Dear, Leo
1035 Words
Dear, Leo
Leo frowned. " What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well I --"
" Shut up. Glenda " Sarah scolded.
" Oh, sorry." Glenda raised her hands.
"What's going on?" Leo's brows went higher." Why did you come? " Leo took her shoulders in his arms and she wriggled away from him.
Glen cleared her throat. "I'll...leave you guys to it, while I settle my own issues with this right here" She waved the physics manuscript in her hands.
"Don't leave Glen ." Sarah said curtly.
"Maybe if you try to make it sound sweetly seductive---I might consider staying."
Sarah gave her a scathing stare. " I don't want to talk to him... please."
Glen glanced briefly at them, uncomfortably conscious of the brewing tension between them. "Uhh...sorry, I think I am going to sit this one out."
" Wise choice so far.. considering all the bad ones you've made." Leo growled .
Glen rolled her eyes at him and pulled her feet away from them, leaving the room.
"Glen! I'm going to kill you for this!" Sarah yowled.
" I'll better go make myself ready for my death then." Glen replied before she was out of sight.
Leonard stared at her a moment longer, his face remaining expressionless.
Her gaze shifted to the two bulky guards in black standing just outside the door. She hadn't seen them on her way to his private reading quarters.
Noticing her gaze, he motioned with his fingers and both the guards bowed and left.
"I didn't ask you to do that." She said sternly.
" What is this picture Glen was talking about?"
" Maybe you should go ask her...better from the pigeon's mouth"
" Are you playing games with me?" Leo's gaze dropped to what she held in her hand, and she moved her hands to her back so he wouldn't see.
"Whatever you wish." H said, disinterest written all over his features before he turned and left.
With his back to her, she plunged down onto a nearby chair, her heart heavy with the weight of a boulder crushing down on it. Would he tell her the truth if she asked him about it? Would he prove her fears to be false? Or shatter the last shred of hope flickering in her heart like a faulty lamp.
Maybe it was best she put away the pictures, bury the memory somewhere at the back of her head and forget whatever conversation had ensued between her and Astra.
It was just a poorly plotted plan of hers to break them up, and she was being unfair to Leo.
***
GLENDA
When Glen walked into the library expecting to get some serenity and space to focus, her gaze fell on Astra seated some distance away, her 'exotic' friends were around her like egrets hovering over cattle.
Astra met her gaze and her smile fell.
Glen looked away and rushed off to another table, far from hers.
Astra stood up, and made to come over when Leo walked into the library.
There were hushed whispers all around the library, persistent like clouds cast over a gloomy sky.
A grim expression spread across his face.
The two guards went into the library as well, and he turned to them in disgust. "Two of you, can you stop following me like pests!" He bellowed at them, and taken aback, they bowed and left.
"The rest of you, follow them... except Glenda" He ordered to the others in the library.
The library attendants all looked at themselves, unsure.
The silence nestled into the various books strewn across reading tables.
"Library attendants included."
Slowly, the head attendant stood, a lanky man with rough beards and a rotund head. "Leonard..."
"Calling me by my name now, are we?"
The man looked like s**t had been shoved down his throat. " This.. school is run on principles and etiquette...if you keep doing this it will not end well for you.."
" I didn't ask for the library to be decimated. Did I?"
"What do you think would happen if all the other students start acting like you? Disrupting the peace of the school and talking rudely to school staff."
Leo didn't respond, his eyes simply narrowed.
"I don't think your father--"
"Allow me to dial my father...then"
The man swallowed and turned. " Everyone... Sir Leo here needs the library privately for a few minutes.... something very important he needs to do, I believe."
Everyone filed out of the library. The ladies were suddenly lively around Leo, including Astra's allies as they lanced themselves at him and giggled.
He barely smiled
Astra was the last to leave, but she snuck up to Leo, entangling her hands with his as she nuzzled up to him. "I've missed you. Why didn't you come see me sooner? And what's this? What do you want with her? " Her wrinkled brows bore her curiosity.
" None of your concern." Pausing, he looked at her. "Or perhaps you know why your sister is mad at me?"
Astra swallowed, lacking words for a moment. " What did she tell you?"
"Nothing... unfortunately." Leonard looked down at her hand on his and pulled away from her, but Astra held on to his hand and said.
"You are better off not being seen with that loner. "Won't do good for your image." With a last look at Glen she left the library.
Glenda's heart skipped a beat.
What exactly did he want to talk about that he would send everyone else in the library out?
Wouldn't she get into trouble with the attendants later on because of him?
She frowned when he got closer. "That was not necessary... At all"
"Last I checked... you don't get to decide what is necessary...I do" Leo plumped down on a steel chair next to her and signaled to the empty library including Astra just leaving as a way of driving home his point. "I'd love to steal your time.."
"Whatever it is you want..I don't have it and I can't give it to you."
" You know what I want.'
"And I don't have it. You know who you should be meeting."
Leo remained silent, studying her.
- Writer
