What Comes Next

Chapter 21: Leo

Chapter 21: Leo

Amber's list of greivances, which we now jokingly refer to as 'The Decleration of Codependence', was only phase one of who knows how many steps I'll have to take before I can smooth things over with Antoinelle. But phase two has arrived: find her.

I'm aware of how simple that sounds but the wrath of Max has kept me away from our Starbucks and same goes for the children at the youth center. I just hope she doesn't hate me. I mean realistically our last conversation was a positive one, but then two minutes later she blacked out so...

I pull into the parking lot of one Spindler's Frozen Custard. A vaguely worded tumblr post suggested she found a job and is working somewhere cold that gives her a good arm workout. Needless to say, I've visited every ice cream and custard shop this side of the Charles River. I know that sounds desperate. Hell, that's the very definition of desperate. But I miss Nellie. I miss the random conversations about gay cats and grizzled walruses.

I order one rocky road cone from the man at the counter and take a seat by the restrooms. No Nellie. Also, I'm getting really sick of cold dairy. Finishing my cone, I push myself out of the booth and head towards the garbage to toss out my wrapper. Just as I stand up, an employee with a cleaning cart exits the bathroom, swinging the door into my face. "Ouch!"

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" The employee says, turning around to apologize. Face to face with the one and only, I say "Déjà vu."

My legendary humor is returned with an angry stare from Nellie, who grabs the door and slams it against my face, again.

Rubbing my face in pain I say, "I deserved that."

"You quit!" She yells.

"Wait what?"

"You left me and those kids at the youth center!" I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding and start to smile; she doesn't hate me. At least not for the reasons I thought. "Why are you smiling? Who gave you the right to smile?" She hisses. "No one. I'm sorry." I say suppressing a laugh. "That's what I thought." She starts to push her cart away. "Wait. Nel-Nel." She stops and I bump into her. I don't think I've ever seen her look more scary. Not even after that time Jack was caught collecting bets on whether or not Antoinelle would notice the message he had written on her Softtail's license plate.

"What did you just call me?"

Noticing her clenched face and raging eyes, I look at her, petrified. "I don't recall." She looks me up and down menacingly and I suddenly feel six inches tall. "Well," she says in a terrifyingly soft voice, "if you remember, maybe you can come face me and all of those kids you abandonded right before Christmas. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a job that I hate and am about to go quit."

I thought about what she said as she walked away. I quit working at the youth center because I didn't want to ruin something I know is so important to her. I'm an idiot. She doesn't love the center, she loves the kids! And by leaving them I was, in essence, hurting her even more.

~

Phase three.

"Jackass."

"Excuse me." I grab the back of Jack's shirt, pulling him back. He looks away. "What do you want?" I sigh. "I want to tell you how proud I am of you."

He looks back toward me and I take that as permission to proceed, "You were there for Nellie and that's more than I can say. So, anyway, you can go on about your day hating me or, if you get bored, I could sure use your help to patch things up between me and her."

~

Nellie's face looked annoyed and had an I-thought-so expression on it when she entered the youth center only to see me. The others, even the government offical, were less than enthused about my return.