Chapter 16

“Makayla!” Sydney came sprinting down the hall. “You’ll never guess what I just heard!”

“What?”

“I heard that Matt and Penelope just started going out!”

“No way! Matt actually likes her? I thought he couldn’t stand her.”

“Oh come on. Couldn’t you see right through that? He obviously liked her but was just afraid of what everyone would think. I’m glad to see that he’s gotten over that though.”

Rose joined them.

“Are you talking about Matt and Penelope?”

“Yep.” Makayla said nodding.

“It’s great isn’t it? It’s like Romeo and Juliet! They are totally different and yet they just had to be together. And then how everyone was against it cause they thought Penelope was a freak was just like in Romeo and Juliet how no one thought they should be together because they came from two very different families. They are just two star- crossed lovers.” She sighed. “I love to see Shakespeare coming to life.”

Just then, Matt and Penelope joined them, holding hands.

“Hi.” Matt said.

“Hey Matt, hey Penelope.”

“You guys, I have something to tell you.”

“Oh? What’s that?” Sydney asked.

“Penelope and I are going out.”

“Really? That’s great!” Makayla said, trying to sound as if this were the first time she had heard it.

“Yea. And I also have to confess something. I’ve liked Penelope for a while. I was just afraid of what people would think. And that was wrong of me. I shouldn’t care what anyone thinks. If I like her, I like her. Nothing else matters. People can make fun of me as much as they want, but it won’t change how I feel.”

“Good for you, Matt.” Rose said smiling. “I don’t understand why more people don’t see that too. But I’m glad you do.”

They all welcomed Penelope into their group and she thanked them by giving them all one of her “Save the Whales” stickers, which they all put on their t-shirts just for her sake.

“So, you’re Dad apologized for making you feel uncomfortable?” Makayla asked, taking a bite out of her cheese sandwich.

“Yep. He said that nothing could change the way he feels about Caroline, but that he wouldn’t make me stay in the same house as her if I didn’t want to. Which I don’t. I still refuse to, and I still will always hate her. Even if Dad marries her, I will never like her. Ever. But I still love my Dad. And while it may take me a very long time to forgive him, I’m going to try.”

“That’s good. It never does to hold grudges.”

David walked by just then. Makayla just glanced at him and then looked back at her sandwich.

“He looked at you.” Sydney informed her after he was gone. “He didn’t make it obvious, but he was watching you. I know he still likes you. He can’t stand being away from you.”

“You think?”

“I’m sure of it.”

“You better be right. You’re theory is gonna be put to the test today. He has practice after school until 5:30. That gives me plenty of time.”

“Good. Good Luck. I know it’ll work.”

“Ok, umm…I think it was this way…” Makayla said to herself as she drove down the road to David’s house.

“Aha. There it is.” She spotted it and turned down the driveway.

She took a deep breath as she stepped up on the porch and knocked on the door.

“Coming!” she heard a faint voice say from in the house.

Mrs. Mason opened the door and looked shocked.

“Makayla. I…uh, I wasn’t expecting to see you around here any more.”

“Hi Mrs. Mason. Can I come in?”

David’s mom led her to the kitchen, where she was baking cookies and had some kind of soup simmering on the stove.

“You can have a seat over there, if you’d like.” Mrs. Mason said, pointing to a chair on the other side of the bar.

Makayla did so and looked up at her.

“So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

“David. I wanted to explain to you what happened.”

Mrs. Mason nodded slightly and picked up a spoon to stir her soup.

“Well, as you probably know, I like David a lot.”

“ I know you did.”

“I still do. I just made a mistake. A big one, and I understand how David would be hurt. I would be too. Anyone would be.”

“Yes. David never told me what you did that was so horrible. He just said you betrayed him.”

“I did. I kissed another guy. And worse, it was the guy that I used to like, and the one who beat and raped my sister.”

“And you kissed him?”

“Well, yes. But I didn’t mean to. He actually kissed me. I just didn’t stop him. He…well, he hypnotized me in a way. He has that ability. I think that’s what he did to my sister.”

Makayla noticed that Mrs. Mason had stopped rolling the dough for her cookies and was staring, almost in awe, at her.

“Mrs. Mason?”

“Wha? Oh, yes. Um, Makayla? Would you like to come and help me with these cookies?”

“Sure.” Makayla stood up and went to stand by her side, and began helping her. She picked up a small piece of peanut butter cookie dough and rolled it into a perfect ball and laid it on the cookie sheet.

“Continue, please.”

