Anna and Ramone

Hi guys,

Thank you for reading the story and also for your feedback. I hope you enjoy the second chapter as well.

T-Wnjk

*********

Present Day

"Anna? Anna?" Ramone called looking concerned.

"What?"

"You're crying."

"Oh," Anna said while wiping her tears. "Excuse me Ramone."

Anna bolted to her bathroom and locked the door. Her heart was beating furiously and she rested her elbows on her sink with her head bowed down. She didn't dare look at the mirror for fear of what she would see. Fear.

"Anna can you please open the door?"

"I'm just freshening up; I'll be out in a second."

"Why were you crying?"

"It's not a big deal, I just got emotional. It's my hormones playing up," she said whilst trying to laugh convincingly.

"I'm not falling for that one again. I'm not moving until you come out so we can talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about! Just leave me alone!" she retorted.

"Anna I'm asking you to open this door," he beseeched.

The next thing Ramone heard was the sound of the shower. He swore angrily and banged on the door. After getting no response, he walked back to the couch and sat down, all the time looking at the bathroom door waiting for her to come out.

'What did I say to make her upset?" he thought.

An hour passed and the shower was still running. He was getting more angry than annoyed at this point. They'd never kept anything from each other, well except for that one time he'd found her crying and she refused to confide in him. He wasn't about to let her start holding back now.

He stood up and walked towards the bathroom. He was about to knock on the door when he heard a sound that made his heart stop, if only for a second.

*********

Anna shook as sobs racked through her body. She curled up on the floor crying whilst steam from the shower filled up the bathroom.

'Why won't he leave?' She thought.

She'd heard him walk away from the bathroom and had been waiting to hear her front door open and close. No such luck. After some time, she heard his footsteps and waited for him to knock. She tried to stop crying but as soon as he reached the bathroom door, a sob escaped from her throat.

She looked up at the door, but Ramone did not knock. He didn't call out her name. He did nothing. Didn't he care about her anymore? Anna was scared she'd pushed him away, her best friend. The man she loved. This was enough to start her off again and she crawled into the shower cubicle so he wouldn't hear her cry. So she wouldn't hear him leave.

As she sat in the cubicle crying, she thought back to the day she'd been packing, ready to run away from home.

********* 1993 (continued)

"So what are you doing then?" Ramone asked while trying to ignore the feeling of anger rushing through him.

"Not much. I'm just relaxing."

"This" he said whilst pointing to her room "does not look like relaxing to me".

"What are you doing here anyway?" she asked.

"I came round to see why you didn't show up for last period today."

"I wasn't feeling well so I came home to rest."

"What was wrong with you?"

"Why are you asking me so many questions?"

"I'm just worried about you."

"Well there's nothing to worry about, so if there's nothing else..." she held her door open, signalling him to leave.

He refused to budge.

"Why are those bags packed and why are your clothes all over the bed?"

"That's none of your business."

"Fine. I'll make it my business." He walked over to one bag and unzipped it.

"Hey! Stop that!"

He looked into the bag and saw it was filled with clothes. His stomach knotted as emotions raced through him.

"Anna, why are your clothes in here?"

She was about to give a sarcastic reply, when she saw the look in his eyes. He looked scared.

"I'm going away for the summer."

"But summer's three months away."

"I'm just packing early. You know how I get when I leave things to the last minute." She laughed uneasily.

He couldn't shake the feeling she was lying to him but he could see she wasn't about to confide in him. That hurt him. For as long as he could remember, they'd confided in each other. Hell, ever since he'd scared off that bully Arnold, they'd been inseparable.

"Ramone, I have things to do, so I'll just catch up with you later."

He looked up and was about to say something but he saw the look in her eyes. It was fear. But what did she have to be scared of? Was it him? Why wouldn't she tell him?

Anna looked away a few seconds after their eyes left. She didn't look up until she heard the door click shut. Then she collapsed on the floor crying.

Ramone went home feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. He walked into the house looking worried and his mum hurried over and asked what was wrong.

