Strings (26 page)

             
‘Who is lying?’ Melissa said backing away from him and removing his arms from around her waist. He told her about the girl and the pictures.

T
he world seemed to slow down, and her heart felt like it had been ripped open.

‘No!’
she yelled as he tried to take her hand. ‘Please don’t do this to me, Luke, please.’ Luke begged her to believe, him but he wasn't thinking straight and was not making a good case for himself. Insisting that he couldn't remember only upset her more. ‘Fucking try to remember! Please tell me this is a joke,’ she begged. ‘You promised me.’ Luke wished it was a joke. The pain in her eyes was killing him. ‘Everyone will see those pictures. Please tell me the truth – at least be man enough to do that.’

She tripped over a box as she backed away from him. Luke went to help her up
, but she pushed him away, crying now.

‘Don't touch me
!’ she screamed as tears stung her eyes, and everything blurred.

             
Luke could do nothing but just stand looking at her, breaking down on the floor. He had no idea what to do he felt helpless, numb and terrified. The girl’s story hadn’t even come out yet. He had no idea what she was going to say. She hadn’t even looked that attractive. Even if he was going to cheat, which he never would, this girl would not be his choice.

‘What did I do wrong?’ he heard her whisper
as he picked her up off the floor. She struggled at first but he held onto her until she calmed down and let him hold her as she sobbed.

             
‘Nothing … you did nothing wrong.’

             
‘If I’m not good enough for you … how many more?’ She felt so humiliated.               

             
Luke turned her around to face him and took her face in his hands. Her tears were flowing and he wiped them away.

‘I’ve never cheated on you
, and I never would. You’re all I want.’ He pressed his forehead against hers, holding her face close to his. ‘Please believe me.’ He could feel the prospect of losing her already tearing at his heart.

             
‘Promise me she's lying,’ Melissa whispered as her tears fell again at the thought of losing him.

             
‘I promise,’ he replied.

             
Melissa reached up and kissed him. She ran her hands through his hair, holding him tightly, too scared to let him go. This was what she had always feared, and she couldn’t believe it was happening to them. She didn’t want to see the pictures or read the story, but she knew she would have to.

*****

The next forty-eight hours were torture. Melissa couldn't eat or sleep. Luke watched her, worried, as she paced the house, waiting for her worst nightmare to come true. They didn't go out and had made all their friends and family aware. As was to be expected, their parents were upset and worried. Luke's parents naturally didn't believe a word of it. Jean and Mick were furious, but didn't know what to believe. Either way, their daughter was the one who would be left heartbroken and humiliated.

             
Luke was adamant that he was innocent, and rigidly stuck to his story. Dale backed him up. ‘Melissa, I spent over a month practically in his pocket and he never showed any interest in anyone else. He spoke to fans, of course, I won't lie. There were girls around but I never saw him once be anything but sociable. There were nights when things got rowdy, but I know my best friend and he didn't cheat.’ But even Dale couldn't explain the pictures. He believed that Luke believed what he was saying, but the trouble was that he couldn't one hundred per cent say he hadn’t done something with this girl, and the pictures were about as incriminating as they could be.

             
It felt like a tidal wave of heartache when the story broke. Melissa had no idea how to prepare for her world to be torn apart, and even though she tried to brace herself, it still hit her like a sledge hammer.

             
‘My wild night with Black Eagles frontman. We had sex three times in one night, and he still couldn’t get enough,’ by nineteen-year-old Kelsey Gibbs …

             
Melissa stared at the pictures, hoping they would change or she would realise they were fakes if she looked long enough. But the images stayed the same. It was him, no question about it. The tattoos alone were a giveaway, but the pictures had captured him clearly. Kelsey Gibbs was kissing
her
boyfriend, and it was happening to her all over again. Feelings of betrayal and hurt swept over her as they had done when she was cheated on before, only this time they were much stronger. But the worst feeling of all was of worthlessness. The girl claimed that Luke had called his relationship with Melissa ‘boring and stressful’ and that
she
was more beautiful. This added insult to injury and it crushed her completely. She’d thought she gave him what he needed, but she was clearly wrong. The feeling of not being good enough was shattering because she had never loved anyone the way she loved him, and she thought he felt the same. It made her feel as though their whole relationship had been a lie, and she’d been totally taken in by it. She’d never felt such intense pain.

             
‘You lying cheating bastard! How could you?! How could you say she’s more beautiful than me?’ Melissa screamed as she pushed Luke towards the door. ‘You screwed her three times!’ She lashed out, catching him and almost clawing at his face.

             
‘She’s lying!’ he shouted back, the rage bubbling under the surface at the thought of losing his angel.

             
‘Look at the pictures!’ Melissa was hysterical as she threw the magazines at him and then the paper which had the full story on the front page. ‘What the hell is that bitch doing on your lap in nothing but her bra and knickers? Explain it to me now!’ she screamed as tears ran down her cheeks and her heart-wrenching sobs nearly choked her. ‘I hate you, I hate you!’ she yelled repeatedly as she pounded his chest with her fists until she wore herself out. The words cut him like a knife. Hearing her say she hated him was much worse than the punching. He caught her as she collapsed to the floor. ‘Don't insult me even more by treating me like an idiot. I want you to leave.’ She stood up and looked him right in the eyes. How could he do this to her after the accusations about Jay-Den and how bad she had been made to feel?

