Pieces of a Life

It was raining by the time Alex and Leila were sitting across from each other at a booth in an ice cream parlor. Of course it was raining. Leila stared at the ice cream she hadn’t touched, her hands folded neatly in her lap. Why Alex had brought her here, she had no idea. She hardly ate anything in the first place; an ice cream sundae was ridiculously out of the question. He probably knew that, too. She wiggled her nose and glanced up at him.

Alex had never seen Leila dance. This one thought appeared in her head now and she couldn’t get it to go away. And it was more important than it sounded. It had become blatantly apparent as Leila became more and more involved with her dance studio at a young age that this was what she was meant to do. Some people are born naturally talented singers, writers, artists, athletes, even sales people or mathematicians. Some people, sadly, may never discover their natural talent. But for Leila, it was obvious. And almost scary. When you’re that good, how far could you go? Where was the tipping point? When you’re that good, when do you stop? That was why she never wanted Alex or Evelyn or even Jack, Rian, Zack, or any of her dearest friends to see her dance. They knew her so well and they would see it, they’d see everything. They would see how perfect she made every step, how naturally her body moved. They’d see how she could just lose herself up there on stage. How she would lose herself, eventually. Alex, especially, would see that. He’d see the end before it came and she couldn’t let him. She had left without warning on purpose—before anyone could stop her, she was gone. And now she was back.

It shouldn’t have been such a scary thought, but Leila knew in the time she’d spent away she was getting closer to the breaking point with every step of her foot. If she fluttered her eyelashes on stage maybe—eyes painted and glittering with makeup, framed by a heavy curtain of dramatic false lashes—if she did one more thing, put one more part of herself into it, she’d be gone. She’d get to that point; she’d go over the edge. She’d never leave that stage, never close her eyes from the vision of perfection she needed. Dancing was already her life. She had nothing else. What would happen to her when things got out of balance—if dancing took her over, if her life was just completely destroyed because of it? She knew she was close already. Alex would tell her that the perfection she needed didn’t exist. He’d tell her to wake the fuck up and get on with her life. He’d tell her she was lost. And he’d be right. So she would never let him see.

He smiled at her when she looked up at him. “Not eating anything, as usual. I guess you haven’t changed all that much.” Leila forced a small smile in return and shrugged her bony shoulders. “Well, tell me Lei: how’ve you been?”

Leila scrunched up her face and looked down. “I’ve been…fine.” Alex rolled his eyes and looked at her skeptically. “I don’t know, Alex,” She sighed, blinking slowly. “It’s different in San Francisco than it is in Baltimore. I feel different there, I feel different here. I guess the only thing I can feel anymore is change.” She plucked the cherry off her sundae with a look of faint disgust and dropped it in Alex’s ice cream. He laughed quietly.

“Alright, well, that’s something other than fine,” He took a bite of the melting ice cream and looked at Leila some more. “Which we both know is a lie. You’re not very good at hiding things, Leila-belle.” He smirked. Leila laughed despite herself; he had always given her silly nicknames like that. Leilabelle, Leilabug, Leilababe. Or, when he was trying to start trouble: Leilabooger, Leilabutt, Leilaballs. Her name was almost never the same thing twice with him.

“I hid from you for a few years, didn’t I?” She replied with a teasing smirk. It was a little close to the chest, but Alex would’ve said something like it if she hadn’t.

“Oh, did you now? How do you know I didn’t find you before? You’ve been here, I’ve been there—” He was teasing and looking smug, but Leila shook her head and interrupted loudly.

“I know you, Alex, and you know me. If you’d ‘found’ me before,” She gave him a look, fingers curling little air quotes. “We would’ve found each other somehow. We always do. I’m not bragging or even saying I’m glad I left, because it was a shitty thing to do, but come on. You avoided me, too.” He frowned like a child and was quiet for a moment. He ate another spoonful of ice cream.

“Yeah, well, looks like we found each other again, doesn’t it?” He smiled almost sadly. Leila offered a small polite smile in return, watching him contently. Alex ate one more spoonful of the melted ice cream, slapped some money on the table, and stood up. He jerked his head at her, motioning for her to leave, and held out his hand.

“I’ll take you home. But don’t get too comfortable,” He said, opening the car door for her. “Because I’ll be back.” Leila rolled her eyes, mumbling “Of course you will,” as he sat in the driver’s seat. He glanced at her. “Ma’am, this is a sass-free vehicle. Please control yourself, or things will get ugly.”

Leila blurted out a laugh and held up her hands. When they came to the gate of her house Alex knew the unlock code without having to ask, from years and years of going to the Willows’, and he drove up to the door. “Like I said, Lei—I’ll be back.” He stared at her for a second, smiled mischievously, then reached over to give her an awkward hug from his seat.

The house was empty again, Leila all by herself as usual. She practically tip-toed through the house—that feeling of having to be quiet when everything around you is quiet too. Someone, one of the greedy people who had been at the house before, had left a piece of paper on a coffee table. There were a few papers, all official looking documents that probably had to do with her father’s will. She flipped through them. They weren’t very telling, but the name and phone number of her father’s lawyer was on the top. Leila narrowed her eyes and pulled out her phone.

“You’ve reached the office of Walker and Reid, how may I help you today?” A cheery secretary greeted the call.

“My name is Leila Willows, I’m calling to speak with Mr. Reid.” She stated, leaning back on the sofa with the papers in her lap. Leila had gotten good at asserting her authority, or at least pretending she had any authority to assert. It was like her prima donna act: you fake something enough and it becomes easy.

