"Lea, are you okay?"
Lea snapped out of her trance long enough to look up and make eye contact with her best friend, Evelyn Grimm. They sat at her kitchen table, sipping on large mugs filled with hot chocolate. It was supposed to be a day of relaxation and catching up.
It had been a while since they'd seen each other, because Lea spent almost all her free time at the restaurant. They were supposed to be catching up on the going on's of each other's lives, but Lea couldn't focus.
For the past week, her mind had been elsewhere completely.
"I'm fine," Lea smiled convincingly. "Why do you ask?"
"Why do I ask?" Evelyn raised an eyebrow and gestured toward the other girl's mug. "You haven't even touched your hot chocolate, which is like your favorite drink ever! And you hardly said a word this entire get together! What's up girl!?"
Lea shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing's up, I promise."
"You're lying. What are you keeping from me?" Evelyn let out a gasp. "Is there a new guy in your life or something!? Do tell!"
"There's nothing to tell, Evie! A new guy?! Are you crazy!?"
"Well, I just thought you decided to finally move on after--"
"Don't mention his name, please." Lea rolled her eyes and took a sip of her hot cocoa, a little disheartened at the fact that it was no longer hot.
She didn't want to think about Mason or the things that he put her through. It happened three years ago and she wanted to keep it in her past. She knew if she didn't, all the feelings she tried so hard to bury would resurface and she didn't want to admit to herself that she still loved him.
There was only one real reason that Lea hadn't moved on from all the turmoil she went through three years ago. After everything that went down, she was still completely in love with Mason Edwards.
"Fine, I won't mention him," Evelyn sighed. "But c'mon, don't you think it's time to move on? Get out there and start dating again? I mean yea, Mason was a complete douche but not every guy is going to be like him, and--"
"Evie!?" Lea interjected quickly. "I thought we agreed not to say his name?!"
"Sorry," she shrugged. "You don't think I have a point?"
"I'll start dating when I'm ready. But I'm not going to let somebody hurt me again like he did, and that's that."
"Fine, but it's been three years, Lea. When will you be ready?"
"Evie..."
"Sorry, I'll stop nagging now."
The two girls surrendered to their thoughts once again. Lea knew Mason wasn't what was bothering her.
Well, not completely.
It had been a week since her strange encounter with the Hernandez siblings and she couldn't get them off of her mind.
She had kept her promise. She kept them to herself completely. Most people would be emotionally scarred, and terrified after an ordeal like the one Lea went through with Dylan and Jade Hernandez.
But she wasn't. Not in the slightest.
As weird as it sounded, Lea only wanted them to be safe. She remembered the way Dylan's eyes bore into her with such sincerity as he talked about Sofia, the woman he still loved very much. Maybe it was because Lea saw so much of herself in Dylan's love for Sofia, but she wanted nothing more than for them to get their closure.
She hoped the cops didn't get to them.
Suddenly, as if reading her thoughts, sirens could be heard wailing from outside Lea's window. They snapped Lea back into reality and she locked eyes with Evelyn again.
"What do you think is going on out there?" Evelyn asked nonchalantly, taking another sip of her hot chocolate. "Sounds like quite the raucous."
"I don't know..." Lea let her voice trail off. She didn't know why but she felt like she should go outside and check. She rose from her seat and left the apartment, ignoring Evelyn's questioning as to where she was going.
She opened the door to the apartment building and poked her head outside. At first she saw nothing. She only heard the distant sounds of police sirens and knew they would be turning down her street any second.
Then she averted her eyes to the side of her building and they locked with somebody else's, wide and fearful ones. They were familiar, belonging to somebody she never thought she'd see again.
Dylan Hernandez.
He stood at the side of the apartment building, Jade cowering behind him.
The police had found them? The sirens blasting through the streets belonged to police cars that were searching for Dylan and Jade?
The look on Dylan's face was that of pure terror.
The jig was up.
The sirens grew louder and louder, The threat grew ever more present. Any second now the police would come careening down the street and take Dylan and Jade away, and they would never find Sofia's murderer...they'd never get their closure or clear their names.
Who knew what would happen to them then.
Lea wasn't sure what came over her, but she knew instantly what she would do about it. Seconds later she called out Dylan's name and beckoned or them to come to her.
They obeyed, and seconds after that Lea ushered two escaped convicts into her apartment.
