The Shadows of Memory Lane (Book 2) [Gxg]

Chapter 17

Linda's purply grey eyes were met with two mis-matched orbs of blue and green, staring straight at her. They'd both lost their light. There was no grin on his face. His disheveled hair was only black with no exotic silver streak. There were bags under his eyes. and the blue and green were in a pool of red streaks. He'd grown taller. And he seemed physically stronger but emotionally more broken. He looked a lot like his older brother. He was wearing the same thing he'd been wearing years ago when she'd met him. Black leather jacket, black shirt- top button un-fastened, white low rise jeans. His eyelashes were still long. He had the same blank and mysterious expression that he'd had years ago. But Linda knew all his secrets, she'd been affected by half of them. 

When he spoke, his was voice edged ice. Cold. Linda felt as if she was having deja vu. But she was the one walking in on him. He was sitting at the back right corner, near the window.

"Linda..."

She flinched at his voice. He'd caused her so much pain. He'd cause Haley so much agony. And for that Linda hated him. 

"Juan," she spat as she walked up to him, Kyle temporarily forgotten, "Why are you here?"

"I transferred here."

"Urgh? Why do you have to show up just when I thought everything was going well? Why do you have to ruin this for me?"

Pain flashed across both of his eyes. 

"I...I..."

"Sit down everyone, please, we'll be working with oil pastels today, as you all know," the teacher interrupted. 

Linda felt Kyle's hand on her arm pulling her to her seat. He knew who Juan was. SHe'd told him. He knew how heavy this situation was. And he knew that he had to interfere before things got out of hand. 

"After class," Linda hissed at Juan.

"Come on," Kyle said, tugging her. She followed him and sat down. 

"Urgh and I was looking forward to this class."

They followed the teacher's instructions and drew but Linda was feeling mixed emotions. Bitter sweet. And for the first time she could not express herself. She sat in front of her blank canvas, pastels in hand. Her mind wasn't blank. It was exploding with contradictions, love and hate, reliability and distrust.

"Linda are you alright?" the teacher asked, walking towards her.

"Yes, Mr. Crews, I'm just having a hard time expressing myself properly."

"Take your time, I'm not going to rush you. You are one of my best students, I'm sure you'll come up with something."

She took a random pastel and put it on her canvas. She let her hands move the way they wanted to. She shut her mind down. She wielded the colours like weapons against the blankness that was her enemy. She felt power between her two hands as her ambidextrous skills took over. She worked with all ten of her fingers. Shading, smudging, eradicating the emptiness. She didn't realise that she had tears streaming down her face. Even if she did she wouldn't have cared. She had been transported to another world. Her peace place. Haley's arms. All she could see was her beautiful face, all she could feel was the softness of her strands of hair in between her fingers and Haley's lips kissing away Linda's tears , all she could hear was her voice consoling her and soon all she could taste was Haley's familiar chocolate taste as their lips met. Haley moved her lips slowly and Linda followed, Haley's hands pressed her back, pushing her into Haley, their bodies connecting, their souls connecting. So intertwined that they could never be separated. Linda's hands, moved onto Haley's arms, stroking the smooth skin. She could feel her shiver against her touch. And her body arch into her, to close the already imaginary space between them. She was broken out of this trance by applause. Loud applause.

Her whole class was around her, looking at her art piece in awe. The teacher seemed more than pleased. She looked at the piece once and then ran into Kyle's open arms. His eyes held worry. He'd known that this would be her reaction. He could feel her tears staining his t-shirt. The piece was magnificent- no doubt. 

She'd drawn the beach, under the moon light. The moon reflected in the water. The countless stars spread across the night sky. The waves gently lapping over each other. And in the middle were two silhouettes. Clearly her and Haley. They were kissing, in dancing positions. Their first kiss. And in the top, in her beautiful hand writing, Linda had written- Amara if that was a mistake, I want to make infinite more.

She looked at the drawing one last time before she ran out of class, her sobs becoming heavy. And her body starting to shiver. Her heart breaking all over again, her ears yearning to hear her voice. "Why did you leave me Hals?" She kept whispering to herself, but as expected she got no answer. "Why did you have to die?"

She sprinted to the bathroom, her soul crumbling. Her body in panic mode. Her mind giving up. She collapsed in front of one of the stalls, leaning against the door. Crying, her tears unstoppable. "Why did he have to come and ruin everything? Hals come back," she sobbed, "Please..." another sob, "Please Hals." 

"Li, baby, look at me." Her voice was soft and soothing, "I'm here now, everything will be alright. I know, I know that you are in pain, but please let me help you forget. Don't exhaust yourself like this anymore. Give yourself a chance to get over her. Please? Give me a chance..."

Linda smiled, sadly and nodded her head. Jimena smiled a small smile in return and kissed Linda, cupping her cheeks with her hand, "Please don't cry baby, your tears are too precious," she placed soft and sort kisses on her lips, injecting emotion, love, life, into Linda, "They should never touch the ground," she whispered, her warm breath fanning Linda's cold face. Her fingers stroked her cheeks and her eyes were looking into Linda's lovingly. There was concern in them. Empathy. She wanted to help Linda, badly. So badly. She kissed her again, moving her lips against hers, a surge of passion rushed into Linda. Breathing life into the dead part of her. Giving her the happiness that Haley took with her, filling in her half. 

The bathroom door swung open and sprang apart, but the flame that Jimena had ignited in her didn't die out from the loss of contact. That way she knew that it was there to say, and she finally let herself smile through the tears. 

"I saw you running in here, and, and I just wanted to check if you were alright, sorry... sorry if I disturbed something," stammered an out of breath Amia.

Linda chuckled, "It's alright Amia," she pulled her in for a hug, "Thanks for checking up on me."

Amia struggled a bit under her touch but smiled. Linda let her go, a little confused but she brushed it aside. 

"Are we still on for coffee later?"

"Yup," Linda affirmed.

"Huh? Coffee?" Jime asked muddled.

"Yeah we were planning on having coffee later," Amia explained.

"Oh... umm okay," she checked her watch, "Li I have class now, will you be alright? Or I could walk you to your class..."

"No, Jime you've got to get to another building, I'll be fine trust me."

"Don't worry Jime," Jimena flinched when Amia used the nickname, but it was left unnoticed, "I'll walk her to class."

Jime smiled a smile that didn't reach her eyes, "Okay, thanks. I'll get going. See you later."

Linda pecked her on the cheek, getting up and whispered thank you and I love you in her ear.

This time Jimena smiled genuinely, "Any time darling. I love you too."

Jimena walked out of the bathroom sashaying her hips like Linda used to. Classy... Haley called it. 

Memory #17: Haley zipped up Linda's dress and she turned around and kissed her on the cheek. "What would I do without you?" "I wouldn't want to know... I swear you'd be a complete mess."
Linda glared at her playfully and pouted. "Aww you know that I don't mean that," Haley said.
"Really?" Linda asked, her eyes lighting up. "No but that's okay cause you'll never lose me."