What Comes Next

Chapter 12: Antoinelle

Chapter 12: Antoinelle

I woke up in a flurry of emotion, unaware of my surroundings. I closed my eyes again trying to erase the pictures in my head. Looking around for a source of comfort my eyes met, "Leo."

"Nellie, are you okay? You're crying." he turned to me, whispering quietly. Touching my face, I felt tears that I didn't know where there. "Oh, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" He said, his eyes filled with concern. "It's just a bad dream," I said. "I've died in many dreams before and I've never cried." he insisted. "Leo just..." More tears began to stream down my face. I tried to stop them but I couldn't. "It's okay." He said softly, pulling me towards his chest. I stay there, in his arms, for a few moments before pulling away. "You know, I really hate it when movies end too." He said gently. Relieved, I smiled back at him, before looking up at the sky to wipe away the remainder of my tears.

It's stressful knowing someone witnessed you after a breakdown, it feels as though someone's caught a glimpse of your secrets, the ones you can't even look at yourself. Forget the blond hair and green eyes, forget the way he laughed, forget the special smile that was only for me. Right now, I just need a friend and I want Leo to be that friend. I guess it's a different matter of telling him everything.

As for the present, I'm sitting behind a counter a JcPenney. I know that I am grateful for missing out on the Black Friday sales. I am also grateful because I will miss a special Late Bird special from nine to midnight that our store does. I am grateful for a lot of things considering my job that I have a dislike-hate relationship with.

"YOU LITTLE ANT! WHERE ARE YOU!" Ah, how I missed Jessica so much over my break period. "I'm right here Jessy-Bell, right where I've been the entire time darling." I responded, my voice bordering on nasally, just for her. "You might as well not have been you little ant." Her eyes shooting daggers at me. "Little ant" was her new favorite nickname for me. Not very fair but nothing about Jessica is fair. Really, she was upset that I wasn't here to help with the early Black Friday sales but she had to give me the time off, considering I almost never took time off. Now, it was her duty to pester me about it all the day long.

"I'm going to take my lunch break now, do you mind?" I asked sweetly. She grunted and waved me off. I skipped out to the break room and grabbed my bag. I was on my way out when I bumped into someone, making us both stumble. "I'm so sorry! Are you-" I had looked up to see who I had bumped into. "Hey, Nellie!" It was Leo. I was pleasantly shocked. "What are you doing here?" He blushed. "Well...I don't have to go back for dinner today so I decided to come see you. I remembered you telling me about working here one day." I smiled. It was sweet of him to remember that.

"Well," I told him, "I'm going out for lunch. If you want, you can join me." He smiled. "Sure, I was going to grab something after I visited you anyways." We walked side-by-side down the pathways. The JcPenney I worked at was part of a mini outlet so there was a movie theatre, multiple stores, and food places scattered around the area. "How about pizza and then some frozen yogurt?" I asked. "Yeah, that's cool with me." Leo said.

We walked in silence for a few seconds until he said, "How do you do it? Stay around clothes all day?" I laughed at him. "It's pretty simple. You just do it." Leo scrunched up his face in this adorable way. Yes, I wasn't afraid to admit that he's adorable anymore because it's true. Last time I checked it wasn't against the law to state facts. "You can come and stay with me at work so you can tell what it's like to be working with clothes." I told him. "Okay," he said, "but if I die because I inhaled too much Sephora perfume it will be your fault." We both smiled.

We entered the pizza place and sat down. I ordered two slices of pepperoni and Leo ordered two slices of cheese. We both got water. Leo chuckled to himself. "What's so funny?" I asked him. Was there something on my clothes? I looked down at myself. No...then what was he laughing about? "It's not you," he said, "it's just that I work at a Marty's where they serve pizza but here I am at some other place getting pizza." I smiled too; I guess that kind of was funny.