Hello!

I'm here with another new chapter. Again it's a super long one. Tell me if you like the chapters being long or would you rather have them shorter.

Enjoy =)

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Breathless.

Too tired.

But I ran.

With music from the earphones sending waves through my body, I ran. I ran in a hope to leave all the unnerving thoughts behind me with every step that I took.

In the past two hours, I'd covered the perimeter of my block at least fifteen times. Sweat coated my body in layers and my brain pretty much thumped against my ear drums while I could actually feel the course of the blood gushing through my arteries.

I was near my house and was planning for another lap when arrival of Shay's white Mazda made me stop in my tracks.

"Get in loser, we're going to the movies," Shay said putting the cover of her new convertible down.

"The hell? When did you become a blonde?" I asked walking towards her car, still out of breath.

"Today morning after ballet class. What do you think the mean girl reference was for?" She smirked, flipping her newly dyed and styled hair behind her shoulder.

"Oh I thought that's because you take real life inspiration from Regina George?" I said leaning on the hood of her car.

With an eye roll she spoke, "I won't touch you 'cause you're sweating like a pig, otherwise I would've smacked you on your head. Now take a shower and dress up, we've a movie to watch."

"With your female army?" I pulled the cord of the earphones and wound it to form a small bundle.

"No, just you, me and Sebastian. I was starting to get bored of all the high pitched giggles so I thought why not hang out with you guys," she said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Now be quick. I've already called Sebastian. He'd here in a minute."

Nodding my head, I followed Shay who sauntered up the porch step, moving her hips from side to side. Even her walk felt like that of a diva.

"I'll be back in ten," I declared and then made my way to my room to grab a shower. The bed lied still unmade after previous night looking odd in an otherwise cleaned up room. The deep orange glow of the evening sun filtered through the white and light pink curtains.

That was a thing I didn't like about this room. Instead of getting the morning sun, it got to have the view of the setting one. This was the reason that when the we had bought this house, I had chosen the opposite facing room than this one and Emma had to take this room with practically no influence of the morning sun. But it was alright with her. It wasn't her permanent room anyway, just during weekends.

You see, when we were younger, around eight or so, our parents had moved this town from my grandparents'. The move was easy for me. I was never the one who had many friends anyway but this wasn't the case for my sister. She wasn't ready to leave her hometown along with our grandparents and her friends. She was just eight but had the stubbornness of an eighty year old. Even after mom and dad assuring her that they would take her to visit them every month, her mind remained unchanged. So after seeing that there was no other way, my grandparents decided to take her in. At first, I was actually very mad at her for leaving me alone in a new town but soon I understood her real reason of staying at my grandparents.

It was their neighbor's kid, Nathan.

Nathan was two years older than us. I can't say for how long we had known him because I guess it was forever. His family was really close to ours.

Emma had always felt something for Nathan and I think Nathan liked her from the beginning too. Whenever we went over to my grandparents', they were always joint together, spending all their time with each other. At first, I felt left out but then I grew accustomed to it and because of being busy with Nathan, Emma didn't pester me all the time to play house with her, which was a good change.

As we grew older, all Emma talked about was Nathan and all Nathan talked about was Emma.

Emma and Nathan - the ultimate childhood sweethearts.

So realizing this, I wasn't able to hold my anger long towards Emma for not coming with us to this new town. And also it wasn't like I never saw her. Sometimes my dad would bring her to our house for the weekend and the other times, we would go over there to visit her.

I mean, yes, I missed having my twin sister around, especially during the time I had to go through the 'new kid' phase but being with Nathan made her so happy that I was sure she wouldn't be if she would've came with us. So ultimately I tried to be happy for her and after some time the distance didn't bother me

Everything was going well for all of us until...

And then I took this room as mine and had been living in it since then.

After the shower, I hurried up in getting ready 'cause I knew Shay would be getting impatient even though the movie wasn't going to start until an hour later.

"I'm not sitting through another chick-flick," I heard Sebastian's voice coming from the kitchen.

"Who said anything about any girly movie? It's horror movie fest this weak in town so I was thinking of catching a classic one," Shay said.

