37 I won't do this again

"Are you even listening to me?" Richard asked in annoyance. He had been talking to Leo the entire time but his friend seemed to be busy with his laptop instead.

"Of course. Keep going." Leo nodded. 

"I doubt that. You've been intently looking at this same picture for the past one hour."

"That's because I'm trying to think about something plus I'm slightly distracted by what you've been saying. But trust me, I've been listening" He said with his attention still on his laptop.

"Oh really? So what did I say about Elijah?" Richard decided to test him.

"'So I met with Elijah and he promised he was going to meet with them. This is going to be a big opportunity for you. You know that right?"' 

Leo quoted him word for word, making Richard smile.

"Even after that —" Richard was suddenly interrupted when he heard the sound of someone trying to open the door from outside.

They both watched as Mia pushed the door open with force, banged it, and ran inside her room without sparing them a glance. She also banged the room's door with great force.

Leo looked at the direction of her room door with his brows arched in confusion.

"She looked like she was crying." Richard pointed out the obvious.

"That's weird. She seemed pretty fine and happy earlier." Leo said to himself. 

He had seen how happy she was when her mother called her and had ran out of his car to go meet with her. He remembered how she had smiled brightly and waved him, plus she had even left her drugs behind. 

So why the sudden change in her mood? Or did something happen to someone in her family?

"Do you know what's wrong with her?" Richard asked with concern.. 

"Do I look like I do?" Leo asked with a frown before he continued with his laptop. But he could not seem to shake off the way he was feeling. 

One time she was okay, next she wasn't. What exactly was up?

******

Two hours after Richard left, Leo still remained where he was in the sitting room. Once in a while, he looked at her door and wondered why she wasn't coming out.

He looked at the small nylon of drugs beside him and took it with him as he went to her door.

"Hello" He tapped lightly on her door but didn't receive any response. 

He kept knocking but still didn't receive any reply. 

Suddenly scared that something was wrong, he reached for his phone to call Chloe.

"Send me Mia's number." He said to her immediately it connected. 

"I... don't have it." Chloe replied.

"What about her friend or anybody close to her?" He asked further. If he had her phone number, he could easily call her to come out. 

"I don't have it. Her friend is out of the country and I don't know the other girl I met there today" She said in a low voice.  

"So how do I reach her?" He asked in frustration.

"What's wrong? Are you still planning to kick her out? Please..."

Leo did not know how to explain to Chloe that he was worried she was probably sick and had passed out inside. 

"Don't worry. I'll fix it." He said before hanging up.

After knocking for another minute and did not receive any response, he remembered he had some spare keys and went to search for it. 

When he found the one he believed belonged to his 'unholy' room, he went there and slowly began to open it.

As he opened the door, it seemed to give him a feeling of deja vu. He remembered that night and immediately removed his hand from the doorknob. 

"I won't do this again" He said to himself before turning around but he only succeeded in taking a step before he turned again and finally opened the door.

He peeped inside but did not see her anywhere. He thought she probably must have collapsed somewhere so he entered inside in a panic. He looked around once and even went as far as checking under the bed just to be sure, and that was when he heard footsteps behind him. 

Mia was wet from head to toe. A white towel was wrapped around her chest and covered only a bit of her thigh. She fluttered her lashes at him in confusion and he looked at her with both shock and embarrassment.

"You like to go into people's room now?" She asked in a cold voice. "What are you searching for under the bed?"

He could see her eyes were swollen. She looked like she had been crying the whole evening.

Leo was obviously flustered. Now, he thought he was stupid. Why didn't he think about the bathroom first?

"I.... was searching for something." He stuttered awkwardly before standing up to full height. He tried desperately to take his eyes off her but he just could not. 

"And you thought I took it? Do you see me as a thief as well? Because I am in your house you think I am a thief?" She asked in an accusing voice even as her eyes began to water. 

"I never said so." He quickly denied it.

She looked like a baby and it drove him crazy that he didn't know how to handle babies.

"You just said so!" She shot back at him with a dark glare and quickly wiped off the first tear that escaped her eye.

"What did I ever do wrong for you all to treat me this way?" She tried to hold herself but she could not and began to cry.

"I'm sorry. I really wasn't here to search for anything. I just wanted to check up on you. And here.... I brought your drug" He handed her the little nylon he had carried with him inside. 

She raised her head to look at him skeptically but took it from him.

"But how could you just come in. What if I was naked?" She barked at him again and began to cry. 

Her entire emotion was messed up. She wasn't one to always cry especially in front of people. But today, she was really heart broken. Just when she had thought her mother cared about her....

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