It's silent for a moment.
"I meant, what are you doing here at the cemetery."
"Oh,” she says quietly. "I can go." She turns to leave.
"Where were you, Megan?" I say louder, because I need to know why my best fucking friend in the whole world never bothered to contact me in the entire year my family’s been dead.
“It's been a year, where the fuck have you been?"
"I didn't think you wanted to see me."
"Shit, Megan. This shit, what happened here," I wave my hands to the headstones, "it was bigger than you and I, it was bigger than high school drama, and you cheating with James. My family were murdered and I needed my best friend. Where the fuck were you?"
I'm angry now and my words show it. I spit out each one so she knows that I'm so fricken mad at her. Tears are starting to fall down my cheeks and I don't bother to wipe them.
"I couldn’t,” she says, so quietly I almost miss it.
"You couldn't? What the hell does that mean?"
“It means, I couldn't face you, Mick. I just couldn't."
"WHY?" I yell out. I don't care about hiding my feelings anymore.
"Because Mick…” Then she breaks down into a sob and falls to her knees, pregnant belly and all.
I stay standing… and I wait.
"Because…" she continues. “Because it's my fault they’re dead."
My eyes dart to hers and my breathing accelerates.
"What does that mean, Megan?" I say through clenched teeth.
"It means I called him, I told him to do it. Chris - Christopher, I called him that night and I asked him to steal that necklace James gave you for your 18th birthday."
"What?" I can't possibly believe this shit.
"He wasn't supposed to kill them. No one was supposed to be home. I told him not to hurt anybody. Fuck Mick, you have to believe me. He wasn't supposed to hurt anybody."
I stare straight ahead, tears falling fast, my fists are balled. So many fucking questions and emotions running through my mind. I don't know what to say, what to ask. I want to kill her.
"I fooled around with him a few times, Chris I mean, I knew he would do it for me. I just… when you caught us at the restaurant, and he told you he loved you… he just discarded me like a piece of trash. He didn’t even care how I felt. I'm sorry, Mick, for all of it, for James. Fuck, I fell in love with him. I was in love with him and he didn't even care, and I was so fucking angry. I saw him first, that day we met him. You remember? He was what I wanted. You didn't even want a boyfriend and you got the best one. You didn't even want him. I did."
She says this like were 14 fucking years old. I'm so consumed with anger, and hurt and every other fucking emotion that I can't see straight. I have to keep my eyes closed so I can keep my breathing calm.
I think of Jake.
"I went home after that, after you caught us. I was expecting James to come after me but he didn't. He didn’t even call me to see if I was okay. Nothing. And then I see you," she says, and her tone is almost angry. Like she has the right to be upset. "I see you doing that shit to James' truck, and you’re laughing and smiling and you have these people that I've never fucking seen before laughing with you and helping you through your pain. They don't even know you, and already they like you. And then you're in fucking Jake Andrews’ arms…”
I speak up, because this has nothing to do with Jake and she shouldn't even be breathing his name. "Jake has nothing to do with this. You didn't even know who he was when you saw us at James' house."
"That’s bullshit, Mick. Everyone knows Jake and Logan. They were like, the hottest guys within 15 schools. Only you, perfect little Mikayla with the perfect boyfriend, so loyal, you didn't bother to see anyone else. Only you didn't know who he was."
I want to punch her and if she brings up Jake's name again I will.
"And that’s when I called him, Mick. I called Chris because I wanted to take something away from you, like you had me, but he wasn't supposed to kill them. I loved them too.”
"Don't you fucking DARE!" I snap at her. "Don't you fucking dare talk about my family or my boyfriend like you give a shit. You have no fucking right to speak their names or even think about them for the rest of your fucking life. Do you understand?" I breath in, trying to keep myself composed because I really don't want to punch a pregnant chick.
In the distance I see Jake get out of the truck, but he waits.
"Are you going to turn me in?" she asks, actually looking concerned.
And thats when I see her, truly see her.
"Look at you,” I spit out. "Who the fuck are you, Megan? What the fuck happened to you?”
I look at her disgusted, nose scrunched.
"You sleep around so much you don't even know who the father of that baby is. You think opening your legs and having some random guy pound into you is going to make them love you? Like James didn't. Every fucking day you have to look at yourself in the mirror. Every day you can live with the guilt of what you did. Of killing my parents, people that genuinely loved you. Killing my fucking 9 year old sister who looked up to you. Knowing that she'll never grow up and experience life. Everyday you have to wake up and be the person you are, and you have to live with it, and that Megan, that's punishment enough.”
And then I walk away from her, from all of this.
And I run to Jake.
Who's waiting for me.
With arms wide open.
Like always.
My Prince.
My Knight In Shining Armor.
My Happily Ever After.
Epilogue
*Mikayla*
It’s been 6 months since Megan’s confession. The only person I’ve told was Jake, and even that was because he forced it out of me. I guess it’s hard to hide the feelings and emotions you get when you find out that your best friend had a play in your families death.
Luckily for me, Jake was my rock, as always. He knew not to push me and he knew not to be distant. He just knew exactly what I needed him to be and I guess that’s why fate pushed us together.
Because Logan was right.
He is the other half of me.
I never did end up moving out of the house.
Jake and I have begun our happily ever after.
This year we started a new tradition, we made our own birthday shoeboxes. We decided to make them on the anniversary of my families death. Mine is already full, I see him writing things constantly and stuffing them in there.
I love that he does it, that he unknowingly brings me part of them, every day.
And I love him.
I more than a lot love him.
With everything I have, all of me, every single part.
I love Jake Andrews, my very own prince.
And I can’t wait to tell our children our own fairytale and happily ever after.
*Logan*
If you knew about my past, you’d understand why I don’t let people get too close to me. The people that are supposed to love you don’t always do that. Sometimes they hurt you, physically and emotionally. Sometimes they just check out completely.
19 years of being alive and I’ve only loved one person, and that’s Dr. Matthews, or my dad as most people would know him. He saved my life, literally.
I’ve only ever been close to loving someone else one other time. Or at least I thought it could be love. But I had to kill that idea real quick, because the thing is, you don’t fall in love with your best friends girl.