Leona's POV
I couldn't wipe away the grin off my face the whole way home. By the time I'd reached my apartment, it was around 1 pm. Meaning a solid day had gone by since I was last home. I had a shift later, so unfortunately I wasn't entirely free to just relax like I'd hope to be. Turning the key, I opened the door, immediately greeted by Zarah.
"Hey, did you have a good time?"
I blinked. "Uh, yeah. I did."
"Cool. What'd you do?"
Letting out a chuckle, I joked, "damn, Zarah. At least let me close the door before you bombard me with questions."
Flustered, she closed the door behind me and allowed me to take off my outside clothes. We sat down on the couch and I let out a sigh, prepared to answer the question but got interrupted by Zarah telling me she'd make us some tea. I'd managed to somehow not let the headache bother me when I was with Freya, although it was milder now, it still hurt.
Zarah soon come back with chamomile tea and put them down on a coaster. Then she gestured for me to answer her previous question. So I did.
"We went to a café, talked some shit out. Afterward, we went to her place, talked, got drunk, played a drinking game. We hung out and went to bed. Yeah, that's about it. Right, this morning we baked. It was fun."
She squinted her eyes and tilted her head, almost like she was trying to figure something out. It made me uneasy. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and raised an eyebrow. Encouraging her to just spit out what she wanted to say.
"Is that all?"
"What are you implying?"
"I feel like you're leaving something out," she clarified, gesturing for me to tell her what it was.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Even if I knew whether or not Freya was okay with me telling people what happened, telling people seemed too early. For now, I wanted this to stay between us. If that's what Freya wanted too. But Zarah still wasn't satisfied with my answer. And it was getting on my nerves. It wasn't her business.
"Nothing happened, Zarah. Leave it alone," I firmly stated. She shut her mouth and turned bright red before muttering an apology.
"Sorry. I was curious but I crossed a line."
I nodded. "It's fine."
We fell into a silence, neither of us uttering a word for a good few minutes. Then an idea, well, a question came into my head. Something I realized I'd never asked her about. Although I wasn't sure if asking her was crossing a line. However, my curiosity got the best of me and I blurted out the question.
"Hey, do you still have contact with Phoebe?" Also known as my ex.
"After she dumped me to spend all her time with you? No, not really."
As I'd predicted, it wasn't very bright of me to randomly bring it up when things were already tense. I went quiet, what do you say to that? Oops, sorry? It's not like I regret it. Zarah was quite the bitch back then.
"We liked each other. And it wasn't like I was keeping her from you. She's not an object, she's a person who chose to spend her time with me. That's not on me."
"I never said it was. But you can't blame me for being slightly pissed when you, someone who I didn't like at the time, took up all her time. I had a boyfriend, yet I still spent time with her. That hurt."
I nodded, letting out a sigh. "I'm guessing you and whatever-his-name was broke up?"
She rolled her eyes, assumingly recalling the memories by the look on her face. Considering the mention of him brought out a bitter expression, it cannot have ended well. She soon confirmed that though when she spoke.
"He cheated on me, graduation night as well. Some way to end high school, am I right?"
I gave her a sympathetic look, despite the sarcasm apparent in her voice, I could tell it must have hurt. But I couldn't deny I called it. He was an asshole, the walking stereotype of some arrogant 'bad boy'. The would never have lasted, even if that was harsh.
She continued, "I guess that's what made me realize I had to stop being such a bitch. Well, that and maturing. College helped me with that. I know I must have apologized a dozen times by now. But I'm genuinely sorry for high school."
I made a dismissive gesture. "It was over four years ago. I moved on a while ago. And I'm sorry, for Phoebe."
Despite not needing to apologize for something that wasn't my fault, I still felt it necessary. They were close before we got together, anyone could see that. And it did bring me an ounce of guilt knowing our relationship drove them apart. After all, we were friends now. Which I would have never believed we would end up being in high school. Never.
"Oh, by the way. Why did you break up?"
"Way too different dreams. As you probably know, she wanted to travel the world and I wanted to study. We broke it off a few months before graduation, it was a mutual agreement. I liked her, I did. But I wouldn't say I ever got the point where I loved her. I probably would have, though. If got a little more time. But in the end, it worked out for the best," I explained, remembering the past.
Her face fell. She looked down at the floor. Maybe it hurt too much to remember. "Yeah, I know. We were gonna travel the world together."
I smiled. "Do you have her socials? You can always check how she's doing."
She frowned. "Isn't that a bit creepy?"
I shook my head. Okay, maybe a little since they hadn't spoken in at least four years. Nevertheless, there was no harm in checking up on what was going on with her. It's not like I suggested she stalked her or something.
"Not if her account is public."
Zarah seemed a bit hesitant about her idea. Eventually, though she pulled up her phone from her pocket and turned it on. I scooted closer to her, so our shoulders were touching to see better. She searched for her name on Instagram and quickly found her account.
My eyes widened when I saw the amount of followers she had. One million, surely that must count as impressive. Zarah scrolled down, by the looks of it she was some sort of model. She had traveled the world like she planned and it appeared she was doing good. It was a bit strange looking at my ex's picture, and it was starting to feel like stalking.
"Okay, yeah. This is a little creepy," I told her and she blushed, turning off her phone and putting it back in her pocket.
Exhaling through her nose, she said, "I would lie if I said I'm not a little jealous."
"Not gonna lie, me too. But I'm happy for her, she's probably doing better than half of the idiots at our school."
At that, she let out a loud laugh. "You're not wrong. And I'm happy for her, a tad jealous, but happy."
I observed her. She looked down. It was obvious she missed her best friend, even after four years of not seeing her. But there was something I felt like I was missing. Some sort of crucial information. A longing of some sort glistered in her eyes, perhaps, there was something more going on in between them. That I didn't know of.
Maybe I was just looking into it too much. She could have simply been jealous or missing her best friend. Maybe they had a fight that I didn't know of. Regardless, something was going on. And I was curious.
"I'm missing something."
"Huh?"
"Something happened between you two, didn't it?" I clarified when I noticed she was taken aback and confused by my sudden observation.
"What, no. Why would you think that?"
"First of all, your defensiveness is giving it away. But also, the look in your eyes was hard to miss."
When she shut her mouth and went silent, I was afraid I'd gone a step too far. It wasn't my business what had happened. Or if anything had happened. However, before I could apologize for being intrusive, she answered me.
"We fought. I don't want to talk about it but we did. Not long after you broke up. I thought we would makeup but we never did." She sighed. "I messed it up."
"Oh."
"I was in love with her."
"Oh." I looked like an idiot with my jaw basically on the floor.
"How hypocritical of me, right? Here I was. In love with my best friend and complaining about my boyfriend cheating on me."
I moved closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, bringing her in for a hug. A tear fell, she wiped it away and hugged me back. I was glad we were having this conversation. It was good for the both of us to talk things out.
"You never acted on them right?"
"No, but I should have broken up with him anyway."
"You can't take back the past. It's scary, I get it. But you can't compare that asshole to you. You can control your actions, however you can't control your feelings."
"You're right."
Grinning, I said, "I always am."
The way that I'm so tempted to write a spin off for Zarah and Elora. However, I've already planned one for Gabriella (and briefly started) so I don't know if that'll be too much. We'll see, maybe I'll do one of them at least. Feel free to tell me what spin off you would prefer.
Anyhow, hope you had a good day. I have a math test tomorrow, not excited for that, especially since I've barely studied. We'll see how it goes.
See you next chapter!