Leah yawned tiredly as she unlocked the front door to the condo. It was eleven at night and she was just now getting home from work, since she had been assigned to close that evening. She jumped back with a scream as Lisa suddenly appeared before her in the darkness.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Lisa growled, her eyes red and puffy, obvious signs of her crying.
Leah's eyes widened, "Excuse me?" she croaked out, a shiver running up and down her spine. She'd never been so frightened by another girl, especially a friend, before.
"What did you say to him while you were over there last night?"
"What do you mean?" Leah was confused and walked past Lisa to sit on the couch and try to stop her shaking hands by sitting on them.
"What did you tell him that made him break up with me?!" Suddenly the vase that had been sitting on the coffee table with beautiful red roses in it went shattering against the wall, water splashing everywhere.
Leah gasped and stood up, trying to calm her friend down. She touched Lisa's arm gently but Lisa threw her hand aside.
"DON'T TOUCH ME, YOU WHORE! YOU COULDN'T STAND THE FACT THAT YOUR LITTLE BOY TOY WAS MY BOYFRIEND!! HE WAS MINE, YOU SLUT!! WHAT THE F*CK WERE YOU TRYING TO DO?!"
"EXCUSE ME?! Lisa, he's my best friend! NOT my boy toy, and I never ONCE tried to steal him from you! I set you two up! Why would I do that and then try and steal him from you?!"
"To feel power, maybe?! You wanted to show me that you're better than me! Which you SO are not!"
Leah's eyes watered as her chin quivered, "How can you say these things, Lisa? We've been friends for so long and you think that I'm like that?? That I'm so conniving?? So horrifyingly terrible??" She sounded hurt, and she really was.
"YOU'RE A B*TCH! AN AWFUL B*TCH!"
By now Sheena had woken up and come out to see what was going on. She was surprised that Lisa was acting so insane, and she knew that Leah hadn't been trying to steal Nick. Sure, Sheena had stood by Lisa's side before, but this was crazy.
"Lisa, hon, maybe you just need to get some sleep," Sheena interfered, trying to bring some peace to their household. She was tired and she knew they all were.
"Don't 'Lisa, hon' me, Sheena!!! This b*tch tried to steal Nick from me!"
"She did not, Lis! Shut up."
Leah's eyes widened. Was Sheena actually sticking up for her?
Lisa began to cry, "How can you tell me to shut up?? I thought you were my best friend!"
"Well, you're being crazy!"
Leah couldn't stand anymore of this. "We all need to shut up, d*mmit!! I'm leaving. I'm so f*cking leaving!! I'm leaving this hell hole for good! God knows where the f*ck I'll go stay! But I am leaving! I'm sick of your sh*t, Lisa! I'm sick of it, d*mmit! You say I'm a b*tch and you can't even see how horrific YOU really are! You need to take a f*ckin' chill pill! I don't know what the hell you've been on lately, but I just can't stand this anymore! So as far as I'm concerned this friendship is completely over." Leah walked into her bedroom and began to pack all of her clothes. She would come back later with a moving truck for all of her furniture, but for now she wanted to grab as much as she could and get out of there.
She left the house silently, waving good-bye to Sheena.
~ * ~
"Hello?" Leah snatched her cell phone from the passenger side of her Mitsubishi Eclipse. Her breathing was ragged as she tried desperately not to cry. She would NOT cry.
"Lee? I'm so sorry to bother you. But I really need to see you," Nick blurted out on the other end of the phone line, his voice causing Leah to swerve into the other lane for a second.
"Gosh, Nick, I was on my way anyway. I really need to see you too." She couldn't help it as she began to cry. The past couple days had been hell for her and all she wanted to do was curl up with her best friend on his couch and just lay there forever. "I'll be there in five."
Nick nodded, though she couldn't see him, and the two of them hung up in unison.
Leah arrived exactly when she said she would and quickly turned the car off, grabbing her bags and heading up to Nick's front door. The door swung open before she could even knock and she was forced to drop her bags as Nick grabbed her up in a huge hug.
"Oh, Lee ... it was terrible. I ended up kicking her out of my car."
Leah sighed, "Yeah ... I figured it was terrible," she looked up at him and Nick immediately noticed her red eyes.
"Oh Lord ... what happened, L?"
"Nick," she breathed, "it was horrible. She said such horrible things. I don't wanna talk about it," she began to cry again as she buried her face in the crook of his neck, the light scent of his cologne soothing to her.
Nick sighed and tightened his hold, "C'mmon, Lee ... come inside." It was then that he noticed her bags. "Moving in?"
Leah looked up at him, her lip shaking as well as her chin. She couldn't bring herself to ask. But she didn't need to.
Nick laughed lightly, "C'mmon, Lee. You think I would care? In fact ... I'm asking you to. Move in here ... the Lisa arrangement is obviously not gonna work out, and you know I'd love to have you here. Please ... move in?" he smiled down at her and hugged her again when her eyes watered.
"I love you, Nick. Thank you," she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck.
Nick's heart ached. He loved her too. But they loved each other in entirely different ways ... and it was killing him. Nick grabbed her bags and they walked inside the house that was now the both of theirs, closing the door behind them.
