April Fools(8)

"I'm sure he would have done it regardless of whose house it was. Anyway, he might not want to see me."

"He does."

"Did he say so?"

She nodded. I closed my eyes and thought about how it might hurt Isaac's feelings if I went to see Lukas alone. But then I thought about how weird he had been acting on the phone. Me and Lukas were friends, it wasn't a big deal. Just like him and Abbie were friends. "Okay, I'll go."

She stood up, "Great, let's get going."

"Now? But I've only just got in."

"He's still sleeping a lot, we should go and see him now while he's awake."





Chapter Six

Ten minutes later, we were walking down Lukas's street. Lucy had talked the whole way there which had kept my mind preoccupied but when I saw a car similar to Isaac's drive past us, it made me question what I was about to do. Shouldn't I speak to Isaac first?

It was too late. As we walked up to his front door, memories from the last time I was here flooded through my mind. It was the night that we had slept together. So much had happened since then. Lucy knocked on the door before walking straight in, which made me raise my eyebrow in question. "He told me on the phone to come straight in."

I mentally told myself to stop being a baby as I stepped into his flat but I felt like crying when I saw him sitting on the sofa. He glanced at Lucy before his eyes locked with mine. We were silent for a long time. After what seemed like an eternity, Lucy cleared her throat, "I'm just going to make a quick phone call outside." It was obvious that she was giving us some privacy.

"Hi."

I smiled at the sound of his voice, "Hi."

"It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you too, I'm glad you're home." He smiled as I slowly walked over to the sofa and sat down beside him. I couldn't help but stare at the burn on his cheek. It would definitely leave a scar which meant that he would have a constant reminder of the fire. He would never be able to forget what happened that day. I would never be able to forget. I let out the breath that I was holding, "You scared me."

He placed his hand on top of mine and I felt the biggest surge of regret wash over me. If only I would have followed my heart from the start, none of this would have happened. I wouldn't have hurt Lukas, he wouldn't have hurt me and we would still be best friends. I didn't know if it was even possible to go back to being friends like we were in the beginning.

"You scared me too so that makes us even."

"It was horrible seeing you in the hospital."

He laughed but it turned into a chesty cough, "You're not doing much for my ego right now."

I smiled at the way he was trying to make light of a shitty situation. It was such a typical Lukas thing to do. "I hate seeing you sick, seeing you with burns."

"Again with the ego thing." He pulled down the sleeves on his T-shirt, hiding more burns on his arms. "Are there any other things that you hate about me while you're offloading?"

I laughed, "Yeah, you're such an attention seeker getting your name in the newspaper. I bet you have an agent now, Mr Big Time."

"I do, I'm actually writing a book about my traumatic experience."

I rolled my eyes, "That doesn't surprise me. What's it called?"

"I'm thinking about 'Fire in my heart'."

I had to laugh at that one, "I like it."

He nodded, "You can have a signed copy. And as far as the burns are concerned, they'll turn into scars soon and women dig scars."

"That's true, you do look pretty badass."

His eyes twinkled, "Thank you for coming to see me, I've missed you."

"Pfft, you were sleeping and getting crowded by hot nurses, I bet you didn't even think about me."

"You know that's a lie."

I did.

"April, I have a few things that I would like to get off my chest, if that's okay with you?" I nodded, preparing myself for what he was about to say. We were both quiet as I waited for him to speak. "The day of the fire was the worst day of my life. Not because of what happened to me but because I thought that I'd lost you. In that moment, when I thought that you were inside the house, all that mattered was getting you out of there. There was never a choice for me, I was always going inside. I know that you're a good person which means that you're going to try and blame yourself but no part of what happened was your fault. I would run into that house every single day for the rest of my life if it meant saving you from getting hurt. Although I regret how things ended between us, some selfish part of me doesn't regret anything because it led to something so real. Those moments that we shared had nothing to do with anybody or anything else. It didn't matter what had happened in my past or what was going to happen in our futures. All that mattered was us. I really hope that we can be friends again."