Warm Sand

Chapter 4 - 'Last Day'

(Thursday morning. The last day of school)

Lea is at the bar with Ethan, they are laughing and drinking together. Ethan gets closer and kisses her gently. Lea, holding his face, looks at him very intensely, and kisses him back. They start making out, and their favourite song is playing. Suddenly, Ethan gets pulled away and everything goes dark. Lea doesn't understand what's happening. She stands up and calls for Ethan. No reply. She starts walking through the bar, seeing barely nothing. At a corner, Lea sees a silhouette. She gets closer. It's Ethan. She tries to reach his shoulder but suddenly he turns facing her.

"Lea, I have to tell you something!"

No one has time to say anything else when a woman's hand grabs his arm. Both turn to her. It's Ashley. She starts petting Ethan and he smiles. Lea feels lost.

"What...?" Lea's eyes are wide open.

"Come babe, I don't want you to be hanging out with her..." Ashley pulls Ethan through his shirt collar and starts kissing him passionately.

There is a noise sounding on her head. She puts her hands on her ears.

"No! Stop! You can't do this to me, Ethan!"

The noise gets louder and Lea starts getting pulled away from them.

"No!" Lea wakes up gasping for air. It was all a dream.

Lea's alarm is ringing. She is sat in bed still catching her breath. She is sweating. After a few seconds she finally turns off the alarm. Lea slowly places her feet on the floor and then stands up. Her hair is a mess and she has dark circles. After the first step, she notices that her mom left her another paracetamol at the bedside table. She drinks it with some water and walks to the bathroom to get ready for school.

There's a smell in the air. Lea goes down the stairs with all her school things. Her mom is preparing pancakes.

"Morning mom."

"Morning Lea!" She looks at her and gets surprised. "Are you going to school today?! Are you feeling better already?"

"Yeah mom" Lea sits on the table to have breakfast. "I don't wanna miss out on the last day..."

"If you still feel sick and wanna stay home it's fine, ok?" Her mom places some pancakes in front of Lea. "I can call your school and explain the situation."

"No, mom. It's alright, I'm not feeling sick anymore... Thanks for the pills."

Lea pours some chocolate sauce on the pancakes and starts eating. They are delicious. The home phone starts ringing and her mom goes to check.

"It's Ethan." She passes the phone to Lea.

"Thanks, but I don't wanna talk with him." Lea hangs up the phone call.

"Why? Did something happen?"

"Yes mom... everything happened! I don't wanna talk about it okay?"

"Did you guys break up? You looked so happy together..."

"You and dad also looked happy..."

Lea's mom stops what she's doing. She gets surprised by what Lea said. She sits on the chair in front of Lea.

"I'm sorry we never really talked about it... but I -" she gets interrupted by Lea.

"Mom, it's fine! I just wished you guys told me from the beginning instead of pretending..."

Lea gets up and grabs her things. "I'm going to school. Bye."

Her mom can't even reply as Lea is already closing the front door. She sighs before walking away from the house. Lea is still trying to get used to her parents' situation, so she prefers to not talk about it with her mom. As dad already left the house, it gets a bit lonely, but she feels it's the right decision for her, even though she still doesn't fully understand what happened between them.

--

At school, she's leaving some stuff in her locker when Ethan calls her.

"Hey, you dropped this yesterday." He hands her the papers that she dropped the day before.

Lea grabs them very quickly. She replies very salty: "Thanks."

"Look... we need to talk." Ethan gets closer.

"There's nothing to talk about!" Lea loudly closes the locker door.

The bell rings and some students start going into the class already. The teacher is waiting for everyone at the door.

"Please let me explain!" He grabs her arm.

"Ethan!" She frees herself from his hand. "There's nothing to explain. I saw it, okay! Now, let me go to class!"

Lea leaves him there and goes to class. Usually she sits next to Ethan, so she looks at the tables to see if there's any other free seat. But all the seats are full except their usual ones. Lea is frustrated, but she doesn't have any other option. She goes to her place and sits, leaving all her stuff still inside her backpack. Ethan gets called by the teacher and soon enters the class as well. He also doesn't have any other option as to sit next to Lea. She sighs and looks away. The teacher starts the class.

"Lea" Ethan whispers at Lea.

She looks at him for a second and turns her head away. He whispers at her one more time. She quickly turns to him with a mad face. "Isn't he getting that I don't wanna talk?" She thinks. He hands her a folded paper which she grabs with a sigh. She hides it away from the teacher and opens it.

I'm sorry! Can we please talk after class?

Lea faces him furious. "No!" she whispers. As he keeps looking at her, she writes on the paper:

Please stop insisting. I don't wanna talk ok? We're done! Just leave me alone.

She crumples the paper and throws it to him while the teacher is writing something on the board. Ethan reads the message. He looks at Lea and then looks down, sad. She gets a bit annoyed at his reaction. How could he be this fake all this time?

The bell rings and Lea is the first one to leave. She wants to get some fresh air before the next class. She can hear Ashley talking to Ethan far behind.

"Are you two okay?" She laughs, mocking him, and leaves with her friends.

Lea walks faster and opens the door. Summer is almost here but somehow the air today is cooling. She breathes slowly. Ryan is at the caffe window and waves at her. She smiles and waves back.

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*All the places, names and characters are fictional.*