Author's Note: Hi. (: A new chapter, that's right. A little bit of sunshine falling upon my inspiration at the moment. Couldn't bear to lose it. :] Sorry it took so long to be up. I wrote it a long time ago, and then I wasn't very satisfied with the quality so I had to write it again.

Thank you all so, so much for the reviews and love. I can't even begin to express how thankful I am for them. I am so terribly sorry that I hadn't the time to reply. Blame my school. :)

| ~ | ~ | B l u e . E r s a t z | ~ | ~ |

6
"Everything Changes"

-SuzieQuaKes-

"I am the mess you chose, the closet you cannot close. The devil in you, I suppose, 'cause the wounds never heal."

"I . . . I'm a criminal."

The tiny bombshell repeated itself in my head. What. The. Hell? I still couldn't get myself to grasp the bolt from the blue that Drew Hayden had just thrown at me. He was probably born with the natural talent of surprising people with things he said. I mean—honestly? What else did he had left in his sleeve? What about informing me that he had adopted a pet monkey and named it Banana? I suddenly spluttered with laughter at the thought of Drew with a monkey on his shoulder.

Drew coughed into his hand, making me fall back into the present moment again. His green eyes sparkled a little and I was reminded of the grimness of the situation. I shouldn't have really thought of the monkey thing at a time like that. I didn't know what was wrong with me. Silently, Drew gave me a little look and flicked his hair away from his disgustingly perfect face. Wow. What an amazing oxymoron. My English teacher would have been proud.

"I've always known you were bonkers." With a little smirk, he gazed at me from across the coffee table.

Humor eventually died out of me. A flicker of anger scampered across my stomach. Sometimes I wished I was brave enough to punch him and ruin his pride and joy; A.K.A: his face. Unfortunately, at that moment I was too stricken with shock to even think of a proper comeback. I mean seriously? First he told me one of the most unexpected news and then he turned to the smug and arrogant Drew I knew and lov—no, not loved. Shut up, Voice of Devil.

"You're bonkers." I felt so stupid after the words left my lips. Drew arched one of his brows and smirked more, as if to say "ha-ha" like that Nelson from The Simpsons. Why were all these irrelevant thoughts filling up my mind? I moistened my lips quickly and played with my fingers, never quite looking into his eyes. I had to get back to the more important subject. "You're a criminal. A criminal of what? Deception?"

"News flash one-oh-one of the day. People can't hear you if you murmur like that."

I rolled my eyes. He was still avoiding the damn confession that I had been waiting for! That imbecile bastard. We had kind of strayed away from the topic—especially after those thoughts about the monkey and The Simpsons. He really wasn't going to be explaining himself anytime soon. I had to speak. I needed a freaking rational reason for why he was a criminal, for heaven's sake.

With the sudden burst of adrenaline, I looked up into his deep, deep eyes and found myself struggling not to drown in them. Natural beauty like that shouldn't exist. I swear to God. His perfect, perfect face made me get even madder. Why was he like this? Why did he have to make me feel so much like a young little school girl . . . in love?

"Oh my God Drew! What are you waiting for? A neon flashing light telling you that it's time for you tell me the goddamn truth?" I couldn't help but shout like that. The people in here already thought we were crazy anyway. "Why did you run off like that? Why are you back here again? Oh screw it, Drew! Why the hell should I even believe a word you say?"

"You don't believe me." What he said was a statement, a bold one. It wasn't a question, it wasn't a matter of shock or confusion—it was a firm announcement. I found graveness finally settle into those eyes that were filled with smugness and amusement just moments earlier. So he could be serious when the matter called for it. There was a slight pause before he redeemed talking again with another of his short statements. "I didn't expect you to."

I breathed out through my nose and pressed my lips together. So . . . what? Was he lying when he said he was a criminal? Was that a poorly created excuse thought of at the spot? There just was too much mysteriousness underlying Andrew Hayden and it was difficult for my poor brain to find the answers to the questions at that moment. I decided to be frank with him. "Thank you for your honesty."

Drew sighed and threw his hands up in the air. Talk about drama. I could tell that he was already fed up with the present situation. Well that was just too bad for him. It wasn't like I was any less pissed off. "What do you want me to say, May?"

