Mia had a contented smile on her face by the ti the talent show ended. A freshman from the science departnt had been the one to win the first place. She was really excited to have seen this beside Leo who held her hand throughout while they watched and took ti to whisper to each other about what they thought of the contestant.
She realised that even though she hadn’t been among the contestants, she felt nervous during the whole show. Maybe her mind had been conditioned to react that way during competitions since all the ones she went to, she was always competing with others. Or maybe because it reminded her of the fact that CMT was this Sunday night and she was going to be doing her best to so they would all win the first place.
"You are still nervous." Leo noted. He held her hand while they walked side by side to his apartnt. Since it wasn’t so far, they both decided to walk instead of taking the car.
"I guess I am." She sighed.
"You are going to win." He assured her with a smile.
"What if..."
"You will win. I believe in you Mia Lucas." He squeezed her hand gently when he noticed the doubt in her face, so she looked up at him and smiled a little. The smile soon turned into a sad one.
"I know what you are thinking."
"What am I thinking?" She asked curiously as they stopped to stare at each other.
"You are thinking, ’I will miss him so much. How can I survive the next few years without seeing him in flesh?’ That’s what you are thinking." He smiled. The smile looked almost sad like hers. He too was thinking the sa thing.
Although he was correct, she snorted, "There is Louis. I can at least pretend he is you." She teased.
"WHAT?" His eyes flashed dangerously. "I forbid you from going close to Louis."
She shrugged and began to walk away.
"Why aren’t you saying anything? Why aren’t you telling you were only joking?" He asked in surprise as he increased his pace to catch up with her.
"What do you want to say?" She asked while she kept walking ahead, hiding her smile from him.
"That you won’t ever et with Louis because you miss too much. What if you get confused for a mont?" He held her hand and stopped her from taking another step before looking at her with a pout.
Mia looked at him, enjoying how riled up he was. "Say please..."
"What? Why?" He raised a confused brow.
"You are becoming very bossy with your demands lately, Mr. Lion King." She touched the tip of his nose with a finger. "You have to ask nicely before I listen." She smirked and went ahead of him while hopping.
"Co on babe, why are you doing this to ?" He asked as he continued to follow her but she didn’t stop.
"Alright! Please....." He called desperately.
"I just said please why are you still leaving?" He complained before he began to jog towards her.
********
After Chloe left the school, she went to the only place that she drowned her sorrows in— WORK.
She kept reading through files, taking notes, monitoring charts and doing anything that would take her mind off whatever she was feeling.
Her grumbling stomach reminded her she hadn’t eaten anything since the afternoon of the previous day and it was already evening.
Food was the least of her problems. Who would have appetite after everything?
Her eyes involuntarily went to a note that was stuck to her table calendar. It had Jeremy’s handwriting and read: Always take a break, Miss King.
She rembered the day he left that note. She had been working for hours and didn’t even give him any attention when he ca to see her so he got angry and started complaining about how she was working too much.
"You should always take a break. I can bet you haven’t eaten since you ca here. So... I’ll give you one little secret that’ll make you feel better." Jeremy had said.
She hadn’t wanted to answer him then but she did even though she was still looking at her computer, "And what’s that?"
"Sitting for hours is not good for the health. Especially with how you are bent over like that while using your computer. So always try to stand up and do so stretches or even better, take a stroll downstairs to one of the restaurants and get sothing nice to eat. It would even be better if you used the stairs instead of the elevator."
"That... is... your secret?" She finally raised her head to look at him with a frown.
"Of course! Surprised?"
She sighed. She had totally forgotten who she was dealing with. "You always bring sothing to eat so that won’t be necessary."
"This is about your health. It’s not good to always sit here like this. Besides, I won’t be here forever."
"Whatever!" She said with disinterest before she continued with her computer. He moved closer to her desk to pick up a note and pen and wrote sothing down.
"I’ll just stick this note here. Whenever you look at it after long hours of working, go down and eat."
She ignored him and just let him do what he was doing. Once he was done and left her office, she looked at the note and her lips curved upwards slightly.
In the present, she looked at it and felt goosebumps on her skin. The kind of goosebumps that ca whenever she felt like crying. She quickly stood up and picked up her purse. She didn’t have the ti to feel pity for herself. She believed she did the right thing. Maybe she had been a bit harsh, but that was the only way to push him away.
She was already standing in front of the elevator before she rembered he had told her to take the stairs. Although she felt very weak and was starving, she turned towards the direction of the stairs.
It took her quite a while before she got downstairs. She panted heavily from the exertion of climbing the stairs and felt like collapsing, also from hunger.
She didn’t take many steps before she saw the familiar figure with the long hair speaking with so people including the manager. He carried a big backpack which looked really heavy and he wore casual clothes and not the clothes the employees wore.
"Thank you all for having here these past few months. I am deeply grateful." Jeremy said with a smile.
The others didn’t look happy with the news. "Why are you suddenly quitting? Did sothing happen?" A girl asked.
"Do you need a raise?" The manager asked. He looked like he was ready to do anything that Jeremy asked him to. Aside from the fact that he was good at his job, several tis, they all knew how he had saved their asses from getting fired.
"Did you... quarrel with the boss by chance?" A boy dared to ask.
Another boy amongst them suddenly saw Chloe and alerted the others nervously.
Chloe remained standing there. She locked gaze with Jeremy whose facial expression didn’t change at all except the hurt she saw in his eyes.
Whenever they t like this at work, he always sent her a smile. But now, he looked at her like he didn’t even recognize her.
"I’ll be leaving now. Take care all of you. And do not skip your als." Jeremy bowed his head slightly at the manager, turned and walked away.
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