." I said. "Anyways, she seriously believed everything you said?" I asked then.

"Well yeah. I even showed her that pic from instagram. She was convinced in a second." he said and we laughed about it. His mood then dropped when he looked at the phone screen again, seeing that message there. "Wish I could know why is she doing this to me when she was the one leaving me that night with no mercy." he said sadly. I caressed his hand and he looked at me.

"She probably misses you and that's why she wants to get your attention with a message like this one." I said, mostly just guessing why his mom sent this text out of nowhere. Cause it's been a month since they haven't talked.

"You think so?" he asked.

"Could be. I mean why not? What would be her deal with this text if not getting your attention?" I questioned and his eyes widened like he just realized something.

"The same thing like always. To get me back home." he responded. Well I should know his mom better by now. Daniel is right. One thing that his mom always mentioned, was the moving to Portland thing. Every time she called, it was one of those type of questions she never forgot to ask. And when she was here in L.A., the main theme and reason for a disagreement was again the same topic. Also it was the reason she visited us in the first place.

"You should call her then. Tell her that this is not the way. She can't manipulate you like this." I suggested and he was thinking about it. Then we heard the bell ring by the door, so we both looked that way. It was Tom, coming back with big packages of goods from the store.

"Can we discuss this at home? I need to go back to work." Daniel said and walked off to help Tom with the packages. They both disappeared into the storage right after. I drank the rest of my coffee which was already cold and left the cafeteria. Before that I of course said goodbye to both Dani and Tom.

As I was slowly walking down the street towards the apartment complex with my hands in the pockets, I looked over to the other side of the street and saw a very familiar person walking the direction I was coming from. I stopped to look closer and realized it's my sister Svea. Oh my god, I can't believe I'm seeing her. It's been years. She looks the same like I remembere, just got taller.

I wanted to run there and give her a big hug or at least say hi to her or anything. But I decided to not do any of those. I mean if she would've cared, then she would've reached out to me a long time ago. I'm pretty sure about that.

I was just standing there, watching her walk away until she turned right, into an other street and I couldn't see her anymore.