Baby I Loved You First- Leonetta

Chapter 16:

\Leon\

Leon is the first to notice. Violetta is having a hard time being attentive, messing up every other line and stuttering through most of the blocking. The director shouts cut after the seventh time she walks in the opposite direction. He calls break and Violetta settles in her director's chair, head in her hands. Leon notices her distress, immediately at her side to ask her if anything is wrong.

"Nothing is wrong per se." She answers, voice muffled since she still has her head in her hands. Leon tries to touch her shoulder, but she flinches and Leon lets his hand fall to his side. "Please just leave me alone." She sighs.

"But we're friends, friends are supposed to help each other out. Tell me what's bothering you." She shakes her head again, locking Leon back out of her life. Leon doesn't like it, hates that she's going back into her shell. He kneels in front of her, staring because he is determined to know what's bothering her. She pretends to busy herself with line checks, but she fails at those too and Leon is even more worried.

He's only ever seen her like this once before, and it brings back awful memories that he would much rather forgot. She finally let's a sob out which has Leon lunging at her and engulfing her in a hug. She struggles, putting up as much of as a fight as she can in her sad state. Her energy runs low soon enough, slumping herself into his arms.

"Please tell me what's wrong." Her cries have died down now, but she still doesn't budge, staying silent in his arms.

"Everything is wrong, I-" Her whimpers loud and sorrowful. "We broke up. Me and Tomas broke up." Leon had died to hear those words before, but in this moment, he is sad for his friend. He can't feel happy, not when Violetta seems so broken about it. She cries again, wallowing in grief of the break up. Leon holds her through it, reassuring her that things will be alright, they always will be in the end.

|Flashback|

It was the day before graduation. Things had been rocky since that morning and neither knew why. Leon thought it was the stress Violetta felt on choosing a school. Violetta thought it was because Leon was worried about moving away. Whatever the reason, they were both tense as they sat in the theater, not another person in sight.

It was their farewell to good times as they sat in the theater. Both thought about different memories, wondering what the other was thinking about.

"Are you going to miss it?" Leon asked, loud in the quiet theater. Violetta nods, not trusting her words at the moment.

She still had so much hesitation about letting Leon leave, but she didn't want to hold him back. This was his opportunity of a lifetime and if Violetta tried to make him stay, she would feel bad for not letting him chase his dreams. They could make it work. She hoped they could make it work.

"You've been pretty quiet. You doing okay?" Leon questions when he realizes how he's been doing most of the talking for the past few minutes. Actually for the past few days, he's noticed how held back Violetta has been about talking. He wonders why.

"Yeah." She says simply, but it's not convincing and Leon scowls at her until she can deem her with a proper answer. "I'm fine Leon, please don't worry about me."

"But I do worry about you Vilu, we've hardly talked in the last few weeks and I'm scared you're avoiding me. You're not avoiding me right?" When she doesn't answer, Leon turns so he fully faces her, not understanding why Violetta is acting so weird. "Vilu, what's wrong?" An immediate shake of her head follows and Leon furrows his eyebrows. "Something must be wrong."