I Never Left You

40. Reality

Two months later..... 
Am back in the campus hallways but above all I have my self respect with me. I send Leah a text informing her that am back. She's going to murder me when she gets to see me. When I left Boston I neither said  a thing to her, nor pick up her calls. It was hard but this time I needed to do it without her. I by pass the head of department office and hand in my project summary for last semester,  pick my schedule get ready to start a fresh semester.
"Hi loser" Leah sarcastically greets when she joins me for lunch at our usual cafe. "You have lots of questions to answer but before that... " she grabs my black short hair and pulls it. Yap, I ditched the long hazelnut hair. "Ouuuuuch" I scream in pain. "Was that really necessary" I complain to her as I rearrange my hair but deep down I know that I deserve it and even more.
"Fine, am so sorry" I say and the anger she came with seemed to reduce by half.
"Let's say I came angry but now am more jealous, you look good with a long bob and not to mention in black. I almost didn't recognize you" she compliments . "I don't know which question to start with but welcome back, am glad your back in one piece."
"Thanks, for being understanding and less mad" I say to her.
"That's all!, the next part is where you tell me where the hell you have been and what exactly happened". She says. "I don't know where to start from", I admit.
"Well start by telling me where the fuck Christa is! Cause I bribed your brother to contact me in case he got to know about your whereabouts but he instead brought me back the money. Your family is something else you know " she says shaking her head, and then sipping on her usual banana caramel chocolate smoothie.
"Christa is in South Carolina with Aunt Tracy" I spill the beans to her. "That doesn't make an sense Azra, what do you mean by South Carolina." she says looking up from her smoothie.
"That's where we've been for the past two months." I say to the now shocked Leah.
"Ray told me you went on trip to  Estonia, somewhere in Europe?" she utters.
"What?!", it's my turn to be shocked.
"Tell me your joking Leah" I can't believe what my ears are receiving.
"After your exams, when you failed to contact me, I was left with no choice but to come and find you, I found Ray and her cousin Sasha at home and Ray told me that you had left the previous day with Christa. I asked him why he hadn't gone with you, he claimed he needed to first accustomise his cousin with Boston then he would join you shortly. Since the previous week you had told me that Ray had planned a getaway I half believed him."  my jaw almost drops as Leah narrates the lies that son of a bitch fed my best friend with. "Of course I didn't fully believe him so I went to your home and your mum told me that you were out of the country and that you would contact me" Leah continues to narrate. I tried calling you but in vain, your phone was always off so I thought maybe it was network. My mind was never at ease, so when Allan couldnt tell me anything I began to worry and you left me hanging.  Who does that to their bestie Azra?" she finalises angrily. I can't blame her tone at least I should have left her a clue.
"Am so sorry Leah" I say to her "Ray was really a jerk to come up with such a corky story" I narrate to her what exactly happened. Though I also don't know how everything started.
"when we finished exams, I was preparing a grand dinner for the two of us to wind up the hell of a semester that was.... " my eyes immediately start to water on remembering the events of that day. "You don't have to tell it, if you don't want to" Leah encourages. "No Leah it's fine, I need to get it off my mind and I owe you an explaination" I say to her composing myself.
"......i had finished dressing the chicken, put it in the oven and was peeling potatoes when Ray announced that they were home. Earlier he had texted me that his dad wanted them to talk so by "we" i thought that he had come back with Christa. Only to find him in company in of a pretty looking girl dressed in a Gucci dress escorted by her suitcase. That girl that's out to be Sasha his wife to be".
"What!? Are you being serious right now" Leah interrupts unable to believe what am saying. I nod my head and continue.
"when I inquired who she was, he shamelessly told me that that was his future wife to be, then he started giving me the pep talk telling how I was a mistake and all that. I told him to save his energy but never at one time to come looking for me. I packed my stuff and left realising that Ray has always been the cause of my problems and you were always there to be a soft landing for me everytime I fell." I say trying to convince her that I always teasured the fact that she has always been there for me. " I tried a different approach this time, I didn't want to bother you since you had your own issues by then so I called Aunt Tracy and she gladly took us in on a short notice, my mum was so devastated but I made my whole family swear that they could not tell either you or Ray of my whereabouts. With that I packed Christa and together we rod to South Carolina and trust me it's nothing like what they write about it on Wikipedia or news."
"So are you now over him?" Leah suddenly inquiries.
"What do you mean?" I fire back
"It's clear you were hurting badly so you thought going away would ease the pain." she elaborates.
"I think it worked to some extent ,though Christa wouldn't stopped nagging me by asking for him all the time" i say to her.
"You can't forever run away from your problems Azra, soon or later you will have to face him and the pain will start from where you left, so I guess it's better if you face him and learn to live with the kind of jerk that he is. I can't believe he lied to my face" Leah shakes her head in disbelief.
"I was losing it Leah, I don't think I could have survived seeing him with Sasha more often" I say as I wind up my fries and the beetroot juice .
"I understand, but you will get through this. Though am sure he had his reasons for what he did." Leah as always is positive.
"I hope so,but I want nothing to do with him now" i say.
"So where are you now staying" Leah changes the subject. "I got an apartment west of campus" I say excitedly. Previously  we were staying south of the campus."It's not the best but it's comfortable."
"That's a great start and able to moblise it in such a short time." Leah looks surprised. "I worked my ass off in Carolina and it has payed off." we lightly laugh at that.
"So how have you been yourself", I ask.
"Never been better, Chloe now calls me mum, we even do that thing  oftwin clothing . Christmas at Austin's home was amazing, there's so much to catch up but first I need to check out your apartment." Leah rapidly gives me the highlights.