Luna and the Lie

by Mariana Zapata

There was a moment of silence and then, “I can go with him.” Oh, boy. I was choosing happiness and patience. I was choosing happiness and patience. I was choosing happiness and patience.

I wanna slap him so desperately

The sound of a throat clearing behind me told me Rip had appeared, and when I turned, I was more than a little surprised to find him looking past me. He was staring. At Hector. And because I knew his features well enough, I knew that face that might look carefully blank to everyone else was a lie. He was irritated. But by what, I had no clue.

Oop-

His body still hadn’t moved, but those blue-green eyes had. To the lollipop. Then back over to Hector. “I got it for you,” I told him around the pop as I balled up the wrapper with my other hand and handed it to the one man in the room who had never hurt my feelings. “Luna said you were wanting a custom color for a couple of cars,” Hector piped up as he threw the trash away. Rip took the lollipop from me and shoved it into his free pocket. His eyes slid to me, and somehow I managed to raise my eyebrows at him because I didn’t get what had irritated him. “You okay?” He tipped his chin, and I noticed the way he let out a deep breath. Noticed the way his shoulders were shoved back as he came toward the counter. Then I definitely couldn’t miss the way he stood next to me, his upper arm touching my shoulder. His boot against the side of my boot.

See-

“I can work with that. What about the other one?” That handsome face tipped down to look at me, those intense eyes lingering on my hair for a moment before they finished the trek down to mine, and he asked, “What’s your favorite color?” My favorite color?

Don’t do this to me

“Something doesn’t look right.” I thought about the work I’d left him with and didn’t understand how it was possible for him to screw up any part of it. He should have been done by then. He should have been helping out on the floor. “How?” I heard the edge in my own voice. I really was fed up with him. I was so fed up, I was almost to the point of being past caring about whether or not he got fired for messing up so often. “Look… you need to get back so you can fix it,” the man-child claimed.

Bro PLEASE get rid of this man idk if I can take it anymore

“I’m not going to fix anything. You need to learn how to fix it. So even if I get there, you’re still going to have to do it, okay?” There was silence on the other end and then, “This isn’t my job.” Oh, no.

Aw HELL nah

There was a pause and then, “The fuck did you just say?” Rip snapped, and I had to press my lips together, if only to keep my mouth from opening... in almost glee. He blinked. I blinked. Then he pulled the phone away from his face and stared down at the screen. “Did he hang up on you?” He was still staring down at the phone when he muttered, sounding pissed, “This motherfucker….” He’d hung up on him.

PERFECT. Now we can fire him😌

“He always act like that with you?” I closed my eye, still looking forward. “What do you mean exactly?” I was pretty sure Rip clucked his tongue. He rephrased it, bless his heart. “He always act like a prick like that?” “Well…” I trailed off, but inside, I thought yep, which was why he had reamed me the day before—because Jason was a prick. There was a rough, “Hmm.” Ripley’s cheek did that twitch thing, and I almost laughed again at the reminder of how mad he’d just been. “He gives you shit like that again, you tell me. Got it?”

Gladly

I felt a little like I was cheating on Mr. Cooper by going through Rip to get rid of him, but I had told Mr. C about how he acted around me, and he’d still thrown him my way.

I’m sayin

“Rip, it counted. Just because—” My sister kicked me out, I thought but didn’t say. “—we didn’t end up having to stay or do anything, doesn’t mean it doesn’t count. You went with me. That’s more than enough.” I just wanted to… move on. He had other ideas though. “Too fucking bad.” Those blue-green eyes slid back to me for a split second, and I could see the tightness at his jaw. “Figure it out and let me know what you want.”

Him refusing is so mf hilarious to me

That entire six-foot-four, two-hundred and something pound body was literally shaking. He looked like he hadn’t just seen a ghost, but a hundred of them. I didn’t intentionally set out to grab his hand or pull him toward me, but I did. Once, I had shaken the same way he was doing right then, and all I had wanted afterward was someone to hold me. And for me, there had been no one to do that. But I could be that person for someone else now.

