Different With You (An IM5 Story) | ✔️

Chapter 25: An Emotional Rollercoaster

Azalea’s POV

(Day after Maggie’s freakout)

I don’t think it was possible to be any more bored. I don’t think I was ready to face Maggie, seeing that she’s keeping something from me. I knew that much from her show last night on my way home. I knew she had to be keeping something and I don’t think I was ready to learn what that something was.

So the option to invite Maggie over was out, Gabe and Dana had another dance class and I didn’t feel like doing any real moving, Cole was with Cassidy...well more like Cassidy was keeping Cole away from me, and Gabe said Dalton is dealing with some emergency but didn’t say what.

That only left one person. I picked up my phone and scrolled through my phone.

As the phone rang, I propped some pillows under my head to get comfortable in my king sized bed. How is it possible to be so hot in here when I have the set to the lowest degree? It was probably due to the fact I’ve been taking my old Dysthymia pills. I guess one of the side effects is racing heartbeat.

A deep voice answered the phone with a groan, “Hey, you reached Derek.”

“Um, hey Derek. It’s Lea. I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out at my house today,” I told him, suddenly a little bit nervous. I haven’t hung out alone with Derek for a couple months now.

I heard shuffling on his end of the line, “Oh hey Lea. Yeah sure I’ll come over. Are you alright?”

I just needed someone over here. So I made a split second decision: I used the best distraught and seductive voice I could muster, “I really need someone over here. Could you be a dear and get over here as fast as you can.”

More shuffling but I also heard the smile on his face, “Sure thing. See ya soon Leelee.” He clicked off and I got up. As soon as I got up, a sense of vertigo overcame me. I doubled over and dropped to the floor. Oh shit.

I took a deep breath and slowly got up to the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and winced just at the sight of me. My hair was a tangled mess, I had dark bags under my eyes, my clothes looked slightly baggy because I’ve been losing weight the last couple of days.

I splashed water on my face and then added some concealer under my eyes. I brushed the tangles out of my hair and put it in a high ponytail. I put on a different, more fitted tank top and looked in the mirror again. Well this is as good as it’s going to get.

~

Twenty minutes later the doorbell rang and I jumped up to answer it. It’s about time he got here! Maggie’s house is only a ten minute drive from mine. I opened the door and there stood the other Garfield himself.

If anyone ever told Maggie, I would deny I said it. But Derek really was attractive. He had on a white v-neck t-shirt that outlined his toned abs and lean arms from basketball practice and the dark blue leather jacket I gave him for his birthday. His usually combed hair was tousled in those familiar messy curls. I squinted at his sunglasses. He never wears sunglasses.

I pulled his sunglasses off his face and nearly doubled over in laughter as he winced, “Holy shit, Derek Vincent Garfield, you are hungover!”

I laughed as he squinted down at me, seeing that his six foot two inch figure towers over my own by at least 4 or 5 inches, “Just a little bit. I went to a party last night...and I guess we drank a bit too much.”

“You didn’t sleep it off? It’s like noon right now,” I said recovering from my laughing fit. “I didn’t make it home yet. I actually fell asleep in the backseat of my car and woke up just a while ago,” he told me as he walked into the house and shut the door.