When he gets to her place, she isn’t there but her two best friends are. Luke is repulsed by the stench of alcohol in the air. It is clear from the fumes and their shit-faced expressions that they are both drunk. Leslie giggles loudly when she sees him and points him out to Bella, who is sitting on the floor and clutching a bottle of tequila. “Look! He is the male stripper we called! Get out of those clothes, mister. I want to see the snake hiding in your pants.” Bella also starts giggling too, making Luke roll his eyes at the drunken girls.
It makes him wonder how the hell they are in such good shape and manage to play volleyball so well when they get so drunk like this. Maybe they don’t do it too often, he thinks. Shaking his head, Luke says “Nope, I’m not a stripper. I am your friend’s boyfriend, Luke. Do you remember me? Can you recognize every yourselves when you are this drunk?” Luke places his hands on his hips and looks at them testily. He does not want anyone but Priya to tease him sexually. These two have no right to objectify him. Only Priya can do that.
They both stare at him with a terribly dumbfounded look on their beautiful faces. He sighs in exasperation and runs his hands through his hair. Luke can’t believe he is going to have to play babysitter to these girls while he waits for Priya to come back from the mall. “Oh! I remember you now,” Bella says, catching him off guard. “You are Priya’s boyfriend! The guy she manipulated into being with her.” Then Leslie slaps a hand over her mouth, clamping it shut. Bella struggles, trying to pry it away while Leslie seems to sober up almost immediately.
Now Luke is looking between each of them suspiciously. Priya manipulated him into a relationship? These two are just completely off their rockers right? But then why is Leslie so shocked and afraid when Bella said it, almost as if she is covering something up? “What is going on here?” Luke demands. “How did she manipulate me into dating her? Tell me now.” He glares at them and waits for them to say something to him. Surely she couldn’t have made up the leukemia to make him be with her. It would be great if she isn’t dying but she wouldn’t lie about such a thing, right?
Bella thrashes about, clearly wanting to tell him something, but Leslie wouldn’t let her. Leslie then hisses to Bella in a voice that is meant to be a whisper but Luke can still hear “Shut up. We aren’t supposed to tell him that, you bitch.” She then turns back to face Luke and tells him “It’s nothing. Bella was just being a drunken idiot. Just forget about it, okay?” Leslie puts on an innocent expression on her face that would have convinced anyone of anything under a normal circumstance. She can be a very good actress when she needs to be.
However, this isn’t a normal situation at all. No, Luke is taking the issue as a very serious one. It is clear that she is trying to cover up after Bella fucked up in some way. “I don’t believe it,” Luke says to her, frowning. “If there really is nothing, then why aren’t you letting her say something?” His hands are still on his hips as he speaks. “How exactly did she manipulate me, huh? Tell me now or I’ll tell Priya you groped me. She is the only one who is allowed to do that and can get very possessive and angry when she thinks someone else wants me.”
Bella finally manages to break free from Leslie’s hold on her. She glares at the latter angrily before looking at Luke and telling him “She lied to you about having leukemia so you would forgive her for bullying you and go out with her.” Luke stares at her in disbelief. “It was all just for your dick. Leslie knows it too, you know?” Bella points at her and Luke could see the other girl just smacking her own forehead with her palm, looking like she wishes she could crawl into some hole and disappear off the surface of the earth.
“No way!” he yells at her. “Priya would never do anything that horrible. I don’t believe it. You are crazy!” But deep in his heart he realizes that this may very well be the case. His pretty girlfriend has, after all, always seemed like a very healthy girl and nothing like the sick, dying person that she told him she is. Yet he still refuses to believe what she is saying about her. “There is no way she could do something like that. I don’t believe you, Bella. Priya wouldn’t do that to me. No way.” Leslie looks at him with pity in her beautiful eyes.
“Wouldn’t do something that bad to you? How about the time she fucking poured milkshake all over your hair in front of everyone?” Bella asks. “Or the way she ripped your homework up? She could totally do something like this to get into your pants, you know?” Luke looks at her silently, then quickly leaves the house to take some fresh air outside. He wishes it could help him to clear his head so he would be able to think of how to handle this. When she is back he will just talk to her and tell her what he heard.
