The bright lights and constant beeping had been all Leah was able to tell when she woke up. As her senses came back to her, feeling happy from the morphine, she looked around the room. Grabbing the water bottle from next to her and drank it, she looked at the flowers next to her.
Red chocolate cosmos.
A flower she knew all too well.
"Hey kiddo, how are you feeling?" Amanda asks, reaching out to hold her daughters hand
"Who are the flowers from?" Leah asks her mother
"The front desk brought them up" Amanda tells her, Amanda knew who they were from. Of course she did, it was the flower that was on Audriana's guitar, the one she had always brought to their home, the one's she bought when she had asked Leah to accompany her to the school dances.
"No card?" Leah questions
"I didn't see one" Amanda confirms
"Can we just go home?" Leah asks her mother, laying her head back on the pillow
Amanda hands her daughter the crutches, as she helps her stand up and get changed into comfortable clothes. Her heart broke at the state of her girl, she had so much to look forward to this year. She was supposed to captain England to the World Cup and bring it home after they had won the euros the summer prior.
the two hour ride back to Milton Keynes had been tough, there was so much that Amanda wanted to say. Amanda wanted to ask Leah about what had happened in Ibiza, what she was thinking. She had wanted to tell her daughter that Audriana was here for her, but she knew she couldn't.
Amanda knew exactly why Audriana had left, she saw it all over her face. The pure terror displayed on her face as she heard the heart monitors and saw Leah sleeping. It had brought her right back to that night in February 12 years ago.
As Amanda pulls onto their street, Leah sees Bella playing in her neighbors front yard with Jackson as Audriana sits on the front steps of the porch, on the phone with someone as she looks down at her feet. The girl had obviously been upset.
"I didn't know Audriana was home" Leah asks her mother "Why are you not surprised by this?"
"Not right now Leah" Her mother says harshly "Lets go"
Amanda holds the flowers and bag of clothes in her hand as she helps her daughter into their house. For the next few months Leah would be living with Amanda, her apartment had been too far and nobody would have been there to help her.
"Jackson, would you mind helping me with something really quick?" Amanda shouts, and the boy across the street nods as he runs over. The thing with the moore kids - they would do anything for Amanda. that woman had practically raised them, taught them all right from wrong.
"What's up?" He asks
"Can you help me bring the physical therapy boxes from the basement up?" Amanda asks the boy sweetly
"Yeah of course, i'll grab Audriana to help me" Jackson confirms
"Thank you, I'm making a roast tonight. You kids are more than welcome to stay" Amanda tells him with a welcoming smile
"Thanks Ma" Jackson says with a smile before running across the street, he walks out of the house with Bella on his shoulders and Audriana trailing behind him. One girl looking way more excited than the other.
"Go play with Nanny, remember be careful around the house. Let Aunt Leah rest" Jackson tells Bella as they walk in, he sets her down and watches as she walks into the kitchen, finding Amanda immediately.
"What are we doing?" Audriana asks
"We need to bring up a few boxes from the basement" Jackson tells her as they walk through the living room, Leah's eyes looking up and lingering on the girl in front of her.
Audriana grabs the boxes of equipment that had been stocked in the back corner of the room. She remembers how these used to be the sole mess of Leah's bedroom years ago when they were teenagers. She grabs the box fulled with the smaller things, the roller and massage gun with the cupping set and more. She assumed Leah wouldn't use any of these things until next week, when she would start her rehab and so she had just decided to bring everything up. Including that bounce ball, the stim, and the leg compression machine that she had no clue what it did or how it worked but the one thing Leah had bragged on and on about.
Her brother on the other hand and went for the other box, the one that had all of the bands and shit to elevate it in. the ones she would probably need to use this week.
"Thank you guys" Leah says as they drop the boxes off in the corner of the living room
"Yeah of course, how are you feeling?" Jackson asks
Audriana of course had taken the other way and decided to stand across the room, leaning on the wall as she crosses her arms over her chest, starring at the girl on the couch.
"Sore, but I'm good" Leah tells him "Mom's going all out for dinner tonight, are you two staying?"
"Me and Bella might" He says "Audriana? are you staying for dinner?"
"I need to finish work, I dont know" Audriana says shrugging her shoulders
"Stay, youre home here for the next like ten months" Jackson says
"Seriously? Youre staying here for that long?" Leah asks
"What? Ibiza wasn't long enough for you?" Audriana says harshly
"touche" Leah says nodding her head
As Jackson leaves and decides to go help Amanda cook, Leah moves around on the couch, making room for Audriana to sit.
"Youre crippled Leah, I'm not gonna make you move" Audriana tells her
"I am not crippled" Leah says with a laugh "Just sit"
"You make it really fucking hard to be mad at you, ya know" Audriana says shaking her head as she walks over and sits on the couch
"I saw you canceled your tour" Leah says "Why'd you do that?"
"because of you" Audriana tells her calmly, running a hand through her own hair as she looks into the blue eyes
"I'll be okay" Leah assures her
"It didn't feel right for me to let you go through this alone" Audriana says "its a bad injury, its gonna be a rough recovery time"
"I know" Leah says "But I will be okay"
"thats your problem, you're always okay" Audriana says rolling her eyes
"Audriana, I'm really really really fucking sorry about Ibiza" Leah tells her as a tear strolls down her own cheek
"its fine, I get it" Audriana says "You guys are like the couple of WOSO, who would I be to break that up?"
"you would be you, you would be Audriana Christine Moore" Leah says "The girl next door, the one I've been creepily obsessed with since we were kids" Leah finishes with a laugh
"not again Leah" Audriana says shaking her head as she holds back tears "not again, not now"
"listen to me" Leah says "It will always be you Audriana, not a stupid friends with benefits affair. It will always be you that I want to come home too, the one that I wanted in the hospital room with me, it'll be your stupid flowers I want to see when I win a title"
"you got my flowers then?" Audriana asks, a smirk on her face "I was at the hospital, in the waiting room with your mom. I even rode up in the elevator to see you, but I chickened out when I got to your room. Leah, hearing the heart monitors, being back on that floor. It brought me right back to the accident, I can't be with you when these are the memories that we have"
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