Forgiven // l.h. // Book 2 in Bully Series

7. Maybe You Were Wrong, Too

"I promise we didn't sneak in! This is my car right here, and I can pull out my license if—" I cut Katie's rant off by touching her arm, though I didn't actually look at her.

"He's not going to yell at you. Even if we had broken in." I assured her, finally shifting my gaze off the dark-haired boy to glance at her. "In fact, he'd probably want to know how you did it. He's always looking for good break-out techniques." Calum grinned at my statement.

"Don't pretend you know more about breaking and entering than I do. I taught you all you know." He countered. I felt my lips tilt up into a slight smile, but that was gone as soon as I glanced at Katie. She was giving me an incredulous look, and rightfully so.

"How do you know him? And why didn't I know about this?" She asked, her tone accusatory. I sighed. I knew she was going to be upset. But I would rather deal with this than have had to fight her off before the concert. I was hoping to not have to deal with it at all. But luck wasn't on my side today (or really any day when it came to 5SOS related things), and here I was.

"Because it's a lot more complicated than that, Katie." I replied truthfully. Calum took this opportunity to step in.

"She's telling the truth there. Daeyna doesn't like secrets very much." I noticed the slight bitterness in his tone, which surprised me. Calum hadn't seemed angry at me when he saw me at the animal hospital; why was he mad now? I called him out on it.

"And you're mad why?" I asked. Before he could answer, the back door to the arena flew open and three laughing guys stumbled out, wrestling with each other. That rough-housing ended abruptly as soon as they saw me.

"Why is she here?" Luke's voice rang out clearly, glancing between the other three boys as they made their way over to stand next to Calum. I scoffed.

"Don't go getting your panties in a bunch, Luke." I snapped, "I came here because my friend wanted me to."

"You're back? In Australia?" It was Michael who spoke this time. He looked over at Calum. "Did you know?"

"I've only been back a short bit, Michael." I answered, my tone evening out once more. "Cal and Ash only found out on Thursday." There was a brief moment of tense silence before Katie's voice spoke up.

"Um, excuse me, but how the hell do you all know each other? I thought you were from America, Daeyna!" She questioned. I nodded. 

"I am. But I spent two years here in high school—" I began explaining, but Luke cut me off.

"And then you left, and that was supposed to be that." I turned on him immediately, anger causing my cheeks to heat up.

"Excuse you?" I snapped. "I left? I stayed. You left. I had over a year left in Australia, and maybe would have gone to university here, but you left me. Don't you dare blame this shit on me. Not when you started it in the first place." Luke took a step forward at that, clearly angry as well.

"I didn't go on and get a boyfriend only a week into school, now did I?" He countered.

"You didn't even go to school! And how is that even fucking relevant? We were done. Through. I moved on. Do you understand that? Or is your ego so large now that you think everyone who has a relationship with you has to pine over you until they die?" Luke leaned back, smirking as he crossed his arms.

"You still have my number in your phone, don't you?" He asked. That was the last straw. Before he could move out of my way, my hand smacked across his cheek—hard.

"I hope you're happy, Luke. Because you're back to being the Luke Hemmings I first met. I just hope you've prepared better insults for this time around." I could feel tears threatening to spill, but I held them back as I whipped around and stalked back to Katie's car. She didn't follow suit right away, but I didn't have to wait long before we were back on the road.

Katie took me to a McDonald's, where I proceeded to buy two cheeseburgers, a large fry, and a large orange soda. She said nothing as I scarfed the food down, though she definitely looked like she wanted to ask. She didn't need to, though. I told her everything.

How I moved because my parents were trying to save a marriage (bang up job they did on that). How Luke was a dick when I first met him, meeting Ashton, then finding out he was in Luke's band. My mom leaving, then my dad's alcohol problem. Luke's change of heart and my stubbornness to allow him to have one. Finally becoming his friend, and then becoming his girlfriend. Being alone while he was in London and becoming really close with Taryn and Megan, him coming back. Then, finally, I told her about him lying to me and me leaving.

Katie listened to it all silently, only asking a few questions here or there to clarify things. We lapsed into a moment of silence before she spoke.

"Don't take this the wrong way or anything, because you know I'm going to take your side against his in any feud that happens, but don't you think that maybe both of you are at fault here?" That surprised me. Nobody had ever said that to me before, and to be honest, I'd never thought of it like that. My thoughts on the ending of my relationship with Luke had always been black ad white—Luke was wrong and I was correct.

But maybe that wasn't necessarily true. Katie explained further when I didn't say anything right away.

"Yeah, he shouldn't have lied, and that was very wrong on his part, but maybe you hurt him too. You didn't really give him a chance to explain his side of the story. And you told him he was like your mom, which he's really not." I groaned, dropping my head into my hands.

"Why couldn't I have known you five years ago?" I complained. Katie laughed.

"I wish you did. We'd be in all the magazines as the best friends of 5 Seconds of Summer." She quipped. I let out a chuckle.

"It's definitely not as glamorous as it seems, you know. They're like toddlers. All four of them."

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EARLY UPDATE. Whut? 

I'm updating early because I have a date tonight and I just wanted to tell all of you that! But we'll see how it goes. It could be really awesome or we could just end up friends. IDK, either way I'm excited! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I love you to bits!

BYE!

((UPDATE ON THE DATE))

Hi! I spent five hours with the guy tonight. I actually initially met him online, and when we met in person, I found out that he's shorter than me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not only out for looks, but height is a really important thing for me. Literally, that's like my one physical requirement.  The guy has to be taller than me by like five inches or so. Just enough that I can wear heels and still be shorter than him. I'm tall (5'6.5" or so) so I don't really like wearing heels. It makes me feel like a giant. So I just want a guy that I can go out with in heels and not feel like I'm a skyscraper in the center of a bunch of two-story buildings.

Shortness aside, he was really nice. We hung out a bit, then went to a restaurant and got food. After that, we went to see Into The Woods (my pick because i'm girly haha). I didn't feel uncomfortable around him, and any silences we had weren't awkward. He didn't make any crazy moves that made me feel awkward, which was good. No, we didn't do anything exciting. No kissing, hand-holding, or anything of the sort. All-in-all, I see him as being just a friend. But the date was nice. =)) Hope you all liked that little trip into my personal life haha. See you Sunday!