             
‘I trusted you ...I believed in you,’ she cried. ‘I sat and cried over Leon and what he did to me, how he made me feel worthless. You promised me you would never do that ... you promised me.’ Her words choked her again.

             
‘I didn’t do it,’ he sobbed. ‘I love you. Please, Liss, please listen.’ He stopped as she covered her ears with her hands and screamed for him to stop talking.

             
They argued for what felt like hours as the anger grew and the insults began to fly, making this their worst fight ever. There would be no passionate making up this time. Luke, now annoyed that she was not accepting his denial, had brought up the Jay-Den incident and he knew it had fuelled the flames.

             
‘Don't you dare throw that at me. I did nothing wrong … I didn't have sex with him unlike you and this dirty whore!’ She hit him again, which shocked her as much as him.                Luke was on the defensive again, realising that he was the one with the explaining to do here. He had never begged a woman in his life, but the fear of losing her forced him to do just that. But Melissa had seen and heard enough, and pushed him out of the front door. He slipped in the rain on the steps, but she didn't hang around to see if he was OK. Shutting the door, she threw herself on the floor and sobbed as her world crumbled around her.

             
‘Melissa! Don't do this, please.’ He hammered on the door, realising that he himself was experiencing a real relationship heartbreak for the first time in his life. Eventually, he gave up and headed to his car. A couple of photographers stepped out of the shadows and began clicking away.

‘Fuck off!’ Luke yelled as he got into the car and locked himself in. He put his head on the steering wheel and counted to ten to stop himself from getting out and kicking the shit
out of the guys laughing at him. His phone rang and he knew it would be his mother.

             
‘Luke, where are you? This isn't true, is it? Please tell me you didn’t just break that girl’s heart?’

             
‘Mum, I’m coming over. I’ll talk to you then.’ He’d prefer to get this over with sooner rather than later, but his mum would be so upset. She adored Melissa too.

*****

Melissa tortured herself by reading the article over and over. She wouldn't talk to anyone, not even Beth, and had locked herself in her home. She wouldn't even face her parents. They had called and banged on her door, but she didn't want to see anyone. It had been three days and the loneliness was getting to her. Ignoring the frantic calls from friends and family was now just cruel of her, and she realised that she shouldn't punish them. She was angry with the world, but she realised that it wasn’t their fault. Luke called her several times a day. He was the last person she wanted to speak to and at the same time he was also the only person. He still maintained his innocence, but he couldn't explain any of it, so he was fighting a losing battle.

             
Melissa had given up her job. She’d also nearly lost her home, but luckily her landlord hadn't got anyone lined up to move in, so he let her stay. But how she was going to pay her rent was something she would have to think about, and soon. How was she supposed to find a job with the whole world laughing at her? She still couldn't believe he had done this to her.

The boxes still sat in the hall
, waiting to be unpacked. She should have been in her new home now. But Melissa knew they were over. There was no way she could stay with him after this because she could never trust him again. She had to tell him face to face and end things properly. The next time her phone flashed with his name, she answered.

‘We need to talk
, here, tomorrow at two,’ was all she said, giving him no chance to speak before she hung up. She boxed all his stuff up, ready for him to take away, then burst into tears again.

*****

‘I don't believe what that girl is saying about our son,’ Debbie Black raged.             

             
Luke’s dad read the paper again. Stuart Black looked like an older Luke, only with slightly less hair and a few grey patches.

‘Why would this girl lie?
Look at the photos, Debs.’ 

             
They were horrified by what was being printed about their son, but his mum wasn't having any of it. Stuart knew what young lads could be like and with the lifestyle Luke lived, he could understand if for once he’d given in to the attention from another woman. Not that he condoned it, but he wouldn't judge his son either. 

             
Debbie had never liked any of Luke's previous girlfriends so this was just as heart-breaking for her.

‘Money, that's why
she’d lie!’ She snapped. ‘Luke says he doesn’t remember and he hasn't done anything, and I believe him.’ Debbie had brought her son up better than that. Melissa was a beautiful girl, and her son loved her and would not have cheated. A mother knows these things, she assured her husband. It wasn’t true, it couldn’t be. Debbie knew she sounded like a biased mother who didn't want to believe her son was anything but perfect. She wasn’t stupid, she knew he was far from perfect, but the way he was behaving over this made her believe him. He had never been able to lie to her – he may have thought at times in the past that he’d pulled the wool over her eyes, but she had just let him believe that sometimes.

             
‘He isn’t lying, Stu.’ Debbie hadn't seen her son cry since he was a child. He had cried like a baby the morning he arrived home after the story broke. She could tell that he was genuinely shocked and upset by the whole thing, and this was a different reaction to someone who was sorry they’d been caught.

He was still staying with them
, even though his new place had been ready for two days. He had been trying to keep himself busy, but it wasn't working out too well and Debbie was glad that Dale was such a good friend. She wasn't too happy with Beth though, after she’d turned up shouting and screaming at Luke, and had even hit him. Debbie had soon put a stop to that. She understood that Beth was angry and was looking out for her friend, but she wouldn't have that sort of behaviour, not in her home and certainly not directed at her son.

T
he whole band were fully behind Luke, giving him the support he needed. Ray had been brilliant and had told Luke to keep working and keep busy which Debbie thought was a sensible idea.

             
The band’s publicist, Stan, was already throwing things out there, trying to divert attention away from the scandal. Luke hated being branded a cheat, but it was the damage it was doing to Melissa that upset him most. Dale was his only connection to her and every time Dale saw her, he reported that she was crying.