章 16: The broke up in the past
As much as she wanted to lie to herself, Lori couldn't say honestly that she felt sad when Bobby Santiago broke up with her.
With everything that happened—Lincoln, finals, work, and supporting the family as much as she could—for some time, she even forgot completely about Bobby. They didn't call each other as often as she entered college because it would distract her, but no matter how busy they were, they always called each other every night to say goodnight and speak. However, in the last few weeks, she hasn't received any texts or calls from him. Bobby was completely ghosting her, and she would have noticed if she wasn't so busy.
She still texted him every day.
"𝘏𝘦𝘺 𝘉𝘰𝘰-𝘉𝘰𝘰 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘳!" 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯."
She closed her phone, fighting a yawn and rubbing her tired, red eyes. Her hands were barely holding the books in her hands. She got up from her seat and walked slowly towards the dorm to take a little nap for tonight. You see, Lori actually lied in the text message. She stayed awake all night to finish her work earlier and asked for a free day at work so that she could spend it all with him. She noticed that Bobby didn't text her back. How couldn't she? At first, she was thinking it was just work, but then worry that something happened with him started to build up, so she just decided to make some free time, spend it all with him, and ask him if it was the truth.
Her tired legs could barely walk straight towards her room. She finished all her papers that were due still 3 days without sleeping a wink tonight, despite the pleas of her roomate and some possible death treats. She didn't stop until all of them were done, it took her two days and nights. For work, it was a bit simpler she just asked for the day off, which her boss, being understanding as usual, accepted with a smile, but she had to finish the paperwork for an important project first.
The company had a hard case on their hands, so they had to search for a previous one that assembled the current one so that they could bring it to the judge to turn the tables in their favor.
She had to check what could have been hundreds of documents with previous cases in the search for one that matched, and it took her another 2 days of not sleeping.
In the end, she didn't sleep for four days straight, but she knew she could shake it off. She had to.
The plan for the date was simple: tell Bobby she can't even speak, call someone in secret to bring him to the park where they can have a picnic where they can talk, eat, have fun, and be with each other.
That was the plan. She had almost everything ready; the only thing that remained was to call someone to help her bring Bobby to the park. As her blue eyes saw the door to her room, she took out her phone. She didn't have to think much about who she had to call.
"Hey Lori!" How is college life?"
Her ears heard her youthful voice in total contrast to her completely tired self, and she could not help but feel a bit jealous of the energy the younger girl had.
"*Yawn*...exausting, anyway, I literally need your help, Ronnie-Anne...."
\\\\
"That's so sweet! Don't worry, Lors' Bobby will be there!"
Hearing her excited voice, she couldn't help but giggle. It seems in this short conversation where she explained her plan, Ronnie-Anne's energy rubbed off a bit on the blonde, even if she was tired beyond human imagination.
"Thanks, Ronnie-Anne; I own you one."
"Don't worry. Bye Lori!"
As the conversation ended, Lori let the books fall down on her desk, she couldn't help but look at her bed.
Her beautiful, comfy, messy bed What she would do to just jump on it and sleep till the next century, to wrap herself with the soft blanket, put her hair on the pillow, and finally let her eyes rest
Unfortunately, she couldn't her Boo-Boo-Bear was waiting for her.
She sat on the chair at her desk and took out a make-up mirror to see what she needed to fix. She didn't want to admit it, but she got a bit startled by the person she was looking at. The person in front of her had a hollow look in her eyes, huge bags under her red eyes, and her face, which usually had a healthy complex, was now white as a ghost. Her hair looked the same as usual, but with a closer inspection, you could see how tangled it was, showing how little time she had to even brush it. In movies, college students are always shown as carefree with too much time on their hands.
Of course, while studying, they also handle their part-time jobs while saving the planet at the same time. Looking at her right now, she can say with a hand on her heart that every single aspect of those movies that made her admire college life is completely and literally BULL.
Fortunately, living in a family as big as hers gave her the make-up skills to look her best. Even when Lisa let a tentacle monster run wild in the house and spread their neon pink ink EVERYWHERE, she hid her spots and fix her hair with a hose, and with the help... Lincoln..., her little brother, when he saw them in that state, he ran after every single one of us and, like usual, helped us as much as he could, even if in the end he totally forgot about himself and ended with literally everyone from school laughing at him.
Her naturally light pink lips twitched involuntarily, perfectly remembering that memory. How his already big eyes increased in size as he realized the pink mess he was covered and the adorable embarrassed surprised face he made then. They offered themselves to help as best they could, but he refused with a wide smile, knowing they didn't have time and they had to go to school. She could remember how he got out of the car with his chin up, already hearing the laughter of the students from afar, and how he waved while scrathing his check with an awkward, embarassing smile on his cute face toward his friends that tried to hold their laughter in respect for him.
A long sigh escaped her lips while she let her head back on the desk chair, her tired eyes looking at the ceiling for a second before she closed them. She could feel a sightly stink in her eyes. When her eyes finally closed for a short break, her hands dropped to her sides, and the make-up kit, the date, and even her boyfriend were left forgotten for a couple of seconds, all of them dedicated to him and him alone. To the memory when he turned around towards them and his eyes sprakled in the powerful sun even when they were sightly overshadowed by his smooth white hair, his wide dazzling smile, his blushing checks, and his hand waving at them energically while driving off.
