I Know You Were Made For Me

Chapter 27: Deja Vu.

Reluctantly Chris headed back down the stairs, leaving Luna behind, but he knew it wasn't for good, he could never do that. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he was greeted by Dodger and Rex who had just come back in from playing together outside.

He bent down to their height, giving each dog some loving before he stood back up and grabbed Dodgers leash from its spot where it was hanging by the door. He then moved through the living room to the kitchen where he found everyone.

They watched him enter the room, everyone taking in his appearance. His hair was a mess, his shirt soaked from Luna's tears and his eyes puffy and red from his own. Lisa quickly made her way to her son, cupping his cheeks as she reassured him.

"It'll be okay, she just needs a little time"

Chris nodded in reply before he hugged his mother gently, "I think I'm gonna head home" he spoke as he kissed her cheek before moving away to put Dodger on his leash.

"I'll come with you" Scott spoke, moving to pat his brother on the back.

"No it's fine, I think I need to be alone for a while"

"Are you sure?" Tara asked, moving to stand by his side, "you don't have to be" she smiled up at him as she squeezed his arm gently.

"I know" he smiled back before also kissing her on the cheek, He now turned to face everyone else in the room. The only other people that had stayed were Luna's mother and brothers, Cece, Mac, Charlotte and Cara.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I know that what I did was wrong, but I need you all to know that my intentions with Luna are pure and that I'm so stupidly in love with her."

"Yeah well you'd have to be blind not to see that" Jake spoke up, giving Chris a nod.

Unfortunately Ed wasn't as understanding, he scoffed loudly as he shook his head and everyone turned their attention to him, "well you were quick to screw over one of your oldest friends, so how could I ever believe you wouldn't do the exact same to my sister"

"Ed" Claire scolded her son, "don't start"

"No it's fine" Chris replied, facing Ed, "I know you don't believe me right now but I swear Luna is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I swear I will never give up on her"

Ed just huffed at Chris's response, he could feel the anger building up so he decided to take himself out of the situation before he made it worse. He picked up one of Rex's balls from the floor calling the golden retriever out to the back garden with him.

"Don't mind him" Claire spoke after Ed had left the room, "he's very protective" she smiled softly at Chris and he returned the smile before saying one last goodbye to everyone and leaving.

Upstairs Luna heard the front door open and close a few times and several cars driving away. She was now curled up in a ball on the floor by her bed, clutching the bracelet Chris had left her. She couldn't bring herself to move yet. She didn't have the strength.

A few moments later there was a knock at her door, Claire's voice coming from the other side, "sweetie it's Mum"

Upon hearing her mother's voice, Luna forced herself to stand up from the floor. On shaky legs she made her way over to the door, quickly unlocking it and throwing herself in to her Mum's arms.

"Oh baby" Claire cooed softly as she held Luna tightly against her. She stroked her daughter's hair as she felt the vibrations from the sobs wracking through her body. She gently led her youngest child over to the bed, pulling her to sit down. Luna took the opportunity to curl up on the bed, her head in her Mum's lap.

"I'm so sorry Mum, this is all my fault, god I'm such a terrible fucking person" Luna whimpered as she continued to sob violently.

"Now you listen to me Luna Clarke" Claire spoke sternly as she pulled Luna's head from her lap so she could look her daughter in the eye, "you are not a bad person, yes you did a bad thing, but that does not make you a bad person Luna. Everybody makes mistakes and you are only human, I just think you need to take some time to process all of this. But I will tell you one thing baby." She softly stroked Luna's cheek, wiping away the tears that had settled there. "Chris clearly loves you very much, if he didn't he wouldn't have put your feelings before his own and he wouldn't have left to give you space even though that's not what he wanted."

Luna smiled slightly at the thought of Chris, even in her darkest moments he was a flicker of light that she could cling on to. But the smile soon faded when the reality of the situation once again hit her, she didn't deserve it and suddenly that flicker of light was extinguished. She was alone and that's all she deserved.

~~~~~

A few hours after the disaster that was the joint birthday party, Chris was sat on his couch drinking his fifth beer, or maybe it was his sixth? He honestly had no idea, he'd lost count. Too focused on scrolling through the pictures of him and Luna on his phone. He felt like he was in some romantic comedy and god was he hoping that this wasn't the end of the movie.

He stopped on a photo from just last week and it gave him a serious case of déjà vu. It was similar to the one he had been looking at when he was waiting for Luna to come round after her break up with Matt. Except this one had Dodger in it too. Luna had taken his phone and had been taking selfies with the dogs in bed when he'd gone to the bathroom. When he came back he'd jumped on top of her which led to her snapping a photo of all four of them. Chris's head tucked in to her neck as Dodger licked his ear and Rex had placed his head under Luna's chin looking straight at the camera.

He took another sip of his beer before turning his phone off. He was desperately trying to give Luna her space, he had to do everything he could to stop himself from reaching out to her. All he wanted to do was hold her and tell her everything would be okay, but he knew that right now she couldn't believe him and that hurt the most.

He also wanted to reach out to Matt. He wanted to apologise, try to get Matt to understand why he did what he did, but he knew right now Matt wouldn't care about his reasons. He was hurt and right now Chris couldn't change that. As much as he fucking hated it, he had to accept that these things were out of his control.