Luna and the Lie

by Mariana Zapata

I was only feet away from them when I heard Rip strangely ask, “You remember me?”

Oop-

But the fact was, I hadn’t seen Jason in hours. Not since he had walked past me into the building, leaving me out there, alone. Well, not technically alone. It had taken me maybe ten minutes after washing my hands all the way up to past my elbows to put the pieces together. They didn’t make sense. Not exactly at least… but enough. Someone had let my cousin and the other guy into the lot. And it didn’t take a genius to know there had only been one other person in the lot. One other person who would willingly let someone who didn’t like me into it. At least that’s what my gut said.

Exactlyyy

“You want us to deal with it?” “Deal with what?” I asked him as I stood up. He was still looking around the room. “With the kid.” I stood there. He looked at me and let his stare stay. “We looked at the video. He was the one who let them in,” he told me solemnly. “You want us to teach him a lesson?” I don’t know what it said about me that I felt more loved by my coworkers than ever before right then in that moment. You didn’t offer to beat up someone unless they meant something to you. And that’s what Owen was in here doing, being the representative. That was what Miguel and Rip had done for me by running out into the lot to help me. That was what family did.

I WILL ALWAYS LOVE A FOUND FAMILY TROPE

“You change your mind, tell us.” Owen took another step back and then said, “It doesn’t have to be us that do it either, I know people. Miguel knows people.” Miguel had known how to hold Rudy down… but that was something to ask him about later. All of my coworkers had some shady pasts apparently.

I love y’all

I realized now I could have prevented most of this by not sucking everything up. If I would have told Mr. C about how rocky things had been the entire time the younger man had been stuck with me… well, I wouldn’t be here, with my busted cheek and torn up forearms. Or if I would have just told Rip straight-out that I couldn’t stand the weasel…. It was my fault. The only person I could blame was my own freaking self.

Well I mean not completely

“Can I ask what she passed away from?” His hesitation made me feel terrible. The breath he sucked in and then let out made me feel like an asshole. “She was—”

IT WAS RIP’S MOM I’M TELLING U. THE TIMING MATCHES

“You saw it happen?” Mr. Cooper asked Ripley with a frown. “I got there after,” my younger boss confirmed, his expression tight. “Miguel and I were by the back door when we heard Luna yell, and we went right by him on the way out the door. I was too… distracted to stop and think about what he’d been doing.” I didn’t miss the way he fisted a big hand. “You should’ve gone back in and made sure he didn’t leave,” Mr. Cooper replied pretty freaking crisply, sounding angrier than I had ever heard him, and that was saying something because I’d eavesdropped on his arguments with Rip before.

Woah hold on now

“I was busy making sure Luna was all right. What should’ve happened is that you should’ve listened to me when I said you needed to quit trying to make him Luna’s apprentice.” Wait. He’d told Mr. C not to stick him with me? Rip kept right on going. “I told you there was something off about the kid. I told you she didn’t like him working with her.” He’d done that too? “I told you we should have fired him after his first fuckup, but you said ‘Let’s give him another chance. He’s young. Everyone makes mistakes,’ didn’t you?”

Oop- kinda ate him up icl

Mr. Cooper swept another hand over his head. “I know it is. I told you I didn’t know.” “You don’t think that excuse is getting old after all these years?” “Son, give me a break,“ Mr. Cooper almost croaked, rubbing his hand over his chest, his face reddish pink. But the man in the chair decided he wasn’t going to give anyone a break, not his business partner, not the man who had been so kind to me for so long. “Don’t fucking ‘son’ me. You always think you know better than anyone else, but you don’t.”

I TOLD UUU

“Twenty-two years ago, not twenty, and it could be another forty and I still wouldn’t forget what you did to Mom—” Wait. Wait. Mom? Mom?

YUP YUPPP

A small part of me, that honestly wasn’t so small, felt dumb for not putting the dots together.

I mean I don’t blame u for not realizing. Esp since u lived w ole dude for years and there were no clues he even had a son

“Go back to the shop, Luna. I’m not in the mood to deal with your shit.”

Ok hold on now-

What I need is for you to give me some space without worrying about hurting your feelings.” I wanted to flinch, but I didn’t. “You don’t have to worry about hurting my feelings.” “I always worry about hurting your fucking feelings, Luna. Give me a break,” he snapped.

Hm ok I gotchu. For now

Friends were there for each other, and that’s what I was doing. Trying to watch out for him. Be there for him. And he was pushing me away, and not in a nice way. The next few words out of his mouth proved it. “You’re trying to be my friend? Be my friend by giving me some space before I say or do something I’ll end up regretting later. Give me some space so that later on I don’t have to feel bad for making you feel bad.” Maybe I should have let it go, should have walked away and given him the space he wanted, but it had been a long day and I felt riled.