I looked at him for a slight second before grabbing my hand bag and standing up. He just couldn't understand. Stupid Drew. What else would I want him to say rather than the freaking truth? Of course I was afraid that the ultimate truth would hurt badly, but I just wanted to know the real reason why he canceled the wedding. Now that he obviously wasn't going to be telling me the truth that I want, I guess it was better that I left.

"Nothing." I breathed out. It was over again. This little meeting had been fun, Drew Hayden. Now it was time for goodbye. "I don't want you to say anything."

With that last word, I turned from him and started to walk away. As I had been secretly hoping—he called my name after the fifth step my heels took.

"Don't walk away now."

I quirked around to see Drew, for the first time not looking very sure of himself. The rare side of Drew that always made me feel special when I saw it. It wasn't to say that it didn't tug on my heart even now—despite how much I was over him. He was staring down at the sun-bathed table, and his face was half basked in the sunlight and half in the shadows. I felt myself soften even more. "Why?" I whispered. "What difference does it make now?"

"A lot." He looked up at me and then motioned his chin to the seat that I had just gotten up from. "Sit back down and I'll explain everything to you. Starting from the very beginning."

I weighed out the pros and cons on the spot. Of course curiosity got the best of me. They always say curiosity got the cat. Hastily I took steps back towards the table. When I finally sat down again, he started to talk.

"First things first; I was telling you the truth. I am a criminal." Almost reluctantly, Drew glanced around the little café where people were starting to thin out as lunch hour passed. As if reassured at the sight that nobody really was paying attention to our conversation—he spoke again.

"I . . . I needed a false mask of some sort in order to carry out the deed that I came here to do. A criminal needs to do a few things to get rid of suspicion, May. So I took a new job and dated a girl to prove that I'm a regular sort of chap." Drew's eyes glistened a little as he slowly straightened his back and wrapped his slender fingers around the cup of coffee. "But I swear, May—I never intended it to get thatfar. I never planned to actually marry you. I didn't know what I was doing. But it was all just an act for me. An act that I got way too caught up in. And . . . I'm sorry."

I swallowed. The sinking pain of rejection slowly was creeping itself back into my blood again. I had prepared myself for that malicious truth that I knew I would get—but now that it was right in front of my face, I didn't want to hear it anymore. It was all so . . . humiliating. I felt that pain again. The feeling of wanting to throw up, the feeling of numbness, feeling so . . . stupid.

"Drew—" I wanted to stop him. I had enough from him. I didn't want to hear anymore. But he held out a hand and shook his head.

"Just let me finish."

I swallowed again. What else was coming next? What other mortifying stuff was he about to say to me? It was like I was some sort of stupid ragdoll that he was throwing about with a mere flick of the wrist.

Apparently Drew saw my silence as an agreement for him to resume talking. "Anyway, when I finally got the deed done, I sat down to myself, satisfied and finally realized what I was doing. It was there that I decided that I had to get away. I couldn't let you or myself enter into commitment that would bond us forever. It wasn't like we knew anything about each other!"

It took me a moment for that information to set into those little grey cells. All of this years, I had been imagining this day; the day that I would finally confront Drew Hayden on why he had canceled our wedding. Of all the excuses that I imagined him to say—this one definitely set the records. There was no way in hell that I could have ever predicted a story such as this. I was speechless for a little bit, before coming to my senses. I whispered out the next words, almost scared. "What do you do then?"

At this question, Drew's face changed. Morphed into the strongest reluctance that I had ever seen him convey. Was it really that bad? Did he perhaps . . . murder somebody? Maybe police were looking for him this very second! A shiver of cold fear washed over me. I had been watching too much CSI, I decided to myself. He couldn't have killed anybody. Drew Hayden wasn't the type. But that made me wonder . . . who was Drew really? Was that even his real name? Was his personality all just a lie too?

I felt like breaking down at this identity crisis. The one person who I thought that I understood so well wasn't who I thought he was. I didn't know a thing about him except for the fact that he sure was a good actor.

"I—Is that really necessary?" Drew asked me, his green eyes looking nervous. "Why does it matter what I did?"

I looked down at my shoes, my best white strap heels and was reminded of a summer evening when I was four years old. Mom had a pair of shoes just like this one and I used to secretly admire how pretty they were. They were, of course, too big for me, but that didn't really stop me from trying them on every time she was away. And one day, I was walking in the garden, tripped on a rock and broke the heel. I was horrified, naturally. Mom would kill me, considering that she didn't allow me to wear the shoes. Not knowing what to do, I put the shoes back into its box and blamed it on Max, who was still a baby and couldn't defend himself.