"Then what happens when you get scared? No Liam to hold your hand today," I joined the conversation, entering the kitchen area.

"Then I guess you just have to lend me your boyfriend if that happens," Shay replied with a quick head tilt. I gave her a questioning look. "Kidding. You can keep your boyfriend. However with the lack of time you spend with him makes me think otherwise," she added as a mere murmur shifting her gaze up.

Scowling and crossing my arms, I asked, "Am I supposed to know what that means?"

Shay exhaled. "Well, it's not like I don't notice. Everybody does. Don't tell me you don't know that I'm talking about how you've been hanging out all the time with someone else rather than Seb."

My scowl deepened and my eyes narrowed. I looked over to Sebastian to see his reaction. He was acting like he wasn't listening to mine and Shay's conversation and was more interested in the can of soda in his hand.

"Well, I don't know what you've been observing but Sebastian and I are good," I said, shrugging.

"And I want you to be like that always. Sebastian has been nothing but a great boyfriend. He's totally a keeper and leaving him for Daniel is definitely not worth it." Shay said putting her hands on my shoulders to show her concern for me.

"Awkward," Sebastian sang. "Let's change the subject, shall we?"

"That would be good," I said but still gave Shay a dubious look.

"Of course," Shay said lifting her hand from my shoulder. "You know I just have your best interest in my mind, right?"

Reluctantly, I nodded my head just to avoid any drama.

"Yeah, I know." She beamed at me like a proud mother. "But you need to know it too that Daniel and I are just friends and I'll still spend time with him no matter what everyone else thinks. And Seb is completely fine with it too."

I liked to think that Daniel and I had this special friendship or something. Of course his ever switching 'hot and cold' thing and his heavy secrecy about everything had reached up to the point of driving me completely insane. And of course not to forget that his act at the bridge had acted as the trigger for my old nightmares to return. But despite that, I had this instinct when it came to him, like I was supposed to be protective of him. So even after everything, after taking in account all his distant behavior and his half answers to my questions, I still was happy to always be there for him, no matter what.

 "I get it. All I want you to be careful and just stay to the normal friends status with Dan," Shay advised walking towards the living area.

Before following her, Sebastian and I exchanged a look.

Then an idea hit me that would solve this doubt of Shay's and also serve as an opportunity for me to make Daniel come out of his god darn house and actually socialize with others.

"And we are! I could prove it to you." Shay turned on her heel and gave me a questioning look.

"Why don't I invite him to come with us right now? Then you'll see we're completely platonic," I put forward my plan.

"No!" Both Shay and Sebastian reacted at the same time and their disapproval mirrored on their faces.

"Why not?" I asked with a pout.

"Cause even though I trust you, Daniel and I are not exactly buddy-buddy with each other," Sebastian explained in a high speed which he did whenever he was either nervous or angry.

"And plus did you forget that he's my ex-boyfriend's brother?" Shay asked putting her hands on her hips.

"Step-brother," I corrected her and turned to Sebastian "And have you even tried to talk to him ever? Might help ease up your situation."

Sebastian still didn't look at all excited to spend time with Daniel but pondering over it a while, he said, "Fine! But this better be just a one time thing only."

I nodded happily and then waited for Shay's reply. "Whatever. It's just a movie anyway."

"Great!" I exclaimed and then took out my phone walking back to the kitchen.

The ringing went on three times before he picked up.

"Daniel Cohen's school of awesome. We offer courses in annoying the crap out of people and several other Shenanigans. How can we be of use to you today?" He said in a high pitched chirpy voice.

I let out a silent laugh. So he was back to being his stupid self.

"Yes, can I talk with Mr. Cohen? I've some important business to discuss with him," I played along.

"Actually he's kind of busy right now but since you're a special client so I'll pass on the call to him." There were some shuffling noise and then he spoke again, "Hey! What’s up?"

"Hey! What are you doing right now?" I asked hopping on to a kitchen stool.

"Well, you know nothing much. I was just about to flush my face down the toilet to see how much trials it takes before it kills you," he replied casually making my eyes go wide immediately.

"Daniel! It's not funny you dummy!" I chastised him raising my tone.

"Kidding!" he sang. "So why did you call me?"

