Work Text:
This couldn’t be happening.
There had to be some kind of mistake.
She was reading it wrong or missing context that would explain it all away and once she got it, she could just laugh this off and move on perfectly fine.
Even as these thoughts swirled around Leighton’s head, she knew they were wrong. The evidence was black and white held in her very hand clear as day.
“Did you find it?”
Leighton blinked at the voice calling out from the other room. Gravity returned and the room beyond the phone in her hand finally returned to existence. Green eyes reading over the message notification on the screen one last time, as though she needed just one more read to be absolute certain of what it said.
“Leight?”
Flicking her eyes up as footsteps approached, she immediately spotted Alicia stepping into the room.
“Did you-“ she stopped speaking, arms flopping down at her sides as she let out a relieved huff of air, “You found it. Hell yes, I knew I liked you for a reason.”
The words were said teasingly as she crossed the space, simultaneously moving to grab the phone while leaning in with aim to kiss her cheek.
“Thanks bab-“ her words cut off when Leighton suddenly pulled back out of her reach. Alicia’s brows furrowed in confusion before letting out an awkward chuckle, “What’s going on?”
“I found your phone.”
“Yeah, I see that.” Alicia responded slowly and shrugged, “Why are you being weird?”
Leighton looked at the girl for a moment before clearing her throat.
“There’s a reason you like me, you said.”
“Duh,” Alicia said dismissively with a smirk, “Babe, I was joking. You know there’s a bunch of reasons I like you.”
“I know,” Leighton said with a jerking nod, “About thirty thousand reasons?”
Alicia’s face fell, finally catching on that things weren’t as lighthearted and potentially flirty as she had initially thought.
“What are you talking about?”
Leighton lifted the phone to eye level.
“You got a message. From Tova.” She said before reading the text visible on the locked screen. “30k! That’s incredible! Kudos for the Leighton idea. You were so right.”
The blonde’s voice got harder and exaggerated with anger as she finished and shot her glare towards her. Alicia’s face held a look of dread and she held up her hands.
“Ok, I can explain.”
The simple statement ignited the anger and hurt Leighton was feeling.
“Explain?” she repeated with a humorless laugh, “Explain that when you said you were thinking about me what you were actually thinking about my money? Is that the explanation?”
“No!” Alicia argued right away, wincing a bit and then sighing, “I mean, kind of.”
“Kind of?!” the words exploded out of Leighton while throwing the phone impulsively.
Alicia ducked on reflex even though it sailed wide and clattered against the wall.
“Easy!” she requested loudly, holding up her hands in surrender, “I know it doesn’t look great but if you just let me explain.”
“Do it then,” Leighton ordered.
“Ok listen,” Alicia started, “Initially, yes, I reached out to you because I thought…the center was in a bad way and we were really running out of options. I knew they were probably going to cut our funding again, and I was right! You were there, Leighton, I was right. I thought that maybe you’d be open to-to helping. In any way. Not just money, maybe your ideas or your family, you know they have so many connections. Hell your last name is on a freaking building.”
“Ok, how exactly is this supposed to make any of it better?” Leighton asked, “You still used me. You pretended you just wanted to see me and reconnect, but you didn’t. You wanted something from me, the whole time. Bullshit it wasn’t for the money! All that talk about expensive fruit leather and your financial trouble and the fundraiser and fuck, I’m so stupid I actually fell for it.”
“I did want to see you!” Alicia argued desperately, “Yeah, maybe I reached out because of the center, but God, Leighton, you have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”
Leighton’s lips pressed together, trying to keep her face from crumpling as tears threatened her eyes. The words were all she wanted to hear for so long.
“Then why,” her voice cracked on the word, “Why wouldn’t you reach out sooner? All these months. I was out, I was what you wanted but you never-“
She had to pause to take in a shaking breath.
“I was scared, ok?” Alicia said, “I buried myself in the center, I put all my energy into trying to keep that place afloat. And when it was clear where it was going, it was like I had an excuse to finally do it. We were going to lose it, Leighton. And you know how much that place means to everyone in the center. Ginger said it herself, the people who use it depend on it. We can’t lose it, please tell me you understand.”
“Yeah I do,” Leighton sniffled, cursing herself for the increasing betrayal of her emotions, “Because I already lost it. You ever think of that? When you broke up with me, I lost it. I meant it when I said I missed it and everyone there. But sucks to be me I guess.”
