Had To Be You

In Denial | Ch: 30

After I finished making the fruit salad. I dig into the pocket of the shorts that I was wearing. I realise that I wasn't wearing my cloths. I may have left my phone upstairs. I shout from the dining space to let Liam and Leo know that I'm going upstairs. 

I look around as soon as I enter the room. Ah, on the shelf. I check my phone. (2 missed calls from mum, 10 minutes ago) flashes up on the screen.

Of course, I didn't go back home last night. I should've given her a call. But with everything that went down last night it slipped outta my mind. So I immediately called her back.

"You wanna explain?" she started. And I don't blame her. "You could've at least texted me about spending the night at Leo's. I'm sure you don't get it but I was worried."

And that.... must've been Chloe. "Yeah. I'm- I'm sorry, my phone was dead and I was really tired. So I just crashed as soon as I reached his place."

"It's alright. You don't have to be sorry. Leo's a nice kid. But you should have informed me at least. From someone else's phone or even meet me at the fundraiser."

"Yeah. I should've."

"So did you have a good time last night?" Her question instantly reminded me of the Hyde situation. 

"No. It was.... "I whispered. I was totally out of reality, when all of that started flashing back, like it was happening all over again.

"Um, Eva, I didn't hear that properly. You didn't-?"

And I pull myself together and zone back in. "what? No. I mean Yeah, we did, we did enjoy it. Like a ton. We danced and had a few drinks, not too many though, we played some games. It was amazing. All together. " I sigh.

"I'm glad that you did. So? When are you coming back?"

"Evening maybe. I was hoping I could spend the day at Leo's and then return back home in the evening by 7 max."

"Okay. Have fun. Love you."

"Love you mum."

Woh. That went well. It's very rare that we share such simple, normal mother daughter convo. But I'm glad we did. She's not a bad person, but sometimes she just acts in certain ways that make me mad.

I go back down stairs. Liam and Austin are by the table arranging the dishes. Leo must be in the kitchen. I walk towards the table and offer to help.

Leo comes back with a plateful of bacon. There are pancakes, fruit salad, and sausages on the table.

Everything seemed just perfect. But it wasn't easy to not think about last night. As much as I wanted to stop thinking about everything and just enjoy all this, some of the things kept coming back.

Every time I look at Leo his numb face would blind me. That cut on Austin's temple keeps reminding me of the starting of that incident and the one person that was constant in all of this was Hyde.

I can't believe that someone would go that low. Leo's in complete denial. Austin did seem a little quieter than usual. But he kept that happy energy going on to accompany Leo.

"Hey." Liam's voice snaps me out of the nightmare. "You okay?"

I take a deep breath in "I don't know." I let go of a long sigh while I looked at my feet. "Are you not worried about Austin? He went through some shit last night." I say, looking back up.

"Evelyn, he's 18. I did my job beating the shit outta that bastard last night. And then bringing him home and everything. I'm not his mom." That sounded rude. I narrowed my eyes on him. "Look. he's my big brother and I love him with my life. But there are a few things that I can't ask him to do, he's an adult."