Chapter Five:
The Truth

Luca hadn't come out of her room in days. Everyone came by to try to cheer her up, but the door was locked. The only reason Natalee knew she was alive was because she heard her creep to the bathroom in the middle of the night when she thought Nat was asleep.

Bernard sat outside her door talking to her though it was without response almost all day. He brought her food everyday and set it by her door and when he left for a few minutes and came back, it had disappeared into her room.

He'd probably never know it but she was so grateful for everything Bernard had done for her. Not just during this time of crisis, but her whole life.

One night when Luca had gone into the bathroom for her 2 a.m. shower, Natalee knew she needed to take action. She went into Luca's room through the open door and grabbed her cell phone. She searched rapidly for Greg's number but with no luck. Then she remembered deleting it for Luca one drunk night in Vegas.

She took even more desperate measures the next morning. She knew she was stepping on enemy turf, but it was her only hope. "Hey, Bernard."

He walked in with some McDonald's breakfast. "Hi, Natalee."

"Can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure," he said, pouring coffee into his already empty Styrofoam McDonald's cup.

"Do you have Morgan's number?"

He nodded and rattled off a San Francisco number. "What's your plan?"

"I don't want to get your hopes up, but it involves a lot of phone calls."

"Mrs. Sanders?"

"Yes?"

"You don't know me, but my roommate went to high school with Greg," Natalee said. "Her name's Luca New--."

"Luca. Sure, I know Luca. Such a sweet girl. And her sister Morgan," Greg's mom said. "She was a pretty one. Gregory had such a crush on Luca, though."

"You're kidding."

"No, he never stopped talking about her," she explained.

Natalee smiled. "Well, this is great! I was just wondering if I could get Greg's number in Las Vegas. It's kind of complicated, but I'm sure Greg will tell you about it."

"Oh," she said with a sigh. "He hardly ever calls anymore."

Natalee frowned.

"But, the number," Mrs. Sanders said.

Natalee wrote it down and thanked Greg's mom. She jumped off the counter and shouted. "Fuck, yeah!" She looked toward Luca's door and smiled.

"Hello?"

"Greg, this is Natalee."

Silence.

"Luca's roommate."

"Oh, hey," he said, unenthusiastically.

"That night when you thought you professed your love for Luca--if it was real--"

"I've been thinking about it and it is real," Greg said, smiling.

"Irrelevant. I was the one on the phone, she doesn't know what you said. But, you need to tell her, I can't do it for you. This is important," Natalee said. "She…" Natalee was going to say "likes you, too," but stopped.

"She what?"

"Is depressed," Natalee said. She didn't want to reveal that either. "I'm begging you to do something. Her career's taking off and she needs to start working again."

Greg paused for a second. "Okay. I'll come back to California."

"Holy shit. Amazing!" Natalie couldn't help but shout. "And call your mother, she worries about you."

"Hey, Mr. Newman," Greg said to the man on the floor.

"Greg Sanders?" He struggled to stand up. "How have you been? And…what are you doing here?"

Greg looked towards Luca's door. "Can I?"

"You can try," Bernard said hopefully.

Greg knocked on the door lightly. "Luca--it's Greg." He heard the door to the apartment door close as Bernard gave them more privacy. Luca walked to her bedroom door, not sure if she should open it or not.

"I just wanted to say that I like you. A lot. I can't even function…it's kind of ridiculous. Ridiculous that I've waited this long to tell you," he said. "I have always liked you. Not Morgan. You're the smart, beautiful one. I mean, she's pretty and smart, but you-- Look, the point is I was always over your house because of you."

Luca opened the door a crack. "Are you being serious?"

"No, I came all the way from Las Vegas too pull this extravagant prank," Greg said, smiling. "Of course I'm serious."

"Why didn't you do something about it in high school?"

"By the time I had stopped kidding myself and realized I did like you, I also realized I was going to college in a few years, leaving you here." Greg looked at her. "And two years is a big difference when you're sixteen and eighteen."

Luca nodded. "I guess so…. But now it doesn't matter what we think."

"…Why?"

"We have our own lives now. We can't just quit our jobs and run away."

"We can't?" Greg asked.

There was a pause. She wished.

Luca tried not to smile at the thought. "No."

Luca and Greg settled on lunch at Roscoe's Chicken 'n' Waffles with Nick and Natalee before they would part ways. Nick was in the hallway with Bernard when Luca and Greg finally came out.

Bernard gave Luca an involuntary hug. "You need some sun, you're so pale from being inside that room," he quipped. "You feel better?"

Luca didn't, but she said she did anyway. "Thank you," she whispered. The poor retired man could now go back to his normal day, relaxing, golfing, and taking care of Flo's temper tantrums.

"Where are we going?" Nick asked from the driver's seat.

Luca gave him directions to the school Natalee worked at, they walked in and waited in the hall for her class. That is until Natalee noticed the hot guy in the hallway. The hot guy that smashed into her car. She ran outside. "What is going on?"

"This is Nick, Greg's co-worker," Luca said. "We're going to lunch and wanted to take you out."

"This--this guy," she stammered, "is the guy that rear-ended me!"

Greg and Luca looked at Nick and then at Natalee. She shook her head and turned to go back into the room. "I can't leave the kids alone."

"Nat, I need to talk to you--alone," Luca said.

Greg spoke up, "We can watch the kids…can we do that?"

"Probably not legally but if no one finds out…I guess it's fine," Natalee said, being dragged down the hall by Luca.

"What's going on? Tell me what happened already!" Natalee shouted.

"He's leaving. They are leaving," she said. "That's it. There's nothing else to it. We can't do anything about this. This is my dream--here in California. His job is in Nevada."

Natalee grabbed her by the shoulders. "Luca, listen to yourself."

Luca looked from the floor to Natalee, tears in her eyes. "You're the one that says I can't give up on my dream, right? And he loves his job. This relationship is impossible."

Natalee squeezed Luca's shoulders. "We need to get back." Luca nodded and followed her into the classroom.

Greg was being chased by a little red-headed boy around the circle. He finally tripped and the boy tagged him, with a wide grin on his face.

"I'm so done with duck, duck, goose," he said, getting up and pouting. He started to go over to Luca and Natalee.

The boy shook his head and grabbed his wrist. "Not so fast! Into the cookie jar!" He pushed him into the middle of the circle and Greg sat on the floor, smiling at Luca.

Luca joined him in the "cookie jar."

"So, here we are in the cookie jar," he said.

She laughed. "So we are."

They didn't say anything for a while.

"Is this forever? This separation?" he asked.

"It's not a separation, we were never together," she reminded him.

Greg thought about this for a second. He also thought about how he could move back home to California. He was the one that screwed it up during high school in the first place.

"You never know what's going happen." She shrugged. "Maybe someday," she said with false hope.

Natalee and Nick hit it off right away.

"Do you guys really have to leave?" Natalee asked. "The least you can do for damaging my car is stay the night."

"Stop flirting," Luca said, smiling. But stopped when it sunk in that they were leaving. Now. "So…that's it. I guess we'll see you guys, you know, when one of us decides to get eloped or we get the urge to gamble or something."

Everyone was silent. It was harsh, but true and there was nothing any of them could do and there was no point in lying anymore.