“And you have it again,” Alicia told her with a smile, stepping forward and grabbing Leighton’s hand, “We can have it again. Thanks to you. We can put this behind us and go forward together.”
Leighton clicked her tongue, pulling away from her touch.
“You’re the one that doesn’t get it,” she argued quietly, “You used me, Alicia. You lied and you used me and I was dumb enough to think it was real.”
“It is real!” she argued, “This, between us, it’s real.”
“How?” she asked tearfully, “How can it be real if it’s built on this? If you didn’t even respect me to be honest with me? It’s so stupid because if you had been upfront about what you wanted, I would have helped. I would have talked to my dad, had him talk to the dean. I could have gotten the check from my parents the same way I ended up getting anyway! You could have gotten what you needed anyway without the pretending. And you wouldn’t have blown up my life for the second fucking time in a year!”
“Blown up?” Alicia repeated in disbelief, “What with that girl? Tatum?”
“Don’t,” Leighton warned, “Don’t talk about her.”
“Are you kidding me?” Alicia asked with annoyance, “Leighton, come on. She was such a bitch at the fundraiser. I heard you guys.”
“You do not get to talk about her, or anyone, as if you have the moral high ground in any of this!” Leighton snapped, “What you heard, was a fight between a couple that was one, none of your business, and two none of your fucking business. You don’t know her, and if you hadn’t pulled me away I could have gone after her and we could have resolved it like adults.”
“Really?” she asked cynically, “I may not know her, Leighton, but I’ve known hundreds of girls just like her. Rich snobby assholes who care more about the designer labels on their clothes than the people who wreck their hands to make it and turn their noses up at anything that doesn’t fit into the stupid societal box called ‘cool.’ Girls like-like…”
“Like me?” Leighton interrupted with a raised eyebrow.
“No!” Alicia denied, “You’re not like that.”
“But I was,” she tilted her head, “You’re describing exactly who I was when we met. And if I changed, who’s to say Tatum wouldn’t, given time?”
“It’s different,” Alicia tried to argue even as she felt her position rocked a bit by Leighton’s point.
Leighton pressed her tongue against her teeth as she shook her head in disbelief.
“You want to about different?” she asked, swiping a strand of blonde hair behind her ear, “Do you know what Tatum said to me when I panicked about being closeted? She said, it’s cool. There’s no timeline on coming out.”
Alicia flinched as if she was struck, her voice taking on a heavy tone, “That’s not fair.”
“Well, I’m not feeling very fair right now” she said with an emphatic shrug.
“Leighton, come on, please don’t do this. We can talk through this. Look I’m sorry, ok? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you just, stop. Leighton, I love you!”
The words gave Leighton pause in the middle of gathering up her things. Closing her eyes and wiping at the tear that escaped when she did. She took a breath before turning around.
“You know for a long time all I wanted was…” she cut herself off.
Wiping angrily at her cheek again and shook her head.
“You know what? Forget it,” Leighton declared, swiping a hand through the air in front of her; the corners of her mouth dipping down as she shook her head again, “Forget it. This,” she gestured between the two of them, “whatever it is, forget it. Fuck you, we’re done. For good.”
She moved to get around the shorter girl and head for the door. But Alicia quickly caught her sleeve to stop her.
“Wait, wait!” she said reaching in her back pocket and grabbing her wallet. She pulled out the folded check Leighton had given her the night before and tried to push it into her hand, “Here, I’ll give you this back. Take it back an-and we can forget all this and start over.”
She kept trying to hand it to Leighton who stepped back, holding up her hands.
“No. It’s for the center. Use it, save the place, upgrade the furniture, get all the organic bullshit you want. Hell, get a separate fridge for Ginger to store her nasty homemade kombucha, I don’t care,” she said, “Every time you spend a dollar of it, and every second you spend there, you’ll know I paid for it. And you got exactly what you wanted.”
She started for the door again, hearing the girl following after her, still pleading her case to wait and talk to her. As she opened the door, Alicia jumped in front of her, stretching a hand across the doorway to rest on the wood and make a weak barrier to keep her from leaving.
She looked up at Leighton with wet eyes, whispering a final attempt, “Please.”
Leighton herself found her own emotions to be much quieter now that she had gotten everything off her chest. She felt a strange calm finality in the moment.
“Goodbye, Alicia.”