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L E O N I E
I wouldn't say that I was a girly girl. I loved girly stuff. Like, shopping, makeup, clothes and big di— woah what. Anyway. My point. I wasn't a princes. I didn't mind getting my hands dirty. But with that in mind, the deceased rat opened up in front of me, waiting for its little organs to be harvested, made my stomach a bit weak.
"Lick."
Beside me, Bray had a pink organ on the end of a scalpel. He was pointing it straight at my face. I picked up my own scalpel and gave him a threatening glare.
"Braydon, I swear. Get that out of my face or I'm slicing your jugular."
He scoffed. "What a girl."
"You lick it then."
"No one lick the organs," Mrs Yule sighed with exasperation as she handed out the worksheets. "It's a dead rat for goodness sake!"
Wincing, I began to gently stab at all the pink bits and pieces. Gross. What was the point in this? I had zero intention of becoming a doctor, scientist or vet in the future. Couldn't I take a class on common disease symptoms or I dunno, health and nutrition.
They offered a brief class on that in food technology. But we should leave school with a way more thorough knowledge on good foods, cooking on a budget and hidden health hazards in certain foods.
"Miss," I said as the teacher stopped beside our desk. "How does Amy handle doing this shit?"
"Language," she rubbed her temples beneath her black bangs. "She handles it with a lot of whinging. More than you if that's possible. But she needs this class for college. So she does the work! Now get on with it."
She started inspecting Alex's work. He was done. All of the organs had been removed, organised on the tray beside his rat. Notes taken down. I stared at his work and frowned. "Alex, can you do mine?"
"No he can't," Mrs Yule glared at me before she turned around and started back towards the front of the class. "You have to have that paper filled out and turned in by Friday, class."
"That's two days!" I protested.
"That's more than enough time to turn in a basic dissection paper Leonie. You could have it in by the end of the class if you put your mind to it. But at this rate, you won't even finish harvesting that rats organs."
"Because it's sick. I mean, did anyone think about this rat and what his life was like before we decided to turn him into a science experiment? He was probably just going about his afternoon. Out collecting some cheese for his wife and kids. He might have stopped to chat with his neighbor, Joe, who's now spread out in front of Alex. He probably cleaned his whiskers before bed. With his little pink paws. Probably thought, tomorrow, I'm gonna take the kids for a slice of cheese. And now he's dead. And his kids want their dad. But he's not coming back."
Bray leaned over. "You sound like Amy."
"Don't insult me. That is offensive."
"Get used to it," Mrs Yule sighed. "It's frogs next semester."
"That is where I draw the line," I shouted as she settled behind her desk. "That really is just going too far. What's next, puppies?"
"Please stop speaking," she snapped. "For the rest of this class. Not another word. Dissect the rat and be quiet."
I slouched on my stool and caught Bray's hand moving towards me from my peripheral vision. "If that touches my face," I referred to the intestines wrapped around his gloved finger. "I will be harvesting your organs on this table."
He sniggered but backed off. I picked up the scalpel again and took a deep breath. In my mind, the thought of cutting out a rat stomach didn't sound so horrible. But it felt so gross to actually touch. Squishy. Sick.
"I asked Sarah out on a date," Alex suddenly said. My scalpel paused, hovering above the rat and I stared at him.
"You did?"
He looked sheepish, nodding as he tapped his pen on his book. "Yeah. She's sweet. We started talking on Instagram and I dunno. I just asked. She said yes."
"Nice," Bray leaned over me and gave him a slap on the shoulder.
I'd sort of forgotten that the two of them had hit it off during the weekend. I'd had every intention of talking to Alex about his intentions. But it had slipped my mind. I set the scalpel down and turned to face him.
"Alright, not to be blunt—"
Bray sighed behind me. "Here we go."
"Okay no but for real. Alex, I know that you were like, crushing on me. So my question is, what is Sarah to you? Because she's sick. Which you know. And she does not deserve half assed commitment. She's on borrowed time. And I'm telling you right now, what time she does have should not be spent getting hurt or treated like a second option."
Alex gave me a small smile. "So would it help to tell you that after meeting her, you'd be the second option."
