Between You & Me || Luke & Jai Brooks

Chapter XXXV - Skip's Consequence

*Meghan's pov*
It's the next afternoon before Luke informs me of Skip's fate. It's quick, and blunt, and it still hurts even though I know he's not who we all thought.

"He's being deported. He's going back to Australia." Luke says numbly.

I can't register this whole situation yet, I don't think I'm ready. First the DEA bursts into our house telling us that they've been notified of drugs in our house, then it's discovered that Daniel has been hiding away a stash of elicit drugs, including cocaine, in the same house that he planned to raise his child in. I can't imagine how Alicia must feel. To lose a child is bad enough on its own, but to lose a boyfriend, and in this way...

She hasn't left her room since the DEA left. She didn't speak to Skip once.

I think that's a good thing.

It hurt so bad to see Luke and my room trashed. The wall connecting the walk in wardrobe was kicked in, the sheets thrown off and the mattress against the wall. Dirty bootprints led from the door and around the room, in some parts just an area of muddy carpet. I cried when first saw it, but Luke helped me put it back together, apart from the hole in the wall. He offered me the spare room until it was fixed, but I convinced him that I'm fine.

I just can't trust anyone.

I knew Daniel did shisha, with the rest of the boys, and I'm fine with that. Weed, I'm fine with too I guess, if it's occasional, but I would still rather at least Luke and Jai didn't use it. Cocaine, well, that's where I draw the fucking line. Then hiding it, in our fucking house, is over that line. Well over.

I spend today lying in our room with my music blaring. A few times I knock on the wall connecting my room to Alicia's but she isn't ready to talk. I vacuum for a while, then just lie on our bed. I don't have the energy to do anything. Luke needs to get a video up pronto, but with no Skip isn't sure what to say.

He comes up at 2pm to tell me that the four boys are going to film a DareSundays out the back and I have to keep quiet about the whole Daniel thing, because they're figuring out how to tell the fans. Skip's being held in jail overnight he tells me, before being flown back to Melbourne tomorrow. Someone's going to see him, I'm sure of it.

At 3pm I wander across the hall to talk to Mel, who's cleaning up the mess the DEA left through tears. I haven't seen Mel cry in ages.

"Are you okay, Mimi?" I ask cautiously and she starts to sob a little. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you!" I say quickly, running over to hug her.

"No, it's okay, it's just stressful right now! Everything is stressing me out, and now Skip's gone and done this, and I trusted him!" She turns wide blue eyes on me. "You never liked Daniel, really, did you? You always seem to see through people."

I shake my head hastily, "Nah, in the end I disregarded my barriers, I accepted him. I pushed away my intuition. I never should have..." Mel's shaking her own head.

"Don't beat yourself up about it, everyone's in the same boat. Jai's devastated, he really feels terrible, added on to the guilt he felt about Alicia's baby... I'm worried about him." She says quietly, and I sense her anxiety beneath her calm façade. I purse my lips.

"I think Luke just feels bad because he brought me into this, and when he saw me crying over our room he looked so guilty, I felt terrible. But I couldn't help myself."

Mel laughs for the first time. "No, you've never been that kind of person. You wear your emotions on your sleeve."

I smile back.

"Well, so far it's worked for me." I joke. "Now do you want to come get Alicia with me? I think we should either go watch the boys do their Daresundays, film a video ourselves, or blast some of my DJ dubstep music and dance and sing like crazy."

Mel laughs again, and puts down the brush she's holding. "Though all the options sound appealing, I feel like Serendipity has been very neglected recently and it's our priority to make a video. If Alicia's up to it. If not, I'm up for either of the other suggestions!"

"Fabulous! I have a brilliant idea for a video. And we don't even really have to do anything!"

* * * *

Half an hour later, the three of us are sitting on Luke and my bed, cross legged with the camera set up on Luke's tripod at our feet. It's been ages since we've filmed, and it takes us four attempts to get our intro right.

The first time we do the wave, Alicia smacks Mel across her face, and that's what finally relaxes her a bit. She laughs, then she absolutely loses it, bending over double, tears coming from her eyes.

Even though I just want to get the video over with, and watch the boys do their Daresundays, seeing Ali this happy makes me laugh too, and we all spend a good five minutes laughing our asses off.

Today I decided that we should do the kiss, marry, kill video. We have a hat between us filled with names on strips of paper that I literally just printed from a website, and we'll take in in turns to pick three and choose which we would kiss, marry or kill.

Alicia starts. "Cameron Dallas," She says, unfolding her first piece. "Justin Bieber. And... Luke Brooks!" She grins. "Jesus. This is hard!"

I throw my hands up. "Are you for real?! That's a good one!"

Alicia laughs. "That's why it's hard! But I'm gonna have to kill Justin. But I can't kiss or marry Luke, because his girlfriend's sitting right beside me!" She giggles. "Well, sorry Meghan, but I'm gonna kiss Cam and marry Lukey!"

I grin. "Well, who wouldn't, I guess! My turn!" I reach into the hat and pull out my three names. "Nash Grier. Kim Kardashian. And-" fuck- "D-daniel Radcliffe." When I see Alicia flinch as I say Daniel, I'm so glad I changed the last name. I printed these off of a website, not checking them, so we could get the video done quickly. At least I picked out Skip anyway so that now Alicia won't get him.

"Well, I'm gonna kill Dan, kiss Kim and marry Nash."

Mel reaches over me quickly to pick out her three. "Sammy Wilkinson, Kian Lawley and Ariana Grande." She rolls her eyes. "Well I'm gonna kill fucking Ariana Grande anyway, then I'll probably... Kiss Sammy, marry Kian."

We continue until we've finished the names, and had about four shots each. We end the video with our little wave again, then turn off the camera and race downstairs to see the Daresundays. Mel is in front of me, and on the last step, she catches her foot and goes flying, to absolutely sprawl across the tiles. It is literally the funniest thing I've seen in probably forever. I double over in hysterics, clutching my stomach as she lifts herself slowly off the ground. Tears are streaming down my face.

"Well, thanks for your sympathy." She says sarcastically, laying heavy emphasis on the 'thanks' and it just sets me off again. I'm absolutely losing it.

She drags herself dramatically from the floor, to her feet, and glares at me. "Are you coming or what?"

I wipe under my eyes to catch my tears. "Yes. Okay, yes, I'm fine." I giggle a few more times before taking a deep breath and following her out the back door.