Mending a broken heart.

Part 8: For Fucksake

It's a Sunday morning, I'm laying on my bed scrolling through Buzzfeed and listening to music when suddenly the bell rings. By this time on a Sunday, my mom has left and taken the twins with her on her errand run and Chelsea usually makes her way here to keep me company. But today that's not the case. Because when I open the door, my face turns cold.

"Sean"

He smiles and continues staring at me his hands in his jacket pockets, "Are you going to let me in?"

"No, not really, no."

"Okay, then at least tell me you forgive me?" he asks, shoving his hands into his jacket and sighs.

"No," she says smiling. He then pulls some puppy dog eyes and she caves in, rolling her eyes at how stupid he looks, "fine. Come in."

She groans and stands aside, making way for him to step inside. With her perfect weekend, composed of  binge-watching series, eating, sleeping and repeat now down the drain, she closes the door and sighs as Sean follows her to her room.

"Cool room,"  he comments as soon as he enters her room.

"Why do you act so surprised? I'm a cool person," she says.

"Ego much."

"I would say, sorry for the mess, but I didn't know you were coming," Leya says stuffing the clothes on her bed into her wardrope, "I gave you my number for a reason you know. So you don't just pitch up at my house like this, unannounced."

"I sent like 6 messages and you didn't answer. I seriously thought you were laying in a ditch somewhere, so I came to make sure," he says.

"That I was dead?"

"That you weren't," he says sitting down onto her bed, examining the messy room that has a giant Panic at the Disco! poster just above the bed.

"You didn't catch onto the hint that I might have been ignoring you?" she ask mocking closing the warddrop with a heavy sigh.

"Andddd you just proved your argument invalid."

Leya rolls her eyes and sits onto the bed as well.

Sean looks around the room and picks up one of the photoframes just beside the bed, "Who's this?"

"My dad."

"He looked just like you," as soon as he says it Leya looks at him, confused by the use of past tense and he senses it, so he puts the picture frame back, "sorry, Mike told me. I just never knew when or how to bring it up."

"My dad, my house address. Is there anything else Mike hasn't told you?" she exclaims standing up, "oh yeah and let's not forget conspiring to sneak him into our English group."

"Well for starters-."

"Oh shut up, Coleman," she walks to the door and stops, hand on the door frame, "coming or not?"

"Yea," Sean stands up and follows her downstairs.

She walks into the kitchen and grabs a bag of Doritos from one of the kitchen cupboards and throws it at him, "Let's sit outside, it's quite sunny out there."

"How was your game, yesterday?" he asks as they sit outside on the two reclining chairs on the porch, swinging back and forth.

"We won," Leya smiles, looking at him, "how did you guys play given that Chester always kicks our ass at football."

"We drew, but I was benched the entire game," he replies.

"Think you guys would have won, if you had played."

"Not one to toot my own horn, but I guess we'll never know."

"Hmmm," she mumbles.

"How did he die?" Sean asks after a while, shoving his hand into the bag of Doritos, "your dad."

"I'm surprised Mike didn't tell you," she sighs, looking away from Sean, "emphysema."

"Emph-what?"

"Emphysema. It's a chronic pulmonary disease. Damages your lungs, could basically call it lung cancer."

"Sorry."

"It's fine, the old man took his last painful breath, last year, the 6th of November. Nothing has been the same ever since though," she looks at the Dorito in her hand that she has crushed into tiny pieces.

"Huh," Sean chuckles.

"What?" she asks slightly confused as to why he's laughing with such a serious topic at hand.

"I guess we both lost our dads on the same day," he confesses.

"Really," she stops swinging and slumps into the chair, "that is odd."

'Yeah, I guess."

"What happened to him? If you don't mind me asking."

"Ran away," Sean says without hesitation.

Leya sits upright in the chair and stares at Sean, "Ra-ran away?" she asks pretending to be hearing this for the first time, but failing completely, but she continues, "as in packed and left, no goodbye?"

"Passport, money, wallet, a few of his clothes, everything that was in his safe, gone."

"Holy shit, what a dick."

They sit in silence for a while, looking at the street, observing the people and cars passing by, "Why though?" Leya asks after a while.

She couldn't imagine her father having run away from his family. What triggers a person to just up and leave a whole family behind. No goodbye.
But would a goodbye have made everything less painful or worse?

"I don't know. I don't care anymore, he's dead to me."

"Huh," she sighs, "two dead dads huh."

"Hey at least yours didn't run away like a coward."

"Yeah, no mine smoked his way to his grave. A champion that one."

They find themselves in silence again as a car drives into Leya's driveway and parks, taking both Leya and Sean's attention. Leya's mom steps out of the car and opens the car's boot, grabbing two grocery bags and uses her elbow to close the boot.

"Hey, mom," Leya stands up as her mom comes up onto the porch and kisses her on the cheek, "Sean this is my mom, mom this is Sean, my classmate."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am," Sean says standing up.

"Mrs Stanton, is fine, Sean, no need for ma'am," she chuckles, "Are you new at the school, I've never seen you around here?"

"Kind of new, yes," Sean says.

"Okay well, nice to meet you young man," Leya's mom says then turning to look at Leya, "please don't forget to pick up the twins," she says then opens the door and enters the house.

"I guess you gotta go?" Sean hands Leya the half empty bag of Doritos.

"Yeah, before she stops my air circulation," Leya says once her mom is in the house, looking back at Sean.

Sean nods, chuckling and steps off the porch, "Then I guess I'll see you at school, aye?"

"Yeah," Leya smiles and Sean smiles walking off.

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