"Right, we were going out for a movie so I was thinking if you wanna come with us?" I asked biting my lower lip nervously.

"And this 'we' includes?" He pressurized the 'we' part.

"Me, Sebastian and Shay," I answered knowing that he wouldn't like it.

"Awesome! Do you need name of some more people who I don't like and vice versa, so that you can invite me when you're hanging out with them too?" he said sardonically. "Have a great time at the movies. Bye!"

"No, no, wait!" I tried to stop him from ending the call. "It's just a movie. You won't even need to talk to them much. Have you even left your house after the accident? Come with us."

He sighed heavily, probably to add a dramatic effect. "Fine, but then you don't get to blame me if there are some majorly pissed off people by the end of the evening, kay?"

"Understood. Do you want me to pick you up?"

"No need. I'm never getting in that car of yours. I'll manage," he said.

"Cool. I'll text you my address now. See you," I said and was about to hit the end button when he decided to speak again.

"Hey, are you mad at me?" he asked, all the sarcastic tone gone from his voice.

"For what?" I inquired, but I knew what he was referring to.

"For yesterday. I swear I'll tell you everything really soon so please don't be mad," he explained his behavior in a soft voice.

"I wouldn't be calling you right now if I was mad at you. Now, be quick. I'm waiting," I said in a light voice to make him believe that I wasn't lying and then after finally ending the call, I sent him my address.

"Well that was a long call for a simple invitation." I turned around to see Shay leant on one of the counter wearing a accusing expression on her face.

"I had something else to talk to him about too," I replied coolly, ignoring her expression and got up from the stool.

We waited for around ten minutes before the door bell rang.

"Hey, you're here," I greeted him, holding the door open.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm here. Now what are your other two wishes," he replied smirking smugly.

"I'll think about them. Come in," I said getting to one side.

We walked inside and to see Shay and Sebastian standing like two security guards without any expression.

I gave them a look and then both of them said in a monotonous tone, "Hi, Daniel."

They sounded like the people in AA meetings but only more disinterested.

"Geez! Dial down the warmth, you two," Daniel remarked sarcastically, sitting on the couch. He raised an eyebrow at Shay's new hair colour but didn't say anything. 

I shot Shay and Seb another look but only got an eye roll from Shay.

"I'm gonna get my wallet, then we can leave," I told no one in particular and then darted up the stairs so as to lessen up the time I had to leave the three of them alone.

Once inside my room, I pulled out the drawer that I usually kept my wallet in but to my surprise it wasn't there so I started looking around the room at every spot where the wallet could be.

Sitting on my knees, I was rummaging through the cabinet of my bedside table when I heard Daniel's voice, "Wow! This is a lot of pinkness for one room."

I whipped my head towards the door where he stood, scanning my room with his eyes.

"Did they say something?" I asked referring to the two people downstairs. "Sorry, if they seem rude."

"It's cool. I love hanging out with people who want me dead anyway," he said seriously but his underlying sarcasm was clear.

"Give it sometime. They'll come around," I replied and then continued the search for my wallet again.

"Why aren't you in any of these?"

I turned my gaze towards him and I stiffened understanding what he was talking about. With a curious look on his face, he observed all the photo frames hanging on the wall.

No, he can't know, can he? I thought to myself.

"What do you mean?" I asked, careful that my voice didn't give my nervousness away.

"I mean why there are photos of only your sister here? There's not even a single one of you," he replied looking at me directly in the eye.

If it was even possible, I felt even more tensed than before. "How do you know about my sister?" I asked walking towards the frames after having found my wallet.

No one had been able to tell that it wasn't me in those pictures. Sebastian, Shay, no one else. None of them even knew that I once had a sister so there mistake was quite understandable. So it completely threw me off the edge that somehow Daniel had picked that up so easily.

"I've been living in this town for almost eight years now. I think I would know if you have a sister," he replied and I was relieved when he used the present tense. That meant he didn't know anything else.

"Yeah, I don't know," I tried to end the topic. "Let's just go or else we'll be late."

Without saying anything, Daniel nodded and both of us were about to leave the room when I almost bumped into Sebastian.

