Promise

Chapter 4

The whole day I thought about the message I sent dad. I checked my phone every time I was in the hallway. I tapped my foot on the floor. The bell rung, meaning Lunch was over. I quickly stood up. "Leah! Where at should going?" Kelsey called after me as I ran to the hallway. I took out my phone.

My heart nearly stopped as I saw a message from dad:

Dad- I'm sorry about what I did. I really hope y'all are happy. I will talk to your mom about when you can come visit me.

Me- I don't want to go back to Ohio. Ever.

Dad-...okay. Well maybe I can go to Texas. I love you so much, Leah, I hope you understand that I will be married to someone else now. Please know that that doesn't change my love for you.

My heart broke. "Married"?

I felt sick. I ran to the restroom but as soon as I got there, there was no vomit coming out of my mouth, only tears coming out of my eyes.

I wiped them away. I opened my backpack and took out my makeup bag. I wiped the mascara off of my face and applied new mascara.

I tried my best to not cry. The tardy bell rang. Shit.

I ran out of the restroom and went to Chemistry class. Everyone looked at me. "Sorry. I got lost," I lied. "It's okay, take a seat." The teacher said.

I sat in my assigned lab table. I took a deep breath. My heart was racing because I get anxious when too many people look at me. I suddenly calmed down and my head went back to dad's message. I felt like a mess. I cried in the restroom, was late to class, and now I feel like crying again.

"Okay so now I'm going to pass this paper out. You and your partner work together to answer the questions."

We got out papers and classroom got a little talkative. "Hey," Luke said. I looked at him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I answered.

"Then, why were you crying?" He asked. "How do you-"

"It's obvious," he said. I felt more like a mess. "Do I look bad or some-"

"No! You look great. But your eyes are red."

•

The bell finally rung. I ran out of the class and checked my phone:

Dad- maybe you can at least come to the wedding?

I couldn't believe my eyes. I bit my lip to stop the tears. I felt two tears roll down my cheek. "Hey, Leah!" I heard Luke's voice. I turned around. He furrowed his eyebrows. He looked worried. "What?" I asked, coming out as a sob. "Hey..." he whispered and hugged me. I cried into his chest.

"Do you want to talk?" He asked. I knew I did but if I talked about it, I would end up crying even more, so I grabbed my phone and opened it. I showed him the messages. I waited for him to read all of them. "He cheated on mom. Now, he invites me to the wedding of him and that...bitch!" I cried.

Luke hugged me again. "Ohhh, What happened to Poot Leah now?" I heard. Amanda. I pulled away from Luke. "Amanda Stop." Luke said.

Amanda put her hand on my shoulder. "What happened? Did your parents tell you that you have to go back to Ohio? Oh that's fine with us, nobody wanted you here anyways," she said. I pushed her off of me, "Don't fucking touch me."

"Shut up, Amanda," Luke said. "Oh, why? Weren't you the one who hated her most of all?" Amanda told him. "I'm going to go," I said. "Good. Maybe go back to Ohio, would ya?" Amanda said. "Leah, don't listen to her," I heard Luke.

Amanda laughed as I ran off to the restroom.

•

Kelsey hugged me. "Hey. Don't listen to Amanda. She's a bitch. Whenever she says something just laugh and walk away. You don't care. Remember that, okay?" She said.

I nodded. "And if you don't feel like going to the game today, just know that you're not being forced to go, okay?" She said. I nodded, "Don't worry. I'm going."

She raised her eyebrows, "You sure?"

I smiled and nodded.

•

"Hurry!" Kelsey exclaimed. She grabbed my hand and ran to the bleachers. The game had started. "Let's pretend like we're in middle school again."

I laughed, "okay."

"Oh my god, number 3 is so cute!" She said. I looked at the field. Number three was in the bench with his homer off. It was Jacob. I bursted out laughing. She laughed along, "too much?"

I nodded, continuing to laugh.

"Remember when we went to get Ice Cream and I dropped it on the floor? My mom wouldn't let me get another one so you gave me yours and told me you weren't hungry anyways?" She asked. I laughed and nodded, "and then we went the next day again?"

We both laughed. "Oh! And that one time we went to the water park and you slipped and fell down and then we laughed and you scraped your knee so your mom had to go get a cold Gatorade to put it on ur knee?" She asked. I nodded, smiling.

We ended up remembering everything. "And when we went to your house and sang karaoke?"

I laughed harder and nodded, "we were such bad singers."

"You weren't! You were great but we were on some kind of drugs that day so we were singing bad on purpose," she said. I almost cried of laughter. Suddenly, I had forgotten about my dad. Kelsey still had it.Every time I was sad, she would just start talking and make me laugh.

That's better than, "want to talk about it?"

We both looked back at the field. "We missed you. The three of us. Even though Luke never admitted it, I know he missed you, too."

I smiled, "I missed all of you, too."

We were both smiling at each other. "So what happened with Luke?"She asked. I looked at the field. I recognized him even though he was wearing a helmet. I sighed and looked at Kelsey,

"It's hard to get over him, you know?"