I was wondering if he’d been in a wreck before w his initial shaking

“Hey, you’re okay,” I told him, still holding his cheeks. “I’m okay. Take a deep breath.” He didn’t. He didn’t do anything. I tried to think about what I would want if I was in his shoes, and I hesitated. But it only took one glance at his zoned-out face to know I was going to do it even if he pushed me off and cussed me out later. At least I’d be ready for it. So before I could talk myself out of it, I swept my hands from his cheeks toward the back of his head, then moving one hand to do the same gesture over the top of it too. When he didn’t flinch, I dropped to my knees, ignoring the shooting pain that the concrete sent through them, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, and I hugged him.

Even with my fingers still a little shaky, it only took a second to slip the chain around Rip’s neck and redo the clasp to keep it on him. I pulled back just enough to see the ice cream charm on it fall right on top of the notch of his throat. It looked ridiculous there, but I patted it down in place anyway. “Look. See? It has a little ice cream cone on it. To make you feel better.” His whole body tightened for a moment before a loud burst of a noise exploded from his chest. And in the time it took me to process the sound, it was gone, and his muscles had relaxed even more. I’d swear his breathing slowed too. “There we go,” I told him, putting pressure on his back and neck again. “You’re good. You’re all right.” For some reason, that only made me want to hug him tighter. He was so big, it was hard to try and wrap him up; my arms could barely reach. I palmed the back of his head and lightly scratched at his scalp the way Lily used to like when she was little. She had done it to me too every once in a while when she’d been falling asleep, and I had loved it too. From the way his body loosened, muscle by muscle, I figured he did too. So I kept scratching. Slowly but surely, that big body relaxed against mine, not totally, but it was something. “You okay?” I asked when the only movement I felt come out of him were deep, deep breaths. Part of me expected him to snap at me, to shove me off his lap, to tell me to fuck off. But none of that happened. One of the arms he’d had at hi...

I love y’all btw

“I’m glad you’re okay and you’re not mad about your truck. I’ll help you fix it if we can.” The hand on my ribs decided to give me my own squeeze. He got the next words out of his mouth before the cop interrupted, quietly, gently, and more earnestly than I ever would have imagined. “I’m glad you’re good too, baby girl.”

STOP IT RN

So when I had texted her the day before to tell her that I’d been in a wreck—because she would have found out somehow and I would have rather been the one to tell her than some other way—she had warned me. Before that, she had chewed me out for texting her something so serious. What happened? She had basically shrieked at me. To give them credit, Kyra had texted me immediately afterward too, and Thea had sent me a message just an hour later.

It’s great to have a loving sister. Isn’t it Thea🤨

I opened my front door and took a step out, only to stop dead in my freaking tracks. Because parked in my driveway, behind my car, was a brand-new black double-cab pickup truck. Sitting clearly in the driver’s seat was Rip.

Oh- hey bae

That wasn’t the first accident Ripley had been in. I wasn’t going to ask what the first had been. I wanted to know, but I also knew that someone didn’t react the way he had for no reason.

See we always on the same page bestie

“If I want to come get you, I’m gonna come get you. Deal with it,” he stated, or more like told me. “You wanna stop at that donut place you like or what?”

Is u tryna…PROPOSE to me rn??

“My mom died in a car accident when I was eighteen. I was with her when it happened,” Rip said, making me freeze in place as his words settled in. “That’s why I… that’s what happened yesterday. Just wanted to say thanks for what you did.”

:(

It wasn’t at all my imagination that Rip leaned into me or that his fingers grazed the top of my hand as he asked, “You want to go to the doctor?” There was something about his voice that had me wanting to close an eye. “I’m thinking about it. I’m sure that jerk’s insurance will reimburse me for it.” “It will,” Mr. Cooper claimed from his seat up front. The fingertips went back to the top of my hand. He didn’t even try to lower his voice. “I’ll take you when we get back.” I didn’t tense up my forearm as his fingers lingered over my knuckles, and unlike him, I did tell him quietly, “I’m okay.” Especially with him touching my hand. He wasn’t quiet back. “I’ll take you when we get back.” I blinked and tried again, quietly, “You don’t have to take me.” It was his turn to blink. “Luna.” I blinked right back. “Ripley.” “I’m taking you to the doctor,” he told me just as loudly as he had said every other word before.

