Difficult Conversations

Luke's heart leapt at Matt's serious tone. Out of them all, Matt was the least one likely to be fazed. Luke tried to laugh it off.

"Destroy? That's a bit dramatic, isn't it?"

Matt drew his eyes away from where he'd tapped on the table and said, "You think?"

Luke had been thinking that so many years had gone by, they couldn't be questioned again, could they? And they'd just been kids! They hadn't done anything wrong other than not telling adults at the time about Laney's accident. He supposed that there was doubt: whether she fell, whether she was dead in the water, whether she could have been saved.

But Mark...Luke couldn't have subjected him to more pain. He'd already run the gauntlet of it every day. If Laney was dead, then there was nothing more that could be done. Mark had had to be protected.

Luke stated what he thought: "We couldn't do anything. We made the right decision. For Mark..."

Matt was quiet. "Yeah. For Mark," and the way he said it made Luke feel there was more to it than just agreement with him.

*

Bethan

"Hello?"

"Hello?"

"Dave? It's me."

"Bethan?"

"Yeah."

Pause.

"How've you been?"

Pause.

"Okay."

Pause.

"Right."

Pause.

Bethan's heart was racing as she tried to form the words. She should probably exchange some pleasantries but she really didn't want to know about his life, the life he chose over her. She took a deep breath and dived in.

"Look, I know it's weird me phoning you and all but something odd has happened and I needed to talk to you because there is no-one else..." Shit! She didn't mean to say that! Regroup! "...what I mean is..." Here goes the grenade! "...something weird's happened and it's to do with our Laney." She was proud that her voice didn't crack on the name.

Silence.

"Beth...you know...ah...look, I don't want to go down this road again."

Bethan's hackles rose. Down what road? The road where their daughter went missing and was never found? She thought, I've never been off that road.

She contained her rage. "I've had a photo. Three boys."

Silence.

"I don't want to do this."

Call ended.

***

366 words

Dave doesn't want to engage. But is there more to him than meets the eye?

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