He sat down and told her what happened that afternoon. He was convinced she was planning to run away but he didn't know why. For the first time since he could remember, he cried for the friend who was leaving him.

*********

Present day

Ramone sank onto the floor outside the bathroom with his heart pounding. She was crying again. He was scared. He'd never been this scared since the day he found her packing to run away. He thought back to that day when he'd found her at the bus station. To the day he'd found her walking towards the bus that would take her away from him.

He resolved to stay outside her door until she came out. He didn't have to wait long.

"Ramone?"

He scrambled to his feet and looked at her. She was soaked through and her clothes clung to her leaving little to the imagination. It's a good thing she was wearing black, he thought. He shook the thought away furiously but he couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked. She was breathtaking even when upset.

"Oh Anna, you had me worried." He grabbed her and held her.

Anna could feel the tears stinging her eyes again. He hadn't left her. He was still here with her. She tightened her hold on him and felt him lift her up. She looked up and saw he was walking towards her bedroom.

"You need to change out of these clothes or else you'll find yourself ill. Don't worry, I'll be waiting outside the door." He put her down and walked out of her bedroom, pulling the door shut.

Anna got changed quickly and walked out of her bedroom timidly. Ramone picked her up again and carried her to the living room. He turned on the heating and put on a DVD. He picked up the melting ice cream and their spoons and walked back to her. Without another word, they started eating ice cream and watching the movie.

The movie came to an end and Ramone looked at her.

"Anna, we need to talk."

Anna's heart began to beat faster in anticipation of what he would say. She watched as he took the empty ice cream tubs and put it on the table together with their spoons.

"I'm your friend and I care about you. I hope you know that."

"I do Ramone."

"Then why won't you talk to me?"

"Because there's nothing to say."

"How can you say that? You've spent hours in the bathroom crying your eyes out!" he exclaimed.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Are you sure? Because it seems that you don't trust me"

"How can you think that Ramone? You know everything that goes on in my life!"

"If that's the case, tell me what's bothering you!"

"I can't," she replied so softly that he wasn't sure he'd heard correctly.

"I'm sorry Ramone but I can't."

"Can't or won't?"

"Ramone..."

"No Anna, I think we've said enough. Goodnight."

Without another word, he left.

*********

Anna groaned as her alarm clock went off. She looked at the time and saw it was 6am. She had a meeting in two hours, and didn't feel like going to work.

She dragged herself out of bed and went to have a shower. Her mind went back to last night and she groaned. She owed Ramone an explanation but she didn't know where to start.

She got to work five minutes before her meeting. She was meeting with the marketing director of a building firm. She worked as a marketing consultant and was often used by companies to offer an outside opinion on their marketing strategies.

Today was going to be no different from the rest of the meetings. A power-point presentation she'd have to sit through whilst listening to a mundane speech from a director.

She often wished that the people who actually took the time to create the presentation would present it to her as they'd be able to answer some of the questions. It was a lot easier to communicate with the creators rather than the directors because most of the directors thought the sun shone from them.

"Morning Lisa," she said to her assistant.

"It's about time you showed up Anna, Malcolm has been pacing up and down the office waiting for you to show up," her assistant replied.

"Don't worry about him. He knows I'll deliver, I always do."

"Well it would help if you were here on time." Anna turned around to find Malcolm scowling at her.

"Well hello there Grumpy," she teased.

Malcolm sighed. "Are you ready?"

"You know I am", she replied. It was a little lie she told but she hoped in her heart that she was ready.

Truth be told, she'd spent the rest of last night thinking about her evening with Ramone and how it had gone wrong.

"They're waiting for you in the conference room."

"Lead the way."

They got to the conference room and Anna took an extra second to straighten up her clothes. It wouldn't help to walk in there looking like something the cat dragged in. She inhaled deeply, then exhaled and signalled for Malcolm to open the door.

When she walked in, she was met with a bright smile. Jamie Childs, her teenage crush was standing by the window smiling at her. She couldn't help the butterflies that arose in her stomach.

