My phone rang and I reached for it, expecting Elena to check in on me. She’d gone home earlier than usual this evening since she was opening the café for Kennedy in the morning.
Leo’s name flashed on the screen which was lit up with a picture of him in his hockey gear holding the Frozen Four trophy over his head. My heart split as I answered the phone and pressed it to my ear, afraid to say anything.
“Soph?” It was his voice. It was pained, but it was him.
A lump formed in my throat and my breath got trapped in my chest.
“Hawaii?” he asked. “Are you there?”
“Yeah,” I whispered. “I’m here.”
A sharp intake of breath came through the phone and Leo’s voice cracked. “I’m not doing great here without you, Hawaii.”
Tears filled my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. “I’m not doing great either.”
“I really needed to hear your voice.”
“Okay,” I said. “It’s really nice to hear yours too.”
“Can I sleep with you tonight?” he asked, sniffling loudly. “Please, Hawaii. Just this once.”
I glanced at the screen to check the time. It was eight o’clock here, which meant it was the middle of the night in Boston.
I rolled over onto my side and put the phone on speaker next to me.
“Okay, Leo. Just this once,” I said, thinking back to the time I’d called him in the middle of the night and he’d done the same for me without question. If he needed to listen to me sleep, I could give him that.
“I miss you,” he said, his voice cracking again. I suspected he might be a little bit drunk, but I didn’t press him. I couldn’t even remotelyjudge how he was getting through this when my own approach was to avoid speaking all together.
“I miss you too,” I said.
His sobs broke my heart again as I swiped at the tears rolling down my cheeks.
“It’s not supposed to be like this,” he said. “We belong together, Hawaii.”
I swallowed around the lump in my throat and took a deep breath, despite feeling like an elephant had taken up residence on my chest.
“We’re together right now,” I said softly. “Go to sleep, Leo. I’ll be here the whole time. I promise.”
He didn’t say anything else and I must have fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes, light streamed in through the windows of the pool house. I looked at my phone next to me and touched the black screen.
It’s dead.
I rolled over onto my stomach and sobbed into my pillow until Mom showed up and coaxed me out of bed. She plugged my phone in without asking any questions and walked me inside the main house.
“Shower,” she said. “You need to get out of the house today.”
I groaned but did as she said, feeling Dad and Kennedy’s eyes watching me from their kitchen as I slowly climbed the spiral staircase to the shower. It was probably best for me to be as far away from my phone as possible for the day because the urge to call Leo back and make sure he was okay was overwhelming. The only thing that kept me moving was knowing that he wasn’t okay and calling to confirm that would only keep hurting us both.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Sophia
I had never beenmore disappointed to be home in my life. Oahu was my favorite place in the world and my family meant everything to me but it had been two weeks since I’d left Boston and I could still barely drag myself out of bed. It was Sunday, which meant everyone would be coming to Dad and Kennedy’s for Sunday-night dinner and there was usually nothing I loved more than having dinner together and sitting by a fire afterward or going night swimming with Elena while the boys pushed their bedtime later and later to join us.
My family had been relentless over the last week in trying to get me up and moving. Uncle Eric showed up bright and early, pulling me out of bed and barking orders at me like a drill sergeant. I was grateful that he got me going each day, never trying to talk to me about my situation, because the exercise helped with some of the depression. I’d even agreed to surf once with him and Dad. Kennedy asked for extra help at the café and at first I thought it was because she was looking for an excuse toget me out of the house, but when I really thought about it, I realized that she’d seemed tired over the last two weeks. She seemed to be resting a lot, and when the boys hounded her, Dad was quick to jump in and encourage them to let her be. It made me wonder if something was going on that I didn’t know about. They probably thought I was too fragile to know.
They aren’t wrong. Tell me Kennedy’s sick and I’ll probably sink into a depression so deep my therapist mother won’t be able to save me.
