Back to Strangers

Chapter 16

Leah

It's been two weeks. Two weeks since Christian left for work, or so he says. Two weeks since I've last seen or heard from Logan and he dropped that bomb on me, and a little over two weeks since I've heard from Sarah. What the hell is going on?!

I'm sitting here at the cabin, going out of my mind from worrying about all of them and all I could do to keep myself from overthinking was to work on the cabin. The cabin is done, so now I'm waiting for... well, for Christian to show up. I only received a message from him that night to say he might have to stay a little longer for whatever it was that was happening at the office and after that he went radio silent. Of course, my head span out of control and I was afraid that he might've disappeared on me again to avoid the conversation he had promised me. Now, now I'm just beyond furious and ready to kill and bury him ... or just bury him alive, then he'll suffer more, wondering if someone will come save him.

Pacing up and down in the living room of the completed cabin, I start taking up a bad habit of cursing at Christian without him being around to hear exactly what I think of his stupid ways and all the things I wanted to do to him. The latter part divides into two. One, I'd love to bury him alive and two...well, I want him to bury himself deep inside me, but let's focus on the former. Dialing the same number I have for the past two weeks, I wait for Christian to pick up his phone. The only difference this time round is that as soon as I hit the call button, a loud ringtone pierce through my ears from behind me. I hadn't even noticed the front door opening, never mind that Christian was standing in it, lurking at me like some goddamn stalker.

I didn't know what I would do or say to him once I saw him again. I had rehearsed multiple cursed speeches, telling him how he can go fuck himself and to get the hell out of my life. Now that he's actually here, all those rehearsals went to waste. "Mr. Armani, you finally decided to show." I say, keeping my voice neutral, hoping that the tremor in my voice doesn't come through like it wanted to. His eyebrows shot up and almost formed one with his hairline. Not caring for his excuses any longer, I go to pick up my duffel bag I already had packed. I'm bristling with anger and just want to get out of here. If he hadn't showed today, I would've just left anyway. He's good at doing that...leaving, so I would've learned from the best.

"Leah, I- " He tries to explain, but I simply raised my hand. "No. I don't want to hear anymore excuses, no more anything. I'm done." I started to walk on wobbly knees, but I make a halt before I'm entirely out the front door. I only look back over my shoulder enough to say my final words. "I thought you'd have learned from the past, but you didn't. You just left again. If it was for work, I don't see any reason why you couldn't have at least answered your phone. I can't keep doing this dance, Christian and I can certainly not put my heart through the same pain twice." I pause to take a deep breath, knowing what I say next will change everything. "Leah..." Christian tries again, his voice full of pain and I hate that it affects me this much. That I want to go over there, jump into his arms and pretend like the last few years never happened, but it did.

"I'm letting go now, Christian. I don't care about your reason for leaving four years ago, I don't care for your excuses as to why you ignored me these two weeks and I don't care to continue this game of pretending not to know each other when we have a past that is so determined to ruin both of our futures. This is me, giving up. I'm done." With my trembling voice, tear filled eyes, wobbly knees and shaky hands carrying my duffel bag, I make my way through the front door and start walking to the road so I can call Logan to come pick me up. I knew I was too weak to handle this, just like I had told Sarah, yet I've never felt so defeated. I feel exhausted and utterly drained.

---------------

Christian

"Fuckkkk!" I yell, throwing my phone across the living room. It crashed into the wall, shattering into tiny pieces, but I couldn't bring myself to care. She hasn't been gone for even a minute and I already feel like my entire heart and soul left with her. I need to get my anger out of my system somehow. I'm not angry at Leah, she has every right to be mad at me. No, I'm so fucking angry with myself for making the same fucking mistake for a second time.

It's not like I wanted to ignore her calls, but I also didn't want to answer knowing she was going to pepper me with questions about where I was. I didn't want to lie to her. Like I've said before, I make the shittiest choices when it comes to her. It's like the universe is just against us being together. "Well fuck you, universe!" I yell, rushing to the kitchen. I start by taking every plate and throwing it to the floor, against the walls, anywhere where it can shatter just like my fucking heart. Then, I continue to the mugs, glasses, bowls and anything else that is breakable or even just throwable.

After my temper tantrum, I look around at the mess, not feeling better at all. I stare at the shattered pieces of muted grey and sage green kitchenware. If I had bought this cabin for myself, the interior would have been exactly what I have wanted. It just goes to show that she really does know me better than anyone else, even after all these years. Another ache in my heart has me rubbing over the pain in my chest. I don't know if I'll ever be able to fix this and I'm not talking about all the mess I made just now, but Leah. My heart, my soul, my reason to breathe just walked out of that fucking door. I rush over to the dark wood cabin door and smash my fist right through it as if was offending me for merely allowing her to walk through it. I would be lying if I said that shit didn't hurt, but I fall back on the ground with my ass. Suddenly a different type of pain moves through my chest and my breathing starts to shallow. I find myself gripping my chest, trying to find control over my breathing, but it's no use. I've never experienced something like this before in my entire life, but I'm pretty sure I'm having a panic attack.

--------------

Hi everyone!

Sorry for waiting so long before posting this chapter. I wanted to have a few chapters completed so that I could publish them together for you to enjoy!

Please note: All chapters will be edited once the story is completed so please ignore any spelling errors you may find whilst reading x

All my love, Charne💕