| Amelia |
"It bothers you, doesn't it?"
Leila's jaw ticked at Zoey's question for just a moment before returning to its normal state again, seemingly unbothered.
She shrugged, trying to feign nonchalance but failing at it rather miserably. "I told you, it doesn't bother me in the least."
Averting my gaze to the topic of conversation, I once again assessed the scene that Leila was now actively glaring at: at the opposite end of the café stood Sophie, chatting with another girl from our class while they fetched their coffees from the counter. Her hysterical laughter could be heard even till our end of the cozy space, and the fact that it was arising due to her conversation with the girl was decidedly pissing Leila off.
"I mean, in her defence though, it doesn't seem like she's doing it on purpose." I bit out unsurely after a few seconds, trying to pacify her a bit, "Plus, them talking doesn't mean it's anything romantic, right?"
Leila's demeanour remained harsh while she nodded her head stiffly, her voice coming out as extremely unconvincing in response. "Yes. Exactly. It's not like I care anyway."
"I thought you were going to sort everything out with her, were you not?" Zoey asked her while I nodded, remembering how Leila had told us a few days ago about her plans to start with a clean slate with Sophie.
Now that I was aware of what had gone down between the two of them, I couldn't help but wonder if Noah was aware of Leila and Sophie's relationship. Would he be angry if he knew?
But with that thought, arose another unavoidable question: was their relationship even a coincidence? Could it be that Noah had intended on that since the start?
I shook the though when Leila grunted in response to Zoey's question, her grip on the table getting tighter. "I was," she spoke gruffly, her voice getting angrier by the second, "but someone doesn't want to take our 'thing' any further."
Zoey and I both looked at each other for a moment, knowing inwardly that no matter how tough Leila acted on the outside, it was rare of her to be open and vulnerable with someone like she'd been with the brown-eyed girl who was now taking her seat at a table not far from us. Hence, this was bound to be hurting her on the inside.
Before either of us could speak, though, the cheery sound of laughter echoed from the table in question, making Leila's muscles turn horrifyingly rigid.
With a swift move, she pushed her chair backward with a loud screech, capturing the attention of the previously laughing girls along with the rest of the small crowd in the café, anchoring it in our direction.
I looked at her with concern. "Leila-"
"I think I'm going to leave." She cut me off and spoke with finality, beginning to stomp away with her jaw still clenched. "This place fucking sucks."
My eyes widened as I heard her talk that way about the café, especially when I noticed Margaret standing beside our table with our orders assembled neatly on her tray.
The middle-aged woman's gaze followed Leila's form as she shut - slammed - the door behind her; she then looked at us with concern.
"What's up with her?"
"Marge, she didn't mean what she said, you know she-"
But the woman simply huffed and face-palmed herself. "Yes, of course I know that, silly." She almost scolded, rolling her eyes. "I meant, why is she so...on edge?"
Her eyes glinted with concern as she looked at both Zoey and I, expecting a response.
"Well-"
"You could say it's girl problems." Zoey hesitantly answered for both of us, making Margaret's face transform into a knowing one.
"I see." She hummed, thinking about it for a moment before sighing. "Well, I hope she figures it out. You tell her I'm going to finally give her that cuppa of vodka she's been asking from me as soon as I see her smile."
And with that, she gave Zoey and I our orders and left to attend to the other customers.
As she passed the various tables, I caught Sophie from the corner of my eye, noticing that her gaze was fixed unwaveringly on the door through which Leila had left seconds ago.
And from the troubled expression plastered all over her face, it seemed like someone sure did want to take things further.
-
"Do you want to meet up at my house tomorrow?" Zoey asked me as we exited our last class of the day, finally wrapping up on what had been a pretty exhausting morning, "Leila's been MIA since yesterday and I think it'll be good if the three of us meet...have a movie marathon, maybe?"
The hopeful tone in her voice made it all the more difficult for me to say what I had to.
"That sounds like a great idea, Zoe," I answered hesitantly, unsure how to articulate my response, "but I don't think I'll be able to make it."
