I was jammed in between the obstacles of the two choices I had: it was either telling Ivan, or let him know on his own. According to the confused streaks on his forehead, and his demanding cyanic orbs to know what happened, he didn't have any clue about what happened to his cheating girlfriend.

Through the embarrassment in the way I stood up and adjusted my overall from the hit I took, Ivan tapped his foot impatiently with crossed arms.

"Care to tell me why my girl's friend tackled me?" He exacted as he quirked his dark eyebrow at me.

Ivan was definitely the odd one out. While everyone knew what happened, he was left amiss through all of this.

"Well, for starters, I thought you were my friend-" I nervously started.

"Do Americans jump on friends?" His expression turned surprised, and I wanted to laugh at his pure reaction.

"No, I‐well, yeah, but," I awkwardly stuttered until I got bother and went straight with the truth. "Your girl is in the hospital, they found her body outside of her room."

That didn't go smooth, Ivan's eyes turned as wide as the ocean and he bashed his shoulder on mine when he rushed through to get his car.

The saddest thing about all of this was when he didn't hesitate to run off for her while she didn't spare him a chance when she cheated with her step brother instead.

I was frazzled. There was another person out for Becky.

Who the hell could it be?

I placed both of my hands on the sides of my head to think for a while, but fate seemed far too twisted to let me think and placed Lucas in front of me for several times already.

He was a mess. His shirt was smudged, he wore old slippers and his shorts were hung low on his hips, not to mention the drunk messy hair.

"Why is everyone running off and making noises?" He implored as his hands pushed his curls to the back.

"Becky is in the hospital." I felt like a reporter due to the many times I repeated this sentence.

"I am going back to bed." My jaw went to the floor at his answer. He thought I was fooling him and didn't let me finish my clarification, so I had to follow him.

"Your step sister is with Lowe and her friends, she is about to be dead back there and you are just going to sleep?"

The words tumbled out before I could stop them. It was too late and Lucas had caught on instanteously.

"What?"

Oh, bite me.

"What what?" I snapped.

He only seemed to get closer and the temperature volumized around us from the heat of the moment.

His heavy-lidded eyes were awake now, and I cursed my luck a billion times when he faced me. His sharp jaw ticked and his eyes narrowed at me in aggravation, I gulped when my back hit the wall.

"What did you just say?" He moved his head to the side.

"I didn't say anything wrong." I wanted to bash myself for my slip up that didn't go unnoticed.

"How the fuck do you know my relationship with Becky?" He got to the point, his hands on the either side of my head.

I felt my palms getting sweaty behind my back. "Reign and I heard your fight." I answered, meeting his eyes daringly.

We remained staring at each other, and it felt like the world was motioning for us to interact silently. My mind recollected the memories we had in high school, where he would give me a special surprise each day to remind me of how much he loved me.

I kept my dream Lucas inside of me while the real Lucas changed.

"I don't believe you." He wanted to intricate this because he got his dose of thrill from it. I wasn't the one to be played, so with all my might, I pushed him off of me and stood up steadily.

"I don't care. You can go cry about it." I raged, turning my back to the troublemaker.

•••

Lowe was the first thing I saw, and Becky's parents who were sobbing out loud.

As if my carelessness about words weren't enough, I had to pretend to care for a liar in front of her parents. For the sake of the others in the hospital.

I wasn't the biggest fan of hospitals; the medicine scents flied over us like shields of protection, everyone was in a grumbled state as they walked like robots with a severe dull to their eyes. Not to add to the list, the doctors who pretended to care about the dead.

Amelia Hughes was a cancer survivor. That's all I knew about her since she wasn't around in Lucas's life. We were neighbors for a while until she married another man, I was the one who heard the fights she had with her judgemental son.

Here she was, crying with a man I didn't know as she raised her hands to pray some more.

I passed through, ignoring how she eyed me as I walked to Lowe. I didn't want her to know me, Becky's friends accompanied her anyway. Ivan was seen in the corner with his hand on the side of his face, he looked worn off but he kept standing to wait for the news about his girl.

Lowe's hands had dried blood, he was still in a state of shock as his fingers shivered, I helped him up as his hand went onto my shoulder, his body didn't help but luckily, the nurse rushed over to support his weight.

"It'll be okay, Lowe." I whispered to him, but his eyes were soulless, it was like he had an apocalyptic trauma.

"I-I didn't know what to do, I saw her blood, it was thick red under her door." A wrecked sob raked his body and I washed over his face with one hand, the nurse sympathetically pushed his hair away from his face.

"It wasn't your fault, Lowe." I reassured the sensitive guy when I splashed water onto his face.

The minute we got out, a yell and a slap was heard. It was Lucas versus his mother this time.