Blame it on September

Chapter 9(Leila)

Chapter 9 (Leila)

“Are you sure we didn’t forget anything?” Annabelle asks with excitement written all over her face.

“Yes, yes! Just get in the car and drive!” I say reassuring her we didn’t forget any of our belongings inside the hotel. She sighs and jumps into the car with a smile spreading from ear to ear. The keys go into the ignition and the engine starts to come alive.

The apartment was two stories, it had three bedrooms an office and two bathrooms. Of course Annabelle and I would get our separate rooms, and she said she had a friend who was willing to stay with us and pay for half of the rent. Annabelle agreed right away knowing we might need help with the pay and that the apartment was too big for just us two. The people who lived here before had left the couches and kitchen appliances, so we only have to buy the beds and we will be good to go.

I pull out my phone and text Shay to tell her to come over. After about five minutes later she replies telling me she has to stay home with her dad tonight, but she would be over tomorrow. Shay is so understanding, the whole thing with Luke only brought me and Shay closer together. She took my side over his and that made me realize how good of a friend she is.

“So what room do you want?” Annabelle asks walking into the kitchen carrying a few of her bags.

“It doesn’t matter; they’re all the same size.”

“Alright then I am taking the one with the pink walls.”

I nod my agreement and take my bags to my new room. The walls are a baby blue and the match my deep blue eyes. I set down my bags and spin around in a circle studying the walls and imagining how it will look when we finally get a bed in here. There was already a dark brown bedside table and matching dresser placed against the wall.

I open up the closet to find a little white box sitting in the corner. I pick it up curious of why someone would leave it in here. I open it to find there is nothing in it. I examine the box real close and find something written on the bottom. It says “Happy Birthday!” how exciting.

I toss it in the bathroom trash can and jog down the stairs looking for Annabelle. She is on her way out the door when I hear her yelling out to someone. I look out the window and see someone in a gray sweatshirt and dark blue jeans with their hood up. I can’t make out their face because their head is faced down.

I jump at the realization that the person is Luke. My heart is racing and I hide behind the curtain so he can’t see me. I hear a mumbled talk between him and Annabelle and I turn to peak out the window. He turns around and continues his walk towards the town. Annabelle has a blank expression and walks back towards the door.

“What was he doing here?” I ask, not sure I really want to know the answer.

“He asked if we were moving in and that was it,” She replied not realizing who it was that she was talking to. “Wait, was that-“

“Yes, that was Luke!” I interrupted sounding harsher than I intended.

“What? If I would have known that I would’ve punched him in his face.” I notice her clenching her fists and tightening her jaw.

“Calm down, I don’t really care. I mean we are practically neighbors now and I’m not going to let him ruin my life.” She nods her agreement and walks away not knowing I lied and was really hurt by what Luke did to me.

I reach for my phone that is sitting on the coffee table and see that I have 2 missed calls and a voice mail. It was from my mom, I take a few seconds to bare myself for what I am about to hear. I enter my lock code and this is what I hear “One new voice mail, press one to listen” I press one not knowing what I got myself into. “Hi Lei, it’s Mom, I know me and your father messed everything up, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t worried about you,” I feel tears well up in my eyes and I can’t help but to hate myself right now. “I thought you might want to know so I’m just going to tell you. Me and Dad got into a car crash last week and I am okay, but Dad is still in the hospital. He didn’t have his seatbelt on and his head hit the windshield. Thank god he didn’t fly through, but he does have a concussion and he has to get surgery to get some glass removed from his forehead. He also broke a few ribs, but the doctors said that isn’t a problem, they will hurt, but they will heal okay. I hope you come back, and I hope you at least call me and tell me that you are okay. We are worried about you guys, we want to know you are safe. I love you.”

I click the end button and fall to my knees. I can’t believe we left them, and now they were hurt in a car accident.

“Do you want spaghetti?” Annabelle asks looking up from the box of noodles. She rushes over trying to cradle me in her arms. “What happened? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

I open my mouth to tell her about the voice mail but nothing comes out. She sees the phone in my hand and takes it from me.

“Did Luke say something?”

“No, Mom left a voice mail, listen,” I look up at her wiping away the tears that have fallen from my icy blue eyes. She gulps and holds the phone to her ear. Her jaw drops and her eyes bug out of her head. No tears, nothing. She doesn’t seem upset at all, only surprised. She pulls the phone away from her face and turns it off, not losing her funny expression; she turns towards me trying to gather her thoughts.

“So, um, what are we going to do?” She asks looking as calm as can be.

“I don’t know, should we go see them?” I reply, my voice shaky.

“Maybe you should just call them, because she might just be lying to get us to come back.”

“I will call tomorrow; I don’t want to deal with all of this in one day.”

“I agree. So are you okay now?” I nod and stand on my feet, holding out my hands to help Anna to her feet as well. We make our way into the kitchen and add the spaghetti to the pot of boiling water. My phone vibrates and I take it out of my pocket, before I can even look at it Annabelle snatches it from me and then gives it back.

“What was that for?” I ask reading the text from Shay saying that Luke isn’t home so if I want I can come over. I text her back saying I am eating dinner with Annabelle and I might come over for a little bit afterwards.

“I wanted to make sure it wasn’t Mom or Dad so you wouldn’t answer. Sorry, I just think it is for the best if you give it some time.”

I hop off of the stool and walk into the living room. The people that lived here before had pretty good style; the room was a light gray and was furnished with white couches and pretty throw pillows. There were elegant vases full of fake flowers. I plop down on the couch and wish they had left a nicer television. It will have to do for now, but it was sitting on the floor and was pretty small. I turned it on using the remote sitting on the coffee table. I flicked through the channels and left it on ‘The Notebook’.

“Do you want sauce?” Annabelle poked her head into the room making me jump from the sudden sound.

“Yes please, but not too much,” I answer turning my head back to the movie I’ve seen over a hundred times.

A few minutes later Annabelle returns with two plates and sits down beside me. I take mine and immediately scarf it down. I wait for the commercials to come on so I can refill my drink, and pile on more spaghetti. As soon as I come back into the room I find Annabelle to be sleeping on the couch and the movie to be back on. I grab my phone and text Shay to tell her I’m not going to be coming over today because it has been a long day, but I will definitely be over tomorrow if it’s alright. Not even a minute later she texts back saying Luke will be home and she can come here so we don’t have to cross paths. I say okay and they head to my room to change into my pajamas.

When I finish I go to the bathroom to wash up and find myself to look like a train wreck. My eyeliner is smudged everywhere and my cover up is worn off. I am glad Luke didn’t see me if I looked like this. I would have been humiliated.

I brush my hair and pull it back into a messy bun. I brush my teeth until they are sparkling clean and wash all of the left over make-up off. I turn off the light and head back into the living room to go to bed. I check my phone before dozing off to sleep and see Luke had texted me saying “Nice to know we’re practically neighbors now.” I don’t answer, but instead delete the message, so I don’t have the urge to text him back. Before I know it, my eyes are closed, and I am dreaming.