Life Without You

Chapter 26 - Leon?

The ladies had not heard from Leon since his phone was confiscated and they had no idea of his whereabouts or updates, their messages and calls went unanswered.

While out with his mother at a park on a Monday afternoon, Andy spotted a familiar face from afar.

"Leon! It's Leon!" he cried out with a frantic wave and rushed to his old friend. Leon was surrounded by screaming fans the moment he stepped into the park with his bodyguards.

"Andy, wait up!" Ariel ran after him.

She tipped her sunglasses down and her heart flipped. Was it really Leon? Wasn't he suppose to rest and recover? What was he doing outside? What should she do next? She hesitated for a while.

"Leon! Leon! It's me, Andy!" Andy sliced through the crowd.

"Andy!" Ariel followed after him.

When he finally managed to get to the front, immediately he threw his body at Leon and gave a tight squeeze.

"Leon, I miss you!!" he expressed his largest grin and brightest eyes.

"Careful there, boy! You almost crushed me!" Leon flinched.

"It's me, Andy! Don't you remember me?"

"Guards, can you help take this fella off me?" He tried to pull his hands off.

Evan came forward. He was surprised when he saw Andy being pushed away. Ariel's jaws dropped.

"Why are you doing this?" Andy was visibly hurt.

"Sorry, kid. Don't know you," the superstar dusted himself and adjusted his expensive silver sequinned white blazer.

Andy stared hard at the man whom he was once close to and who recently send him a birthday gift. Now, he was pretending he didn't know him? He was on the brink of tears. 

Ariel was infuriated. 

Unable to take it anymore, she removed her glasses and confronted him so near to his face that he was sure her eyes were to pop out, "You don't know him, seriously?"

He instantly recognised who she was, and so did the crowd as who took pictures and videos of the confrontation.

"Miss...I..I..," he struggled with his words.

"Miss?" she raised her brows and shook her head in disbelief, "You're unbelievable!"

"Com'on, Andy, let's go!" she pulled her son away, and some people from the crowd starting following them. "Please stop," she pleaded, shielding her face with her hand from their phone cameras. Now she regretted not bringing along her bodyguards because she wanted some normalcy in her life.

"Ariel!" the crowd cried out her name.

"B***! You ignored Leon when he was in the hospital, now you expect him to acknowledge you?" cursed another, whose remark earned cheers among the crowd.

"Ariel, can I have your autograph?"

She ignored them. It was so intimidating and infuriating to have them push their phones to her face that she felt giving them a trashing, but she tried to maintain her self-control and protected Andy with the flap of her coat to cover his face while they hurried off from the scene as far as possible.

"Smile!" said a fan who stretched out his camera to take a wefie, and others followed suit.

"Andy, don't be shy! Let's have a look at cha!" said another.

"Please don't! Stop!" She pushed the intruding phones away from their faces, visibly upset and at her wit's end. "I've got a kid here, leave us alone, please!" But they ignored her plea and continued their harassment, recording every action and reaction with glee. They felt violated.