Yea bestie jus give him like an hour (I know u won’t)

I didn’t like being threatened, especially not today. “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked him cautiously, fear pooling in my stomach as I tried to think about him having things to say that would intentionally hurt me.

Ok I didn’t think abt it that way but I don’t think that’s how he meant it

“I’ve known what you fucking did to your family from the day we went to the funeral, Luna. It’s not some fucking secret. I knew. Everyone fucking knew, Jesus Christ.” Don’t you let him see you flinch. But he wasn’t stopping. He wasn’t freaking done. “You wanna know how I knew? You wanna know the truth? I didn’t read about the bust in the paper. I knew about it because that gang you asked me if I was in wasn’t a gang. I was in an MC. A motorcycle club. The Reapers. And we didn’t fuck with your family’s drugs, but I’d met your uncle. I’d met your dad. I heard all about the girl that got half the family arrested. I knew about you before I met you.” Some rational part of my brain tried to tell the rest of it that what he was saying wasn’t a big deal. That it didn’t change anything. That it didn’t mean anything. I wasn’t embarrassed by it. I didn’t feel bad about it. But… “Cooper’s known the entire time too, so you know. He told me years ago that he’d hired a PI to look into you, and he’s always known where you came from and who your family was.”

Oh- I- well

“I’m only trying to be your friend.” “Does it look like I give a fuck about that right now?” I had gotten real good at getting crapped on by people. By being taken advantage of. But not from people who I thought I could trust. Who had made me believe that I could. Yet here I was. You can’t make anyone love you or care about you. I knew that better than anyone. The hairs on my arms stood up, my back prickled, and I just went… numb as I stood there, looking down at the man I had cared for, for years. The one who had started to make me feel that I wasn’t a nuisance, that it was okay to ask him for things. That had made me feel safe. Understood. And I realized the burn in me was actually a freezer burn. Leave me alone, Lucas Ripley had just said to me. I didn’t have much pride, but I had enough. Maybe Rip couldn’t put things together enough, but I had left the people who hadn’t wanted me around and never looked back. Enough was enough. I was over it—those words, getting shoved aside by all these people I cared about, being made to feel dispensable—that all of this felt like acid on my soul.

Sigh

I should have let it go, I knew. I should have avoided this conversation, but I hadn’t. I had walked right into this, and this pain was all my own freaking fault. I had nobody else to blame but myself.

I mean true

This was what I got for hoping. For forgetting. Everyone deserves love, but there are people that don’t want it, no matter how desperately and truly you might give it to them. I took a step back and then another, giving him one single nod as I said with a calmness he didn’t deserve, “You’re right, Mr. Ripley. You knew better than me that you could hurt my feelings, but you did it anyway.” I bit the inside of my cheek and squeezed the hell out of my soul. “I’m sorry for stepping over the line. I’m sorry for pushing you. I won’t ever do it again.”

I think this is just a bad time for him that ur kinda reading too much into maybe? Like I’m not excusing his attitude either. I just think this whole thing coulda been avoided (which u acknowledged)

Until then, only family. And that was one thing I wasn’t. Any of their family. Maybe I didn’t have the best basis for what a family was supposed to be like, but I was fed up with being lied to. Fed up with being kicked aside, over and over and over again. Even I knew that wasn’t what family was supposed to be like. Leave me alone. I was fucking sick of it. Sick of those words. Sick of even myself.

:(

I loved myself enough to know what I deserved. And this… shit… that had just happened, was not one of those things.

Good for u

He wanted me to leave him alone? Sure thing. I wasn’t going to beg anyone for their time, their love, or attention. I definitely wouldn’t beg for friendship or company either. Not anymore.

This is me I fear

Rip waited until he’d taken a few more steps inside the room before saying, “I wanted to check the wheels that were on your list this morning.” When had he looked at my schedule?

My brotha at least attempt to be subtle

“I already asked the guys for help.” A muscle in his cheek twitched. I made myself stop looking at it. “They said they’d be about five minutes,” I finished, glancing toward the door one more time. Rip’s nose wrinkled for a moment before he shoved his rag into one of the pockets of his coveralls and said carefully, “You didn’t ask me.” I blinked. “Ask you?” For permission? “For help,” he clarified, his voice tight.

Sir- why is this kinda funny to me

So when he took four long steps toward me, stopping the exact moment the tips of his boots met mine, his hand nudging my chin upward, I held my breath. Because Rip was right there. In my space. Forcing me to look at him.

