As Told By Nerdy

Chapter 29 - Surprise, Surprise!

Leon thumbed through my hair, pushing them back behind my ear. My smile did not leave his lips. I knew he saw me blush.

Finally, he withdrew his hand with a hint of hesitation and placed it firmly on the two o’clock position of the steering wheel and started mumbling in a heavily accented French that “—making me insane…” was all I could make out (how I wished I did better in French). Then he sat back stiffly and took my hand to his face. His cheeks felt warm and smooth like silk.

We made a turn to the right and I could almost see Hopkinton High. It was a Wednesday; the start of the finals exams. People appeared anxious and excited at the same time. Finals week had begun but once it was over, summer break would be something to look forward to.

As soon as the car had settled on Leon’s usual parking space, he sighed in contemplation then faced me with a wry smile.

“Sarah,” he said still not letting go of my hand.

“Yes?”

“Boston…” he started. “Probably, it’s more than thirty miles from here. That would be less than an hour drive. From the airport would be more than two thousand five hundred miles to California and I was thinking—“

“Leon, what exactly are you saying?” I said bewildered but calmly cutting his long-winded talk. As a full-pledged nerd, I perfectly know how far Boston and California are from Hopkinton. What I didn’t get was why he was blabbering so feverishly about it.

His right eye twitched and narrowed through his thick glasses like what most people normally do when they expect something or someone to hit them.

“Well… the concert will be in less than a week and maybe Friday’s going to be hectic but—“

“Wait. Are you saying you’re leaving?” My voice sounded panicky.

He winced again. “Err… Yes. And no.”

I threw him another befuddled look. I was freaking out so instead of speaking, I counted one to ten inside my head and took a few deep breaths.

“So let me get this straight. You’re leaving for L.A.” I tried my very best to sound calm but the apprehension surfaced anyway.

“Very true,” he nodded nonchalantly.

I took another few lungfuls, unsure if my heart could take it. Unquestionably, I would be too young to have a heart attack, but who knows?

“And the no part?”

He sniggered a little; it made my heart stop from all the suspense.

“I’m not leaving without you,” he said the words too fast for my mind to comprehend. Shrugging, he let himself out of the car and ran to get the door for me.

Flabbergasted as I was, I didn’t move an inch. Leon told me about his plans but I hadn’t really thought of it. Only now did these things start to sink in.

I fumbled with the seatbelt and got out. “Friday?” I asked still unable to get over the surprise.

He nodded pensively as though studying my response.

I nodded back. I wasn’t sure how to react at all. First and foremost, there was the issue of Mom. There would be a ninety percent probability that she would not agree to this. Secondly, I was perplexingly scared of something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I guessed I should at least be excited. I was. A little. But mostly nervous.

Geometry was the first examination for the day. I wasn’t able to answer all the problems and the whole time, my thought sauntered on Leon’s proposition to take me with him to L.A. It was still a proposition since I clearly had no idea if I could come with him. I was well aware that the Leon Walden in Hollywood is the same Leon who sat beside me in Geometry class and every other class for that matter, but then I had never really gone the miles of fathoming the kind of life he lived as a pop star.