She almost feel asleep there with that imagine in her mind and as much she would love to do that, falling asleep with the memory of that time on her mind while falling in a peaceful slumber but...*sigh* It must be the third sigh in the last hour,... but she had things to do. Lori corrected her posture on the chair and got up. First she ran to grab some stuff to take a shower.
Every floor has one communal bathroom for everyone, and fortunately at this hour the bathroom was empty. She quickly undressed herself and jumped under the shower. She made sure that the water was a bit cold so that she could wake up a bit, but in the meantime, she enjoyed the droplets of water massaging her tired body.
*Bing*
Unfortunately, what Lori didn't know is that her phone lit up several times when she was taking her shower. The screen of the blue phone showed that the sender was her boyfriend, Bobby.
"𝘏𝘦𝘺 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘦... 𝘞𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬."
/////
Wearing just a bathrobe, the blonde entered her room looking much better than before. Her hollow look disappeared, and the tiredness in her eyes was almost gone. Her blue eyes took a quick look at the picnic basket that she finished this morning with her and Bobby's favorite food and drinks.
She sat in front of the makeup mirror and started to fix herself up. Covering her bags was the hardest challenge, but she can say she did pretty well.
After she finished putting on the makeup, she looked at the mirror. Looking back at her was the old Lori, the one with a heatly complexion, blue, clear eyes, naturally light pink lips, and her hair back to its volume and heatly glow. She couldn't help but smile when she saw her work. She got up from her chair again to get her dress, and she was good to go.
If only her eyes didn't look at her phone that was sitting so innocently on her bed, her hand slowly reaching for it and opening the phone to check the time. and in front of her, she could see that her boyfriend texted her when she was inside the shower.
"𝘓𝘦𝘵'𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘶𝘱...."
The notification on the screen didn't show the full message, but when she tapped on the notification, it opened messagery, where she could see every text she sent.
"𝘏𝘦𝘺 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘦... 𝘞𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬."
"𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦... 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨-𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱—𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵... 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦. 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘣𝘶𝘵..."
"𝘓𝘦𝘵'𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘶𝘱, 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘪."
Lori Loud couldn't say with certitude what happened the rest of the day, she knew she let the phone fall on the bed, and the rest... well, the rest was kind of a blur. Her and Bobby broke up and got back together more times than she could count, most of the time it was for the best reasons or because of a silly misunderstanding, but this time she had the feeling it was for real.
She didn't cry or enter a fit of rage she didn't even call him to demand an explanation. She just sat there staring into the void for a while until she woke up the next day wearing just her bathrobe and wrapping herself up with a blanket, knowing Becky covered her when she fell asleep.
When she woke up wondering why she was wearing just her bathrobe, her eyes saw her phone, and everything came like a ton of bricks.
Bobby broke up with her.
"Oh..."
She knew she should have cried till her eyes went back to being red or even called him, but she didn't. She just sat there, laying on the bed, closing her eyes. She didn't know why she felt like that. Lori felt a bit sad, the tightness in her chest was proof of that, but it wasn't enough to make her cry.
It was nothing in comparison to what she felt before.
The next couple of days were filled with her telling multiple people that she was fine and they didn't need to worry about her. Becky had a girls night that ended with her getting drunk and glued under a table. Her family was swerving to comfort her and cursing Bobby, ready to beat him to a pulp, but she explained to them her reasons, and she understood them, even if she completely didn't.
Lori didn't know what she felt exactly; she didn't know if, after everything sank in, she would become a crying mess, or worse, or maybe she would be the same. She sincerely didn't know, but a white lie to reassure her family and friends was enough for her and them for the moment.
Lori hadn't seen Bobby since then.
PRESENT
On the lonely road at the crack of dawn, a dark red truck was driving. On the passenger seat with her head out of the window was sitting a Hispanic girl with brown sweet eyes and purple hair, her ponytail moving almost as energetically as she felt, and her wide smile was almost as shinny as the sun that was rising up the blue sky. She turned her eyes to the driver's seat, seeing an 18-year-old, tall, tan boy with brunette hair with a tuft combet upwards and some facial hair on his chin. He was wearing his usual clothes: a plain shirt covered by an unbuttoned green shirt and skinny jeans.
"How long till we get there?"
Said the girl with a full smile. She turned her head, looking at the driver, who was also her big brother. The Hispanic boy was clenching the wheel so hard that she could see his knuckles going white, his eyes unbroken from the road but so far away that she was a bit worried they would end up in an accident.
"...."
"Bobby, BOBBY!"
"Huh?!"
The brunette boy got so startled that the car shocked him a bit, causing the little girl to grab the board with both hands. The boy turned his worried eyes towards her, just to turn them back to the road.
"Sorry, Nini, what were you saying?"
His voice was so nervous that even a deaf person could hear the tremble in it. She extended her hand and put it lightly on his in a silent gesture to let him know she was there for him.
"Hey, it's ok, if you aren't ready to speak with Lori yet, you can stop by Flip's for some smooties, and I will..."
"No, I also want to see him, Ronnie, but I also want to speak with her, and I have to came out in front with what I did and why she at least deserves that much."
There were so many different emotions in his voice, but the one that Ronnie-Anne was happy to catch on to was "determination." Her big brother was going back to his old self, and that was filled with so much joy that she was almost as happy.... Almost as happy that she would see him again. Her checks for sightly red but she quickly got her head back out of the window to cool herself off, her head was back off the window but this time Bobby was also wearing a small smile on his face, hoping he wouldn't screw it up.
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