Her Competition || Lady Lesso

Her Confusion

"Meredith." The deans voice was raspy and deep. "I love you."

The girl took a step back in shock. She didn't know what to think. Was Lesso fucking with her? Was she trying to get a rise out of her? Or was she being genuine? And if she was, why the fuck is this just coming out now?

"You..love me?" She looked in the older woman's eyes to find any sort of sincerity or trick but they were so full of emotions that she couldn't pick out any specific one.

After everything she's dealt with over the past week, this felt too overwhelming.

"Lesso.." She looked away, not even wanting to look in the deans direction. She shook her head in disbelief as she spoke. "I need you to leave."

She glanced back to see Lessos face broken. Like someone had just wished her a happy birthday. It hurt to see her like that but she was too overwhelmed with emotions to deal with this right now. Honestly, she didn't even know if she had fully processed Lessos words.

"Mere-"

"No, Leonora. Leave." Meredith could tell that by using Lessos first name, she took the request seriously and hesitantly left.

As soon as she stepped out and closed the door, Meredith fell to the floor, tears wetting her cheeks faster than she had imagined they would.

Does she mean that? Is she telling the truth? If she is, do I love her back?

A million thoughts roamed in her head and she had no clue what to make of them. In this moment she knew that she had to go to the only person who would know what to do.

--

"Dovey?" The girl knocked on the good deans office door, praying that she was there.

When the door opened to reveal a confused and worried Dovey, Meredith flung herself into her arms.

"Meredith? What are you doing here? Are you okay?" Despite their recent quarrels and arguments, she still deeply cared about the girl.

Dovey invited her in and Scout immediately jumped into the teachers lap. The morning after the nightmare she had just enough energy to drop Scout off at Doveys, so that he was sure to get the attention he needed.

Meredith was silent as Dovey watched her pet Scout, waiting for her to say anything.

"Lesso told me she loves me." Meredith never looked up at Dovey, afraid of what she might think.

"I'm sorry, she told you what?" The dean was obviously very shaken up by this news. She's known Leonora almost her whole life and she's never told anyone this before but there seemed to be another reason as well.

Meredith was hesitant to say it again because every time she did, it felt more and more real.

"She came to my room earlier. She didn't say anything, she just stood there. When I asked her what she needed, she randomly pulled me into a hug and told me she loved me." She looked up at Dovey, yet she didn't seem to be as confused as the younger girl.

Dovey just slowly nodded until she closed her eyes and sighed. She mumbled something under her breath and opened her eyes, staring at the girl.

"What did you say?"

It finally started to sink in that Meredith had not responded and kicked Lesso out. The regret was weighing her down, it was so awful of her to do that.

"I told her to leave." She avoided eye contact once again, already knowing the deans reaction.

She had a frantic look on her face while getting up quickly and grabbing the girls hand. "We need to go."

-*Lessos Pov*-

She turned me down? How dare she!

She walked back to her office, absolutely raging.

"How could she turn me down?! I'm the dean for christs sake!" She walked over to her desk and shoved some papers off.

She wasn't just angry, she was hurt. Really really hurt.

Swiftly, she grabbed a cigarette and lit it. No one else had known this but she had stopped smoking for quite awhile all because of Meredith's comment that it was bad for her.

But at this point, she didn't care about anything Meredith had to say. She didn't even care if the girl would quit and never wanted to see her again.

At least that's what she told herself.

Once she sat down in her chair, she turned to look out the window. It was still light outside but it had started to rain.

The moment replayed in her mind like a tape stuck on rewind until it was hard even for her to keep the emotions in.

No one had seen her cry before, at least that she knew of. It dawned on her that the only times she cried were recently after Meredith came to teach. So she let them out freely, pausing the sobs to breathe in the smoke of her cigarette for a second.

She sat like this for a while, until she heard a knock on the door. Quickly, faster then you could've have ever believed someone could move, she stamped out the cigarette and dried the tears off her face while also putting the papers back in neat piles on her desk and then leaning on it.

"Come in." She tried to speak in her best evil dean voice but something had changed in it.

Does she really affect me that much?

Expecting it to be an aggravating student, her face turned to shock as Dovey marched in.

"Clarissa? What're you-" That's when she saw Meredith being dragged in behind her. "Oh." She rolled her eyes and went back around to the other side of the desk.

"What do you need." She asked but it was more of a demanding statement than a question.

"Meredith wishes to apologize. Isn't that right?" Dovey had a bite to her words that surprised Lesso because it meant that she had cared about her feelings which wasn't always expressed.

Meredith refused to make eye contact with Lesso but nodded a bit.

"I'm sorry, Leonora. I shouldn't have shut you out. I.." She chose her next words carefully to make sure she didn't end up trauma dumping on the both of them. "I was dealing with a lot and I felt overwhelmed."

Lesso relaxed with these words a bit but she still had one question that wouldn't leave her alone if she didn't ask.

The older woman looked at Meredith, searching for anything in her eyes.

"Do you love me too?"

Here's the next part🫶
Just wait, cause this isn't even the START🤭