I heard Bray gasp behind me. But instead of being offended, I'd never felt more proud. "Shake my hand," I offered it to him and he shook it with amusement. "That's a real good answer dude. Real good."
He shook his head and swept his fringe. "Look, I like her. She has a good spirit. She's sweet. She's hilarious. You're right. She does deserve happiness."
"And the fact that she's got a terminal illness?"
His expression fell. "It's heartbreaking. But why shouldn't she feel what it's like to be doted on. Life must suck enough for her as it is. She should get the dates and the flowers and the goodnight texts and the butterflies an—"
"Shut. Up," Bray said, sounding exhausted. I twisted in my seat and saw him rubbing his temples. "I feel like my dick is going to fall off with all this cute bullshit."
"It won't need to fall off because I'll fucking pull it off," I punched him in the arm. "Now quit whining. Alex, continue."
He chuckled and waved a hand. "You get the point."
"You totally have my blessing," I grinned. "Heath is another story. You'll also have us both to deal with if you hurt her."
His gaze widened and he looked down at his paper. "Yep. Understood."
"Leonie," Mrs Yule whipped her glasses off and stood with frustration. I'd been talking for a while. I wasn't sure what her slow reaction was about. "I said not another word. Have you finished the dissection? What is so damn important that it requires incessant chatting."
"Love miss," I stood up and pounded a fist on the table. "The topic is love! Don't stop this love train miss."
On Saturday evening, after I'd showered, I made it as far as my bed before I collapsed in my towel and started watching Friends reruns.
Mom and I had spent about an hour on the phone earlier. She was hoping that she would get time to visit as soon as possible but she'd been swamped, finishing out her Miami cases while at the same time she started her new ones in London.
Plus some douchebag from a firm under her umbrella in Fort Lauderdale was murdered by his wife a week ago and because the firms were connected and a lot of the staff worked together, there were a lot of people taking leave to attend the funeral. So her firm tried to take on some of the workload and it was all back logging.
Mom said she wasn't sure why so many people were going to the funeral. She'd met this dude who was shot and she said he was through and through, a prick. Charming. But she could see through it. The rumour was that his wife shot him in self defence because he abused and raped her. But like the day of his funeral, she was seen with another man. A lot of conspiracies floating around. Whatever. This scandal ended up taking up half of our phone call.
I was about to answer a text from Jess to tell her that I wouldn't be at Jade's tonight when a phone call from Heath interrupted the screen. Not going to lie, sitting in a quiet room, all alone, staring at your phone when a call starts ringing insanely loud, is a fright that no one needs.
"What's up?"
"You busy?"
"Nope."
"Good."
"Yep."
He chuckled and I felt it, deep. "What's with these short answers. You in a mood?"
"No. You were doing it too."
He laughed again. "I actually have a reason for calling."
"Do tell."
"Sarah is going on this date tonight and she is having an existential crisis. She can't figure out what to wear or how to do her hair. So she asked if I'd call you."
"I'll be right there!"
Without waiting for a response, I hung up the phone and ran across to the closet. Without giving it much thought, I pulled on a pair of jeans, a cropped T-shirt and some flip flops. Quick and easy. Then I threw around clothes until I found a duffle bag buried at the bottom of a pile of cocktail dresses.
I started loading it up with outfits, shoes, makeup and accessories. There was a solid number of items crammed into the bag so without wasting time, I took the elevator down to the basement, shoved it into the Range Rover and headed toward Flagami.
Originally I had planned on sticking true to my word and not leaving the apartment on Saturday night. Because I wanted to cleanse from alcohol after the embarrassing stunt that I pulled at Heath's two weeks ago. But this was definitely worth leaving for.
About half n hour later, I pulled up in front of Heath's house, parked in front of the garage and killed the engine before I grabbed the duffle from the passenger seat.
Some of the neighbours watched with curiosity as I bounced on the spot and knocked on the door.
Barely a moment passed before it was swung open and Heath looked down at me with appreciation. He was dressed in a pair of grey sweats and a fitted white T-shirt. The sleeves pulled tight on his biceps and exposed his tattoo.
