Tame | ✔

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

"Fuchsia or turquoise?" Marissa asked in a piercing tone that mirrored her excitement. Leila's finger ran over the rim of her vanity, deep in thought.

She fixed the speaker again over her ear and replied. "I don't think I can decide over the phone. Why don't you just come over for a few hours so we could chat about all of this?"

One of the world's most difficult struggles; crossing the Atlantic without getting sucked up in Bermuda triangle ... ,

and trying to choose the best bridesmaids dressing theme.

Isn't that just so sweet?

"Ugh!" Marissa grunted in despair over the phone. "The thing is, I can't come over. That's really frigging annoying. Apart from the fact that I don't have a spare minute, Robin just - ,"

"- Wouldn't allow you. No, I get it, Marissa," Leila replied sadly. After Rosaline getting a tour of the university in Toronto, and Marissa busy with her ceremony preparations, she barely had company anymore. "Though I don't think that would be a problem. David's rarely home anyway."

Marissa sighed on the other end, then paused. "You still didn't have the talk, did you?" She wondered.

"Nope!" Leila blurted, turning her head to stare past the noisy storm of the season. Winter in California was definitely not the best thing on world, especially when you have spent your whole past life in a zone where the least it could get was seven freaking Celsius degrees.

It has been a month since she last saw David, a whole month. After that one day when he came over to break the delightful announcement, he was no longer home. He said it would take him two weeks at most, however, he never called or texted to inform her that he was in trouble or that he needed more time.

Ever since he had left, Zoe's bitchiness just doubled over. Leila came to the conclusion that the girl misses him, and she was probably blaming it all on her, since she had somehow upset him and made him run away to have the entire house for herself. Leila understood that, but what she couldn't understand was how on Earth adding hot sauce all over her lunch was a good way to express her feelings.

The new-year had come, and even though it was neither a tradition nor a rule to celebrate Christmas, Leila felt a little disappointed that she had to do the counting on her own, with a slice of cake and a mug of hot chocolate in hand. Thanks to Harper, whom without his wonderful abilities that he could probably create food out of nothing - even though it's not possible -, she would have had to spend the last night of the year crying. She made a promise to forget all about the past, and start a new leaf, if David ever came back at all.

She called her mother every day, checking on how her father was doing through the chemo. Samar usually replied with a few, well-practiced words, which got her suspicious, since her mother was one the most hyper people on surface of the Earth. She knew that something was off, but she didn't push it any further.

Her birthday came, but unlike every past year, her cell wasn't generously flooded with the endless buzz of notifications and texts of people she didn't even know wishing her a happy birthday with a cherry on top. She only got two: one from her own mother, on which was included in a post message at the bottom, and the other one was from her brother. That one made her hurt flutter. Her brother never wished her a happy birthday. He was so stubborn and arrogant, even more than her, and he didn't consider her own birthday something to be worth celebrating.

She didn't even know cells were allowed in the army.

She tried not to dwell over the fact that David didn't tell her a word. He probably didn't even know when it was, hence he never read the identity papers.