Aurelio's Dilemma

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Aurelio was following his mom home, but then he stopped and turned back. Uncle Ian had just been closing the door when Aurelio placed a palm on it, gently keeping it open.

"Hey," Aurelio said. "Um, I'm sorry about this entire thing." His uncle shook his head, dismissing Aurelio's concerns, then gestured him in. "Oh, thanks but I can't stay. I just wanna ask you a quick question."

So Aurelio asked him what he knew about his dad and whether he smoked, and Uncle Ian told him no, he didn't smoke. He never did. Which just added to the confusion. Could Aurelio's dad have kept smoking a secret? And if so, why would he just naturally tell Aurelio about it, and why would it be the exact same story as Matt's?

"You sure you don't wanna come in?" Uncle Ian asked. "Going back to see Leslie?"

Aurelio nodded at the first question, and then the second made his eyes widen. Shit. Leslie. He had been with her, and then Matt's mom passed by and he left and never came back to tell her how it went.

"Yeah," Aurelio said, pulling out his phone to text her. "I completely forgot--hey." He looked at his uncle again with a puzzled frown. "How'd you know I was with her?"

"You and Leslie and Matt are together most of the time."

Well, true. Aurelio nodded, but Uncle Ian's observation brought back his mom's words: I want him to pay attention to the people around him more. Didn't he already? If he'd noticed that Aurelio and Matt and Leslie hung out together a lot, didn't that mean that Uncle Ian actually paid attention?

Distracted, Aurelio made his way to Matt's. Leslie told him she was there. His eyes were on the ground, counting the cracks in the pavement as he walked, anything to keep his mind off what happened. Because too much was happening. Too much nonsense. He knew he had to tell his therapist at this point.

An arm landed around his shoulder. Aurelio flinched. He frowned at it then at the person standing next to him, a tall boy with a creepy smile. Aurelio couldn't recognize him.

"Um," Aurelio said.

"Hey, man!"

It took Aurelio a second to realize this was Leslie's boyfriend. And when he did, he shook his head quickly to clear his mind and mumbled back a halfhearted greeting. He reached a hand up and tried taking the boy's arm off his shoulder as politely as possible.

Leslie's boyfriend relented, lowering his arm. "Damn. Not in the mood today?"

Aurelio shrugged and kept moving forward, and Leslie's boyfriend caught up with his pace, walking next to him.

"You look tired."

"I'm fine."

"Where are you going?"

"Matt's place."

"Oh. Leslie there too?"

"Think so."

"Haven't seen you in the gym in a good while," Leslie's boyfriend said. "Might lose your abs at this rate."

Aurelio fought the urge to stop walking and stare at this guy, to let him know that he was creeping him out right now. He didn't even remember seeing him at the gym. "Yeah," he said. "Been a little busy."