"Come on," he ushered me in and closed the door. "She's in her room. I'm not going back in there. It's a nightmare."
"Which one is hers?" I questioned, walking towards the corridor. As I passed his room, I noticed his desk was scattered with open textbooks. He was so dedicated.
"It's the second on the right," he instructed, his hand pressed to my lower back as I passed. "Thank you for doing this."
I looked over my shoulder and smiled before I tapped on Sarah's door and waited until she answered.
As soon as she did, her expression lit up and I felt honoured to be so valued. "Help me!"
"That's the reason that I'm here," I shut the door and looked around. The first thing that I noticed was the walls. They were covered in vibrant pictures and colours. But no photos apart from a couple with her mom and Heath.
The second thing that I noticed were the labelled boxes in the corner. Some were for donation. Some were for Heath. Some were for Jazz. It squeezed my heart and I almost lost my breath for a moment. I dropped the duffel on to the bed and unzipped it.
"I brought outfit options," I said as she stood beside me and inspected the bag. "A lot of them. And shoes. And makeup. You can keep all of this."
"What?!"
"Yeah. Keep it. I don't need it. It actually helped free up some room in my closet. Most stuff lives on the floor because I've run out of hanger space."
That was only half true. It also lived on the floor because I was lazy and couldn't be bothered putting it away.
"You are an angel," she squealed and tucked her hair behind her ears. She'd had it cut. Not so much the length. Just the thickness. It had been shaped around her face and had a lot of the weight taken out of it. It looked so natural. She was beautiful.
We spent most of the hour deciding on an outfit. She tired on almost every single piece of clothing that I brought. But she settled on a cute sundress. It was white with lace detail around the neck and it stopped just above her knees. It cinched at the waist and flowed out at the bottom. It was gorgeous and elegant but casual and relaxed. The perfect first date outfit.
Sarah sat on her desk chair while I used my curling tongs to twist her hair into soft curls. Again, casual. Sort of beach hair. I had no idea what Alex had planned. But this seemed as if it would work for anything.
"How are you feeling?" I asked, peeping at her distant expression in the mirror. "Nervous? Excited?
Both."
"Both," she laughed and met my gaze. "But sort of. . . Selfish? Should I be getting involved with someone who I'm going to end up leaving? And not by choice."
"Na," I wanted to put an abrupt end to her thoughts. "Alex knows what he signed up for. He's all in and you deserve a great guy like him. Being sick doesn't mean that you should miss out. He knows that."
She smiled and her demeanour became a bit lighter. "Yeah. You're right."
I picked up another piece of her hair and wrapped it around the curling tong. "Duh."
"I want to do more of this. Getting dressed up for dates and all of that. I always thought that I would get married. Ya know. I really wanted to do that. Which might seem weird for me. But I did. When I was little, I'd get dressed up and put on runway shows for mom, Heath and Damien. But when it was just me, I'd imagined getting married."
"That's adorable. And fair enough too. Lots of girls want that."
It was hard to know what to tell her. I couldn't tell her that she'd get her turn. She wasn't promised more than twelve months. It could happen. But it definitely wasn't a guarantee.
"Yeah but I'll settle for a boyfriend," she grinned and inspected her almost finished hair in the mirror. "You're good at these curls. They look so nice."
I finished off the last curl and then spritzed her hair with some hair spray before I ran my fingers through the curls to settle them. When I stood in front of her to inspect the makeup once more, I was almost brought to tears with how happy she looked. Beautiful and beaming with a smile that I'd never seen before.
My throat felt thick so I smiled back but kept quiet while I touched up her gloss and powder. Her cheeks were contoured, blushed, highlighted and her lashes were long with thanks to falsies. It was a full coverage but natural look and I was glad to know that she loved it as much as I did.
"So," she stood up and started slipping on a pair of powder blue sandals that I'd given her. "Is there anything that I should know about Alex before I go. Anything he would have neglected to tell me?"
I laughed at her sinister expression. "He's a super honest person. Shy. But he will open up if he's given the chance. What do you know so far?"
