1.2 | Je T'aime Encore ✓

06 | peace

06

p e a c e

Anita was in a meeting with Ms. Laurent and Leon. She was supposed to be listening to Ms. Laurent, who was talking about the gallery and what they needed to bring, wear, and the requirements, etc. Anita had already heard this speech, and reread the email she got about it a billion times, so, she wasn't too concerned about it. 

Anita was too busy staring at Leon and trying to spot the differences. Her eyes looked over the same, sharp jawline, the same light blue eyes, the same soft smile, and the same faraway look he had in his eyes whenever he was thinking about art or the classics. Basically, he was almost the exact same Leon she fell in love with. The same Leon she thought would never cheat on her with Lindsey. The same Leon who did cheat on her with Lindsey. 

Obviously, Leon noticed all her staring even though Ms. Laurent didn't, and turned to her questioningly. 

Anita looked away, straight at Ms. Laurent, trying to pretend Leon didn't just catch her staring. Her cheeks burned, although she knew it wouldn't be too obvious she was blushing. 

After a while, Leon turned back to Ms. Laurent and continued to listen, and Anita continued to drift off into her own world, blocking out Ms. Laurent. She felt like she knew Leon, but at the same time, she didn't know anything about him. She didn't know why he kissed Lindsey, she didn't know why he didn't try harder to get him back, she didn't know why anything went down the way it did. 

She felt so close to Leon, and yet so far.

A year ago, she would've hated it. Now, she still hated it, but she could bear it. After all, she still hated Leon because of what he did.

At least, she thought so.

Ms. Laurent wrapped her presentation up really quickly, and it was then that Anita realized her art teacher was telling them that they needed to get new outfits for the gala. As in, buy something here. Together.

Anita's heart clenched horribly at the thought of this, having to spend a day with Leon shopping, like they used to do. Before Leon and Lindsey went and screwed everything up. This thought brought a frown to her face, and she glared down at her silver ballet flats. 

Ms. Laurent stood up, and Anita understood that this meeting was over, and she could leave the café they were in. Almost instantly, Anita shot up, grabbed her purse and jacket in a solid motion, and hurried out of the cute, little café.

"Anita, wait!" Leon called after her, stumbling to get out of his seat and trying to talk to the black-haired girl.

Anita pretended she didn't hear him, but subconsciously slowed down anyway. The brown-haired French boy hurried over to her, and then started walking beside her. He ran a hand through his hair, messing it up, and Anita wanted so badly to touch it, to see if it still was the same, and fix it, because it was making his hair stick up. 

"What?" She snapped, looking at him through the corner of her eyes. His face fell, and for a second, Anita wanted to apologize for being a jerk, but then the picture of him and Lindsey came into her mind, and her glare deepened. 

"I don't know why you're mad at me-" Leon started, but Anita's incredulous laugh cut him off. 

"You don't know?" Anita said, cackling at him. "You don't understand why I would be mad that you cheated on me with that dumbass Lindsey? Are you f-"

Leon cut her off by sighing, and started talking. "First of all, I didn't. If you actually looked at the picture," Anita started to speak, but he kept talking. "Don't even pretend that you did, I know you, Anita." 

"No, you don't," Anita said, but continued to let him talk after her looked at her, annoyed. 

"But, we need to at least try to pretend that we can stand each other. Didn't you hear anything Ms. Laurent said?" Leon asked, exasperated. "Firstly, we need to go dress shopping together, you're meeting me at my apartment, I know you still remember where that is," He looked over at Anita, who nodded, while squeezing her eyes together in annoyance that she still memorized it. "Then, we have booths right next to each other at the gallery, so we can't be fighting or else, nobody will want to come near us. That's the baseline, but we need to act civil. This is both of out dreams, and I don't want that accident to ruin it for us."

Anita nodded, looking resigned. "So," Leon started, putting his hand out for her to shake. "Friends?" 

Anita glared at the hand, unsure of whether or not she should trust it before giving in and sighing. "Friends."