Isabella & Levi | ✓

eight

"Jess," Isabella cried in exasperation, "please, Jess, let me explain, will you?"

Levi's first thought was one of nosiness, of wanting to pry and figure out what was going on, but the second, which in retrospect trumped the first one, was that he shouldn't have been listening to her phone call.

It was too easy, he thought. They were at a park; it was the perfect day to go to the park, Isabella had said earlier.

In the middle of her animated story of her mother's awful pot roast, she got a call from Jessica Landon, of course.

Although she was good at hiding it, a frown creased her features before she could cover it up with a bubbly, "Jessica!"

She walked twenty feet away from Levi and leaned on the opposite side of a huge oak tree, and because Levi had always been too nosy for his own good, he followed her, sitting on the exact opposite side of the tree.

"You didn't give me time to explain, Jess," she'd say.

"You only listened to his side, Jess. You're my best friend, Jess, not his," she'd add.

"Jessica, stop, please," she'd beg.

As Levi continued listening, he thought of how much Isabella was like him, in this very moment. He thought of how her voice sounded as though someone ripped out her vocal cords and ran then over twice; he thought of how shaky her breath was and the deep breathing he'd have to do before picking her up.

In fact, Levi Schultz thought so much that he wasn't aware of the fact that Isabella was right in front of him, puffy eyed and pink nosed.

It was a sense of déjà vu, from the very first day he had met her in that diner. Her eyes were calmer though, the extreme emotions somewhat appeased.

"Levi," she said with a curt nod, "care to provide me with an explanation?"

She stood akimbo, tapping her foot on the grass. Her hair was flying all over the place, and she struggled to tuck some baby hairs behind her ears.

"Look," she cut him off with a shake of her head, "can you just take me home?It's been a long day."

He nodded and dusted the dirt off his jeans. The two walked quietly and slowly back to the car. Isabella's eyes wandered everywhere, looking up at the violet blue skies and down to the dewey grass, but never at Levi's hopeful ones.

He should probably explain, he thought, then opened his mouth to do so. "God, I'm sorry. I've always been really really nosy, and I just-"

She smiled, again with one of those forced ones he hated and interrupted him, "It's fine."

If there were two words he hated the most, it was always those two. It's fine, his mother would say when he broke a shiny heirloom. It's fine, his dad said the night he left. It's fine, Levi said for years.

With a shake of his head to clear some unpleasant thoughts, he pulled up to Isabella's moderately size home.

She walked out, back to Levi the whole time, and just when he thought she would never speak to him again, she raised up her hand and smiled.

"See you Wednesday," she said with that same velvety voice he couldn't resist.