That was the "evilest" thing I had done in my life. And I sure didn't want anybody to know. I felt as though I understood Drew, although his crime would be more serious than mine. He shouldn't be forced to tell me the thing he had done. And besides that, I didn't think I really wanted to know.

"It doesn't matter," I told him and breathed out. "Nothing matters anymore." I forced myself to actually smile. It might have come out as a grimace, but I tried. "So who's this other girl? Are you using her too?"

I guess my words were a little bit too harsh and blunt, but if Drew noticed it—he sure did a great job at ignoring it. I should probably take lessons from him. "No. I'm not. She's the daughter of the guy that I work for. We're going to get married soon."

Wow. Another point for greenie.

And then it suddenly downed on me. This girl—this Posy girl—was somebody that he really loved and wanted to get married to. I was nothing more than a little cover-up to prevent suspicion. And yet I spent all of these years, cherishing the wedding dress that I never got to wore, secretly hoping that someday he would walk back into my life like the little Prince Charming he was.

The bitterness of the situation was unbearable. I felt heartache again for the millionth time that day. But I swallowed it all down. I wasn't about to bawl my eyes out in front of the one who had subconsciously (or consciously) broken my heart. I wasn't that desperate to give away my dignity—if it could be called that—just yet. Crying was for bedtimes, May; I chided myself.

Instead, I smiled. I smiled big as if somebody was about to take my picture to be on the cover page of a magazine. "That's wonderful. It's nice to hear that you've found your soul mate. I'm seeing somebody too. And I think he's the one for me."

Drew looked dumbfounded for a second. And then he wiped it all away with a smirk. "You're kidding."

I just smiled back. "No. I'm not kidding."

The green-haired man arched up one of his brows. "Wow. Okay. That's . . . great."

I cringed a little at how our conversation had changed from polite to drama to polite again. Drew changed; I realized. Although hints of his sarcastic and egoistic side may still be there, the rest was just covered up with this fake persona. Or maybe he hadn't changed at all. Maybe he had always been this way. All these thoughts were making my head hurt. I glanced at the time on my phone. It was nearing one-fifteen. Laura would be steaming mad by now.

"I guess I have to go now." I stood up, taking my bag.

Drew stood up quickly too, grabbing his wallet from the table and shoving it inside the back pocket of his jeans. "I think I better go too. Do you need a ride?"

I shook my head and dug out Laura's car keys as we started to make our way out of the shop. Outside, there was heavy traffic polluting the street. People were scattered everywhere. Petalburg at this hour was always such a hassle. "Nope. I have my friend's ride."

I was surprised to see Drew still following me as I turned the corner to where the car was parked. The quite run-down station wagon wasn't hard to find in the road. Especially because there was a new-looking, black sports car parked right behind it. I gaped at it as we both approached the same place.

"No. Please don't tell me that car is yours."

Drew smirked, and twirled a car key in front of my face. "Okay. Then I won't. If you won't tell me that your ride is that red old thing."

"It's not mine!" I whined but Drew just smirked, shook his head and stood by the sidewalk, crossing his arm over his chest as he watched me unlock the car door. I pushed up my bottom lip and got into Laura's car. I couldn't help but stare at the sports car from my rearview mirror. It was so damn shiny.

"Hey, I asked you if you wanted a ride." He teased from the sidewalk. He was waiting for me to head off, I guess. "But if you were wondering, it comes with the work." I nodded, although I didn't know what exactly he meant. What work? The salesman thing? Or the more . . . illegal one? I wasn't about to ask though.

"Cool. Anyway, better run now. Laura—my friend's probably waiting for me at the shop. See you . . . around."

I started the car and pulled away. I wanted to get away fast. I had enough of drama concerning Drew Hayden enough for one day—enough to last a lifetime. But if I had taken a moment to listen, I would have probably heard Drew ask with bewilderment, "You have a shop?"

Author's Note: That was short T_T

It didn't take me much time to write but I thought that this was really a lot of information for you readers to take in and if I just added some more, it would overload and that wouldn't be very good.

I still feel that the writing was horrible. =|

Please review!

-Suzie x

Edited: 4th September '10