guilty love » joel miller AU ✔️

chapter thirty-one: guilty love

today's September 26th, happy birthday Joel </3

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

Sarah stared at her father and her best friend in shock. She couldn't believe what's she's seeing right now so she closed her eyes just a few seconds later. She had never felt so betrayed.

At the same time, Ana quickly put on a sweater and shorts to get up. "Sarah, I'm—" she stared, but her best friend interrupted her.

"I don't wanna hear your apology" Sarah said with a hurt chuckle.

"Sarah, plea-"

"No, shut up! I don't wanna talk to both of you right now, what the fuck is wrong with you?!"

And Ana just nodded. She had no choice but to accept it, she didn't want to hurt Sarah any more.

Sarah couldn't look at her any longer. "I don't even know what to say," she whispered, overwhelmed, and left the room.

After Sarah slammed her door, Joel also jumped off the bed to get dressed and go to the door. "I'll try to talk to her, everything will be okay" he told Ana.

It won't, Ana thought to herself. And after Joel left the room, just a few seconds later she heard Sarah yelling at her father.

She sat down on the bed and tried to calm herself down. But Sarah just screamed louder and louder at her father and Ana slowly realized that she probably wouldn't forgive them. And she can't even blame her. She betrayed her.

After taking a deep breath, she decided to do the only reasonable thing. So she got up and quickly packed all her things into her suitcase. She didn't really have more stuff than when she first moved in here, so all of her belongings still fit into it.

In the meantime, Joel tried to have a calm conversation with Sarah. But she wasn't really in the mood for that.

"Sarah, please let me speak for a second" he asked his daughter with a pleading look.

"No, I don't wanna talk about it. Because it's disgusting, Dad"

"Sarah please, hear me out" he tried again.

"She is the same age as me"

"I know. It's .. I— I'm sorry you had to find out like that" he told her softly. He wanted to calm his daughter down. And himself, because he was damn angry with himself for being so fucking stupid a few minutes ago. Sarah probably would have caught them anyway, but then she wouldn't have walked in on them.

"What do you mean find out like that? This wasn't the first time?" she asked back shocked.

"I, .. No. We wanted to tell you, okay?"

"You wanted to tell me that you're fucking my best friend? Thank you Dad" Sarah replied with a sarcastic chuckle.

"Sarah please, I know it's a bit fucked up and I'm so sorry you had to find out this way"

"It's not just a bit fucked up, Dad?! How could this even happen? Is this some sick way in which she pays you rent?" she asked and raised her voice again.

"What? No! Why would you think that?" Joel asked her shocked.

"So you like each other?"

"Sarah" he said her name softly, because he didn't know whether he should answer her question honestly.

She sighed and then turned around, she didn't want to see him right now. "Just leave me alone now"

"I know you're mad as hell. But can we please talk about it?"

"No. At least not today. I really wanna be alone now" she whispered and sat down on her bed.

Joel sighed, but nodded.

"I love you, Sarah. Please don't forget that, okay?" Joel whispered and opened the door again.

When she didn't say anything else, he closed the door again and decided to check on Ana. He needed to know that she's okay.

But she wasn't in her room anymore. Confused, he went over to his room, but she wasn't there either. Joel searched the whole house. He looked for her in the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room and everywhere else, but she was nowhere to be seen.

He went back to her room to double check, but it was still empty.

And then he noticed a key lying on the bed. And he realized pretty quickly that it was the house key that Joel gave her back then.

Next to the key were a few hundred dollar bills and a small note with something written on it.

'Thank you for everything Joel.
I love you, but I can't do this to Sarah.
Please tell her I'm sorry'

Joel stared at the note, overwhelmed. He didn't want to believe what was written there. He didn't want to believe she left, she wouldn't leave him, right?

He immediately grabbed his phone and called her. But she didn't pick up. "Fuck," he muttered to himself.

He couldn't even blame Ana for overreacting. She did that often, but he never thought that she would just leave him like that.

He called her again. But she still didn't pick up. So he stared at the things on the bed again. He was kind of hurt because she left money, did she honestly think he was going to demand money for letting her stay here? On her first night here, he told her that she didn't have to pay rent.

He picked up the note and when he looked at it more closely, he felt as if his heart stopped beating for a second.

'I love you'

He read the sentence over and over again. And then he regretted never telling her he loves her.

At the same time, Sarah's phone rang. She stared at it and saw that Ana texted her.

Still mad, she put her phone down. She didn't wanna know what Ana had to say. So she lay down in bed and turned to the wall.

She actually wanted to tell her Dad that she had a boyfriend now. She wanted to introduce him to Drew tomorrow, and she was so excited about it.

But right now she was too angry to be excited. She closed her eyes to calm herself, but all she could think about were all these days when she left Ana alone with her Dad and even felt bad about it.

But Sarah couldn't stop thinking about it and became too curious. So she picked up her phone again and read Ana's text.

'I know you said you don't wanna hear my apology.
But I'm really sorry. And I know you will most likely hate me now, but we didn't do it on purpose, I promise.
I'm very sorry about all of this. I know you need time and distance if you can ever forgive me. But you're my best friend
and I hate myself for breaking your trust'

Sighing, she placed her phone on the bedside table. With tears in her eyes, she turned off the light and covered herself with her blanket.

Ana was one of the most important people in her life, and Sarah didn't want to believe all of this.

So she decided to try to sleep. She will talk to Ana tomorrow. To listen to her apology and her side of the story. Although she wasn't sure if she could even forgive them.

But Sarah didn't know that Ana was already gone.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

don't worry, this is not the end of this fic, they'll see each other again. but I don't really know yet if this story should have a sad or happy ending?