Anthony had driven about an a hour and a half until all the suburbs turned into empty farmland, the remaining snow melting into the fertile dirt to create muddy fields. He pulled into Leigh's family's driveway, hopping out and meeting her mother, Rachel, at the door.
"Hey, she's up and over at the high school." Rachel said as a greeting, quickly hugging Anthony in a maternal way he appreciated from the kind older woman.
"Did she mention why?"
"Yeah, she's probably running or something. You must have had a good influence on her because that's not something she would have done ten months ago." Rachel shrugged, pointing over to where the high school sat. It was about three miles away but in the flat farmland it was easily spotted.
He got back in his car, driving slower than he was before. If she was up and about, Leigh must have calmed down from last night.
When he pulled up to the school, he spotted her motorcycle among a gathering of cheap older cars. Anthony got out, following the noise of a crowd. He walked around the side of the small school and found the entrance to the gym. From inside, he could hear what sounded like a group of feminine voices and the sound like a bucket of balls being dropped on hardwood.
He walked into the gym, trying to act as non-threatening as possible when he saw it was a high school softball team practicing.
"Uh... Coach?" The girl closest to him gaped and called for the coach over her shoulder while keeping him in her sights.
Anthony focussed and saw the stocky blonde man striding towards him from the other side of the gym, looking pissed. He scanned quickly and found Leigh's taller frame jogging over to him quicker.
"Hey Anthony." She said, having the courtesy of looking abashed at his presence, "What are you doing here?"
Before he could answer, the coach approached both of them and put his hand on Leigh's shoulder as he fumbled to put his glasses on.
"Coach, this is my boyfriend-" Leigh started and Anthony lifted an eyebrow, making the connection that this must be the same coach she had in high school.
"Anthony Rizzo?" He sounded confused, now looking at Anthony through his slightly smudged glasses. He took his protective hand off of Leigh's shoulder and extended it to the baseball player.
"Coach is a Cubs fan." Leigh filled in, rolling her eyes good naturedly.
Anthony smiled at him and shook his hand, "Pleased to meet you, sir. I didn't think I'd ever be able to meet Leigh's former softball coach."
"It's good to meet you! Did you know she could barely hit a ball when she first joined up—"
Leigh laughed, pulling Anthony away, "That's great, Coach, I gotta speak to him for a second though."
The man waved his hand and retreated to the girl he was working with, now chatting with her teammates at the batting cage set up behind her.
She led him into the hallway adjacent to the gym and stood across from him, starting with, "I'm sorry."
"For what?" Anthony said, crossing his arms and leaning against a locker. It was hard to be stern with her but he knew she wouldn't talk about her feelings otherwise. And this was a conversation that needed to happen sooner rather than later.
"For bailing like that." Leigh sighed, wiping her sweaty cheek on her shoulder in lieu of dragging her hand down it. "I know I need to talk to Michael and Kate. Did they show you what they had hid from me?"
Anthony let out his own sigh. Time to bite the bullet. "Actually, I knew he was sending letters. I didn't know what was in them."
Confusion, anger, and finally irritation crossed her face quickly, "And you three didn't think to tell me that I was receiving a shit ton of weird ass letters from my stalker?"
He held a hand up to placate her, "I am sorry about that. Michael asked me to speak to you about it but I couldn't bring myself to. Could you blame me?"
Leigh pulled her lower lip into her mouth and began to chew on it, "No, I guess I don't blame you. I'm not happy about you guys keeping this from me, obviously. But I shouldn't have ran off like that last night and forced you to come get me today. I know you must have better things to be doing."
Anthony saw her eyes getting heavily glassy, tears about to fall. So he closed the space between them and drew her into his arms. Given this outlet, small sobs began to bubble to the surface, muffled in his sweatshirt.
"Leigh, I have another question though. A couple, actually." He said, hating to pull away from her to continue the conversation. He had to be strong now though— there was no one else this closely involved that she would spill her unmoderated feelings to.
She sniffed, pulling up the hem of her shirt to dry her eyes before nodding.
"Those letters were all pretty solid evidence of Josh's stalking. Why wouldn't you use that and bring it to the court? Renew the restraining order?" He opted for the most important question, the one that could potentially answer why she ran last night instead of staying and facing this head on.
Leigh took a deep breath, sliding down the lockers to sit on the linoleum floor of the hallway. Anthony saw her reluctance. Getting this from her would be like pulling teeth.
