"Door's open," Leo answered when he heard a knock on his door.
Roan, Leo's adoptive parent, peeked in, before opening the door and entering the room. Leo was on his laptop, watching random YouTube videos. He paused them once Roan stood next to his chair, looking down at him expectantly.
"Dinner's ready," Roan said.
"I'll eat in my room," Leo answered.
"Leo," Roan sighed. "It's the third night that you're having dinner in your room. Are you still mad at Kai?"
"He should've asked me before assigning me a freaking tutor," Leo muttered.
"He did it because you're failing," Roan deadpanned. "You used to be so good at history. What happened? Is it because Kai is your teacher?"
"Wow." Leo finally looked at Roan, raising an eyebrow at the older man, "do you think I'm purposely failing? Do you think it's a cry for your attention or some crap like that?"
"That's not what I said," Roan frowned.
"That's what you implied," Leo retorted.
"You and Kai are more alike than you know, always putting words in my mouth," Roan said.
"I'm not like either of you. You know you're not my real parents, right?" Leo replied.
Roan seemed taken aback, even after over three years of living together, Leo was still sometimes as cold as he was on the first day they met.
"We may not be related by blood but that doesn't mean we're not a family, Leo," Roan said.
"Whatever you say," Leo muttered.
"You're nineteen, Leo, you need to—"
"Both of you need to stop telling me what to do," Leo snapped, cutting Roan off mid-sentence, "I know how old I am. Why don't you just kick me out if that's a problem? I'm an adult, you're not responsible for me anymore."
"Where... Where did that come from?" Roan frowned. "I don't know how many times I need to say this but—"
"Don't start with your we're family bullshit again—"
"Let me finish," Roan said sternly, his voice low yet strict, "I know that you don't think of us as your parents. That's okay. I don't expect you to. But I'm tired of telling you time and again that you're loved and cared for in this house. And it doesn't matter if you're an adult, we won't turn our back on you, ever. I don't know how to get you to accept it, if I have to say it to you a million fucking times then so be it."
Leo stayed quiet as he looked at Roan. Roan wasn't the one to talk a lot or wear his emotions on a sleeve, that was usually Kai. So, watching Roan give his monologue came as a bit of a shock to Leo.
"I'll be down in five," Leo muttered. Roan stayed silent for a moment, before giving the boy a nod and leaving the room.
~~~
Leo played around with the peas using the fork. He hated eating in the school cafeteria, but he had woken up late and forgot to take his lunch. He thought about going off campus to eat, but he just felt lazy and decided against the idea, which he was now regretting.
After Roan's speech the night before, and Kai's guilty looks the last couple of days, Leo decided that for their sake he would take his academics just a little bit more seriously. Just enough to graduate.
Leo knew the two cared about him. He never understood why he always kept accusing them of not doing so, maybe hearing them repeat the same words over and over again made him feel reassured. Or maybe he was just an asshole. Whatever the reason, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty now.
Leo was alone at the table, introspecting when his thoughts were disturbed by someone scraping the chair and sitting in front of him. He looked up to see Milan, and his friend Quinn. Quinn was grinning at him, there was never a time when they didn't have a smile on their face. Whereas Milan just looked nervous, yet another constant.
"What?" Leo asked.
"I don't think I've ever seen you eat here!" Quinn stated.
"You've been keeping tabs on me now?" Leo raised an accusing eyebrow.
"I keep tabs on everyone, it's kind of my thing," Quinn replied with a shameless smile.
Leo looked at them tiredly, before shifting his eyes on Milan. Leo raised a brow, as if asking him what they both were doing disturbing him. Milan's cheeks turned pink under Leo's gaze, as he licked his lips anxiously.
"I was thinking since we have Mathletes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we can meet to study history on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school? I don't think you play any sports so I assumed your schedule is free. But if it's not then you can tell me and I can find time some—"
"Okay," Leo interrupted Milan's rant, "Tuesdays and Thursdays work. Where?"
"School library? It's open till five," Milan suggested.
"Sure," Leo replied, "you can help me with the assignment Mr. Nahar gave last week."
"Wait, like seriously help?" Milan asked, shocked.
"Yeah," Leo answered with a casual shrug.
"Can I join?" Quinn asked.
"No!" Both Leo and Milan said simultaneously. Quinn pouted, but didn't push it further.
"I'm going to get some juice," Quinn muttered before leaving.
"She's... Interesting," Leo remarked as he watched Quinn's retreating figure.
"They," Milan corrected. He continued when Leo turned to look at him with a confused expression, "Quinn's non-binary."