At that moment, Priya’s father returns home from work. The man looks at him and realizes that Luke must be the boy his daughter’s been talking about. “You must be Priya’s boyfriend,” he says and extends a hand for a handshake. “I am her father.” Luke shakes it politely then realizes that this is his chance to get the truth. If Priya does have leukemia then her dad would be able to confirm it. But if she doesn’t, then he would say so and he would know that he has been lied to in the worst way possible.
“Nice to finally meet you, sir,” he greets his girlfriend’s father with a smile on his face. “You know, she and I haven’t always been on good terms. In fact, she used to be a bit mean to me. Some of her friends claimed that she lied to me about leukemia so I would sympathize with and forgive her. Isn’t that crazy? Who would actually do something like that?” Luke laughs slightly and then watches the look on Mr Singh’s face to see what is going on in his head. He is reasonably okay at scrutinizing people, or so he thinks.
Mr Singh frowns before sighing. “She really did it, huh? I told her not to do it. Her mother did as well,” he says. Luke is now gaping in shock. “I’m sorry, kid, but she lied to you. My daughter never had leukemia. She only told you that lie to get you to have sex with her and her boyfriend.” The man then pats him on the shoulder before walking straight to his room, leaving the flabbergasted boy standing there in shock and horror. So it really is true. Bella was telling him the truth, after all. And Leslie was trying to cover it all up.
Even if Luke realized that it could be true he still didn’t believe it, until his girlfriend’s dad, of all people, told him that she lied. He still decides, though, to give her a chance to explain when she gets back. That’s why Luke doesn’t leave and stays in the sitting room, as the two blondes continue to drink like a pair of sailors, and swear even more than one. He never thought he would get to see two of the school’s best athletes getting totally wasted, and in the middle of the day, no less.
Finally Priya is back from her trip to the shopping mall. She is smiling from ear to ear and walks up to him, kissing him on the cheek. Like lets her do that before backing away. Priya looks at him in confusion. “So, your two best friends got drunk and said something that’s very interesting to him. They said you lied to me about having leukemia so I’d go out with you.” He pauses to watch her reaction and sees that she is rapidly sweating. “Could you tell them to not make such twisted jokes again? It is so inappropriate, especially because they are your close friends.”
Priya sighs, looking defeated. “It isn’t a joke, baby. I’m sorry, but they’re right. It was all a lie,” she says. “I was afraid you would never give me a chance, so I lied that I have leukemia. I knew you’re so kind you’d put aside your anger to make a dying girl’s final months happy ones.” She then wraps her arms around his body and buries her face in Luke’s chest. “Baby, could you please give me a second chance? I could have drugged and raped you, but I respect you enough not to do that. All I did was just a little bit of manipulation.”
“A little bit? You made me think that you were dying! The worst part is I fell for you and thought I was going to see the only girl I ever loved die,” he says. If he said he love her earlier, before this clusterfuck happened, then she would be totally overjoyed. But the way he is looking at her with the sorrow in his eyes makes her realize that she messed up big time with her lie. She will have to figure a way to sort this shit out and really quick, before she loses Luke. “I really need time to think about this,” he says to her, preparing to leave.
She grabs his wrist and stops him from going. “I’m truly sorry I caused you so much distress, baby. I really am sorry. I know what I did was wrong but I will do it again if I have to. I’m willing to do anything to have you as my boyfriend. I love you and that’s all that matters.” He looks at her and has a weary expression on his face. Priya then leans in to kiss his lips. It’s a good sign that he lets her do this, but he still doesn’t show her his forgiveness. “I will do anything I have to. Do you hear me? Anything.”
“Just give me some time. I still love you but I need to figure it all out,” he says. “Right now I feel so deceived by what you did and am in no shape to pursue a healthy conversation with you. I will be back. I just need to think about it all.” Luke then turns around and walks out of the house, feeling deeply conflicted about it all. He has no idea how to handle everything that he just found out today and realizes he might need to figure out just how much he loves and is willing to forgive her.