Her brows furrowed in confusion momentarily and I knew she was about to question exactly why I had declined her offer. But only a few seconds passed before a knowing expression made its way into her face.
"Shit...I completely forgot," she realised while speaking in an apologetic tone, pursing her lips. "I'm so sorry."
I smiled feebly and shook my head. "It's okay, you don't need to feel bad. Relax."
She nodded in understanding but continued to look at me with concern nonetheless.
My dad's death about five years ago had certainly changed the dynamic between the three of us - at least at the time the car accident took him away from me and left its gaping remnant behind. Death was something I was - unfortunately - very familiar with; I had experienced it first-hand, in the most intimate of ways.
At the time, my devastated, almost disoriented mom took to work as a source of refuge, a place where she could get away from the pestering sorries and condolences - even though they, admittedly, came from good intention.
My place of refuge, on the other hand, presented itself in the form of my best friends.
Leila and Zoey had stuck by my side through thick and thin; they had bared witness to all the times I had inexplicably broken down in tears, as well those when I seemed to be numb - indifferent - to everything around me. They never used his death as a reason to pity me.
And that, was something I appreciated to no bounds.
Now, noticing the look of concern in Zoey's eyes, I tried to lighten the suddenly darkened mood in the air. "Besides, I doubt-"
But before I could do that, a loud voice echoed in the school's hallway, anchoring the attention of all the collected students towards the boy that had caused it.
"Everyone, you won't believe what's happening on the football field!" He hollered in excitement, instantly making rapid chatters erupt all around us, "You definitely don't want to miss this."
The crowd of students that was previously in the hallway now immediately began guiding itself hurriedly to the field, eager to see whatever was going on.
"What in the world is happening out there?" Zoey thought aloud as we gave each other a brief, confused look before - probably stupidly - deciding to become part of the throng.
On reaching the location, however, all sense of direction and sound were thrown out of the window.
It took a moment for Zoey and I to push our way through and get a good look at what was happening, still confused as to what the fuss was all about. When we did, though, an audible gasp escaped from her mouth while my lips parted at the scene in front of me.
For just a few feet away from us, the players of the football team were engaged in what seemed to be a very vicious brawl.
Punches and kicks were being thrown here and there before we could even fathom them, the hustle and bustle making it impossible for us to keep up with everything going on.
In just a few seconds, though, two leading faces came clearly into view.
Noah and Chase seemed to be on one team - joined by a few others - as they fought violently with the much larger group of the other side.
My eyes widened as I took in the kerfuffle. Chase's expression was agonised as he delivered hit after hit to his fellow player, grunting in anger, the end of his blows nowhere in sight.
Noah, on the other hand, seemed to be almost enjoying getting his frustrations out in this brutal way.
I watched as his opponent (with a lot of difficulty) managed to deliver a punch to his cheek, making a small indent appear on Noah's skin. But to my horror, Noah didn't so much as flinch at that; instead, he touched the spot with the tip of his finger in silence before letting out a low chuckle, hitting the opponent's jaw just a second later.
His opponent, as I now noticed, was Calvin.
The crowd cheered wildly around us, fuelling the fire, but Zoey and I seemed to be frozen in our spots.
"You fucking asshole," Chase suddenly cursed as he kicked his almost unconscious opponent in his rage, "if you ever talk about her that way again I swear I'll break every fucking bone in your body."
His fists clenched madly at the end of his sentence, almost as if he was restraining himself from adding another blow to the poor guy's already bruised face.
My brows furrowed in confusion. What was he even talking about?
Before any of us could interpret what that meant, the headmistress's authoritative - and furious as hell - voice silenced each and every one of our impending questions.
"What in god's name is happening here?"
-
Hey there,
Thank you so much for reading! We've now reached more than 800 reads, and that's really unbelievable! It's amazing to watch the story grow as the plot progresses, and I can't wait to write more<3
That said, do tell me what you think of the chapter. What's the next step for Leila and Sophie? Do you think Noah deliberately told Sophie to form a correspondence with Leila?
I'd love to know your thoughts.
Again, please don't forget to vote and comment on the chapter if you've enjoyed it!
Until next time,
Kiara❤️