Can You Hear the Ocean?

Chapter 23

Leila stood on her parent's front porch, shivering slightly from the autumn cold. Her knock echoed against the front door in a whisper. Leila raised her fist to knock louder, but the door opened quickly, and suddenly she was being ushered inside by her mother. Leila turned to give a greeting to her worrisome mother, but Vivian Sutherland had already placed her hand on top of Leila's forehead.

"Good. It's not warm," her mother observed.

"Clearly. I wouldn't come over here if I were still feeling sick," Leila told her.

"How are you feeling now?" her mother asked.

"I'm fine, Mom," Leila assured her as she shrugged off her coat and set it on a nearby chair.

"Sick for nearly a week, and you didn't ask us to check on you at all! We were all worried," her mother said. She appeared angered for a moment, but her look of concern vanished quickly as she wrapped Leila in a large hug and planted a kiss on her cheek.

"Mom, stop coddling!" Leila complained.

"How come you don't treat me like that when I get sick?" Gavin asked from the couch. He had a beer in his hand and a bowl of chips on his lap as the football game played out on the television in front of him.

"Oh, hush!" Leila's mother responded.

"I'm fine, I promise," Leila assured her mother. "I haven't had a fever in a few days. Catching up on work will be a pain, but I feel much better. Mia took good care of me."

"Well, at least she's looking out for you," Leila mother's said. "She didn't want to come tonight?"

Leila shook her head. "No, she's out with her boyfriend." She tried to hide the bitterness in her tone as she said it.

After Mia had refused to leave her side all week, it felt strange returning to their separate lives again. As soon as Leila had gotten better, Mia's dates with Julian became more frequent, though Leila knew she couldn't blame Mia. She'd kept Mia way from her boyfriend for a week after all. However, the quiet moments they used to share together when Leila was sick had vanished as well. They still ate together and discussed who could use the bathroom first before bed, but their interactions were never as tender as they once were when Mia had been caring for Leila. The distance Leila had hoped had shrunk in the past week seemed to have expanded once more.

I never forgot. Mia's words rang in Leila's ears. For the last few days, those words had been all she had thought about it.

Then why did she lie about it? Leila thought.

"Well, we're having pot roast tonight. I hope you're hungry," Leila's mother said, interrupting her thoughts.

"You missed out on Dad's garlic herb chicken last week," Gavin told Leila.

"Aw, my favorite!" Leila complained.

"I'll make it again some other time!" she heard her dad promise from the kitchen.

Later, when they gathered at the kitchen table for dinner, Leila devoured her meal quickly. Her diet had mainly consisted of soup and dry toast the week before, and her appetite had returned with full force. She quickly cleaned her plate and sat back in her chair, satisfied. With not much else to do, she listened in on the conversation she'd been blocking out during the time she had been eating. With Gavin and Shannon's wedding only a few weeks away, the dinner chatter mainly concerned the upcoming ceremony.

Suddenly, the conversation shifted.

"Enough wedding talk. How about you, Lei?" Leila's father asked. "How's work going?"