Don't Remind Me (Book 2)

-4-

The doorbell rang and I heard Lucinda open it. "Hey, Leona! It's for you."

I walked out and saw Garroth, Travis, and some blue haired guy at the door. "Garroth! Dante!" I ran up to them and threw my arm around them. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Well, we wanted to meet the hot new girl on the street!" Travis smirked at me.

"Wow, you've gotten bold, Travis!" I punched his shoulder and laughed before turning to the familiar looking blue haired boy. "Hey, I'm Leona!"

"Hi! I'm Dante."

"Wait, as in Nicole's Dante?"

"Yeah, how do you know Nicole?"

"Oh, we're old friends from high school." I smiled at him. "You're a lucky guy. It's nice to meet you, Dante."

"I didn't know you went to PDH! Can't believe we didn't meet sooner."

"Yeah, Wow!" I gestured them into the living room. "Y'all live on this street, too? What a coincidence."

"Yeah! We live on the end across the street from Katelyn." Garroth smiled.

"No way! She didn't tell me that."

"We have one more roommate, but he couldn't join us today." Dante said this which resulted in a hit from Travis. "Hey!"

"Oh, nice! Anyone I know?" I got up and headed to the kitchen to bring out some coffee.

"No!" Garroth said quickly. Too quickly.

"What are you talking about!" Dante shook his head. "We went to high school with him! Do you remember Laurance Zvahl?"

I dropped my spoon and felt my chest drop. "W-what did you say?"

"Yeah, we live with Lau-"

"Dante." Travis gestured for him to shut up.

"What? What's the matter?"

Garroth stood up and walked to the kitchen. He gave me a hug. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"Why didn't you?" I leaned away from him. "All those times we've talked on the phone and stuff and you didn't think to tell me that you were living with my ex? Your best friend?"

"I just didn't want to upset you, Leona. I'm sorry. I should've told you."

"Yes you should have... but you were trying to do a nice thing. I'm sorry I over reacted."

"No, I'm sorry." He turned to the tray of coffee mugs. "Need any help with those?"

"Sure, thanks." I handed him the tray and grabbed some milk from the fridge before following him back into the living room.

Dante began fixing his cup of coffee. "So, Leona, Garroth. What's going on with you two?"

"Excuse me?" I blinked.

"What?!" Garroth exclaimed.

"Yeah. You two must be together. You seem to be worried what Laurance would think and-" He looked between us. "Did I... um... misinterpret the situation?"

"Definitely!" I said.

Garroth shook his head. "Not that there's anything wrong with her, but she's like a sister to me, dude!"

"And he's like my brother!"

"There is absolutely nothing between us. Nothing!"

"Woah, no need to get so defensive!" He took a sip of his coffee. "Then what's the deal with Laurance?"

"It's not a big deal." I shrugged. "We just... didn't end on the best of terms."

Flashback

"Sugarmuffin! What's wrong?" 

"Leave me alone, dad!" I ran up to my room and slammed the door, trying to hide my tears. I jumped on my bed and stuffed my head in my pillow. I heard the door slowly creak open.

"Leona? What's wrong? Did he do something to you?"

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Please, sweetie, talk to me. What did he do?"

"Nothing dad!" I sat up, tears streaming down my face. "It was me, not him! I messed up. Me! Now leave. me. alone!" I threw a pillow at him, which I would later regret, and he finally obeyed me and left.

This wasn't my proudest moment ever. I was... um, pretty upset about the whole situation. So much so that I didn't leave my bed for a week. All I did was cry and watch Friends which, for once didn't make me laugh. I wouldn't eat much of anything and got in the habit of throwing up again. I was in a horrible state. I even skipped a few days of school, which would later cause me to lose being Valedictorian. The next Saturday, I was really out of it and barely noticed the quiet whispering outside my door before it opened. I then felt part of the bed dip a little and a hand pat my shoulder.

"Leo..." Katelyn said softly. "Please. Talk to me. What happened."

I started sobbing more.

"Leo you have to talk about it sometime. You're clearly not okay."

"I-I ruined it. I ruined it, Katey."

"Ruined what?"

"I'm the reason we." I took a deep breath. "We broke up."

"Y-you two... what?"

I turned towards her and sat up. "We broke up Katey. We broke up because I couldn't be honest with him."

"In what way? You're not making since right now."

"I wouldn't tell him about California. The whole long distance thing has been so hard on us. Because of that, I make it sound like I was going to FCU because I was so scared about what would happen to us. The irony is, not telling him about it is what destroyed us in the end."

I tried to fall back into my pillow, but Katelyn grabbed me before I could. "Okay, that sucks. I know it sucks, but you've got to take care of yourself."

I started crying again. "Dad called you, didn't he? I'm so sorry to have dragged you back home-"

"No! No, don't apologize. Back on you. You have to start eating again! and you have got to stop puking. It's really not good for you."

"But-"

"No buts!" She stood up and pulled me with her. "You are getting up and taking a shower! Now!"

I wiped my eyes. "O-okay."

"I'm not going to baby you about this. You've had your mourning period, it's time to get up and take care of yourself, again!" She pushed me towards the bathroom. "Now go!"

---

"It took her a long time to get over. It's kind of a touchy subject." Garroth added.

I shook myself off. "Anyways, it doesn't matter. It's been a really, really long time I'm over it! I'm sure he is, too."

Little did I know that I was so very wrong about that.

Thanks for reading!