The Lost Friends (Completed)

Chapter 3

He ruffled my hair. “You don’t know how much I thought about you after you left. It was weird not seeing you every weekend.”

“Tell me about it. I kept begging Mom to let me stay at your place.” I muttered, making him laugh.

He pulled me into another hug but my phone started ringing. I smiled at him apologetically before pulling my phone out of my bag. I answered it as Leo put an arm around my shoulder. I felt tingly where he touched me.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Hey, sweetie, where are you? I was on my way home; I thought I’d give you a lift.”

“Oh I’m at school.” I told her.

“Still? You haven’t got detention have you?” she asked sternly.

“No, I was just telling Leo, I mean, Mr Hudson about before. We were just talking about it.” I answered honestly.

“Oh, put him on the phone, sweetie!” Mom said enthusiastically.

I rolled my eyes and passed the phone over him. He frowned at me and so I mouthed, ‘Mom’.

He took the phone and smiled. “Hey, Aunt Marissa!”

I listened as he talked.

“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either… Yeah, she’s doing well, she moved up the L.A as well, she lives around half an hour away… Of course I will… I’d love to… See you then… Okay, bye.” He snapped my phone shut and handed it to me.

“What did she say?” I asked, putting the phone in my bag.

“Oh just about Mom and stuff. She also asked me to drive you home and to come over as well.” He replied, still not moving his arm.

“Cool, you ready to go?” I asked.

“Yeah, give me a sec.” He moved his arm and grabbed his brown leather jacket and his bag.

My shoulders felt all tingly and warm where he had touched me. I couldn’t get over the fact that Mr Hudson was Leo. He was pretty much the same as he used to be. He looked slightly different but I guess puberty does that to a guy. I never imagined our reunion to go like this; I always thought that I’d run and hug him, let alone remember him. I was mentally kicking myself for not recognizing him. Who knew he would change so much in seven years.

“Come on, let’s go.” He told me.

He took my hand and we walked to the door of the classroom before I dropped it.

I shot him and apologetic smile. “If anyone saw us… they wouldn’t understand…”

He nodded and smiled.

We walked to the school car park in complete silence. I couldn’t stop thinking about how comfortable I was when he slung an arm around me or held my hand. I had seen him for the first time in seven years and he was my teacher but when I looked at him, I saw the young boy I knew as a kid.

We stopped in front of his silver Mercedes and he unlocked it with a press of a button. He opened the passenger door for me and watched as I climbed in.

“You don’t have to close it for me…” I muttered.

He smirked and closed it anyway before walking around the car into the driver’s seat next to me. We both buckled our seatbelts before he set off.

The car still had its ‘new car’ smell. It was clean and neat and there was a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from the rear-view mirror.

The journey carried on in silence as we were both absorbed in our own thoughts.