AYO WAIT-

“Can we be done with this?” he asked, his voice rough and so low I could barely hear him. I held my breath. “With what?” That incredibly handsome face stayed remote, but those eyes… “With the Mister Ripley shit. With that tone. With you not wanting to talk to me or ask me for fucking help.” That chin dipped, and I’d swear I could feel his breath on my face in tiny puffs. “With you freezing me out.”

Ay hollon why u tryna clock her tea😭

“You are Mister Ripley,” I said, still wound tight. “I’m talking to you like I would anyone that was my boss, with professionalism, because that’s what I should have been showing you from the very beginning.”

Oop-💀

I had given him more than I had another person ever, and he’d burned that bridge between us once and for all. He had told me the same thing that other people had: leave me alone.

Ok but ppl need space sometimes bestie

He didn’t say a word, and neither did I as he went to the chair on the other side of the table and pulled it forward until it lined up with the one I was in. I watched him as he set his glass container on the table between us and took a seat. Just as I was about to ask if there was something I could do for him, I stopped myself. I was on my lunch break. I didn’t have to do anything then. And he had his lunch, same as me. So… I just didn’t understand why he was out here too all of a sudden.

Oh so he’s obsessed w u. Got it

I wanted you to like me, and I would have wanted you to like me as more than a friend, Rip. You know, I would have wanted that more than anything. “I knew better, but I still felt that way. But I really would have just taken being your friend if that’s all you’d been willing to give me. I was trying not to think of you like that anymore. I think one day, I would have eventually moved on with this stupid infatuation I had with you, all on my own.

Oh! We just comin out w it huh

“I didn’t mean to hurt you, baby girl.” Yeah, I was sure he hadn’t. “I didn’t,” he insisted like he’d read my freaking mind, watching me with those crazy eyes. Sure. Sure, he hadn’t. I was so done with this. I just wanted to go back to when things were less complicated. I just wanted to be happy again. “Well, you did, Mr. Ripley, and it’s fine.” I slid my tongue over my teeth and took a step back. “I need to get back to what you pay me to do. If you need anything else, let me know. I’ll be here for that.”

My brotha in Christ u needa say more words ur killing me

Mr. Cooper groaned as I made my way around the couch and headed toward the kitchen, directly beside the living room. And it was right then, as I turned, that I almost bit my tongue. Because standing in the hallway that led from the front door to the living room and kitchen was a person. Just. Standing there. Quietly. Not moving. And that someone was Rip who took up most of the width of that hallway.

Oop- dats awkward

“I don’t want you to die,” Rip said, so quietly I could barely hear him. The answering pause said everything, I thought, and it made me flinch. “Shit’s not ever gonna be the same, but I don’t hate you either, old man,” he kept going, gruffly. “Can’t stand you but I don’t hate you. Got it?”

Wait why did that kinda make me emotional

“Talk to me outside for a minute, baby girl.” I froze there and only moved my eyes over to the man who had reappeared in the same place I had last seen him. I kept my face nice and even. “I’m supposed to stay with Mr. Cooper until Lydia gets back.” That was the truth, and it was believable, wasn’t it? “I can be alone for a minute,” Mr. Cooper threw in the second I finished my argument.

💀

So I wasn’t surprised when he didn’t hesitate, his voice strong and sure, as this man said, “Don’t be fucking mad at me anymore.”

Why is this funny

“We can call it whatever you want. I’m fine with it, Mr. Ripley. You’re not the first person to dislike me or not want me around. It’s fine.” He let go of my hand so quickly I didn’t have time to react before the man in front of me cut the distance between us so much there was no distance. That big hand that had been right by my face moved like lightning, his palm cradling the back of my head. Before I could finish my sentence, before I could even suck in a breath, Lucas Ripley dipped his face close to mine. “I don’t dislike a single fucking bone in your body, Luna.” And cue my mouth shutting and probably my eyes bugging out too. “You drive me fucking nuts—” “That’s not very nice,” I said before I could stop myself. I didn’t miss the way his eyebrows shot up. “Let me finish, yeah?” I shut my mouth. “But I miss the fuck out of you, messing with me all the damn time, provoking me way too much, always fucking laughing and smiling and being a pain in my fucking ass.”

FINALLY

“I swear to Jesus Christ if you say something about work or about how you won’t fucking quit, I’ll close your mouth my own goddamn self in another way,” Rip told me. That had me shutting my mouth.

Oh-

“You forgive me for fucking up?” Did I? I only had to pause for a moment before I knew my answer. “Sure.”

Oh period

My chest ached as I looked up into that handsome, handsome face. But I remembered. I would remember what he said for a very, very long time.