“Oh, sorry. Well, so I kissed him back, but then I realized what was happening and I shoved him away and made him leave. The first thing that crossed my mind when he left was David. I like him so much. I’ve never met anyone like him before. When I look at him, I just know that he’s different. I can look into his beautiful eyes and know that.  He’s the best guy I’ve ever known. He’s known who I am my whole life basically. He knows that I am not popular and he knows that most people don’t notice me because of how perfect my sister is. But he looked past all that and saw me. No one has ever done that before. And that meant so much to me. And now that I’ve lost that, I can’t bear it. I am so mad at myself for letting something like that slip away because I know how rare that is. And I know that there is not much chance he’ll ever forgive me, but I just…I would hate to just give up and never know.”

She looked at Mrs. Mason and saw that she was crying.  She sat down the cookie she was making and nodded her head.

“And that’s about it.”

Suddenly Mrs. Mason grabbed her and pulled her into the tightest hug she had ever felt before and began crying harder.

“Are…are you ok?” Makayla asked, though she could barely breath.

David’s mom let go and shook her head.

“You’re not going to believe this.”

At that moment, they heard the door slam and David came walking in the kitchen.

“Makayla, what are you doing here? Mom? Why are you crying?”

“David I-“

“Sit down, David.” Mrs. Mason commanded him.

They all three sat down at the dining room table and Mrs. Mason took a tissue and dabbed at her face.

“Mom? What is going on?”

“Makayla has just told me the whole story of what happened, son.”

“Oh she has? You really think that’s something you want to share with my mom?”

Makayla nodded. “Yes, it is.”

“David, there’s something I think I should share with you. Something I’ve never told anyone before.”

“What?”

“When I was sixteen years old, your father and I had been dating for two years. We cared about each other very much. We were best friends and we just knew nothing could ever come between us. But then, one day, one of my old boyfriends came back into my life. He had been the first boy I had ever kissed and the first one I had ever gone out with. Michael Fisher. After school, he met me out at my car and told me he loved me and he missed me. I told him that I did not return his feelings and that I had moved on. I told him I was in love with your father. He didn’t like that at all, and thought he had to compete with your father. He offered to buy me all kinds of things and said he’d marry me and give me the best life I could imagine. I said I didn’t care, that I couldn’t imagine life without Will. But he wouldn’t give up. He kept telling me all these wonderful things. He made me feel like a princess. And then he kissed me. And I kissed him back. But, in the middle of the kiss, I came to my senses and pushed him away. I told him never to talk to me again. As it turned out, your father had seen the kiss. But he ran away before he could see me push him away. He was very angry with me when I confronted him. I was heartbroken. I thought I had lost the love of my life. But one day, soon after that, Will came knocking on my door in the middle of the night and told me he loved me and couldn’t live without me. That was the happiest day of my life. He asked me to marry him, and we decided we’d wait for several years and we did. We waited until I was twenty to marry. But, don’t you see, David. He forgave me. He forgave me because he knew that I was only human and had made a mistake, but he also knew I still cared about him and that the kiss meant nothing. Your father, David, forgave me for my mistake.”

She stopped and sniffled and looked back and forth between Makayla who was also crying, and David who was looking straight at Makayla.

They all sat there for a moment. No one said anything. Suddenly, David reached across the table and took Makayla’s shaking hand in his.

“I forgive you.” He whispered.

Makayla’s eyes got huge and she wiped them with a tissue.

“You do?”

He nodded. She got up and ran around the table where he met her standing up and they hugged so tightly Makayla found it hard to breath. But she didn’t care. She had David back. They were back together. She looked over David’s shoulder at his mom and smiled graciously. She was still crying, but she winked and nodded.

As October came to a close and November began, Makayla found herself happier than she had been in a while. Her sister was being so strong and brave and getting through all of her hardships that Makayla found herself now seeing Meredith as a role model instead of as the sister whose shadow she would always be in. 

The Dawson’s took Jake to court and he was put in jail, but not for as long as they thought it should be. He admitted to what he had done. Meredith confessed that she was glad he wasn’t in jail for too long, because she didn’t want his life to be ruined. Hers, after all, wasn’t ruined, but was merely scarred. She saw it as an obstacle she had to get through. She also discovered that she now believed in not holding grudges and in knowing that people make mistakes and knowing they had to be forgiven.

She decided wisely not to marry Jake, but to wait for someone who deserved her.

Meredith had grown more in those few months than she had in her entire life. And she recognized this.

Makayla recognized it too and was grateful for it. She recognized how much she herself had grown too. And how much she had been blessed. Makayla and Meredith both recognized these things as Mercy. God’s Mercy.