Settling The Score

Part 29

*Lucy's P.O.V.

"I'm really getting worried about her, Carlos," I whispered as I clutched his hand even tighter.

"This has been happening for two years now, Luce, she'll be okay," he tried consoling me, but I wasn't convinced.

Every year, on this date, I spend the entire day worrying about her. Worrying if this will finally be the day she slips away completely.

At six o'clock this morning, I heard Leslie get up from the bed next to mine. She didn't talk as she pulled on a tank top and a pair of shorts. I watched her as she silently opened the door and went to go sit on the beach, staring blankly out at the waves.

I found it really odd at first. She gave out the vibe that she didn't want any questions asked, so I left it alone, but then I saw the date on my phone. And I knew. Today would be bad. Very bad.

I was the first one to go to her.

When noon hit, and she still hadn't moved from her spot, I went out to take her a sandwich. She simply shook her head when I offered it to her.

I sat with her for a little while longer before eventually giving up and going back inside.

Carlos tried next, and eventually, my mom and dad went out as well. None of them had any luck.

I didn't know where my stupid brother was. He was probably the only one, other than myself that knew what she was going through. Carlos also lost his parents, but he kept saying that it wasn't the same, since he was so young that he barely remembered them.

Three years ago, today. Leslie went through something no fourteen-year-old should ever go through. She never told me exactly what happened that night, but she didn't have to. It was evident on her face that it had been horrific.

She was not the same Leslie I grew up with afterward. Something inside of her had changed, maybe just on a microscopic level and yet it was so abundantly clear.

I still loved her, just as much as I had before, even if she became a little darker, a small shadow now marking her bright and fiery soul.

Eventually, she bounced back, but she held her guard up so completely and unbreakably after the events of that day, that it was troubling at best.

That was why what happened between her and Mason had surprised me so completely. For the first time since her world was ripped away from her, Leslie began looking like Leslie again. That amazing soul of hers burning a little brighter, day by day.

Then there was my brother. When Jamie passed away, I thought I lost Mason too.

First Leslie, and then my strong, fierce big brother.

Jamie had been Mason's best friend since he left to go to boarding school. He had been the only one able to keep Mason's spirits high in that place so far away from his family. And when I first met Jamie, I instantly fell in love with him and his self-assuredness, even though I was just a little girl.

But I know now that we were not meant to be. Not when the person who set my heart on fire was in front of me all along.

I squeezed Carlos' hand again as the thought went through my mind.

The sun was already low over the horizon, it would set in another hour.

Just then, Mason came strolling into the open-plan kitchen and started making himself a sandwich.

"Where have you been?" I asked him pointedly.

He looked a bit confused at my firm tone. "Went to go catch some waves. They've been amazingly high all day. It was great."