𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞, 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐨𝐟 (unfinished)

1 . 9

"Don't tell me you hooked up with Illysa," I joked, but girls always fell for his "charms", I wouldn't put it past him. I mean, here I was myself, sitting by his pool and ditching my best friend. His shook his head and I released a breath of relief. Leland hands rubbed my legs mindlessly like it calmed him down. "I found your keychain the day you dropped it and kept it for a while to mess with you. I mean I wondered why it meant so much to you, I still do. But then you and Danielson broke up and you looked really distraught. And I felt bad. So I gave it back to you."

"Why' did you really keep it, besides trying to mess with me." I asked. I was convinced he had a better motive than just to mess with me.

"I wanted to be the one to give it to you. I seem to, as my sister calls it, «have a crazy crush» on you," he laughs. I grab his chin and for the first time I'm the one looking down at him.

"How tall are you?" I asked.

He frowns, "I just told you that I have a crazy crush on you and you want to know how tall I am? What, are you one of those girls who only dates guys over six foot tall?"

"No, baby, no. I'm sorry there's a lot of tabs open in my mind." I realized that it was the first time that I'd called him anything that wasn't his name. It terrified the crap out of me, because a week ago I was still with Levi. "I have a crazy crush on you two."

Leland grinned, "I know you do." He kissed me shortly and scanned my face with curious eyes. "I love hearing you call me baby. Oh and I'm six foot three, Mio Teroso"

"I've been meaning to ask, what does that mean?"

"My treasure." he responded as he caressed my face. My heart melted. I was his treasure. He was about to kiss me again but I stopped him. I needed to get something off my chest. "Can I be honest with you now?"

He concurred with a nod and scrutinized me with calm eyes, darker than the night sky itself. I said, "I might also have something of yours that I've kept for almost a year now."

"What?"

I disentangled myself from his embrace and quickly rushed into his room. In my purse I took out the lighter and went back outside. When Leland recognized it he started laughing. "Christ, I gave Ollie so much shit about it last year. I thought he stole it, because he's been obsessing over it even though he doesn't even smoke."

"Can I keep it?"

"Why did you keep it?"

I shrugged which was clearly not the response he wanted. So I said, "I wanted to have an opportunity to talk to you. The last time we'd spoken we kind of left things awkwardly, because somebody walked away rudely."

"I'm guessing somebody is me?"

"No shit," I sat back down and his hands went back to my thighs. But this time he didn't caresses them, he looked up at me. "Hey, is this okay? Cause I didn't ask the last time." he asked in a quiet voice.

"It's okay," I flashed the lighter in his face. "So can I keep it?"

"You've never used it on yourself have you?" he started to scrutinize my body and found no marks. "I don't want you holding on to things that could harm you."

"But you do."

"So?"

"What if I don't want anything to happen to you?"

"Oh, love, it's too late to save me from myself."

Three raps on the glass door brought Leland and I out of our bubble. His father stood there with his arms crossed. Alistair smiled a little and said, "Leland, chi è questa ragazza? (Leland, who is this girl?)"

"Buonasera, papà. Vedo che sei a casa. (Good evening, Dad. I see that you're home.)" Leland's accent changed when he spoke to his father. It was so raw and quite attractive. His mood changed too. He was no longer happy when he pulled himself out of the pool and told me, "Go get dressed. You need to go home." Then he turned back to his father and said, "Aren't you supposed to be in Vienna?"

"And aren't you supposed to be at your mother's?"

"I'm almost eighteen. I don't need to be tossed between you guys every other weekend. I'll visit Mom when I want to not because I have to." Leland's jaw locked and his eyes pierced at his father who took strides towards us.

I suddenly felt nude in front him. I felt like an imposter. I covered my chest and Alistair raised his brow at me as if to say nothing worth seeing anyways. He pivoted his attention back to Leland as if I didn't exist. "I need help with some spreadsheets."

Leland grabbed my hand and pushed past his father. He muttered, "I'm busy. I'll help you tomorrow."

I asked Leland if I could go to the bathroom and he directed me with half his attention on his father who was talking to him in Italian so that I wouldn't understand. It was more like he was scolding him. I left the two of them arguing and I sat in the bathroom for about ten minutes. I got lost on the way back due to the many identical corridors. I ran into Alistair who grinned and it felt like he was finally acknowledging my presence.

"Hello," he said.

"Hi, Mr Romero." I was nervous. It wasn't like Leland was my boyfriend that I had to be nervous. The anxiousness came from the fact that I knew the kind of man Alistair was.

"Could you quickly help me with that spreadsheet that Leland doesn't want to even glance at?" It didn't feel like i had much of a choice. I wanted to say no.

"I should probably get back to Leland. Thank god I was fully dressed now.

"Oh, it shouldn't take more than five minutes. Come on."