Like he cracks me up

I opened my mouth to keep arguing with him, but that was when my phone rang. Pulling it out of my pocket, I looked at the screen and couldn’t help but frown when Thea’s name popped up. I happened to look up at the rearview mirror and found Mr. Cooper’s blue eyes on mine through the reflection. He had a funny look on his face. I smiled at him before poking at the screen.

Seee I’m telling u he be weirding me out

“Yeah. I told you in my message, remember? I’m okay,” I promised, not liking the way she sounded. I could appreciate her being worried about me but…. She kicked you out of her apartment. So there was that. “Yeah? Nothing else happened?” she asked, sounding too… different. I took in the back of the seat in front of me, trying to ignore the unease her tone made me feel. “No, it was only the accident. Just a little whiplash,” I promised her, telling myself not to think this over too much. “Are you all right?” “Yeah, Luna. Yeah,” my sister replied a little too quickly. She didn’t sound like it. I lowered my head. “Did you get your rental insurance sorted?” I made myself ask. Thea made a weird noise I hadn’t heard before, which put me even more on edge. “Um, yes. They’re covering my things.”

Bro stop being weird it’s pmo

I had told myself I was going to be better. Way better by the time I woke up the following day. Maybe I would have still been in a little bit of pain, but nothing I couldn’t have handled. At least that’s what I had genuinely believed. In reality, everything hurt even more.

It be like that fr

“Whatcha doing here?” “Picking you up,” he answered, even as his hand took the bag from me. Could I have held on to it? Sure. But I wasn’t going to. But still… “You don’t need any of this though,” Rip told me. Now that had me hesitating and narrowing my eyes. “Why?” He gestured me to get into the truck. “You’re not going to work. We’re going to the doctor.” I stared at that handsome face, taking in the fact that he wasn’t trying to avert his eyes or be sneaky or anything like that. He was being serious.

He’s so-

“You’re not going to work. Worthless can handle whatever needs to be done.” He motioned inside the truck again. “Let’s go.”

LOLLL

“Get in. Cooper made an appointment for you yesterday for eight in the morning today.” Mr. Cooper had done that? I didn’t even need to think about it then. If Mr. Cooper wanted me to go, then… that made this whole thing different. He was only trying to get me to go because he cared about me. I would have traded anything to have a father who cared about me when I’d been younger. I’d take it now.

Dang what a switch up😭

“Her front door,” he repeated, like I’d literally asked the question out loud. “She said her place got broken into, but there was nothing wrong with it. I’ve seen places that got broken into, Luna; it didn’t look like anybody had fucked with her shit. The doorframe was intact. She had an alarm system, for fucking sake.” It took me a second to process his words. To think. But when it came down to it… he was right. There hadn’t been anything wrong with the front door. I had rung the doorbell. I had knocked on it. Banged on it. And she lived on the third floor. How would they have gotten in unless they went all Spiderman and climbed up the balconies, but for what though? To get in through the sliding door? All that effort to steal a thousand-dollar laptop, which I didn’t even think was that expensive in the first place? Wouldn’t they have broken into more apartments to make it worth it?

Riiight seeee

Lily: I have to work until 5 but COME SEE ME. I MISS YOU SO MUCH. Lily: You can hang out at the restaurant with me. Another one came in before I finished reading the first two. Lily: My room is really small but SLEEPOVER. We can share a bed like old times. And then another one came in, and I couldn’t help but smile at her messages. Lily: Are you already on your way? I loved her. I loved her so much. Me: Not yet but I will.

So cute

“This Luna?” Okay. That didn’t sound at all like the man I had spoken to weeks ago over Grandma Genie. “Yes?” I replied, knowing I sounded uncertain but not really caring. “Fucking finally,” the man on the line muttered, and I had to pull the phone away from my face to look at it, because who the hell was this? “Excuse me?” I asked when I brought it back to my face. He didn’t make me wait. “We need to talk,” the man went on, shooting the words out quickly. “Sooner the better.” Wait. Wait. I was fine. I was loved. I had everything I needed. Except for this conversation with a man who I suddenly knew, some way, somehow, was my father. How the hell had he gotten my number?

Yo wtf😟

Because of my sister? Which one? “Tell her she needs to quit that fucking job she’s at. She’s not taking my calls anymore.” Taking his calls anymore? She was taking them in the first place? Since when? Why? Why would she do something like that? I wouldn’t hold it past him to lie, but... why? Why would he do that? “Just talk to her. She doesn’t have any business doing that shit,” he went on, rambling, talking too fast.

