Lea wiped a few stray tears from her eyes before turning away from the journal and focusing on Dylan. "You proposed to her?" she asked, in a barely audible voice. She didn't know why she was asking. She already knew the answer. It was written plain as day in Mason's journal. But, Lea needed to hear it from Dylan.
Dylan nodded. "I loved her. I really thought she was the one."
Lea felt a pain in her heart when Dylan spoke those words. She didn't know why Dylan's proposal made her so upset. Maybe it was because her emotions were already on edge; what with finding out Mason was a complete and total scumbag...but hearing that Dylan had proposed drew tears from her eyes.
As crazy as it seemed she felt...rejected. After finding out how Mason really thought about her, she felt like she needed some affection and acceptance. But, when she looked at Dylan now, she only saw a man who loved another woman, so much that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, married. She saw a man who would never truly love her.
It changed things.
"Are you going to be okay?" Jade asked Lea, noticing the tears. "Do you want to call it a day?"
"I'm fine," Lea responded sharply. She didn't mean to use that tone of voice with Jade, but she was confused. She wasn't sure if that was true...if she really would be fine. There were two many emotions rushing through her at that moment to make sense of any of them. But she knew that she had to keep going. It didn't matter at the moment how she felt about Mason's betrayal or Dylan's proposal to Sofia...she did need something.
She craved the complete, naked truth more than anything else. She wouldn't stop until she got it.
She nodded, more to convince herself than anybody else, that she would be just fine.
Lea flipped through the notebook, but irritation added to the mix of emotions stirring inside of her as she realized they had read the last entry. The last entry marked August 20th, 2009.
The night before Sofia's murder.
"You guys said you had a huge falling out right before Sofia's murder because you found out about her infidelity..." Lea continued, slowly finding her voice again.
"Yea, and it was that night...the night Mason wrote that entry was the night of our huge fight...and the last night I ever saw Sofia alive."
Dylan looked away, and Lea knew he was returning to that night. A sadness washed over him that chilled Lea to the bone. She could only imagine what terrible images plagued his mind.
Lea reached across the table and took his hand in hers. Regardless of the way Dylan's proposal made her feel, she knew he needed her strenghth right now. She'd have to be strong enough to push her feelings aside. They'd deal with those later.
Right now they had things to do.
She squeezed his hand reassuringly. He looked up and locked eyes with her.
"Tell me about it?" She asked. "Tell me everything that happened that night."
...
Evelyn walked into her dark lonely apartment and flicked on the overhead light. It flickered into a dim, flourescent glow and just managed to illuminate her small, homey living area. After a long day at work , Evelyn welcomed the sight of her familiar, brown leather, sunken in couch. All she wanted to do was fall asleep in front of the television with a huge bowl of Rocky Road ice cream.
On any usual night, Evelyn would be at Lea's apartment. But as of late, Evelyn really didn't know where she wanted to stand with her best friend.
Lea was hiding something from her. She didn't know what, but it really didn't matter. Why should it matter what the secret was? The fact of the matter was that Miley was keeping secrets.
