Leo's POV:
Never in my life have I ever been this embarrassed of my friends until now.
As I sat inside a coffee shop at a mall looking out the window, 10 feet to my right, there was an ape and a chimpanzee whizzed by.
The former was a raging woman by the name of Ashley, in her left hand is a purse that is swinging high in the air. Side note Ashley is a 4-time dart tournament champion and has good aim. A well-deserved panicked chimpanzee is running for his life due to a snark comment on her weight.
The chimpanzee in question was Tyler, a best friend since kindergarten, and now about to be euthanized or at the very least castrated.
Flashback to twenty minutes ago, Ashley and Tyler were arguing with each other over whose party to go to, with every few sentences giving me a look to back me up.
"Leo needs some love in his life, the party I'm having I'm having with the girls next week will be the perfect chance for him to be in a relationship. A lot of the girls in our grade like him, it's that simple, she should go with us."
She looked at me expectantly, but I just gave her a smile before panning back to the endless swiping up of videos on my phone.
"Two things Ashley, one, Leo just had a nasty breakup, yeah no way in hell are you insisting to get him into a new relationship. Two your party is a girl's night out, let me highlight that, girls, night, out."
As he said that he paused between each word, as if trying to insinuate that Ashley had something wrong with her head that he to talk to slow, pushing a bit much right there buddy.
"Well, there's nothing wrong with dating after a breakout, it could be a good coping mechanism."
"Coping mechanism Ashley? Yeah, as if, the nagging of the girls poking at you to set them up on a date with Leo had no play in this decision of yours, right?"
Ashley got silent, though I already knew, I have ears everywhere. Well, not exactly, it's just that I got so used to hanging out with Ashley that I could tell whether she was lying and hiding something from me just from her voice. Her reply of silence to Tyler's accusation was enough to satisfy my hunch.
"Well... I also thought it would be good for him..."
"Wow Ashley, how nice of you to be so friendly, you're such a good friend, your friendship with Leo is so good, amazing, the best I've ever seen. I might even have to revoke my best friend status with Leo and hand it over to you. Cause you sure are the prime example to a friend."
With each word that Tyler said, he was only adding more oil to the fire, at this point, he poured an entire tank into the fire which is Ashley's temper. I could practically see the smoke come out of her ears as her face turned red, not of embarrassment but of rage.
Tyler has always been slow, but I didn't think he could be this stupid. He was asking to die at this point.
"Hey, Leo why don't you come by then at least? You don't have to stay. You'll be able to try my brownies. Plus, there are lots of baked goods there, are you sure you don't want to go?"
"Ashley if he did that then Leo would be overweight, like you."
As soon as those words left his mouth, I made a silent prayer for his soul. May his soul rest in pieces, I mean peace, after what Ashleys going to do to him.
"Why you little!"
And flash forward back to now, we have 2 unsupervised primates chasing each other at a crowded mall on a Saturday. I cannot deal with this right now, I walked over to the barista to pay our checks and get another order of much-needed caffeine to deal with the stress.
"Do you know them?"
The barista asked as she handed back my card.
"Nope, don't know them at all, first time I've seen them."
I sat back down and looked at my phone, going back to watching brain rot to pass the time. All of a sudden, a message blocked almost half my screen. It was probably a series of paragraphs that featured apologies, meaningless worries, and questions.
There were a few people who contacted me, first from my dad. Asking where I was that I was in so much trouble. Wow, just wow, so he only just noticed after a week of me running away from home that I wasn't there anymore? Goes to show how good his attention span is. Skip. I made sure to only read the message from the notification tab so he wouldn't know I noticed.
Next, a text from my ex... I gave myself a pause before I pressed the dreaded message.
"Hey, Leo it's me, Lia. What happened was a mistake, it's all your fault, it was a misunderstanding..."
Before I read the rest, I turned off my phone. I could practically feel my blood pressure skyrocket. Misunderstanding? Ha! The audacity of that woman, first a contract relationship to make both our families stop pressing us to be in a relationship. At first, we had chemistry and I ended up having feelings for her. How I wish I could burn my past away, 'cause next I catch her naked in another man's bed. How am I supposed to misunderstand that? She was having a yoga class? A wrestling match? Nice try Lia, your name suits you well for a liar.
"Do we have a De Vega here?"
A barista called as held up my stress relief. A White chocolate mocha with two pumps vanilla, and one pump espresso. A holy drink for those with a sweet tooth.
I picked up the order and walked out texting at the same time to tell Tyler and Ashley that after their lover's quarrel, I'd meet them back at Tyler's place.
Well, there's a reason why texting while walking is a bad habit, cause the moment I walked out bumped into someone and dropped my coffee, falling on my ass.
"Oi watch where you're going."
When I tried to pick myself up, I slipped on my spilled coffee and landed ass-first again on the floor.
This can't be happening... I hate this, crazy friends, a dad that's nonexistent that acts like he isn't, and an ex that is a compulsive liar. I just wanted to cry, as the tears fell, I continued to sit there. The trigger was my coffee... My poor baby... You lived a short life.
As tears flowed down my face, I started to whimper. Haizz today is just not my day is it...