Leila kept a distance as she followed Mia up the steps to her apartment. The stairs were wet with rainwater, so she treaded carefully. Mia walked silently, and Leila, though usually pretty talkative, maintained the quiet.
Leila hadn’t expected an invitation to dinner from Mia, but she wasn’t going to turn her down, not when Mia had looked so distraught at the cemetery. Both had seemed embarrassed by the encounter, but neither had said a word about it since. Perhaps it was better to just leave it be, Leila thought, even though Leila wanted nothing more than to reach out and comfort Mia.
“We’re here,” Mia said, stopping at the front door. The metal door was a rusted blue with paint chipping along the edges, clearly an indicator of how old the apartment was. Leila ducked under the awning to get dry and watched the rain cascade down the roof as Mia finagled with her keys. The heavy metal door slowly opened, and Leila stepped inside.
Mia’s apartment was definitely older than Leila’s, she realized now. The floors were all carpet, save for some pale, stained tile in the kitchen. Cream-colored paint was peeling from the walls, and every inch of free space of the room was filled with stacks of books and papers and other miscellaneous household objects. Sitting in the living room on an old red couch were a man and a woman.
“Oh, Mia. You brought someone new today,” the woman said.
“This is Leila. We knew each other as kids,” Mia explained. “Leila, this is my roommate, Abby, and her boyfriend, Kyle.”
Leila gave a shy wave to the both of them, to which they both meekly replied with a wave of their own.
“I’m going to order a pizza. You two want anything?” Mia asked. She stepped into the kitchen and grabbed a worn paper pamphlet from one of the drawers.
Abby shook her head. “Kyle and I are leaving in a little bit.”
Though there seemed to be no animosity, the tension in the room was overwhelming. Leila had never seen roommates act so coldly to each other. In college, Leila had always been eating dinner or watching movies with at least one of her roommates, but it seemed that Mia and Abby were really just that. Roommates. There was not an ounce of warmth or friendship between them.
“Is sausage okay?” Mia asked. “It’s really good, I swear.”
Leila blinked, realizing Mia was addressing her. She nodded her head. “Yeah, that’s fine.”
She patiently waited beside Mia as she made the phone call. Though Leila offered her card to pay, Mia shook her head from the phone.
“Thirty minutes until delivery. We can hang out in my room until then,” Mia said.
“Okay,” Leila replied shyly.
She followed Mia down the hallway, hearing the floorboards creak beneath her feet. Mia and Leila both entered into the only room on the left side of the apartment. Mia’s bedroom, though not cluttered, was still messy. There were sketches strewn across her desk and dresser, her old clothes were laying on the floor, and Leila was pretty sure Mia had half the dishes piled in her room on the nightstand.
“Sorry for the mess. I wasn’t expecting company,” Mia said as she quickly attempted to tidy up the room. Leila took a seat on Mia’s office chair and sat patiently as Mia gathered her scattered belongings. As she did so, Leila glanced around the walls, noticing Mia’s artwork hanging by thumbtacks and pieces of tape. Her eyes lit up at the sight of it. Mia’s artwork had improved tremendously over the past decade.
Mia had finally finished tidying her things and took a seat on her bed.
“This is all your art?” Leila asked.
Mia glanced around the walls. “Oh. Yeah, it is.”
“Mia, it’s really good,” Leila commented. “I’m so glad you kept drawing. You were always so talented.”
“Thanks,” Mia said. She glanced down at her feet and swung her legs back and forth from her bed. “But it’s clearly not good enough.”
“What do you mean?” Leila wondered.
“I don’t know. I wish I knew what to do with it. It’s been hard pursuing it as a career. Especially here in Maine,” Mia explained. “Sometimes I wonder if I should’ve just gotten a degree in something else.”
“You shouldn’t say that. I’m sure that—” Leila’s words cut off when she noticed a familiar object sitting on Mia’s nightstand. Unless Leila’s memory was mistaken, that was the small seashell she had given Mia the night before she had left.
