Leah stepped into the condo that she shared with Lisa and Sheena and slammed the door behind her. She was completely pissed off at every single one of her friends, but mostly at herself. Lisa had put her in this position in the first place, Nick had yelled at her, and she -- herself -- had agreed to talk to him in the first place.
Leah threw herself down on the couch, exhaling loudly as she laid her head against the armrest. She was exhausted, emotionally more than physically, and all she wanted to do was fall asleep and not get up until Lisa and Nick had resolved everything so they would leave her out of it.
Just as her eyes had drifted shut and her body was slowly succumbing to the peacefulness of the house: quiet, gentle breeze blowing through the windows from off the water ... it was all broken. Lisa had come running into the room from her bedroom, her hair frazzled and in her pajamas still. Leah had honestly never seen her friend like this. Lisa was starting to fall apart because of this Nick thing and it was honestly beginning to get on Leah's nerves.
"So?! What happened?! Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me!"
Leah rolled her eyes once she'd opened them and stared up at her friend in annoyance, "He didn't tell me anything, Lisa." Perhaps she'd said it more coldly than she should have, but this was all beginning to wear her down. "In fact," she stood up and stared at her friend, "we got in a fight. He yelled at me, Lis. Do you realize that Nick has never YELLED at me before?! Sure, we've had different points of views on things, we've disagreed, but we have NEVER yelled at each other, and today Nick yelled at me! Are you happy now?! How can you do this to me?! How can you just put me in the middle of your sh*t like this!! I'm not a part of yours and Nick's relationship and I don't appreciate you putting me in this position! What the f*ck are you trying to do?!"
Lisa's eyes were wide, her mouth agape. Without a seconds thought her temper flared just as Leah's had, and all hell broke loose, "How DARE you say such things to me!! Leah, I have been nothing but kind to you -- Sheena and I have opened our house to you because you needed one, and THIS is how you repay me?!"
"You bitch!" Leah's eyes blazed, "I KNEW you would throw this back in my face! YOU asked me to move here, YOU asked me to move in -- I could have easily moved in with Nick! And I repay you with a helluva lotta money each month!! Money I work hard for ... I'm out there, waking up at 7 in the morning, standing on my feet every day, telling big women that they look good in clothes that they REALLY don't look good in! You wake up at 10, 11, 12, go into the studio and sit there looking pretty!! Don't you DARE tell me that I owe you SH*T!"
By now Sheena had come in the room and was of course standing next to Lisa, ready to defend. And that's exactly what she tried to do.
"You think we don't work?!" Sheena shrieked, "You think it's easy having guys use us like pieces of meat?! We work hard too, Leah, and you are acting very ungrateful, not to mention selfish and jealous! If you don't like that we have good careers and you work in a stupid little clothing store, then you can leave!"
"You know what," Leah scoffed. "You two are b*tches. You are b*tches that are totally not worth this. I thought you were my friend, Lisa. But now I see that you're both spoiled little brats that get everything handed to you on platters, and now that I'm telling you that I'm not gonna do everything you want me to do, you can't handle it, and you're just gonna kick me out. I set you up with Nick, Lisa, but I never asked to be used for him."
She knew that it wasn't exactly true that everything had been handed to Lisa on a platter. Lisa had worked hard for her career, but Leah was very upset and she knew that her friend had been acting very spoiled lately.
The door slamming behind her as she left was piercing and shook the walls, leaving Lisa and Sheena standing there with their mouths open in shock.
~ * ~
When Nick opened the door to his best friend on the other side, he was surprised. He'd just seen her not more than an hour before, and she'd left angry with him, because he'd yelled at her. And now she stood on his doorstep again, only this time there were tears cascading down her ashen face and all Nick could do was bring her inside his house and wrap his arms around her soothingly.
"What is it, Lee? What's wrong?" Nick whispered in her ear as he held her on the couch in his living room.
Leah shook her head, not able to talk about it yet. She was shaking and her tears weren't seizing. She just laid there in his arms for more than 20 minutes until finally her sobs began to calm down and slowly her tears stopped. She'd cried herself out and she felt so exhausted now. Nick didn't ask her to explain; he knew that when she was ready, she would talk. All he did was hold her and once she'd stopped crying she was asleep after 10 minutes. He, too, slowly fell asleep, and he didn't awake for another hour. When his eyes slowly fluttered open he could feel Leah's still wet eyelashes moving against his neck, her face buried in-between there and his shoulder. He began slowly rubbing her back and finally her voice broke the easy silence.
"I hate her."
Nick's eyes widened. He'd never heard Leah talk about somebody like that, and he was shocked to say the least. "Who's her, Lee?"
"Your girlfriend," Leah answered, not able to even bring herself to say Lisa's name. "She put me in a terrible position, Nick. We got in this huge fight. I just don't know what to do anymore."
Nick sighed and they laid in another span of silence for a few minutes, before he finally decided he needed to tell Leah what was going on with he and Lisa. "Lee ... I don't love her."
Leah moved her head from his shoulder and looked at him, their eyes locking as Leah tried to think of something to say to that. But Nick beat her to it as he continued.
"I don't love her, and she wants me to, and I told her I did, but I don't." Nick sighed and shifted a bit underneath his best friend to get more comfortable before talking again, "I'm not in love with her, and I don't want to be with her. I need someone who's more fun, and like you said the other day Lisa's all business sometimes, and that really bothers me."
"Nick," Leah finally responded to the things he was saying, "even though I'm mad at Lisa, I'll admit that you can't keep letting this go on. It's not fair to Lisa."
"Yeah," Nick sighed, "I know." There was a gap in conversation and finally Nick spoke again as he began to play with Leah's hair, "I'm gonna break up with her tonight."
Leah let her eyes flutter closed as she nestled back against his shoulder again, "Okay," she whispered, her fingers intertwining with Nick's. "Let's take a nap before I have to go to work tonight."
Nick nodded, "I'll do it over dinner, while you're at work."
Leah laughed, "We're making it sound like we're having an affair and you need to break it off with the soon-to-find-out girlfriend," she joked, her eyes looking up at him in amusement.
Nick smiled lightly but the fact that his smile didn't reach his eyes, like it normally did, didn't go past Leah. She kissed his chin gently and they both fell asleep, their hearts beating against the others chest slowly lulling the other to sleep.
