Broken Youth

Chapter 35

~ Chapter Thirty-Five ~

[Not gunna lie, I listened to Stockholm Syndrome, Ready to Run and 18 whilst writing this. Do it. I dare you.]

••Harry••

We were back at Ash's again, despite us all vowing never to return if there was enough space for us all at Mum's, Jay's or the girls' house. But here we were, around a table with homemade fudge and Jess' spiced lemonade. The winter wolfs were outside, howling away as tree leaves strained on the branches and soft whispers of Christmas echoed in the wind. It was everyone's favourite time of the year.

"I think we all have a bit of explaining to do." Louis was the first the speak, knowing this might well be the longest few hours of our lives. 15 of us had a shit load to say and clear up and although a chorus of groans and 'you're boring Lou's broke out, we knew it had to happen. Lauren coughed violently, Cal shooting me a worried glance as I just shrugged- she'd been coughing like this for a while but it wouldn't be anything; a harmless tickle in the back of the throat.

"Lou, there's 15 of us here, we all have questions and some of us have answers, how do you suppose we direct this?" Ash wondered aloud.

"Well, who's problem is the biggest right now?" Everyone in the room seemed to glance at either Luke or Megan and I wanted to puke. If we have to go through their relationship again, I'll throw a brick at his face; I may have forgiven him, but what they did still hurts like hell.

"I guess we're going first then?" Luke looked over at Megan, his head low. He hated confrontation.

"You broke me." His voice was a whisper, Megan suddenly looking stricken, moving around on Calum's lap.

"You knew I could never stay; you knew." He shook his head, tears forming in his eyes, letting go of Ren's hand.

"But you fooled me. You lead me on further than you could imagine. I fucking fell in love with you." His voice was getting louder and the temperature in the room had raised.

"You made me think things that weren't true!" Megan got up, now screaming at him.

"You lied to me, Megan Grace!" My heart slammed forward at his use of her second name. He was pissed.

"You fell in love with me knowing I could never love you back!"

"But you did! You did love me back!" There was silence. No-one moved. This was our chance for everyone to say how they felt; no-one needed to interrupt.

"No." Her voice back to a whisper.

"Yes, Megan, yes. You tricked me, you fooled me, you did everything you were planning didn't you? You stopped me from remembering the prophecy; you caused me to forget Renée! I fought for you! I thought we could have a future, I thought you'd forgotten him." His finger pointed at me, Megan daring to look over at me, the pain in her eyes breaking me.

"Luke-"

"What? What do you have to say? You killed me. I had to leave everyone I loved so I could refrain from falling any further with you. I had to go far, far away and see things I didn't want to see. I know things I didn't want to know; all because of you." Tears were streaming down both their faces.

"What about the tape? What about the text and letter, huh? Luke? What about them? Did they not mean a single damn thing to you? Because they mean a hell of a lot to me." His eyes dilated and greyed, his face falling from anger to shock in seconds as she paused. "And they shouldn't." Her tone was dying, crying out for help and comfort. I could see the pure pain he was causing her. My heart was tearing in two but I couldn't say or do anything.