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Lena’s face became white. “You’re not going to tell Damien because he’s going to the meeting. And no one is going to rip my body apart. These are just tests—some regular ones the doctor wants to run on me, and not surgery or anything. So please calm down.”
“But Damien will kill everyone with a saw blade when he finds out you hid it from him. If he finds out I had anything to do with this horrible plot, he’ll choke me to death with one of the new Cashmere scarfs.”
Lola really understood how to make everything sound worse than it was.
“I’ll take care of him, Lola, and he won’t know you were involved in this plot,” Lena said, trying to hide the smile that was wanting to burst out on her lips.
“Cross your heart,” Lola said quite seriously.
Lena was confused, but Lola wouldn’t take no for an answer. Lena promised to keep her word, and Lola started to depart. But then she turned around and poked Lena in the collarbone with her finger, making her flinch. “I’m going with you,” she said. “You need to hold my hand when they rip you apart.”
Lola exited, and Lena sat down in the chair behind her desk.
What would she have done without these two buddies who are impossible?
She smiled and opened the first file from the stack of papers and folders. She threw herself into her job and forgot about the knots in her mind where sad thoughts were stuck.
Like usual, the pounding pain in her head told her it was there. Thank goodness she was getting very good at ignoring it these days.
******
It took three lengthy hours to finish all of the tests. Lena and Lola ended up waiting for their examinations in different parts of the hospital. And at the end, Lena really felt like she was ripped apart from head to toe.
Lola was correct.
The reports were to be picked up three days later, as there was a weekend in between.
Lola told Lena on the way out of the hospital that “Damien would want to come along to get the reports and ask the doctor.”
“I bet he would,” Lena said.
Damien called her when they were walking down the corridor. He could tell when people were talking about him. Telepathy.
Lena answered the phone after asking Lola to grab the car from the parking lot and gave her the keys.
Damien shouted, “Lena!” and she flinched. She grinned since she had never heard him that excited before. “The deal’s done! I’ve got that cocky bastard wrapped around my finger. Just wait and see—our business is going to the top now.”
Lena smiled. “Congratulations, Damien! I’m so happy for you.”
“This means,” Damien said. “I’m taking you girls out to dinner. Where are you? I can hear noises, so you’re not home?”
Lena sighed in her mind. She didn’t want to lie to him, but he was so joyful that he would start to worry if she told him about the tests. But damn! She wouldn’t lie to Damien.
“Actually, Damien—” she was about to tell him right now, but someone shoved him rather hard on the shoulder as they walked past.
“Ah—hey—” Lena exclaimed as her body involuntarily turned around, and her phone tumbled on the floor. She saw the battery pop out and hoped the gadget would operate. She had saved up some money and bought the phone last month.
“Where are your freaking eyes?” Lena picked up her phone and the battery that had come loose from it and straightened up from her knees. When she saw the face of the person she had bumped into, her words died off.
She was shocked all over. Memories sprang to the front of her thoughts.
“Ryan!” she said in surprise.
When we least expect it, the past has strange ways of coming back to us. It’s like a shadow that follows us around.
“Ryan…” Lena stammered in amazement.
The memories of that night came flooding back to her, waking up from the part of her mind where they had been hidden and causing so much anguish. She remembered everything Ryan had said on the phone that night. His treachery was one of many scars that she would never be able to forget.
Ryan’s face showed a lot of different feelings. He was thrilled to see his buddy after a long time, but at the same time, he felt bad for her and thought about all the things she could have gone through.
“God!” Ryan said, his voice full of passion as if a ball of it had been stuck in his throat forever. Lena…  you… “Oh my God, Lena…” he said, holding her cheek in both happiness and anxiety.
Lena was pulled back into the present when she heard his words. She fired back, pushing his hand away and getting ready to go, but Ryan quickly seized her wrist.
He could finally relax now that his quest was done. He had located her closest friend. “Where the hell were you, Lena?” he said with a grin of relief on his lips. I looked for you everywhere! Are you okay? Where are you going to sleep? He had just started, and there were a lot of questions. But most of them got answered automatically as he looked into her eyes. Those soulful eyes had lost their lives in them and had dark circles around them. Her pale face and weight loss screamed that she was not fine. She looked broken but still somehow hanging on by a thread.
Lena chuckled in a cynical way, and her voice was so frigid that it sent chills down my spine.
Ryan’s heart hurt a lot.
“After what you’ve done to me, you want an answer?” “Lena hissed.”
Ryan shook his head angrily. “Lena…”
“Don’t.” She interrupted, her voice breaking with sorrow. “It’s still hard for me to understand that my closest friend wrecked me. You turned me into a harlot in his eyes with just a few changed pictures! Ryan, this was so easy. “Well, congratulations on that.” Lena broke up, and tears streamed down her cheeks. “How could you…  Ryan, how could you go so low? “
“I didn’t!” Ryan clenched his teeth and clenched his fists in despair. “Trust me, Lena.” That night…  You just heard bits and pieces, and it’s evident that you got it wrong. Lena, I had nothing to do with the pictures. You have to believe me on this! “
“Maybe you’re correct. “Maybe,” Lena said between tears. “But how would that change what has already happened?” It was easy to hear the truth in his speech and see it in his eyes, but so much had already been lost that the truth didn’t matter anymore.
Ryan’s eyes were filling with tears as he saw Lena in such a weak state. He wanted his buddy back and prayed she wasn’t lost to him.