AN: Chapter 15. I've really tried with chapter. I hope you guys like it. Oh, and its set right after part 12, a few days or so.
Also, thank you to everyone who reviewed with encouragement. You guys rule. Without you, I would've stopped posting. But you convinced me to do other whys. Thank you thank you thank you.
"You just let him go." Paige's voice broke Piper out of her haze, and she nodded slowly. "Why!"
Piper breathed slowly, focusing on the sound of air rushing in and out of her lungs, keeping her alive. That, and Jake was pretty much the only things that were right now. After Leo showed up again, she hadn't really left her room, let alone the house. She just sighed and turned her head to look at Paige.
"Because… I'm so sick of fighting," She breathed in deep again, composing herself, "Ever since we were together, it just seems like one long fight. I'm tired of it." She bowed her head and stared at her bedroom floor, her long brown hair falling around her head.
"Piper…" Paige placed her hand on her best friends back and rubbed softly as she saw a single tear splash onto the carpet beneath her feet, "I get it." Piper shook her head.
"But that's the thing…" She told her softly, her voice barely making a sound, "I don't."
Forcing her head upwards she took one look at Paige and fell forward onto her, her head falling in Paige's lap and cried. She cried for Leo's heartbreak, she cried for Nathan and Rick and Jamie, she cried for little Jake never getting to know his father and then she cried for herself.
"It's okay… shhhh… it's all gunna be okay, Piper." Paige comforted her, stroking her best friends hair as she sobbed uncontrollably.
.xXx.
Leo picked up the phone next to him and punched in a number, almost unconsciously.
"Hello?" He heard her voice and it was as if all the bad feeing were drained from his body as he lay on his back, staring at the white ceiling above him.
"Hey you." He answered her and he could almost feel the smile on her face at his words.
"I didn't see you today…" She said trailing off at the end, waiting for him to pick it up.
"I wasn't in." He told her, but knowing she knew that.
"You okay?" She asked, her voice full on genuine concern for him. He nodded to himself. That was his Piper. His Piper.
"Yeah just a bad cold." He said and reached for the glass of water on his bedside table.
"Good." She sighed and laughed a little. He was okay. She sat back down onto her bed and rested her back against her headboard. Closing her eyes as he spoke to her.
"Did I miss anything today?" He asked, not really caring about school, just wanting to stay on the phone to her, to keep hearing her voice.
"Well…" Piper laughed and they talked on the phone for long time that night. Not about anything in particular, just about little things that popped into their heads.
Two teenagers in love.
.xXx.
Leo stood a couple steps away from the canvas, as he stared at the picture he had just painted. Not quite knowing what he had drawn at first, he waited until his eyes came back into focus and he cleared himself of all the emotions running loose around his head.
And he focused on the canvas.
It was her.
In all her tauntingly beautiful glory. Her gorgeous brown eyes playing with my heart as stared harder at the painting. I'd drawn her, without even realising it. How is that possible?
"That's beautiful Leo." Came a voice from behind him, a voice that brought back too much pain. A voice he hadn't heard in years… He spun around at an almost break neck speed to face the voice.
"Nathan."
He looked different from the last time he had seen him. His eyes weren't burned with blood red around the edges, he wasn't deathly pale, and he wasn't as thin. He looked healthy. His eyes were back to the light blue that had been so long ago, his cheeks were flushed with pink and he had a good weight.
He was the old Nathan.
"Hey." Leo said, setting down his brush and staring and him. Nathan laughed slightly.
"I heard you were back in town, thought I'd come to see you. It's been a while…" Nathan scratched the back of his neck nervously. Leo nodded slowly, still not quite recovered from the shock.
"Yeah, it has." Leo answered eventually, breaking the wall of unbreakable silence separating the old friends, keeping them apart. Nathan looked at Leo and took a few steps forward, and they hugged.
"Yeah, it's been a while." Leo breathed as they released each other and all of the painful memories rushed back into their system.
.xXx.
"Nath! Nath!" Leo shouted as he gripped his friend by the shoulders, shaking him, "Nathan!"But it was no use, Nathan just stared off blankly into space and laughed, Leo looked at his pupils and they were only about as small pinpricks.
Oh God.
"Nathan! Answer me goddammit!" Leo screamed and let go of his shoulders, causing Nathan to end up in a heap on the floor, still laughing hysterically.
This wasn't the first time Leo had found him like this, far from it. But this time was getting to Leo, he had never been this bad. It was getting worse. So there they stayed for a while, a long while at that, just that way. Nathan laughing on the floor, Leo stood over him, calling his name every now and then.
And then laughing stopped and silence hung there.
"Leo?" Nathan's voice was quiet and cracked, breaking up as he spoke just the one word.
"Yeah, I'm here Nath." Leo told his friend and knelt down on the ground next to him, lifting his head so he could get a good look at him.
"Leo?" Nathn repeated. And Leo let go of his head.
"What?" He asked. And Nathan just stared at the hard ground beneath him.
"I don't wanna be like this." And he broke down, right there, on the cold damp street, Nathan broke down. And all Leo could do was hold his friend as cried. Helpless to do anything.
And that's what hurt the most.
.xXx.
"I missed you, you know." Nathan told Leo as they sat down with their coffees. Leo just nodded. This still didn't seem real to him. "I'm clean." Leo smiled then and his friend smiled back.
"How long?" He asked, taking a sip of the hot liquid.
"About a year and half now, since around the time Jake was born…." Leo hardened at the mention of Jake.
"You know about him?" Leo asked, a diamond hard edge appearing in his voice, one he couldn't even try to hide.
"Yeah, everyone does. He's a cute kid." Nathan told him, staring at his hands, unable to look Leo in face. Knowing what he would see there.
"You been to see him?" Leo asked another question and Nathan squirmed in the seat.
"No." He said quietly and though a bit before adding something to that, "I couldn't. I wanted to. But I was trying to stay clean… to many memories you know…." He trailed off and took a big gulp of his coffee.
Leo nodded. He understood. It was odd that he did, but he did. And there was that silence again. A silence that almost hurt.
"How's Rick?" Leo asked, flinching inside as he remembered the last time he and Rick and spoken.
"No, Leo, it's not. And you know it too. Piper doesn't love you anymore!"
"Clean too." Nathan told him, smiling again. Leo was proud of them, he really was. They'd sorted themselves out. "He's training to be in the army." And Leo nodded again.
"That's awesome." And Nathan nodded. "You heard anything from…" He couldn't bring himself to say the name, even after all this time. He still couldn't say his name.
"No, not since Piper ended it with him." Leo nodded again and stared at the clock on the wall. Listening to the second hand as it made it's way around the face.
Funny how time went so slowly when you watched it, when you were aware of it. But so quickly when you weren't. It had been almost 7 years since he had met Piper. But it seemed like yesterday.
"You spoken to Piper?" Leo asked Nathan and Nathan shook his head.
"It took me to long to get up the courage to come see you. Rick's still working on his…." Leo nodded again and remembered something else.
"How's Jamie?"
"I don't know Leo. She stopped talking to even Rick after about month of her moving to Canada. I don't know."
Five former best friends.
How did they get so far apart?
AN: I was going to make this longer by adding in another flashback but I thought that this was a good place to end it. I sort of liked this chapter. It's not really a big one as plot development goes but I liked it anyway. And Nathan's back. I had too! Oh, and Paige is in it D. Heh.. I love Paige.
And Leo drawing, was just a thing I wanted to add. My friend is an awesome artist and sometimes she'd just draw things without knowing it. Just going where it took her. So yeah…
Please review.