The Matchmaker

Chapter 13

A few days later Shannon still refused to go to work and her employer had become worried about her. The situation with Angela had been sorted and he thought that had been the result of Shannon’s breakdown. Rather than putting their mind at rest, Shannon continued to lay low as she didn’t want to face anyone or talk to anyone. She felt sick as a result of the humiliation she had endured and still refused to eat. It had been 5 days and Shannon was just skin and bone.

Deep down she wanted more than ever to see her friends again but she was too ashamed to show her face again. She feared they would gang up on her again like last time. She wanted to have the friendship back they once shared but did they share the same feelings? The fact they had such a long history together gave her the tiniest bit of hope that maybe one day things would go back to normal. Sadly it wasn’t enough to get out of her rut.

Every day she had the same questions running around her head. Why had she blinded herself to what she was doing? Why had she been so convinced that matchmaking was so rewarding when in actual fact she was interfering with peoples’ lives? Why had she driven away her best friends? What possessed her to do that when she relied on their friendship so much? She knew what the root cause was but she had blocked it out again. She couldn’t let her thoughts drift to that, not yet and not by herself.

At the end of the fifth day locked up in her room, John decided enough was enough. He felt partially responsible for what had happened and he had to fix it once and for all. She still wasn’t responding so he called Nathan and begged him to help. Nathan had reacted as John had expected. He was shocked and hurt that no one had confided in him at the time. He understood why but had trouble understanding why Shannon had let it take control of her life. John wanted to know the same thing.

It was ten in the morning on the sixth day when Nathan arrived with Brian. John was shocked to see Brian but didn’t ask questions. He feared it would just make the situation worse but he trusted they knew what they were doing. He just hoped they would be fair. The last thing Shannon needed was a repeat of the last incident.

What John didn’t know was that Nathan had not told Brian about Julie’s death. It answered a lot of his questions but he felt it wasn’t his place to go around telling people. Ever since John had confessed it to him, he had been riddled with guilt. At first he was angry that Shannon had never confided in him or Brian. After some contemplating though he understood why. Making a mistake that resulted in the loss of someone’s life would make anyone do anything to block out the memory. He wanted to apologise to Shannon and he hoped that would help her. He wasn’t sure bringing Brian around was a wise idea. He still had a lot of anger and Nathan knew he needed to talk to Shannon even if he didn’t want to.

It took a lot of convincing on Nathan’s part to get Brian to agree. It was difficult to explain why without confessing everything to him. In the end Nathan just told him that what they had done was out of line and they had hurt Shannon as a result.

Brian’s heart felt as though it were breaking over and over again. Yes what happened was wrong and they shouldn’t have done what they did. In Brian’s eyes that didn’t excuse it as he believed that it was the only thing that would make Shannon realise what she had done wrong. He had not expected her to react so extremely though and he was genuinely worried about her. It was time to set matters straight once and for all.

They reached Shannon’s door but before knocking Nathan looked back at John.

“Be nice.” John said. “We’re trying to get her out, not encourage her to stay in there.”

Nathan nodded and knocked. At first there was silence so he knocked again.

“Go away!”

Nathan looked at Brian and shook his head. “I’ll go in first. I’ll let you know when you can come in.”