Enchanted to Meet You

“What the hell is the matter with you?”

“I didn’t know what to do.”

“You slap him in the face, that’s what you do!”

“Hey, easy on the yelling.” Quil kept his voice low. “Claire is trying to nap.”

“I’m just trying to knock some sense into people.” Leah grumbled.

Quil recognized our conversation to be too dramatic for him. He held up his palms defensively. “I’m out.”

I wanted him to stay and keep Leah from ripping my head off. “Bye,” I said quietly.

I waited til Quil was in the other room. “Leah, it wasn’t like I could have done anything.”

She took a breath to compose herself. “First, you could have told her to back off -”

“I told you, I couldn’t do that!”

“Why not!?”

“Guys, please!”

“Quil, shut up!”

“You shut up!”

“Don’t yell at him!”

Claire started to cry.

Quil was angry now, gritting his teeth. “See what you do?” He told both of us, before hurrying off to calm down Claire.

I let my heart rate descend to a healthy level. “Leah, please just listen to what I have to say.”

She ran her tongue over her teeth, waiting.

“So yeah, I am jealous. I realize that now. But the reason I can’t do anything about it is because I’m afraid.”

“Afraid of what?” She snapped.

“I’m afraid I’ll lose him.”

She rolled her eyes.

“I’m afraid if I say something he’ll get angry and think I’m trying to hold him on a leash or something - no pun intended. I’m afraid to do anything that could risk losing him. Which is why I didn’t freak out the other day.”

She just stared at me, shaking her head.

“What?”

“You don’t get it, do you?”

I was confused, so obviously not.

It seemed like she changed where she was going. “Where are they right now?”

I swallowed. “Who?”

She huffed. “Barbie and Ken.”

I chewed on my lip.

“Elena and Seth! Where are they?”

My voice was very low. “Cliff diving.”

“And you’re probably pissed, right? You won’t say so, but you are. You’re pissed because you thought that was your thing.”

She couldn’t have been more right.

“Well guess what? Elena thinks that’s their thing. You know why? Because when she was around, they were just like you two. Elena was exactly like you.”

I couldn’t swallow the lump in my throat. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“It’s supposed to make you realize what’s going on here.”

I tried hard to understand, but I just couldn’t.

Leah sighed, as if she actually pitied me. “You know, it sucks because I really do want to be on your side, believe it or not.”

That felt like a punch in the stomach. “You’re not on my side?”

She came closer to me. “You don’t get that you’re the lucky one. You are the imprint. In Seth’s eyes, Elena is probably a stick in the ground. Well, maybe in her case, she’s a rock. But that’s only a maybe.”

She wasn’t making sense. It was hypocrisy coming out of her mouth. First she was telling me to slap him in the face, and now she was telling me not to worry about it. I was more than confused at this point.

“Valerie, try looking at things from her perspective, would you? She’s with a boy who considers her to be golden one minute, and then the next she finds out he’s found somebody worth more while she was gone.”

I understood now.

Leah must have seen it on my face. “Sound familiar?”

I just bowed my head, ashamed.

“He’ll never go back to her as long as you’re here. But that’s not why I’m on her side. You don’t need to fight for him, but you might as well act like you actually want him to yourself! Be selfish for a change!”

The entire time tears had been threatening to run over her eyelids, and now they had crossed the barrier.

I took a step to hug her, but I was interrupted by someone coming through the front door.

Seth looked at Leah, then at me with worried eyes. “What’s wrong?”

Leah didn’t storm away like I expected. Instead, she took her time heading up the stairs.

Seth approached me warily. “Are you okay?”

The lump finally went down, but I still didn’t trust it. I held out my arms and he filled the space warmly.

I used my fingers to play with the back of his hair as we hugged, but something distracted me greatly.

My nose was close to his shoulder, and a scent other than the earthy, woodsy scent he carried filled my nostrils.

It smelled like honeysuckle and lemon.