Page 13 of Conflict Conclusion

Hailey stood there, decked out in a university sweatshirt and braided pigtails. She looked like a recruitment poster, and Leon very nearly shut the door in her face. Never one to be easily deterred, Hailey slipped past Leon and headed straight to his fridge, where she pulled out a can of Sprite from the pack he always kept on hand for her.

Wordlessly, she cracked open the can and took a large drink. After she swallowed, which was distinctly audible in the quiet apartment, she tipped her head back and gave a satisfied sounding sigh as her eyes slid closed.

I called 911 already, but…but she…she won’t open her eyes!

Leon shook his head, trying to shake loose Trina’s voice.

For several weeks after the accident, those words had played on a loop in Leon’s mind, almost like a horrific song he couldn’t get out of his head. Over time, it had slowed, and now it was only once or twice a week.

“Wh-what—” Leon said, his voice cracking from disuse.

He’d somehow managed to skirt Aspen’s invitations the previous evening, which meant he hadn’t seen another person or spoken out loud since he left the office. He hadn’t even talked to Yarmen, just cuddled with him in silence on the couch before collapsing into bed. James had started on his long journey home while Leon was still at work, so he hadn’t been able to wish him a safe flight. Thankfully, James had given Leon his flight information a while back, so Leon tracked the flight on his phone until it landed safely at the airport. He was supposed to be coming over today, which meant Leon had a fair amount of tidying up to do.

He glanced at the clock and—shit, how was it already half past eleven? James could be coming over any minute now, basically just whenever he woke up and managed to shake off the jet lag.

Hailey took another loud drink of Sprite, following it up with an obnoxious “ahhhhh.”

Leon cleared his throat and tried again. “What do you want?”

“Sprite,” Hailey said, taking a dainty sip while she blinked innocently up at him.

He stared at her, trying to hold the indifferent, impatient expression that used to come so naturally to him.

The way she was studying him, he wondered if he still hadn’t quite gotten it back.

“I also wanted to complain,” she said, collapsing against the countertop dramatically. “I thought I’d done all my research. I even used that ‘rate my teacher’ site James suggested, but I somehow managed to pick the absolute worst teacher for my seminar. And even worse than that, I convinced Trina to take it with me!”

Hailey slowly slid down the side of the counter, and this time Leon found his impatient tone with ease. “Alright, when you’re done being dramatic⁠—”

“Don’t call a woman dramatic,” Hailey said, blinking big, doe eyes up at him from where she was still slowly sliding towards the floor.

Leon took a steadying breath, trying to ignore the way Hailey calling herself a grown woman made his chest feel like it was imploding. “You’re right. Let me try that again. When you’re done being more ridiculous than Yarmen in the morning⁠—”

Hailey barked out a surprised laugh.

Leon rolled his eyes and turned on his heel, heading back into the bedroom. “You woke me up, so I’m going to get dressed, and you’re going to go sit on the couch so we can talk about this like adults.”

Again, his chest felt jagged and raw, but Hailey alleviated some of that pain by blowing a raspberry at his back.

He quickly changed into his own college sweatshirt—mostly because he knew Hailey would resent matching his “old ass”—and his last remaining pair of clean joggers. He gathered up his dirty laundry and brought it out to the machine, pointedly ignoring the fact Hailey was still sitting on his kitchen floor.

“There really isn’t anything to talk about, just the fact that my faefriend is going to break up with me because I chose the worst class, and the worst dorm hall, and will probably pick the worst clubs to join, and we won’t make any friends!”

“Isn't it a little early to be worrying about clubs? Shouldn’t you, I don’t know, fucking start school first? They put so much pressure on kids these days. Join those clubs, these societies, get perfect grades—for fuck’s sake,” Leon said, shoving his clothes into the washing machine. “Also, what do you mean the worst dorm?”

“We had the choice between two dorm halls, and I took James’ advice and picked the one closer to classes and farther from downtown. Apparently, that means I picked the nerd dorm!” Hailey wailed.

Well, yeah, Leon could have told her that.

And he would have…except he’d been avoiding her texts, and apparently, she’d begun looking elsewhere for advice.

“And the club fair is the second day of classes. James said he’d leave his phone on ring so I could text him for advice, but we already saw how that worked out! Oh my god, I’m going to have no friends and no faefriend and fail out of school.”

Leon chanced a glance over his shoulder and found Hailey pouting a truly Oscar-worthy pout. She hadn’t outright asked for Leon’s advice on anything college related. Anytime she managed to corner him in the mailroom, hallway, or elevator, she’d info dump on him until he managed to make his escape.

Why was she coming to him with this now?

“You should just join whatever clubs sound interesting to you. Isn’t that what they say? The easiest way to make friends is to get hobbies? So, yours would be something like ‘being a menace’ and ‘giving your elderly next door neighbor frequent heart attacks.’”