“Oh,” The secretary was flustered. “Oh, yes ma’am, of course. Please hold.” Leila pursed her lips as she was put on hold and skimmed through the documents. Her call was received rather quickly.

“Miss Willows, I must say I’m surprised to be hearing from you,” The lawyer chuckled. “What can I do for you?”

Leila stacked the small pile of papers neatly and kept them in hand, standing up from the sofa. “I’m calling about my father’s will, Mr. Reid, and the division of his estate. I want you to postpone that reading until I let you know the time is right.” She said curtly, going to her room with the papers in hand.

“I…I’m sorry? Postpone it? Miss Willows—Leila— do you realize—” Leila scowled and interrupted him.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Reid, but do you realize the current situation? There are people who I know for a fact are not friends or relatives of my father and they are crawling all over this. They’re making it a free-for-all and are just so ready to destroy anything they can. Well, I’m his daughter. And I’m not going to let my father be dragged through the mud.” She snapped. Usually she wasn’t the snappy type, but she was defensive about her father. Mr. Reid was silent for a moment, so she continued. “They’re trying to take control of this whole thing. Well, I’m probably the only true family he has left. It’s my job. And I’m making sure I do it.” She crossed one arm across her body in an attempt to fold her arms, the papers dangling from her hand.

Mr. Reid sighed on the other end of the phone. “Leila,” He began gently. “I know you’re upset, and I understand. You’re absolutely right about your father’s estate. I know there are people showing up to cause trouble and make your name dirty. But how do you expect me to just postpone this?” Leila rolled her eyes, nudging her door open. “It’s official business, I can’t just take your angry phone call and change everything because of it.”

“I’m his daughter!” She huffed, putting the papers in a drawer of her desk. “If you don’t care about the personal side, look at the legality: I’m his immediate family, like, I don’t know, the heir or something. When he died, he passed the throne on to me. I call the shots. And that’s what I’m doing right now.” She said. It was a little immature, maybe, but she wasn’t going to hang up the phone until she fixed this.

He was quiet again. “Alright, alright,” He mumbled. She could practically see him shaking his head. “It’s not illegal, Leila, just a little unconventional, but what the hell? I practice law, unconventional is part of the job.” He sighed. “Alright. I’m not too happy about it, but you are right on several points. I’ll be in touch.”

Leila grinned, thanked him, and hung up. They certainly wouldn’t be expecting her to do that. Good. It was about time someone gave them a run for their money. She stepped out of her heels and went to change out of the funeral clothes.



She had only gone to the store because she wanted a snack. Just a little something to eat: not a big fancy meal, not an ice cream sundae. Just a little snack. Maybe some chocolate covered almonds. She liked those. But she went to the store, casual and comfortable, completely unaware, and did not get a snack. Instead, she got a total heart attack.

“Leila? Jesus Christ. Leila?” She froze in the aisle, staring at the almonds. Shit. Why did this keep happening? Now he was running over here…God damn it. Leila squeezed her eyes shut for a second, opened them again, and turned around.

She knew it was Zack. He looked a little different, he was staring and clearly shocked, but his face looked the same. He, too, had gotten muscular, older, and handsome. He was holding a grocery basket that contained little mundane items, his hair was mussed in a way that was probably done on purpose, and his shirt was fitted enough to all but wave hello from his abs. There was a gorgeous blonde girl standing beside him and looking perplexed. Leila looked down at the jar of chocolate coated almonds in her hand. “Hi,” She said.

Zack stared for a second longer, then became unfrozen. He looked around for a second as if he was confused, then stared at her again. “Hi? That—that’s what you’ve got to say is hi? I—what—but—you—ugh!” He stammered, trying to think of something to say. Leila pouted at her almonds. This wasn’t fair. “You’re—you’re here. Why? What are you doing here? Wait, no, don’t answer that. I’m sorry. I know. I was…I was at the funeral today. But God,” He shook his head. “It’s really you.”

Leila shrugged, desperately holding on to her almonds. “Yep,” She said, popping the ‘p’. Zack just wouldn’t stop staring. “What?” She snapped. He grinned.

“I can’t believe it’s really you—you’re really here. You came back.” He was smiling. She shrugged again, more dramatically this time, and the almonds shuffled around in their plastic jar. Zack put his basket on the floor and gave her an enormous hug. Leila hugged him back, almonds still in hand, the blonde girl with Zack still looking confused.

“It’s so crazy!” He said when he let go of her. “I mean God, you know what’s happened since you’ve left? There’s so much—I just—well, I won’t get into that now.” He looked a little sheepish. “Oh, this is my girlfriend Angie. Angie, this is my friend Leila.” Zack gestured as he introduced them. Angie smiled brightly and said hello. Leila wasn’t really sure what Zack expected her to do, especially since she was bound and determined not to let go of her almonds, so she smiled back at Angie and waved awkwardly.

“What are you getting?” Zack snatched the almonds and Leila bugged her eyes at him, making a whining noise. “Chocolate covered almonds? You would.” He handed them back to her and she clutched them. Couldn’t she just get a simple snack these days without being ambushed? “Anyway, I…well, I guess I’ll be seeing you, Lei. I can’t believe it.” He smiled and picked his basket up off the floor.

“Guess so,” She said, another awkward wave goodbye as they left. She hadn’t said much of anything that whole time. Typical Zack. He was friendly, but everywhere at once. She looked down at her almonds and sighed. If she’d known it would’ve involved all this just to come get a snack, she would’ve just stayed home. But she was a big baby and would’ve seen Zack eventually, she knew that. What did she have to hide from anymore? Leila huffed and went to pay for her almonds. She probably wouldn’t even eat them. She hummed absent-mindedly and wished for Alex’s company.