One Last Dance

One Last Dance (Chapter 28)

VANESSA's POV:

Laura's seemed off the past few weeks. Ever since she got the glass in and pulled out of her leg.

I would try to talk to her but she completely pretended I wasn't there.

She'd cry every night and when I tried to help her, she'd push me away.

It's been almost a month since we've seen or even talked to the Lynches.

Sometimes I wonder if Laura's tears have something to do with that.

It was May 7th, early in the morning and I was still hearing sniffling from the living room.

I heard a loud knock at the door.

When another knock was heard, I got up from the bed and headed out into the Main room.

Laura was on the couch, crying silent tears.

I walked over to the door, and opened it.

A large man stood there.

"Hello. How may I help you?"

"I'm Jim, the landlord of this building. May I speak to Ms. Marano, the one renting this apartment?"

I nodded and turned to look at Laura. "The landlord's here."

She got up and walked over to the door. "I know what you're here for so just save the yelling. I'll get my stuff and be out by tonight."

He nodded. "Good. Thank you!"

Laura shut the door and started heading to the kitchen.

Confused, I followed her to ask her what was going on.

"Laur, what was he doing here? What did he want?"

She didn't answer me.

She opened up all the cupboards took all the food, drinks, shakers, utensils, plates, and bowls and placed them on the table.

"Laur, I'm going to ask you one more time! What is--"

"We're leaving! That's what's going on! We're being kicked out! And guess what! We have no where to go so we're going to be living out in the street with no money. And when the food runs out, we're gonna die! But who cares anyway?!"

My lips parted in shock. "You know none of that's true!"

She shook her head. "No, I don't know."

I gulped. "The Lynches will take us in! And they'll give us food. And if we died, you know pretty damn well that all of them would being crying their eyes out for weeks."

She closed her eyes as if trying to ignore what I was saying.

"Let's go there," I said putting my hand on my shoulder.

She pulled away.

"No."

I looked down at the ground trying to think.

"Fine, but if you won't come with me out of your own free will, I will not hesitate to drag you there."

She looked me in the eye and for the first time I saw something I've never seen in Laura.

Depression.

Hopelessness.

"Trust me," I said. "We need to let go of this pain. We need to say goodbye to this part of our lives and whether we want to or not say hello to a new side of things. No more hiding. No more running. We need to start looking for happiness. We need to turn to the people that love us most."

I heard her choke out, "Ross?"

I nodded. "Yeah. And the rest of them-- so what do you say?"

A small tear flew down her cheek.

She nodded.

I smiled. "Thank you so much, Laur! I love you!"

I pulled her in for a tight hug.

I felt tears fall onto my shoulder.

"Stop crying. Cuz I'm gonna start crying and we're both gonna be messes."

She laughed and pulled away. "I love you too, Ness."