Ok bestie this is kinda getting tired now

“Thank you, but you didn’t have to. I told you yesterday—” “I didn’t forget,” he cut me off. Hell. “But you don’t have to feel guilty or try to make anything up to me—” “I’m not trying to make anything up to you,” he butted in again. That got me to stop talking. Because… why else would he do it? For the hell of it? He suddenly wanted to buy someone a rose, and I just happened to be the only woman he could get one for? He slammed the drawer closed with his hip. “You liked it?” Did I like it? Why the hell wasn’t my heart slowing down any? “Yes,” I told him truthfully. “It’s beautiful, but you don’t have to—” “Good,” he cut me off for the third time.

He’s so-💀

“Thought you were younger,” the man had the balls to respond with. I raised my eyebrows, positive I definitely wasn’t liking where this was going, but… I could give him the benefit of the doubt. As much as I had been telling myself I was fine, I hadn’t been. Not really. “What? Am I too old?” I tried to joke. He shrugged. Shrugged? Was he for real? The partial smile I had on my face just fell right off. “How old are you?” He was still watching me a little too closely as he said, “Thirty-four.” Thirty-four? Thirty-four and I was too old?

???

I was pretty sure my mouth must have been partially opened as Rip fell down into the seat hard, his legs spreading wide in a V-shape instantly, his attention straight on the man across from… us. Across from us. Ah. What was he doing here? “Is this over now?” my boss drawled easily, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back in the chair, somehow making himself look even bigger by spreading out.

Bruh 😭

“Time for you to go.” Time for him to go? The other man made another face before focusing on me and asking, angrily, “You got a boyfriend?” Me? A boyfriend? “I’m none of your business,” Rip kept talking. “You can go home now.” I wasn’t sure why I reached over, but I did, and touched my boss’s forearm, earning his attention. “What are you doing here?” I just about hissed at him. Those blue-green eyes slid toward me, still lazily, and his cheek moved just enough to tell me that might have been considered a smile. “Ending this bullshit-ass date you’re on,” he stated, confusing me even more.

Oop-💀

“Are you his fucking girl?” the other guy demanded, his pitch going higher. His girl? Rip’s girl? My “no” came out at the same time Rip said, “What do you think?”

Oh??

“You know what? I don’t have time to deal with this kind of shit. You can fuck off, and she can—” Rip got to his feet so fast, it was a blur. “You like having all those teeth in your mouth? Or you good with going home, missing a few of them?” “Fuck—” the other man started. “Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to finish that sentence,” Rip spit slowly. “I’ve broken fuckboys like you for fun, and now you’re giving me a reason to. You don’t wanna go there. Trust me.”

Iktr

“I came to make sure you were all right.”

Preciate it bae

Warm breath washed over my forehead as he curled into me even more. “Whatever the hell you might think, you’re the last person I would ever want to hurt. Why are you fighting this?” he asked, sweeping his finger again over my ear and dragging it across the studs at my earlobe. I could be strong. I could be brave. I could do this. “I’m not… fighting it. I’m just being real. I don’t want you to waste your time—” “You’re never a waste of my time.”

Dang he layin it on huh

“You haven’t listened to a single fucking thing I’ve said, have you? Seen a single thing I’ve done? You the only person who hasn’t put shit together?” I breathed in through my nose and heard it rattle right out of me. “I don’t know how to give you flowery words and shit like that, Luna. I don’t know how to tell you what you want or need to hear. It’s been a long fucking time since I’ve given a fuck about anybody. Do you understand that?” I could do this. I could— “I don’t like the idea of you sitting next to some random asshole who wants to get in your pants.” And that wasn’t at all what I was expecting him to say. “What?” I didn’t mean to whisper. His finger came up, and the pad of his thumb dragged across my cheekbone. “Don’t like the idea of you going on a date with somebody.” The pad moved back the way it had come, and he said low, “Can’t fucking stand it. Just when I thought I couldn’t get more pissed…”

Now why was saying all that so hard

“I want my goddamn Luna back,” he breathed, stealing the air from my lungs. “I don’t want you to leave me alone. I want you bugging my ass for random shit again. I wanna see your fucking face first thing in the morning, even if you don’t bring me my coffee anymore. I wanna make you something to eat so you don’t end up with Salmonella from that shit you try to cook,” he said in this strangely calm voice that seemed like the opposite of what someone using a jackhammer on my entire existence would have been. And he told me carefully, too carefully, “Two fucking weeks and I want it back. You gave me these pieces of you I know you haven’t given to anybody else, and they’re mine. You can’t take ’em back. I need them more than you do, you hear me?”

WE UP😈

“Told you I’m not doing it because I feel bad.” Then why, Rip? Why are you doing it? “You said nobody’s ever given you flowers before,” he went on, still too calm, still smiling.

See-