Fighting the Still Life (Part Two)

When I said that I was in trouble, it wasn't just with my parents. That by itself would have been enough, but I had gotten in trouble with someone else.

Eddie had been right. When Megan found out that Laura was staying with me, she had been less than pleased. And this was a new experience for me. Not having someone upset with me. That happened so much, I just assumed it to be everyone's default response to most things I did. No, the new experience was having someone upset at me that I actually liked and cared for the opinion of.

Megan found out that Laura was staying with me. If I had told her, it probably wouldn't have been so bad, but that wasn't how she found out.

She got the scoop from a group picture I'd taken with Laura and the Hellions before we'd parted ways after kicking ass. Cessily had posted it on Facebook a few days later and tagged me in it, so it automatically showed up on my wall. Talk about a shitty way to find out your apparent boyfriend was staying with another woman.

...God, I'm stupid. How did I think this wouldn't be a problem?

By the time we had our first call after this particular social media post, everything had clicked. The moment I saw her face on the screen I immediately fell into apology mode, which was a big deal because I almost never apologized to anyone.

Still, even after admitting fault. I don't think the words 'I'm sorry' ever came out of my mouth. I really suck at apologizing.

"Please don't be upset," I was almost begging by this point of the conversation. Whatever it took, just so long as she stopped giving me that goddamn look, "I would have loved to have you come to California and hang out with me."

Megan just sat there on her bed, arms crossed, glaring at me. I had never been more rattled by someone surrounded by so many stuffed animals and different shades of pink, "But I didn't, and I'm not," She said, not cutting me any slack, "Bellamy, you didn't even ask me if I would have wanted to go with you."

"We haven't been dating that long," I explained, "And you had already planned to go back to Wales for the summer. I couldn't go with you, so I went home."

What I said had nothing to do with my unmentioned guest, which Megan picked up on, "And you brought Laura because she was available?"

Having disagreements with girls was awful, especially when you knew you were the one that fucked up. But I had to cover Laura's ass. She hadn't done anything wrong, "I brought Laura because she's my teammate – I'm responsible for her, even outside of school. More than that, I'm her friend too, " I said, "She didn't have anywhere else to go, and she isn't really a social person. She'd have been all alone at school for eight weeks."

Again, manipulation via words. I hadn't lied. That was how I really felt and thought. It was just that I was so honest and direct about the whole thing, it turned the tide of the conversation. Anyone with passing knowledge of Laura knew how lonely she usually was at school. And my failing to inform Megan of her presence hadn't been malicious. Just dumb.

From the turmoil on Megan's face, she wanted to keep a grudge, but couldn't find something worth holding onto without being petty, "How can I be mad when you put it like that? It makes me sound like a... a... not nice person to have a problem with it," It would have been easier to say 'bitch', but Megan tried to keep from cursing more than most kids our age that I knew, "I just wish you would have told me. We talk like every other day. How did it take over a month for it to come up?"

I didn't have an excuse, other than my crappy communication skills. Or more like, I had an excuse, but it was complete garbage, "That's how little I thought of it, I guess. It didn't even occur to me that it would be a problem."

-Which sounded stupid. I had to be more intelligent than that. Laura was fine as hell. Most people could see that. I could see that, even though I kept any comments about it to myself. Teasing her the way I did Hisako and other girls I knew would have little benefit for me, if she even reacted to it in any way at all. But facts were facts. We were together almost all of the time. Even more after the Facility thing. Sometimes, she stayed up all night to keep me company during my insomnia kicks. All by ourselves for hours.

Wolf didn't even bother chilling with me anymore. A few weeks in, most of the time he would ditch me to go to sleep in a heartbeat.

So yes, hindsight being what it was, I could absolutely see Eddie's point and why Megan would have had a problem. But as much as I was a fan of the female form, I wasn't going to cheat on anyone. What an awful thing to do to someone that cared enough to make themselves that to you. I guess I wasn't a sociopath after all, because if I was, that wouldn't have mattered to me. As things stood, I felt like more of an asshole than usual because I'd inadvertently made Megan feel bad, and all it would have taken to prevent it was a sentence in passing.

"If it makes you feel any better, karma got me back already," I said, pointing to the spots on my torso where Kimura put two bullets in me, "I got shot. Wanna see the scars?"

My shirt was halfway off before Megan could fully react, "Bel! Are you alright?" I was not showing off how hard my body was. I popped my shirt off purely for the scars. The fact that she liked it was not intentional on my part. Honest, "I mean, of course you are because I'm talking to you, but- you know what I mean! You got hurt again! Oh my God, I told you to take care of yourself!"

"I know, I know. I tried," I said, chuckling at her half-hearted attempt to admonish me, "I'm a crap-catching magnet."

From there, the call mellowed out into our usual thing of talking about random stuff, keeping each other up-to-date, and trying to entertain each other. I was just glad she hadn't stayed angry at me. Hopefully it wouldn't come up again later, but I figured it probably wouldn't if I didn't do anything else absentmindedly.

When our call eventually ended about an hour later, I dropped back on my bed and sighed, "I've really got to do better when school starts again. I suck."

I knew I would be a poor boyfriend, but that didn't mean I wanted to be, or that I wasn't trying to keep that from being the case. The last thing I wanted was for a girl to look back on her time with me and regret it.

Either way, the particular stretch of trouble with me and Laura staying together wouldn't be an issue anymore. I looked to the side and saw all of my stuff packed up and ready to go. We were heading back to the school whenever Mister Logan turned back up the next day. It was probably for the best. It had been nice to head home, but if things were still going to be crazy no matter where I went, it was best to keep it away from my family. I was the one who signed up for this, not them.

I felt relieved. I was supposed to feel more comfortable at home than in some different place, wasn't I? I didn't even know how my parents felt about it. When Mister Logan brought it up earlier that night, they didn't seem surprised or against it. One thing was for certain, though. Things weren't the same as they were the first time I left.

I wasn't the same either. We all knew that.