This chapter was written under the influence of: Coldplay and Death Cab

To Kas: Thanks for beta-ing and reviewing and being the spiffiest person ever.

To Kiwi: I listened to the Artic Monkeys song, and although it's a great one, it's to discopartydancepeppy to listen to while writing this.

To Simi: LISTEN TO AUGUST IS OVER!

Divess: Yes, I'm copying the nickname. I have no idea how you made up mine, nor do I want to know. Anyways, cheers for being buddies that're pissed at other people! xD

Disclaimer: If you really think I own Gallagher Girls and instead of making money off of my ideas by publishing books, I write fanfiction, I seriously think we have a bigger issue than a legal dispute over the rights. By the way, I totally stole that disclaimer.

Part VI: A Truth I Would Rather Lose

He didn't know what to think. So, instead, he looks forward, grinning at his girlfriend that he hasn't seen in a while now. And he pretends. He pretends that everything's okay and that he's not cheating on her and that nothing happened this summer except what was supposed to happen (the mission). He pretends that he didn't have any feelings for the girl he just had sex with just three days ago. And he fakes a smile and a kiss, going up to Macey McHenry, his girlfriend as of two years and something days, telling her he missed and her and next time he goes to Paris – mission or not – he was going to be taking her with him. And Macey smiles and laughs and tells him it's okay and she's just happy he's back. With all this lying and acting like nothing ever happened, it should be easy for him to overlook everything that went on the past few days, right? It should be easy for him to overlook the fact that his Lizzie is standing just a few feet away – near the door of his office, looking at him with vacant eyes… right?

But he can't. He can't forget all those things and he doesn't know if it was love or just sex, but he can't just let it go – at least he knows that much.

Too bad he's already left something (behind) that he can't replace.

She wants to stop thinking about it all. She wants to take all those memories of what happened between them out of her head and burn them as if they were pictures of a past boyfriend. But that's just it. He wasn't a past boyfriend. She was never his girlfriend and they had no right. They had no right to be a couple - or whatever the hell they were. There just wasn't a them. They were just two different people, just Liz and Preston. Not a couple, but somehow together.

So she sighs and heads back to the lab where Jonas is waiting for her, all while trying to scratch out all those memories (with no avail).

And he's waiting there, Jonas, looking at her in that adorable way that only he can pull off.

"So, you're back," he states, looking at her.

Liz smiles. "Yeah."

"Macey told me you got here yesterday?"

"Yeah," she nods. But, really, she's wondering, Since when do you and Macey talk?

He, however, doesn't hear the question and queries, "If you got here a day ago, why didn't you tell me? We could've done something."

She sighs, not wanting an interrogation. "Yeah. We could've done something."

He looks at her then, knowing something's wrong. "Anything you wanna talk about, Liz?"

Liz. She hasn't heard that nickname in a while. He called her Lizzie, after all.

"No," she shakes her head. Elizabeth looks out the door. "Listen, I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. I was just jet-lagged, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah. Sure," he responds, taking her in. He feels like it's been a lifetime since he's seen her. But lifetime or not, he knows when she's lying, and this happens to be one of those times. Macey told him that Liz was in the lab until dawn, and here she was telling him that she went home to sleep.

But Jonas being Jonas, he smiles and lets her slip away. "Listen, Liz. MI6 called the other day…"

And he goes on with the story, Liz not being the least bit interested. Other than leaving, however, she sits there, in the lab on one of the rigid stools and listens to him. Because that's what a good girlfriend would do – even if she isn't technically one. She could always go on pretending, right?

Preston spends the rest of the day away from Macey, avoiding her at all costs. Tomorrow, he knows, she would be furious at him because he didn't take her out to the latest restaurant. She would shriek at him and start another trivial fight saying, "You left me alone on a Saturday. Saturday! What kind of good boyfriend does that, Preston?" And he would respond by making a faux apology trying to pull of the I'm-so-sorry-but-I-love-you-so-please-don't-break-up-with-me face and then she'd roll her eyes and say that he was forgiven and they would go back to her place and… who needs details?

Preston sighs and questions when this façade will get old. Until then, he–

"I don't know, Jonas. I just don't know."

He heard Lizzie's voice clearly through the door, so Preston walks up slowly and does what any normal person would've done at the time: eavesdrop.

"Think about it, okay? It's a great opportunity."

It's Jonas's voice Preston hears then and he turns away from the door for a second. Of course she's talking to Jonas. He is her boyfriend after all. How could he have been so stupid to think what they had was going to last over the summer? Not the whole summer, even, it had lasted.

Preston starts to contemplate the idea of banding his head to the wall. Why the hell did this have to happen to him?

"It's just…" with the sound of Lizzie's voice touching his ear, he took in a deep breath and walked away from the door – quietly, unseen.

She looks at him now, cheeks red and puffy and all. Her luggage was on the passenger's seat and the car was already on, telling him that he was probably the last to find out.

He starts to walk out of the house – the place that was his retreat after a bad day, and night, at the office – and slowly, almost painfully, he makes his way towards Lizzie.

"Preston," she nods at him.

"Where are you going?" he asks, to tired to have a normal conversation as if nothing happened.

"We're relocating," she spits out abruptly. Then she looks at him, trying to gauge his reaction.

"To where?" he wonders almost instantly.

"MI6."

He waits for more information. When she doesn't add anything, he speaks. "Why?"

"Jonas," she starts off on her ramble, "he got this call, over the summer. It was to invite us, me and Jonas, to MI6. They want us at their lab. They need new scientists for this… anyways, it's not that far from here. We just have to move and since me and Jonas are living in the same apartment…" she looks up at him, "it won't be too much of a hassle."

It seems like she's holding her breath so he answers, "What about us?"

"Preston," it seems to him like she's having a hard time getting this out, "there was…"

When she stops, he looks at her, knowing what she was going to say. There was never an us.

"Um. Anyways," she starts off again, "we'll still visit you all. Soon, too."

Preston just looks at her as she prattles on. "Lizzie," he says.

"Yes?" Her voice is breathless.

"I thought…" he loses his voice a little. "I thought it was love at first site."

"No, Preston," she tells him softly, "it was lust at first sight."

And then he gets it. Somehow, that fact has gone over his head but right now, it hits him in the head and knocks him upside down. Because it was never love with Lizzie. It was only lust. He was only in want, but never in love.

And all this time, while he's thinking, hey, that's the girl I want to be with… she really wasn't what he thought she was. Because she wasn't Macey and he really loved Macey. He may have liked Lizzie, but maybe it was just the summer air speaking.

Preston looks at her then. He actually, really looks at her. Her blonde hair curling around her pale face, her pink lips and almond green eyes framing her heart shaped visage.

… and then maybe it wasn't just the summer air talking.

But right now, he knows he can't know anything for sure, because everything is indefinite.

And he's watching Lizzie drive away, slowly backing out of his garage space and he looks up at the sky. At least he knows one thing – August is over.

To the unmentioned: I love you all, and thank you so much for the reviews and alerts. Seriously, you have no idea how much I appreciate them. That being said, review? Throw a tomato at me or something if you really hated the ending (letthemeatpotatoes). Also, there'll be a deleted scene coming out. Soon. Oh, for some reason, this chapter was written in present tense, where as the previous chapters were written in past. Hope you don't mind.

(20 minutes later – when the chapter is completed)

Hold on a second, people. I now realize why I wrote this in present tense. It's so at the end, I can say "August is over" instead of "August was over". Dude, my subconscious is so nifty.

P.S – There's something bolded up there that's spelled wrong. It's because it's the title of this fabulous FF you have to check out.