"Leigh..." He started and watched her close her eyes, drawing her eyebrows together. He felt terrible, pushing her like this, but heard Michael's worried voice in his head and Kate's half-sobs when he left the apartment barely two hours ago.
"What if they won't grant me the order? I survived with him aboard a damn boat for almost a month. I broke his nose!" She said, huffing out a bitter sound and flexing her scabbed knuckles from the night before as if remembering how it felt.
Anthony sat down next to her and used his hand to cradle her head, making her eyes meet his.
"That's not it, is it? Why won't you go and press charges?" He dug, holding her eye contact.
Tears slipped out of her eyes and she pulled her head out of his hand, burying it in her hands instead. He could hear small huffs of breath coming from her. Seconds felt like minutes felt like hours in the quiet hallway, the sounds of the softball team practicing seeming distant but only separated by the gym's cinderblock walls.
"You're a public figure, Anthony." She said, her voice soft and wet, like the words were stuck in her throat and tearing them out hurt. He was confused, but stayed silent, waiting for her to continue.
"Your girlfriend, some nobody film student pressing charges against her stalker? That's something people would talk about. I'm not a squeaky clean model or your high school sweetheart. It would reflect poorly on you." She spat out the words, not meant to be critical of Anthony but instead, critical on her.
His breath caught, "How dare you."
Leigh's head came up, her red cheeks streaked with her tears and her lower lip swollen from her chewing on it. She looked confused.
Anthony was mad.
"How could you think so little of yourself? In comparison to what? My reputation? Do you think so mean to little to me that I would care more about what some stupid website like Deadspin would say about me instead of caring about the mental health and physical safety of the love of my life? Sure, my infatuation with you might have made me a little stupid but do you really think that I'm that much of a terrible person?" Anthony said, gesturing with his hands wildly and standing up, pacing back and forth, "How could you think that this was about me, Leigh? You have had to rearrange your life and your future to get away from Josh and you think that I would be more concerned with my reputation?"
He felt his eyes watering and stopped his level voiced tirade, wringing his hands and focussing on his evening his breathing out.
"I'm sorry." She said, her voice still small.
"No, Leigh. I don't want your apology. I want Leigh. The Leigh I met last year who met a challenge head on, who dropped everything to swim with sharks and educate people on their conservation. The Leigh who stripped me of my pride and my logic, sweeping me up in the tornado that you are. Leaving me no choice but to love you wholeheartedly and crave the time I get to spend with you, absorbing your light and your attention. The Leigh who would demand a restraining order and slap the judge across the face with the dog drool soaked letters."
His last sentence worked and startled a laugh out of her. Once the one left her throat, more followed. She held her head in her hands now, laughing.
"I'm so stupid." She said, shaking her head while her laughs and tears tapered off. "You made me so stupid."
Leigh stood and looked at Anthony with her face ruddy and her eyes swollen but she laughed still, "I don't regret it, though."
"Are you going to press charges?" Anthony asked, his hands out, as if pleading with her.
"Yes," Leigh said, "But not because I want to. Not yet. I'm— I still feel lost. But you're right. Ten months ago I would have jumped at this opportunity to put Josh away. Thank you for reminding me of who I was. I'm sorry I've drifted."
They embraced again and Anthony buried his nose into the top of her head. "You're allowed to drift, as long as you let your friends and family pull you back into the harbor."
Leigh laughed again, muffling it into his chest. She nodded, squeezing her arms around his waist to get closer.
Anthony smiled, "Can I kiss you now?"
Leigh pulled her face back from the hug and looked up at him, "You really wanna kiss this mess?"
Instead of answering, he just captured her lips with his, biting her already bitten lips and kissing her full bore. She answered in kind, adding teeth and desperation to the kiss. Anthony backed her up against the lockers and growled into it, releasing her lips to bite and kiss along her neck and the sliver of her exposed shoulder.
She laughed, a pure joy chuckle that rang in the hallway and sounded like home.
A couple of the voices from the gym grew closer and Anthony sprung back from Leigh, wiping his damp lips off on the back of his hand while Leigh adjusted herself and fixed her shirt.
"Hey Leigh!" One of the girls called as she walked by and Leigh waved, a smile on her face.
"We should—" Anthony started.
"Yeah. Hey, what are you doing today?" She asked, on a whim.
"Nothing, really. I'll probably train later tonight but my schedule is all you right now." He said without complaint.
"Wanna do some batting practice and make some high schooler's days?" She offered.
"Of course." Anthony replied with a smile that matched hers.