I KNEW IT

“He said she’s been ignoring his calls, like that was new.” How could she? After everything he had said and done to me? She’d been the oldest. The one who witnessed more than the rest of my sisters just how our relationship had been. And she was talking to him?

I’m sayin like wtf

Familiar, long, and tattooed fingers crept over the top of my hand and stayed there, brushing the LOVEYOU bracelet I’d put on that morning. Lucas Ripley’s voice swept over me as he said, “I don’t know what’s going on with your sister, but you tell me if there’s something I can do. You’re not alone, you hear me?” I pressed my lips together and nodded. But he wasn’t done. “You’re not, Luna, and I gotta tell you, you don’t need to be letting anybody run all over you or try to get away with shit—” “I don’t do that,” I cut in. It was only because of the soft face he gave me, all those normally harsh features without tension for once, that I didn’t let his words, or what he was implying bother me. “All I’m saying is, you don’t have to take shit, and you need to quit believing you do. Think about that, all right? Have fun with your sister but think about what I said.”

Period bae

He must have peeked at my food too because our eyes met, and I had to shoot him a grin. The cheek closest to me went up—it was the one with the dimple too—and I couldn’t help but feel a little triumph at our inner joke.

CUTIES

Then he grabbed my Rubbermaid, shoved his chair back and dumped everything in it into the trash. “Rip!” I hissed, laughing. “What are you doing? That’s perfectly good food!” Already pushing his chair back in closer to the table, he shot me a look as he set the now empty container down and picked up his own. “There’s nothing perfectly good about any of that, Luna,” he grumbled, shaking his head as he scraped half of his meal into my bowl. He scooted it back toward me with a lift of his chin. “Eat that.”

That was funny but sweet

Lily: But I’ll see if he can go another day if you want. I didn’t feel like going in the first place, but… I was supposed to be trying. So… I glanced at Rip again, watching as he flipped through the magazine while digging his fork into his food without looking at it. He’d shared his food with me. Food he’d made. The heart wants what it wants, but the brain knows what it can get. And it was with that thought that I wrote her back. Me: Yeah, if you can.

Real

“This is a shitty place to meet a stranger, baby girl.” See? There was that tiny bit of fondness again. “It’s public.” “It’s dark,” he countered. I blinked. “There’s a lot of people here.” “A lot of people drunk or about to be.” “The bouncer is almost as big as you are,” I told him. That other eyebrow went up and he said slowly, “The parking lot is fucking dark.” I’d swear on my life that he smirked, and I ignored the little pleasure I felt at it. At being the one he would do something like that with.

I just… wanted somebody. Not just anyone, but someone special. A best friend and a lover. A partner. A life partner. I was fine being alone, but I didn’t want to be lonely, and there was a clear difference.

Are we the same person??

“I’ve got two numbers on my phone that don’t belong to somebody who’s got a dick. One’s the lady that cleans my place once a week…” “Who’s the other?” I asked, trying to ignore the edge of jealousy waiting around the corner of his answer. That got me another snicker. “You, who the hell else?”

Period

“Does this mean… Boss, are we friends? Outside of work, of course.” His face went totally serious for a moment before he tossed his head back and laughed. “Get the fuck outta here, Luna. Christ.” We were. We were so totally friends. He was my boss too, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t be friends when we weren’t at the shop. Or during lunch. Or when my life tried to fall apart on me a little. Me and Rip. Friends. I’d take it. I’d take it every day of the year, forever.

WE UP

So, when Rip said I was going to be busy, all I could do was stand there and wonder what I was going to be busy doing. Ashton was a good sport because he smiled at me and said, “That’s all right. Maybe tomorrow.” Over my shoulder, Rip spoke up again. “Luna’s gonna be busy tomorrow too.”

Bruh 💀

“What am I busy doing at lunch?” I asked. “Did you want to go pick out some more paint? Because I thought you were still working on the GTO and the SS.” “No,” he answered, not moving an inch, but instead, just watching me. “I brought you fucking lunch.” He brought me—did he just say lunch? “There’s a thing in the fridge with your name on it,” Rip kept going, watching me steadily.

