Torn // Emilio Martinez

Chapter 36

Bella

*A month later*

I woke up to the sound of my phone buzzing on my night table. I jerked awake and reached over, answering without bothering to check who it was.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Hey you," Alissa said happily from the other side of the phone.
"Alissa! Hey! I miss you," I smiled, not having talked to her for a while other than a few short text conversations here and there.
"Miss you more, sorry I haven't called in a while," she said.
"It's okay, I haven't been in the mood for much talking," I said nonchalantly, I wasn't upset that she hasn't called, but I was happy she finally did.

"I have a proposition for you," she said, I could hear the grin on her face from the other side of the phone. I encouraged her to continue.
"How about you come live in LA with me for the summer? I have some cool modeling stuff we can do together, events we can go to, just have fun together. No Jake, no Emilio, just us," she proposed.
"Alissa I dunno..." I started.
"Oh come on, Bella. How long has it been since you've actually had fun? Don't let everything that happened ruin your life forever. It's not forever, just the summer, a few months to just have fun together and then if you want to go back to Maryland you can," she begged. If she was with me right now I'd expect her to get on her knees in front of me.
"I think it would be too hard," I mumbled.
"But it won't. You're not going back to the Team 10 house, we can stay far away from it. Just give it a try, if anything happens I take full blame and will pay for your flight back home," she pleaded.

I finally gave in and told her I would go. This is the second time in my life I've been convinced to go to LA, hopefully this time won't end as bad as the last.

"So, see you next weekend?" she asked giddily.
"See you next weekend, love you," I said, a smile breaking through onto my face as I hung up the phone. 

Maybe she was right, spending a summer with her instead of just myself and my thoughts could be good for me.

***

I got off the plane and landed in LA on my own. Lucas and Marcus didn't come with me because Alissa had asked me to come see her, not them. They didn't want to intrude and I didn't ask them to. Maybe space from Marcus would be good for me too. 

The air was warm and the California sun felt good on my skin. The air smelled different here, and I liked it. When I got to Alissa's house I rang the doorbell frantically, hearing her running from inside. The door flew open and I was faced with one of the only girl friends I have in my life. I dropped my bags and threw myself into her arms, squeezing her tightly, a smile on my face that has not appeared for months.
"I missed you so much," she said into my shoulder. I told her I missed her too and we held each other a bit longer before finally letting go so I could get into the house. After catching up a bit, I felt the urge to go get a smoothie.
"Want me to come?" Alissa asked.
"No it's okay, gonna take a walk, clear my head," I smiled. She nodded understandingly and I pulled my shoes on before walking out the door, blowing a kiss to her on my way out.

I still knew my way around here so it was easy for me to get to the café I always ordered my smoothies at. I walked in, glad to be blessed by the air conditioning and taking a step out of the heat and sun. Now I felt like likely to have my shoulders fried. I ordered my smoothie and took a seat at the corner table next to the window, where I always sat. I wanted to take a little while to be on my own back in LA and just think about everything.

As I sat there stirring my smoothie aimlessly and thinking about how different LA life was from back home, I saw a familiar face that caused my heart to race. I panicked as I stood up and wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. I kept my head down and zigzagged through the tables, trying to get to the door as fast as possible. With no luck, I ran straight into him. Now I was stuck, I couldn't get away.

"Bella?" he asked, seemingly shocked to see here, and honestly, I was shocked that I was here too.
"Hi Ivan," I mumbled, finally getting the courage to look up from the floor into his face.
"It's been a while," he said, a smile showing on his face.
"Yeah, I guess it has," I nodded, taking a step back since I was really close to him.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Getting a smoothie," I said bluntly. That made him laugh.
"I meant in LA, silly," he laughed.
"I'm visiting Alissa," I said with a giggle, he just nodded.

"How are you?" he asked seriously, his blue eyes looking into mine, making all the memories of that night come flooding back.
"I'm fine," I lied, smiling at him.
"Are you really? I understand if you're not," he said worriedly.
"I'm okay Ivan, really. You?" I asked.
"I'm okay."

I didn't want to ask him about Emilio, I felt like it would be over stepping even though I really wanted to know.
"It was good to see you again, maybe we can get smoothies again soon and talk," he suggested.

"Yeah," I smiled, genuinely this time, "I would like that."

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Ivan is back!!! What do you guys think of this chapter? Are you ready for more drama to unfold??

Leave a comment, they make my day!

-Rachael