"Good morning Anna," smiled Jamie.

Malcolm looked at Anna then at Jamie and caught his smile.

"Do you two know each other then?"

"We went to the same school," Anna replied.

"And don't forget we were high school sweethearts as well," Jamie stated.

Anna blushed furiously at his comment whilst Malcolm tried hard not to laugh at her face.

"So then, shall we get started?"

"Let's get to it then Anna."

Anna sat down and was surprised to find Jamie was the one delivering the presentation. She hardly paid attention to what he was saying. She was too busy scrutinising him and listening to the sound of his voice.

Nothing had changed about him. He was still the same charismatic and somewhat arrogant boy she knew. All that had changed was the fact that he was now a man.

He wore a stylish suit which she assumed was Italian and his shoes looked pretty expensive as well. He took of his suit jacket and she realised that his body had changed as well.

He'd put on a little weight but complemented the additional weight with muscle. He looked a lot better than he had when they dated.

"So what do you think about our strategy then? Will it work?"

Anna jumped up at the question and realised she didn't know what he had been talking about. Malcolm noticed her hesitation and replied for her.

"It certainly looks promising but we'll have a more in depth look with our team and see if we can come up with anything new."

Anna smiled at Malcolm as if to say thanks. Jamie saw her smile and pangs of jealousy consumed him.

'Are they dating?' he thought. 'She still looks as beautiful as she did when we were in high school. Actually no, she looks a lot more beautiful. I've got to have her,' he surmised.

They agreed on a date for a second meeting and Jamie caught up with her before she left the conference room. Malcolm raised his eyebrows and walked out whistling.

"What was that for?" Anna said.

"I just wanted to talk to you. It's been a long time since I saw you."

"We've got nothing to say to each other. You're the one that left."

"I know. But can we at least go have some coffee?"

"I don't know Jamie. I've got a meeting in an hour."

"Then give me half an hour. Please Anna; I just want to catch up."

"Ok then," she relented. "But only thirty minutes."

She looked at her watch then back at him. "Time starts now."

They walked to a café near her office building. Anna found herself laughing at Jamie's stories. It felt good to laugh like this. It had been too long. She looked up and their eyes met. She quickly looked away feeling guilty.

'Why am I feeling guilty? I'm not even dating Ramone. There's nothing wrong with having coffee with Jamie.'

She still couldn't shake the guilty feeling but decided to ignore it, for a while.

"So that's what happened with me. How about you? You seem to be doing pretty well."

"Thanks Jamie. I've been working for Davison's for five years now. I started as a junior consultant and moved up over the years. What exactly do you do for J.N?"

"I own the company."

Anna choked on her coffee. "You own it as in it's your company?"

"Yes."

"Wow, you've done very well."

"It's taken a lot of luck and hard work."

"I'm really happy for you."

He was about to say something when her phone rang. She looked at it and saw it was Ramone calling. She looked up at Jamie then put her phone back in her bag. She'd call Ramone later. It would be awkward to speak to him whilst having coffee with his high school arch enemy.

Unbeknown to Anna and Jamie, Ramone had decided to surprise Anna at work and take her for coffee. When he got there, Malcolm informed him that she'd popped out for coffee with a client but that she'd be back in half an hour.

Ramone decided to walk to the coffee shop and say a quick hello. It was then he saw them. Anna was having coffee with Jamie Childs. He closed his eyes and wished that it was his imagination overreacting but when he opened his eyes again he realised that it was in fact true. What made it worse was Anna's face. She was laughing hysterically at something Jamie had said.

He felt like a fool because he had come to apologise for walking out on her the night before. But clearly she wasn't as upset as he thought she had been.

'I'll give her a call and see if she wants to meet up later,' he said to himself.

He dialled his number and watched her pick up her purse. She took out her phone and he prepared himself to say hi. He couldn't believe his eyes when she put the phone back into her bag and continued her conversation with Jamie.

To be continued....