Next Level Player

Chapter 18

This only made me more embarrassed.

Just spill it Jade! Stop being a Wuss!

"Arg! Fine." I pulled my hands out of his and covered my face so I wouldn't have to see his reaction. "I don't like it when you hang out with Tessa." It was so rushed, I don't even know if he got it but I did know that I wasn't saying it again!

Precious seconds past and I heard nothing from Leon. Deciding to be brave, I opened my fingers and looked to the figure opposite me. I was stunned by the small but genuine smile he had on his face. Leon peered at me with those soft brown eyes.

"Oh Jade." He shook his head but never left my eyes. Reaching out, Leon pulled my hands away from my face and clasped them together in between his warm ones. My heart pounded in my chest as I waited for him to speak but instead, Leon brought our hands closer and left a small kiss on my knuckles.

"You don't have to worry about Tessa because there's only one person I'm chasing after." I had to look away from Leon. The intensity of his eyes showed how honest and determined he was.

"B-but you're friends with her." I looked at him disbelievingly. There has to be a reason why he accepted her back, I mean he does know she's after him...doesn't he?

Leon's lips curled into a large grin. "I'm sure you know she's trying to play me in whatever game she's playing." Guess that answers my question.

"Well, I thought that if I be her friend, then she will calm down and stop being so clingy." I was still confused and Leon must have guessed so he explained further.

"Because before, she had no way of getting close to me - Tessa was relentless in trying to be anything but a stranger to me. But now that we are friends, she can follow through whatever her plans are but I won't fall for them because I know she's up to something." He said, sounding so smug about his plan.

And here I thought he fell for her charms. I couldn't wait to see the look on Tessa's face when she figured out she can't win.

My lips curled into a smirk. "Wow, not bad Leon." I nodded my head in approval.

Leon grinned, "Thank you, thank you!" he did a small bow, making me laugh.

We sobered up. Leon leaned back acting casual but I knew his curiosity was eating away at him.

"Next question." He said and I tensed. Looking straight in my eyes, I expected him to ask a question about my family or something but what he said next made me freeze.

"Why are you scared of letting people get close to you?"

My heart began to race. This was the one question that I feared to answer in front of Leon. At least Aria had some knowledge about me but I have to explain to Leon why I'm scared of getting hurt.

I hate talking about my past.

"My dad." I began. Looking out the window I replayed the memory that stopped from letting go of my fear. "When I was little, I used to be a big daddy's girl. Every day I would spend time with him. We would play all these games together, take walks in the park and he even took me to his work." I bitterly smiled at the flashbacks.

"We were like a perfect family so you could only imagine how I felt when one day he came home late from work. It was that day I stayed up at night so I could see my father but when he came home, he smelt of heavy perfume." My face turned hard and Leon placed a hand over my fists but I barely felt it.

"I was too little to understand what was going on and as days past, my father and I drifted apart." My eyes started to water. "When I was around 10 that my mother found out he was cheating. Not long after he left."