Never Met a Girl Like Her | ✔️

(17)

H E A T H

Smack

Smack

Smack

My consciousness started to stir at the incessant assault on my arm. I was waking up from a dream that I was already beginning to forget. But the image of ice blue eyes and dark hair began to dissolve the further that I arose from slumber.

"Heath, wake up."

I opened my eyes to find Mom standing over me. She'd opened my curtains and the sun was beaming in, hitting the blinds and creating a pattern on the comforter.

"What's up?" I asked, voice thick and full of exhaustion. "Is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine," she lightly laughed. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm taking Sarah and her friend out for the day."

The day, what was the day... Sunday. It's the one day of the week that Mom refuses to work. I was glad to know that she was going to spend it with Sarah. The usual routine was movies or shows. Good food. The beach. Sometimes if Sarah was too sick, they just hung around the house in their PJs.

"Sounds good Ma," I closed my eyes and pulled the cover up further over my bare chest. "Did you have to open the curtains though?"

"It's ten."

"It's Sunday."

She didn't humour me with a response and shut the door behind her. Before I got out of bed, I went through my phone and watched all of the snapchats that Leonie had sent me over the course of the night. The last one was her and Jess walking into the club that Jade had granted them access to.

I wondered how her head was this morning but remembered that she handled her hangovers well. Still, I knew that she had a Sunday ritual and figured I'd save her a task and deliver her some fries. She'd appreciate it. There was a little motivation in knowing that I would get to see her as well.

I dressed in a pair of black joggers and a plain V neck T-shirt. I didn't want to pick up the fries from Charlie's because I knew that they would be cold by the time I got to South Beach. So instead I stopped at a beach side diner near her apartment building and bought her a punnet of thick cut fries.

The weather was warming up fast. Lazy Sunday beach goers laid out in front of the ocean and the overall pace of the people was slower. More relaxed. As it often was on a Sunday.

When I arrived at Leonie's apartment building, I felt that familiar disbelief at the luxurious living conditions. Her doorman, Freddie,  greeted me and seemed amused to see that I was cradling a punnet of hot fries as I passed. I thought about her while I rode the elevator. I thought about her smile when she saw me. Of course, at this point, I knew enough to know that she'd be more excited about her food. Still, that was fine with me.

My knuckles tapped the apartment door once and it swung open before my fist could make contact with it again. Leonie was standing behind a tall dude in a beanie. She was wearing PJ shorts and a bra.

I hated him.

That was immediate. Possibly uncalled for as well. I didn't know him at all. But I hated him.

He recoiled when he saw me and held up his hands. "I didn't know that she had a boyfriend."

Leonie scoffed and shoved him in the back. "Goodbye."

He slipped past me with his back against the wall and I watched as he made an awkward run for the elevator. It wasn't that I didn't want to punch him in the face, because I did. But I wasn't going to.