The Twelve Zodiac Signs

Julian

"Talk to me." I followed Leyla out of the restaurant, my voice almost a yell. My fists were curled at my side.

Leyla snapped back at me, "What's there to talk about? I'm just a bet to you!" Her tears smeared her mascara and I felt a prick where my heart should have been.

"Let me explain!" I reach out for her, but Leyla pulled her arm away. She hailed a cab and left me standing on the sidewalk.

I roll over in bed as the event replays in my head. That's what the big reveal was yesterday. "No..." I say quietly into my pillow. Sighing in frustration I throw it across the room. The whole episode from yesterday continues in my head.

"Leyla," she seemed scared as I reached across the table to take her hand, "you can't keep lying to me. I know something is bothering you."

"Yes," I tilt my head and Leyla explains, "it's what your friend said at the end of our first date."

"Oh! That was just boy talk." I shrug it off, not really wanting to talk about it.

"Was it? Just like I'm a bet?" Leyla's words cut through me. How could I have caused so much pain to the one person I loved the most?

Getting up, I slip a shirt on so I'm not just wearing my boxers. "Is that why she was being so distant lately?" I whisper to myself as I head down the stairs. "Maybe at the beginning she was a bet..."

"But not anymore?" Someone else's voice startles me, nearly sending me down the last couple steps. I glare up to see whose voice it is. It's Amnisty.

"Mind your own business, rat." I growl through the darkness at her.

She ignores my insult, walking past me and saying, "Leyla told us. Me and Amelia. Now that I think about it, they haven't been around since yesterday either. Do you know anything about that?" Amnisty looks back at me over her shoulder.

"I figured that something was bothering her, so I decided to explain everything from the beginning. She left in tears thinking that all she was was a bet." I try to step past Amnisty, but the pipsqueak stops me.

"You've already messed up." She shakes her head. "It would probably be best to let her go."

I grab her wrist and squeeze it hard, causing Amnisty pain. I see her grit her teeth in the darkness, but she refuses o make a sound. I shove her away. "What do you know?"

Amnisty catches herself rather quickly and spins around to face me. "I know that you love her and that you're too afraid to admit it." Her voice is getting a bit loud.

Soon it hard to talk below a whisper. "So what? Yeah, I love her! But it's too late for that. I already fucked up." I bare my teeth at Amnisty.

A calm realization dawns on her. "You left her?" I can't get the words to come out of my mouth, but I nod a yes. Amnisty looks down. "And here I was in the dark, rooting for you guys."

"Well you chose wrong," I push past her, but stop in the doorway. There at the kitchen island I see Amelia and Leyla kissing. The moonlight baths them softly, and they seem so into each other that not even the squeak of the door breaks their kiss. I feel vile rise in my throat, but turn swiftly on my feet to go back to my room.

I hear Amnisty as I rush past her. Her asking me what it is, but I don't stop to tell her. Just as I reach the top, I hear a gasp, probably from Amnisty, and Leyla's voice mixed with Amelia's.