10 More Days With You (REWRITING)

Chapter 3: Leah Thatcher

"Do I actually have to go over there?" Leah asked her mother after school that day.

      "I think it's a nice way to welcome the new neighbours," Her mother replied.

      Leah's mom had always been intent on making sure everyone was happy. Unfortunately, that didn't leave time for her mom to worry about herself, and you can probably guess where that got her. She only just got off the anti-depressants. 

      Leah turned to Jasmina, who was staying for the night, and signed: Come with me? 

      Hell no, she signed back. The sign for "hell" was quite peculiar. Like a two-fingered hook scraped down the right side of the face. 

      Thanks for your support, Mina, Leah signed.

      Leah turned to her mother. "Fine, I'll go over."

      She had almost reached the door when her mother called out, "Be nice, Leah."

      Leah turned around and said with a smirk, "Only if they are."

      She left before her mother could say anything else.

      The house next door was actually a fair bit smaller than the other houses on Leah's street. It was a two-storey house with three cement steps leading up to a small porch of the same material. Around the perimeter of the porch, there was a metal railing. The house had a cherry-red door. Leah had never understood why someone would want a red door, but to each his own. Vines clung to the house all over. Leah had always thought that they looked like they were strangling the house, choking the life out of the old structure. But now they sagged, barely clinging to the pale gray exterior. They looked worn out. They were a beautiful jade green once, but time had slowly faded it to the colour of a rotting avocado.

      She knocked on that cherry-red door four times (she has always had a weird thing for even numbers, don't judge). For an entire two minutes, no one answered. That doesn't sound like a long time, but when you're just standing and waiting, it is.

      Oh, screw this, Leah thought. She was already on the third step when the door opened. With her head down, she walked back up the steps. She raised her head to say hi. But she couldn't. Because she saw his face. And he was absolutely gorgeous. That was the only word she could use to describe him. Absolutely gorgeous. And perfect.

      His hair was perfectly swept to the side. He was muscular, too. But not too muscular. The perfect median. And the chip crumbs around his mouth made her want to giggle. But her feeling of uphoria immediately dissapated when she realized that someone this perfect could never feel the same way about her.

      She finally worked up the courage to speak. 

      "Hi, I'm...um..." Name? What? Oh, that's right. "I'm Leah. I'm your next door neighbour."

      Nailed it.

      "Hunter," the boy replied. "What do you want?"

      Oh. Ouch.

      "My mom wanted me to come over and say hi-"

      "Yeah, well, you just said hi, so you can leave now," he didn't sound angry or irritated. He sounded sad.

      "Wow," Leah snapped angrily. "Do you think I want to be here? My mother would have taken away my phone if I hadn't come over. I was just trying to be polite, so you can stop being a jerk."

      She stormed down the cement porch steps and across the lawn to her house, slamming the door shut behind herself. Her mother, who was waiting in the living room, emerged from the couch on which she sat.

      "What do you think of them?" she asked perkily. "I met with Ms. Davidson a few days ago and she told me she had a son-"

      "I'm never talking to that god-awful boy again." Leah stormed up to her room and flopped down on the bed.

      She felt a hand on her back and jumped. She remembered that Jasmina was still there.

      What happened? she signed, a concerned look on her face.

      Leah sighed. "He was a total jerk."

      He? Jasmina signed with a mischievous smile.

      Leah whacked her with a pillow. "Never. Going. To. Happen. Ever."

      Jasmina put the index finger on her left hand out. She laid it on top of the thumb of her right hand. She then laid index, middle, and ring finger of her right hand on top of it. This is a sign Leah chose not to translate.

      "I am not!" she screamed, and began repeatedly hitting Mina with her goose-down pillow.

      Jasmina picked up the other down pillow and started to defend herself. The two girls had a full-on pillow fight. And for the first time in a long time, Leah laughed. Not the little chuckling kind of laugh. Not the "I have nothing to say to you so I'm just gonna laugh and leave" kind of laugh. Leah laughed a completely happy laugh.

      The pillow fight escalated to the point where Leah had to hide under her bed to escape the harassment. Mina was vicious when it came to pillow-fighting, and Leah simply couldn't compete or escape. 

      After a little while Leah called off the fight by bringing her right hand down on her open left palm at a right angle, the ASL sign for stop. 

      Once Leah had pried the pillow from Jasmina's hands and put it back at the head of the bed, the two girls sat down on the bed.

      Talk to me, Mina signed.

      Leah sighed. "Fine. I just have to get something."

      She ran to her bathroom and started randomly opening drawers. This was how she found things, as she was the most unorganized person out of all of her friends. Although, lately Dylan had been giving her a run for her money.

      At last, she found what she sought. Leah never knew why she owned six different bottles of black nail polish. Emo trash, she guessed. She ran back to her room with the bottles (yes, all six of them, don't judge), and jumped onto the bed next to Jasmina. Leah presented the bottles to her, and spread a rag towel out on her carpet.

      The two girls lay down on their stomachs on either side of the towel and started painting their fingernails with the inky black nail polish. Leah explained what happened next door with the guy. She couldn't quite remember his name, she only remembered that it started with an H. 

      The explanation shouldn't have taken so long, but both girls were blowing their nails dry by the time it was finished.

      Guys are stupid, Mina signed. You're too good for a guy like that. 

      Leah wrapped her arms around Mina. She didn't need a boy. All she needed was her best friend. All she needed was the people that loved her. She hadn't felt happiness in a while, but she was pretty sure that this was it. This was pure happiness. Absolute joy. Perfection.