Step Brothers

Road Trip - Chapter Twenty-One

[This is a very MATURE/EXPLICIT/18+ chapter - If you want more of these, VOTE and COMMENT. I really don't do it if I see people don't care for them]

(Leo's Point Of View)

I hugged myself as I watched the last car disappear. Nicole, Priscella and Jesse had kindly stayed with me for a while even though they didn't need to. Still, it was awful nice of them to keep me company while I had a mini panic attack.

Derek's whereabouts was a mystery. According to the phone call, he had been released. But it wasn't clear why he didn't say anything else. And even then, did he know he was being released? If he did, why didn't he tell me? What was going on?

Thinking about all the horrible things that could be happening didn't help me stay calm. Then again, staying calm was the least of my worries. This was Derek. From all the years I've known him, he was anything but predictable. Anything could be happening. And I feared the worst.

I heard footsteps behind me as I leaned into the railing, staring down from Derek's balcony.

"Hey," Dakota said as he closed the glass door behind him.

"Hey," I responded.

"I think I'm gonna go. I just wanted to thank you for the food and for talking to me," he said as he played with the string from his jacket. Why did he even have one? It was hot as hell.

"No problem," I responded, once again my tone dry and bored. It wasn't because of him, I just had things on my mind and didn't have the energy to force a happy and kind tone.

"I'm gonna stay at a motel for tonight. I don't like driving when I feel sleepy. If you need anything, you have my number now."

"Thanks, Dakota," I said, looking back at him as he smiled. His smile almost knocked me off the balcony. Too many cute boys in my life, I need to eradicate them all.

"He'll be home soon, I'm sure of it," he said as he went back inside the apartment and held the door open, waiting for my response.

"Yeah. I'll tell him to call you when he does."

"Thanks."

For heaven's sake just leave already and stop burning awkwardness into my skin!

"Byeeeee," I said, this time adding a little comical voice to relieve the weird tension between us.

Finally, he was gone. I heard the front door close and I sighed contently as I went back to having my Lana Del Rey moment, staring out at the parking lot, counting every car I saw drive by and hoping one of them would turn my way.

Like I told him during our amazing pizza, I didn't have anything against him even though I acted like I did. It was hard explaining to people who didn't know me that I was just me. And if you didn't personally know me, then it would be very hard to read me. Like Derek, my personality was unpredictable. Just because I gave you the eye, didn't mean I hated you, it could mean I was imagining what it would be like to be a man with the head of a horse and I was just trying to concentrate really hard on it.

Dakota was nobody to me. He wasn't a friend, he wasn't an enemy either. If he suddenly started coming into my life because he and Derek were friends, I'd be okay with it and accept him like I did with all of Derek's friends.

BUT it didn't mean I also had to hold back my feelings. If I felt jealous, I was going to show it unapologetically. And it also didn't mean I was a hypocrite, so to all those little voices in my head telling me to drown in expired milk, you first, bitch.