LOVE, LEIA (letters to tom) • Tom Holland au •

SEVENTEEN

It's been four days since Leia and Tom had their 'talk', and things had been on the low after that. Neither of the two brought the kiss up, nor had they brought the topic about Leia leaving up.

Leia decided on attending her classes for the remaining days she had before leaving, thinking that she just might as well do.

People around school campus would still send her judgmental glances every once in a while, but it didn't seem to matter that much anymore. She never got to find out who it was that started terrible rumors about her, though she kind of had an idea of who it was. Speaking of which; she also never got a chance to talk to Carmen or Bryan. Even though Carmen would call her name and try to start a conversation with her, she'd only turn and walk the other way.

Did she feel bad about ignoring Carmen? Definitely a yes, but she just felt like she already had too much on her plate to add another problem to try and solve.

Bryan on the other hand, was a no show. Apparently, he hadn't been attending his classes ever since he and Tom had a fist fight or a bitch fight, which Tom preferred to call it.

Leia was barely home now, she spent the majority of her days outside, or at the library, or with Tom. She only ever was home at night, when she needed to sleep.

Although she didn't want to leave, she had nowhere to go. "If you choose to disobey, I won't be accepting you here in my house anymore." She would recall her mother say. Which left her with no choice but to go.

Leia hadn't yet brought up anything about her and Tom. She hadn't asked anything related to that either. She felt very guilty because she felt like she pressured Tom into saying that he loved her. If she was going to leave, she figured she might as well just stay in the friendzone anyway.

Leia was sitting alone at the cafeteria during lunch time when Samantha and Carmen walked up to her, a frown etched on both of their faces.

Immediately packing her things, Leia was not in the mood to talk to anyone at the moment.

"Wait! Leia, please just let us talk" Carmen begged, giving Leia a hopeful look.

Leia being Leia, of course she couldn't just say 'no'. So she did. She let them talk. Not expecting to hear the words that the both of them then said.

"I'm sorry" Carmen started, taking a seat across Leia, Samantha following suit. "For everything. I've been a major bitch and a shit load failure of a friend" she reached for Leia's hand, holding it in between both of hers. "I was just.. It's just.. I've always liked Bryan. Ever since the three of us started hanging out. But he's always liked you more and I couldn't handle that. I was a jealous little fucker and I dealt with jealousy terribly."

Leia was speechless, unsure of what to feel. Was she supposed to be mad? Upset? The only thing she was feeling then was sympathy. She just wanted to give Carmen a hug.

"I let jealousy get the best of me and that made me do things that are just borderline shitty." She paused, then continued. "I started rumors about you. I was just.. I felt so terrible about myself that I was desperate to have someone to blame. I told everyone that you were fucking Tom behind Sam's back. Which isn't true!" She paused once again, only to look at Samantha as if she's swearing on her life that Leia didn't do things with Tom behind Samantha's back. Not that she knew of anyway..

"I'm sorry.." By the time Carmen was done apologizing, she was a sobbing mess. And Leia was just confused. Shocked and confused.

Leia loved Carmen to bits and she couldn't stand seeing her like this. No matter what it is that she's done, Leia had already forgiven her before she even said sorry.

Leia then got up from her seat, before enveloping Carmen in a tight embrace. A sincere one. She rubbed her back soothingly, saying things like 'it's okay' and 'I forgive you'.

Just as soon as Carmen had calmed down, Samantha cleared her throat, bringing the attention of the two girls to settle on her.

"Well.. I'm here because even though I know it was not your intention to have Tom fall for you, he had. He's just been so distant lately, and every time we would kiss, he'd stop me before it even got anywhere else" Leia's heart clenched at the thought of Tom and Samantha kissing, instantly feeling bad about getting in between the couple, which was the one thing she didn't want to do.

"So we had a talk last night.. And he told me everything."

Scared would be an understatement to what Leia was feeling as those words left Samantha's mouth. Had Tom told her about their kiss? Had he told her that he said he loved Leia?

"He told me that you have a flight scheduled in three days. He told me that you're moving to Australia. Which is like ten thousand miles from New York-

"What? You're leaving!?" Carmen squealed, gasping at the news

Leia just nodded, internally grateful for Tom not telling Samantha that they had kissed not just once, but thrice behind her back.

"And he told me that he's not going to let you leave" she smiled weakly at her.

Leia's heart broke for Samantha, she didn't want to hurt her, it was never her intention to break her heart. In fact, she was never the one to kiss Tom first. It was Tom who'd connected their lips. But she still kissed him back and she wasn't complaining so there was dirt on her hands just as much as Tom had on his.

"He loves you, Leia.. He loves you a lot"