Page 110 of Tomorrow Belongs to Us
“Erica and Jensen are coming to stay for a few days.” She’s made her mind up. She’s leaving, and we are done. “’Bye, Lance. I hope things work out for you.”
Chapter 40
MEGAN
Lance Turner has broken my heart for the second time.
Only, this time around it's me who gets to leave and do the breaking up. My heart is in tatters, and what should have felt like a tiny victory rings hollow. An emptiness seeps into my body again, erasing the blood and guts and bone and muscle. That’s what it feels like.
Because Lance gave me a burst of yellow in my blue, blue world. The world where a guy smiling at me and buying me a drink is all it takes for me to go home with him and make it up to him.
Lance loved that neediness out of me. He made me wait, and he showed me that I was worthy.
But we are not meant to be. When life shows you the signs, it's best to heed them.
So, I walk away with a breaking, aching heart and try to focus on my future. Erica and Jensen aren't coming to stay this weekend, nor the next. That was just something to tell Lance in order to keep him away. I'll need my family's help in moving out, and that's when I'll call them over.
As before, whenever I’m feeling lost and lonely, I turn up at Arla’s door with a bottle of wine. She opens the door, her hair messy, her face flushed, and I immediately know I've made a mistake.
It didn't even occur to me to check that she might have company.
“You're busy.” I take a step back, ready to leave.
“You've been crying.” Arla’s eyes fill with worry, and she quickly pulls me inside before I say another word. Scott walks through shirtless, wearing only his boxer briefs. It’s hard to miss his abs and his physique, but I do a mental comparison and Lance definitely has the better body.
“Hey.” I manage, stepping towards the door and getting ready to leave. “I'll come back another—”
“I should go.” Scott disappears out of sight, re-emerging seconds later fully dressed. He sweeps Arla into his arms, and they kiss passionately, but I can tell it’s a hurried passionate kiss, for my sake.
I feel a failure, and out of place. But more than that I feel like an extra. Before I can protest, Scott hurriedly says 'Bye' and disappears.
“I'm sorry,” I blubber, my sadness welling up and threatening to overflow. I had something like this, and I've given it up, and worse, now I'm messing up Arla's love life.
She stares at me, her face twisted with worry. “What happened?”
“I broke up with him.”
She blinks. “With Lance?”
“Yes.”
The worry melts away from her face and for a second I contemplate the wisdom in coming here and telling Arla.
“Sit, I'll get glasses.” She says it like we're celebrating something. For reasons I still can't work out, Arla is not team Lance.
She fills our glasses and I wonder if she's going to make a toast.
“Why are you so happy?” Suspicion ties a knot in my gut.
“I love you, Megan, and I don’t want to see you get hurt again, I know what you went through with that man last time.”
I shake my head. “But this is different,” I explain. “This is nothing like my schoolgirl obsession. Don't you want to know why we broke up?”
“He can't be trusted?”
“What? No!” I don't understand how she can come to that conclusion from the last time we met, when he left me holding two movie tickets.
I quickly tell her what happened, about his ex-wife taking an overdose and his daughter being disturbed about the divorce.
