Maps || l.h. au

20 // April 2015

   52 Street, Apartment 203.

   Leah knocked on the apartment’s door, the numbers 203 in gold, her heart beating wildly within the confines of his ribcage.

   Oh, God — what was she going to say to Luke when the door opens? How was he going to react when he sees her at his doorstep? Would he be mad? Happy? Frustrated? Unsure? Grudging? If she decides to say something witty and funny or ask for him to come back to her, would she finally see that smile she’s been dreaming so long to remember and see again? Or would he be outraged, and he would tell her to leave because she hurt him so much and he didn’t want her to be around him anymore?

   Above all of those raging questions, Leah wanted to have even just a few seconds to embed in her mind how he looked. It was a long time ago since he’d seen him, and she didn’t even know that it was Luke. All she could remember was the tall blonde hair, the lip ring and the blue eyes that reminded her of the calm sea in the eye of a storm or the sky whenever the clouds didn’t want to show up.

   Suddenly, the door opened, making Leah snap out of her thoughts and jump slightly in surprise. Looking up, her heartbeat faltered a bit.

   “Yes?” a bald man with a wild beard and sideburns, his round stomach protruding inside the robe he was wearing asked. His dark black eyes rested on Leah’s slightly crestfallen expression.

   “Um, i-is Luke Hemmings inside?” Leah asked softly.

   The man gave her a confused look. “Sorry, girl. No Luke what-his-surname here. Just me.”

   “Oh.”

   The man looked a bit uncomfortable. “So . . . is there anyone else you’re looking for or . . . ?”

   Leah shook her head, giving him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, sorry,” she said, “I must’ve gotten the wrong address. Sorry for disturbing you. I’ll leave now. Have a nice day!”

   “Back at you,” and then the man closed the door right when Leah walked a few steps away, the void within her chest aching again.

   She ended up running back to her car, crying again and clutching her chest. Luke wasn’t there anymore, she thought. Of course he isn’t, a voice in her head snapped at her, it’s been two years, don’t you remember? He must’ve gone on with his life.

   Trying to pull herself together, Leah wiped away her tears and reached for the map that was sitting beside the book on the passenger seat beside her. She unfolded it and turned it to its backside, reading the words she first ever read upon getting it.

“I’ll be waiting at the last place you’ll be going to — L.H.”

   But where was it? And how would he know that she was there and he’d be waiting?

   Shaking her head, she decided to turn on the engine and turn up the radio to the music of a band she’s never heard of and drove back to her own apartment.