Sir just get down on one knee atp

“What am I going to be doing tomorrow?” He was still walking backward as he told me, “I’m bringing you lunch tomorrow too.”

My brotha

“If you’re done flirting, can I get started on those panels?” That wiped the expression right off my face. “Say something like that to me one more time, Jason, and I will go rat on you, all right?”

Period

“I’m not an asshole,” he tried to claim. I stayed quiet. “I’m not—”

Pls don’t make me laugh

“We both thought it was a bad idea if we told you about the calls.” They had both been keeping it from me. Both of them. That’s what she was trying to hint. Two of my sisters had been hiding this from me. I must have sucked in a breath or something because Kyra made a sound that sounded strangely like a gulp. “Oh, Luna. I promised her I wouldn’t say anything about her job. But about Dad… Don’t be mad. It’s no big deal. He calls her sometimes and they talk. I’ve talked to him a couple of times—” What? And I stopped listening. I stopped listening because my ears were buzzing, and genuine freaking fury and hurt like I didn’t think I was capable of feeling filled my chest. Kyra said something about how it had been going on for only a year or two. She said something else about how they both loved me and how it had nothing to do with me. Told me not to worry about whatever it was that Thea was doing for work that even our dad disapproved of.

Bro wtf is wrong w y’all

“Did she tell you her place got broken into? Because I didn’t even know she moved, and if she needs help, you all should know I will always help you. I just want to know what’s going on, okay?” What I got was another dose of a pause. Another response that said that the trust I thought was between us was just in my imagination, and her next words changed everything between us for the rest of our lives. “I’ll tell her you called and that she needs to call you back,” Kyra went on, ignoring my question, but the only thing I was aware of was hanging up eventually. Of standing there, numb and pretty much shattered by the knowledge they had gone behind my back to talk to someone who had treated me worse than trash. Someone who would have let them starve if it hadn’t been for me. Someone who had never washed a single load of their clothes ever in their lives. Someone who had never, ever bought them a single birthday present or Christmas present. Who had never supported them in school or much less encouraged them to go to college.

There’s no way bruh that’s a diff kind of betrayal like wtaf

His grin spread wider. “Can you get, ah, Ripley out here?” I dropped my pleasant expression. “Who?” “Ripley,” the man repeated, that grin going nowhere. Never, not once, had Rip ever had anyone come over. Well, except for that one guy who I had caught him talking to, but… I hadn’t gotten a good look at the man. Was this one standing in front of me the same one as before? I didn’t know, but if it wasn’t… “I don’t know a Ripley,” I told him quickly. His grin was this gap-toothed thing that magically got even bigger. “All right. Well, my name’s Gio, and I’ll be sitting out here for another—” He glanced at his watch. “—twenty minutes.” He winked. I raised both my eyebrows. “Nice to meet you, Gio.” He smiled and said, “Nice to meet you too, Luna.” I was pulling open the door of the shop when I realized what exactly he’d said. He’d called me by my name. I didn’t wear coveralls with my name on them, and even if I did, I wouldn’t have left the shop with them on. I was too paranoid for that. How did he know my name?

Luna u a real one fr cause what is happening

Then I saw him out of my peripheral vision lift his head and give me a funny expression that had his cheek going up that millimeter. “You told him I don’t work here?” I picked up my fork and speared a piece of beef with it before whispering, “Yup.” You couldn’t trust anybody these days, hello. Not even your own—Stop. Rip shook his head before he shoved his chair back and got to his feet. I flashed him a closed-mouth smile that I was pretty sure he recognized as not being totally authentic. But he lifted his hand up, and before I could even blink, his fingers pinched a loose strand of hair off my cheek and tucked it behind my ear, the pad rubbing against the sensitive skin right behind it. And just that quickly, his hand dropped. “Watch my food for me, yeah?” he asked.

He speed runnin a relationship fr

Apparently, he was a physical therapist at the same clinic that she worked at. You would have figured that by making his living dealing with people, he would have been warm, but he was just kind of… aggressive and not charming at all. He’d tried to kiss my cheek the instant he’d come over, and I wasn’t about that life.

Oh nah he can pack it up

“Some guy has been staring over here like he wants to kill somebody for the last thirty minutes,”

RIP PLS 😭