Page 15 of Tell Me When It's Over

“I asked her not to.”

“What?”

She presses her lips together.

“What the hell, Leighton!”

Swinging her legs around and sitting up, she hugs them to her chest. “What? I always looked up to you, Kyler. I saw you as my best friend for a while and I was glad when you went away. It made me think about all the things you said you wanted to do if you ever got to leave.”

Jesus Christ. She didn’t reach out because she wanted me to live my life. She let me go for the same reason I let her go.

Now look where we are.

Back in each other’s lives.

Facing off.

Together.

Where we should have been the whole damn time.

“One of these days, you’re going to let people take care of you without a fight.”

Her head shakes slowly. “I never want people to take care of me.”

My eyes narrow. “Why the hell not?”

There’s a small pause, a darkening of her gunmetal gray hues, before, “I want to be strong enough to take care of myself without depending on anyone. And one day, one day real soon, I will.”

I stare at her like she’s a stranger, which is absurd. She always had sheer determination when it came to living her life. Leighton never wanted to be like her mother, but now more than ever I can see the fire in her eyes that her mother’s death has ignited. It makes me wonder what she isn’t telling me, and that need to know is an incessant ball of nerves in my gut.

Knowing the conversation needs a pick me up, I stand while Lenny gives me a weird look. “I think I know how to turn this night around,” I tell her.

Her nose scrunches when I walk over to one of the remaining boxes in the corner and dig through the remnants inside. When I find what I’m looking for, I grin and turn with it in my hands.

The laugh I get is exactly what I hope for. “No way! You still have that?”

I walk over with the Mario Cart game and pass it to her. “We used to play this all the time. I wasn’t going to get rid of it.”

“Did you play after I left?”

No hesitancy. “No.”

“At all?”

I shake my head.

She watches me for a moment, almost like she can’t believe it, then a slow smile spreads across her face and melts away the emotional conversation leading up to this. “Then fire it up. I’m about to kick your butt.”

I laugh but do as she says knowing it’s not possible. Leighton has always sucked at video games no matter how hard she tried.

Twenty minutes

later, she’s shoving my shoulder, jumping onto her knees on the couch and pointing her controller closer to the TV like it’ll somehow improve her chances. “That’s cheating! You can’t do that, Ky!”

Snorting when she tries shoving me off the cushion again, I fight to stay upward and keep focused. “How is what I’m doing cheating when you’re trying to distract me?”

“Because!” is all she returns with.

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