"Oh, okay," Leo replied with a nod, "well, then they are interesting."
"Quinn's an acquired taste, you get used to them," Milan said with a shrug.
"I'll see you after school," Leo spoke up after a moment of silence. He picked up his tray, which only had peas left, before walking away from the boy.
Milan's eyes followed Leo till the older boy left the hall. Milan sighed, as he slumped back on the chair. He blamed Quinn for pushing their agenda of getting Leo and Milan together, because now that was all the boy could think about.
It was a stupid school crush, Milan knew that. He could tolerate being in the Mathletes with him, because there were other people present too. But it would just be the two of them during their tutoring sessions, and Milan's heartbeat sped up just thinking about being alone with him.
Just Milan and Leo, alone in a corner of the library...
Milan shook his head, trying to get these thoughts out of his mind. He didn't even know if Leo liked boys, and there was no way in hell he would be caught dead crushing on a straight boy after what happened a year ago.
"Where's Leo?" Quinn asked as they sat back down next to Milan.
"He left," Milan muttered.
"Aw," Quinn pouted, "I've started liking him now. He's an interesting fellow."
"He said the same about you," Milan chuckled.
"He did?" Quinn immediately perked up. "Nice, we can invite him on our next game night!"
"I wouldn't go that far ahead," Milan mumbled.
"Leave that to me, I'll manage," Quinn grinned.
"You can talk anyone into anything," Milan acknowledged.
"It's a talent," Quinn replied, "I'm so going to be your cupid, before the end of this year you and Leo will—"
"Nope!" Milan sat up straight as he raised his voice, "no. Just no. No more talk about Leo and I. That ship has sailed and sunk."
"Did something happen?"
"I'm not getting my heart broken again, Quinn," Milan frowned, "it's not all fun and games to me. Leo is hot and so out of my league, and we don't even know if he even likes boy!"
"I'm sorry," Quinn looked guilty, they wanted their friend to move on so bad that they didn't realise they could be setting him up for even more pain, "I shouldn't have been so pushy. I'll back off now."
"Thank you," Milan said sincerely.
"But for the record, he's not out of your league. Any guy would be lucky to date you."
~~~
They rest of the day passed by in a blur. Milan felt more nervous with every step that he took towards the library. He entered the large room, and looked around. He wasn't expecting Leo to already be there, so he was shocked when he saw the boy sitting alone at a corner table, with a few books open in front of him.
A subconscious smile found its way onto Milan's face as he watched the older boy furrow his eyebrows, attempting to focus on the pages he was staring at. Milan had always found Leo hot, but at that moment he seemed so cute. Leo ran a hand through his hair, as he rested his cheek on his palm, oblivious to the pair of eyes on him.
Leo finally looked at his watch, before turning his head in Milan's direction. Milan immediately broke out of his trance, and started walking towards the other boy. Acting as if he wasn't just busy staring at him.
"About time," Leo muttered.
"Were you waiting long? I came as soon as the bell rang," Milan frowned.
"Not too long," Leo replied with a shrug. He had skipped the last period, and was in the library the past hour.
"Okay. Should we start?"
"Okay," Leo answered.
"I did my assignment on the—"
"Wait," Leo interrupted, "you already did it? The deadline is next month."
"I like to be ahead of things," Milan muttered, "as I was saying. Do you know which war you want to write an essay on?"
"I was thinking about—"
"Milan!" Jai exclaimed as he saw his fellow Mathletes, "Leo?"
"Oh, hey," Milan greeted the couple, trying not to sound disappointed about being interrupted.
"You both studying?" Delilah asked, making Leo roll his eyes.
"History," Milan answered with a nod.
"Cool! We were here to research on the history assignment. Let's do it together?" Jai suggested cheerfully.
Milan turned to glance at Leo, who was already looking at him with a blank expression on his face. Milan sighed, before shrugging casually. He was upset, but he didn't know how to say no.
Milan was so nervous earlier of having to spend time with Leo alone, but now that he found an out— why was he disappointed? He should've been glad, but that was the last thing he felt at that moment.
"Yay! This will be so much fun," Delilah grinned. Milan smiled back and nodded, but Leo noticed that he didn't really mean it.
"I'm gonna head home," Leo said, before getting up from the chair.
Delilah and Jai didn't pay him any mind, they weren't really expecting him to stay anyway. But Milan watched with a frown as Leo gathered his things and shoved them in his bag. Leo took a few steps away from the table, before turning around and looking at Milan with a raised brow.
"You coming or not?"
***