The Colson Chronicles

Chapter 14

Leslie

Lying in my hospital bed my phone pinged informing me of a notification. Kells was grasping at straws trying to get me to forgive him. I loved him more than anything in the world, I never stopped. I did everything I could to forget him; I coated my nose in blow, drank until I couldn't stand, I even tried to find new love in strangers but when things progressed all I could see was Colson and I would run away. Months of trying to forget him and I just couldn't do it, my heart longed for those ocean eyes and that shaggy blonde hair, to hear his voice as he sang to me.

As much as my heart yearned for him, he needed to know that he could not just speak to me the way he did and not expect me to be mad. As thoughts of calling and speaking to him flooded my brain, my phone began to ring and an unfamiliar number popped up on the caller ID. I hesitantly answered the phone "h-hello?" a young girl's voice came through the speaker "hi, is this Leslie Drake?" "Yes it is, may I ask who I am speaking with?" she hesitated as I heard her take a deep breath, "my name is Casie Baker, my dad is Colson."

I was in complete shock, of course I knew he had a daughter I was a mega fan before I was ever his girlfriend but her calling me and knowing who I was took me by surprise. "Hello Casie, to what do I owe the pleasure?" she took another deep breath and began to speak "well Leslie my dad doesn't know that I am contacting you, but I felt like it was important that I do. He is on the verge of relapsing and I feel like if you called him and spoke with him that he would feel better." My heart dropped as she told me her fears of her dad relapsing. "Casie what makes you think that I can help you dad from relapsing?" what she said next broke what little bit of heart I had left "well Leslie, I know my dad loves you more than he has ever loved anyone before, I check on him at night after he goes to bed and he cries in his sleep, saying how sorry he is over and over." I began to cry, while I was on the phone with Casie the nurse came in and told me that I was being released from the hospital. "Casie, I am being released from the hospital and I am going straight home and packing a bag, I will be in LA in a couple of hours. I will text Slim and have him pick me up at LAX" I could hear her breathe a sigh of relief "thank you so much Leslie."

Colson

I had gone and scored some heroine from my former dealer, I just couldn't take this hopeless feeling anymore. Hoping the smack would numb the pain of losing the love of my life, I began to draw the melted liquid into a syringe, I was fixing to pierce my skin with a needle when my bedroom door opened. Horror spread across her face when she saw me with a needle in my hand. "Colson Baker!" she screamed as she ran into my room smacking the syringe from my hand. "How many times have you shot up?!" I was in shock seeing her gorgeous face standing in front of me, she brought me back to reality with a smack in the face "ARE YOU HIGH RIGHT NOW?!!" I laughed and pulled her into me "no Les I am not high right now, I was about to stick the syringe in my arm when you barged in here slapping me in the face and knocking needle from my hand."

After the shock of her standing in front of me wore off I asked, "Les what are you doing here and how did you know where my house is?" She looked down and took a deep breath, "I will tell you as long as you promise not to be angry." I promised that I would keep my anger in check as she told me how my baby girl called her telling her she was worried that this was going to happen and that she thought Leslie was the only one that could help. Apparently when she realized how bad it was she got on the next flight to LA after being released from the hospital and she called Slim in the air and asked him to discreetly pick her up from the airport. Maybe this was it, maybe I was getting my second chance to show Leslie just how much I loved her.

Casie ran into the bedroom hugging Leslie like she had always known her, and Leslie just smiled. "Hey kiddo, thanks for calling me; I got here just in time" Case was so happy to hear that and I was so happy to see my two favorite girls getting along so well. We walked down the staircase and obviously Slim had called everyone and told them he had to pick Les up from the airport, the living room was full of people waiting to see Leslie.

"Girl I am so glad you are back, I need some help wrangling this group of wild boys" Ash said smiling from ear to ear. I saw tears form in the corners of Leslie's eyes as she spoke "I would love to stay, but I am not ready; my heart is still broken and my arms still need to heal, I need to be back home and close to my doctors." My head dropped at her words, I had just gotten her back I wasn't about to let her go again. I quickly spoke up "Leslie, I know that you are still hurting mentally, emotionally, and physically but I would really like if you would stay for a week or two, then if you feel like you still need to be in NC I will gladly pay for your flight home. All I am asking is for a couple of weeks."

Leslie

He was asking me to stay, to give Cali and him a chance; I wasn't sure that I was ready but I did know that I loved him and that being without him was the hardest thing I have ever been through. I agreed to stay despite my concerns and hesitations, calling my mom and letting her know that I would be staying for a while she expressed her concerns seeing as I was still healing from the incident; I promised that if anything went wrong I would go to a hospital immediately and that I would come home and follow up with my primary care doctor. She reluctantly agreed to me staying even if she wasn't happy about it. Since I wasn't planning on staying this long I had to go shopping for some clothes to wear while I was there. Ashleigh, Casie, and I headed out and we ended up on Rodeo Drive.

Looking around at her I said "Ashleigh I can't afford the stores here, can we just go to a mall or something?" she laughed and said "Colson told me to bring you here and buy you whatever you wanted and to spare no expense, he wants you to have the best of everything." Disbelief washed across my face, "Ash is he just doing this because I cut myself and ended up in the hospital?" It was her turn to be in shock "Les, heavens no! He is doing this because, regardless of the way things ended and the things he did when we got back out here, he does genuinely love you more than you will ever know and more than I have seen Colson love anyone besides Casie." she said nodding back to the young girl in the backseat bobbing her head to the beat coming from her headphones. Quickly wiping the tears from my eyes and putting on a smile I looked at Ash and Case and said "let's hit Louis Vuitton first!!"

We stepped back into the massive home with our shopping haul, Colson walked down the stairs and chuckled seeing me struggle with all the bags I was carrying. "Well if I had known you were going to buy out Rodeo Drive I would have sent Slim and Dub with you to help carry some stuff." Ash and Casie gasped and Case yelled at the top of her lungs "UNCLE DUB IS HERE?!!" Kells laughed and said "yeah baby girl he got here this afternoon, we are all going out to a nice dinner to celebrate him being back home with us, and for him to officially meet Leslie." I looked at Colson and said "well if we are having an honored guest for dinner I need to go get ready" and I scurried off to my room.