"Uh he loves school. He is super into science and math. He lives with his Dad. His mom isn't around much. She stops in for a brief dinner once in a while. He used to have a huge crush on you. Bray is his best friend since kindergarten. He's done drugs once. You were there. Something about an acid trip that got out of hand."
I curled over with laughter. "Yeah. Yep. Don't stress. You already know the big stuff. See. He's honest. How often do you guys talk?"
Her grin was so big that I thought she was going to split her lips. "All the time."
"Cuties," I grabbed her hand, gave her one last once over and turned to the door.
"Wait."
I stopped and looked at Sarah who was examining the mess that we'd left on her bed and floor. She met my expectant stare with worry. "What do you want me to do with the clothes. Ya know. After. Do you want them back? I mean, it'll be nice to have this sort of stuff while I'm here and I appreciate it. But for organisation purposes I nee—"
"Donate it," I said, feeling light headed from the turn in conversation. I needed the elation back and I needed it back fast. "Come on. Let's go and show Heath what a darling you are."
She laughed and the tension slipped as we skittered down the hall and saw the back of Heath's head on the couch. He twisted and stood up, pausing whatever movie he was watching.
For a moment, I wished that Jazz could have been here too. I know that it would have made her smile.
"Sarah," Heath came around and stood in front of his sister with big brother affection all over his face. "You look beautiful. I really worried that Leonie was going to have you in six inch heels and leather."
"Really?!" I drawled. "Me? I'm not as hopeless as you think."
"Not at all," he met my gaze and he didn't have to tell me, I could see that he appreciated my help. "You do look beautiful, Sarah."
She cocked a hip and waved a hand with sass. "Duh. I'm aware."
She hid it well, but I could still see that hum of nervous anticipation in her eyes. I almost felt a bit jealous. The first date jitters. The butterflies. The excitement of not knowing what the evening ahead held but trusting the person taking you to pull it off.
Alex would pull it off. He was a natural born romantic.
After a few minutes of sitting on the sofa, attempting distraction while we waited, the doorbell rang and Sarah shot up out of her seat. Heath and I followed her as she went for the door.
"You've taken your meds right?" Heath questioned.
"Yeah."
"And you have your cell? Fully charged?"
She nodded as she grabbed the handle and pulled it open. Alex stood on the doorstep, the sun setting behind him. He looked so dapper. He was dressed in a pair of jeans and a button up shirt. It was casual but smart and I was glad that we'd dressed Sarah much the same.
He swept her over and his expression was radiant. "You look beautiful."
"Thanks."
"Oh," Alex chuckled and waved when he saw me. "Hey, Lee."
"Alex," I slipped into mom mode and gave him a brief nod. Not because I felt the need to be threatening. I just felt the need to let him think that I was threatening. "Where are you taking our Sarah tonight?"
Sarah looked over her shoulder at me with furrowed brows. I could also sense Heath watching me and a moment later, his posture became more rigid. Shoulders squared. Arms folded. He was in on the game too.
"Oh," Alex palmed the back of his neck. "It's a surprise. I guess I could text it to you. I jus—"
"No no," Sarah shook her head and gave us a warning with her big wide eyes. "They don't need to know. Let's go."
"What time will you be home," Heath sounded so strong and intimidating that I almost forgot about the ruse and contemplated climbing on top of him right here.
"Uh," Alex shifted and I could see Sarah's hand twitching while she glared at her brother. "What time should I have her home?"
Heath glared. "What time do you think you should have her home?"
"Ugh," Sarah threw her hands up. "Enough. I'll be home when I'm home. My cell is on. Have a good night mom and dad."
She stepped out, Alex gave us a wave as the door slammed shut behind them. I looked at Heath and our composure cracked. We both racked with laughter.
"Was that a bit mean?" He chuckled.
I shook my head. "Na. They both know that we were messing."
I followed him back to the sofa. He dropped down, legs spread and arms folded as he shook his head with amusement and I felt my heart flutter at how effortless and hot he was. I sunk in next to him and he smiled.
"Suppose you've got plans tonight?"
"Nope," I cozied further in and felt so secure being this close. "I'm hanging out here. What should we do?"
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