“Leila?”
“Sorry,” Leila said. “Um, that seashell. Do you remember where you got it?”
Mia glanced down at her nightstand and picked it up. “Oh. This thing? I don’t know. I think someone gave it to me. I know it’s from one of the beaches here.”
Leila felt her heart sink. She opened her mouth to remind Mia who it was that gave it to her, but the words wouldn’t come out for some reason.
“Oh,” was all Leila replied. Not wanting to focus on the seashell any longer, Leila directed the conversation elsewhere. “So, how’s work going?”
They chatted, though Leila wasn’t really sure what they chatted about. They talked about some memories from school and their current jobs, but Leila knew they were still dancing around what had happened in the afternoon. Leila wanted to reach out to Mia and tell her it was still okay to grieve, that she’d be happy to listen to anything Mia had to say, but before she had the courage to speak up, Mia glanced at her phone.
“Oh! The pizza delivery guy is downstairs. I’ll go run and get it,” she said, hopping from her bed and heading out the room.
Leila stood up from the office chair and stretched her arms. When she heard the apartment door shut, she inched closer to Mia’s nightstand and grabbed the shell in her hand. As she turned it over in her hand, there were no doubts about it. She knew she had given this Mia the night before Mia moved to Missouri. She only wished Mia had remembered.
Sighing, Leila set the shell down and headed into the kitchen. Abby and Kyle had already headed out, which at least allowed Leila and Mia to eat in privacy at the kitchen table. Mia came back with the pizza a few minutes later, and soon enough they sat across from each other, biting into slices of hot pizza.
Leila hummed to herself as she ate. “You’re right. This is really good. I’m not usually a sausage person, but…”
“Abby’s been going to this place for years,” Mia explained. “It’s the only pizza place she’ll order from.”
“Do you and Abby get along?” Leila asked.
“Well enough. We both have different work schedules, and she usually spends time with Kyle, so we don’t hang out much. In fairness, I’m usually always with Julian, so there wouldn’t be a lot of time for me and her to do much together anyways. Why are you asking?”
“Oh. I don’t know. I was just curious. I know she’s a lot older than you, so—”
“It is what it is,” Mia explained. “She was the only one who let me sign a lease before I got a job here, so I owe a lot to her. Though it would be nice to be able to live on my own someday. You’re living alone, right?”
Leila nodded. “Yeah. It’s nice, though sometimes I miss having college roommates. It gets kind of lonely sometimes.”
“Really?”
Leila nodded once again. “But I still have friends in the area, and my family is all here, and I’ve just run into you again, so I’m never too far away from some company.”
“That’s good,” Mia said. Leila could pick up the faintest bit of a smile from Mia, though she seemed to be hiding behind her slice of pizza.
They chatted for a little while longer, until only a few slices were left. The awkwardness between them had finally subsided a bit. However, it was getting late, and Leila knew she needed to head back soon.
“Do you want to take some slices home?” Mia asked.
Leila shook her head. “That’s all right. You paid for it, after all.”
Mia nodded and stood up from the table to walk Leila to the door.
“Well, thanks for inviting me over,” Leila said. She turned the door handle, about to step out, when she felt Mia’s fingers pull on her jacket sleeve. Leila glanced back at her, finding Mia’s gaze fixated on the ground.
“Thanks for bringing flowers. Not just today, but…but for all the times before,” Mia said.
Leila felt her cheeks warm suddenly. “Oh. Of course. I’m happy to bring them by again sometime.”
“Thanks,” Mia said, letting go of her sleeve and finally staring up at her. “Um, until next time, then?”
Leila smiled and nodded. “Until next time. Have a good evening, Mia.”
As the door shut behind her and Leila stepped back outside. The rain had subsided, and through the gray clouds in the sky, Leila could see the glow of a beautiful orange sunset. She smiled to herself slightly. Like the changing of the weather, Leila felt that her and Mia’s relationship was beginning to transform too.
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