"I came to see what was taking so long," Sebastian said and I gave him a shake of my head.

With just few minutes left till the movie was scheduled to start, all four of us left my house in Shay's car. Since the area around the theater was always a little too crowded, we decided to park the car a block away and walk from there to the theater.

"Oh, Shay, I forgot," Sebastian started while walking. "I found the special edition of 'Fault in Our Stars' that you were looking for."

"Oh my god! Thank you so much. You're the best!" Shay shrieked happily. "I'm happy someone understands my love for such a great book, unlike some people," she said looking at me with narrowed eyes, faking anger.

I stuck out my tongue at her.

"So you don't like the book or you just haven't read it?" Daniel asked walking by my side.

I was about to reply but Shay beat me to it, "Ha! As if Norah would ever read a book in her life."

Puzzled, Daniel inquired further, "What do you mean?"

"It means that she's the kind of person that thinks that the real purpose of books is to serve as fancy paperweights," Seb answered, chuckling. Rolling my eyes at him, I smacked him in the arm.

"Anyway, I'll get the tickets," Seb informed all of us and then disappeared in the crowd. The rest of us stood silently until Shay's phone started vibrating and she answered it wandering off to a side.

"Why don't we get some snacks for everyone else, till Seb gets back?" I proposed.

"Yeah, okay."

Joining the non-surprising long line in the food section, we waited for our turn.

"Urghh! This line is so freaking long!" Daniel remarked impatiently, counting the number of people ahead of us in the line.

"Patience, Xiao Dan, it won't take that long and by the way, sorry again for all the snide commentary," I apologized.

Shay and Sebastian had passed numerous indirect remarks during the car ride. However, Daniel had chosen to ignore all of them and that had made me kind of happy, I still felt responsible for it as I was the one who had asked him to come.

"No worries," he said shrugging. "I don't mind some negative popularity. It's kind of like that quote by Mark Twain that there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about," he said in a proud manner.

"Nice thinking, but it’s from Oscar Wilde, not Mark Twain," I said chuckling.

"For a person who doesn't read, that was quick," he said in a surprised tone but I could sense something else in it. Like he knew something but had decided not to say it. "Why don't you read anyway?"

It was a simple question. Why didn't I read? But somehow I thought that telling him the real reason would open the store to more questions, so I stuck with my usual answer to this question.

"Why read when my own story is so interesting?" I said along with a silly smile. "So I take it you like books?"

He shrugged again. "Yeah, I do."

"I'm guessing 'Fault In Our Stars' is your favorite one," I teased and moved one position ahead in the line.

"No, it's not!"

"Aw, don't you lie. Did you cry when Augustus died?"

"I thought you haven't read the book." He raised an eyebrow.

"Doesn't mean that I've been living under a rock. I know what happens in it. Shay has practically recited the whole book to me. It's quite nice actually. I like the characters and the quotes and all," I rambled on losing track of what I had intended to say actually.

"I don't know. It's kind of too schmaltzy. The characters are way too wise for their age," he said.

It was our turn at the counter, so I ordered popcorn for everyone.

"Tragedy makes you wise, I guess," I commented on his opinion.

"Tragedy doesn't make you wise, it makes you bitter," he said as a matter of fact. Holding all the ordered stuff, we walked back towards the lobby area.

I got the feeling that he was hinting about his own problem.

"People can become wise without even knowing it themselves," I used the indirect way too.

He looked at me but didn't say anything and then turned his gaze to look straight. I was still staring at him when I saw him stop in his tracks. Eager to know what had caused this reaction, I followed his gaze and my mouth hung open when I took in the scene in front of us.

Shay and Sebastian stood against the wall. Liplocked.

Shay had her hands on Seb's face and he was standing stiff, and non-responsive. I was about to laugh at the horrified look on Seb's face when I felt Daniel's eyes on me, which made me remember that this wasn't how I was supposed to react. I had to act hurt that my boyfriend was kissing another girl, well more like the other way around but still it would have made any other girl to be in hysteric tears.

Suppressing the laugh inside of me, I brought forward a heart broken expression on my face and tried my best to even bring some tears.

It was as if some kind of energy ran through Sebastian because he pulled Shay away from him.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Shay said covering her mouth with her hands and when she noticed me standing there, her eyes went wide and she ran out of the theatre muttering 'sorry' repeatedly.

"I think I should leave too," I heard Daniel said and giving him a quick look, I nodded, still acting to be sad.

When I was sure that he was out of sight, I dropped the act and chuckling I asked Sebastian who still looked freaked out, "What the hell just happened here?"

"Why are you laughing!" he exclaimed in a pitchy voice. "I don't know what happened! One moment she was saying how she wished Liam was like me and then in the next one, her lips are on mine. Oh god! It was so wrong!"

"Relax! You've kissed me. What difference does it make?" I asked walking over to Seb, placing the boxes of popcorn on a chair nearby.

"I am kind of used to kissing you but this was like so...so...I don't know," he ranted hysterically. "Oh, god what if Luke comes to know about this?"

"Then he would understand, I'm sure," I rubbed my hand up and down his arm to calm his nervousness.

"I hope so," he said meekly. "Thank you!"

"Now, do you wanna go inside? It will take your mind of everything," I suggested.

"Hmm, alright," he said gaining his composure back. "You know I love you, right?"

I smiled. "I know."

Daniel's pov-

After walking back from the theatre, I was feeling too tired and the moment I reached my room, I threw myself on the bed, smiling.

It hadn't even been minutes, when the door opened revealing a tired looking Liam. He hadn't slept properly since his break-up with Shay. He always took these things hard. I for one, was actually kind of happy about it because that meant no Shay prancing around the house with her irritating vocal cords.

"How many times do I've to tell you to never come to my room before you finally get it?" I asked seeing that he wasn't saying anything.

Shooting me a pissed off look, he said, "Trust me; I'm not exactly a fan of seeing you either."

"So what you're here to admire the paint on the walls?" I commented sarcastically sitting up on the bed.

"Why do you feel the need to be such a douche bag all the time?" I smirked sardonically knowing that it was going to agitate him more. "By the way, I heard you were with Norah again?"

"Am I obligated to respond to this?" I asked with a blank expression.

"I don't know whatever you're planning, but unlike you, Seb and Norah are actually decent people, so please stop it whatever you're thinking of doing with Norah, kay?"

I felt irritation and anger with every word he spoke.

"Now of course we don't want any thing bad for our Saint Sebastian, now do we? After all he's just the best." I started in a empathetic tone. "Even your girlfriend agrees, or your ex-girlfriend, whatever she is."

As expected, Liam's face contorted in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

I know what I was about to say wasn't my thing to tell but Liam started it and I was going to end it by getting my revenge.

"I mean when she kissed Sebastian today." I saw his eyes blink rapidly and his face drop suddenly. "Whoops! She didn't tell you yet? Sorry, my bad," I smiled apologetically but both of us knew better than that.

I knew it was a low blow but he was asking for it.

"Consider it a payback for telling Norah about her call during the accident," I said in a smug tone, trying not to be affected by the hurt look in Liam's eyes.

"I told her that because I thought she deserved to know it!" Liam spat out.

"And I told you this because I thought you deserved to know it too," I replied calmly and watched Liam's anger reach a new level.

"You really are a prick, you know that?" He was almost foaming from his mouth.

"By the way, your mom came over today again. That's what I came to tell you before you started being the jerk you're." And with that he left, slamming the door loudly behind him.

The mention of my mother sent me back to the thoughts of how to break it to Norah that I had lied to her and so far I had nothing. I mean how was one supposed to do that? I hardly thought that going up to her and saying, 'Hey Norah, remember how I once told you that my mother killed herself? Yeah, well that's not true' wouldn't end up without me getting punched.

Sighing, I lied on the bed again.

Undoubtedly, I had gotten myself stuck in an extreme sticky situation and I needed to come up with a solution really soon otherwise this was going to blow up in my face.

 Really badly.

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So lots of reveals in the chapter. Now you know who Nathan is and that Daniel lied to Norah. =O

Was it surprising or were you already expecting that? Why do you think he lied? Tell me in your comments.

Please vote, comment and share =)

Thank you!