[Check out the music video I added to the chapter to see what Nathan looks like! Imagine the girl as Leo. LMAO. ANYWAY, enjoy the chapter and please vote and comment, especially when another chapter will be uploaded later today, YOU'RE FREAKING WELCOME.]
[Leo's Point Of View]
The sun was blazing hot even when there was only an hour left before it went down. I was feeling the wind against my face as I skated through the concrete park. I closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh air. I was feeling the moment until I ran over a pebble and I almost fell, but Nathan was behind me and he grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me back to him. He was the one guiding me while I pretended I knew how to skate. But no one had to know that. When he grabbed my shirt to save me from an embarrassing accident, he ended up choking me. The shirt I was wearing was a tank top with the sides cut almost all the way down where you could see my body. I would never wear something like this, it was actually Nathan's shirt, but it was hot and it made me feel good and naked.
"You kay'?" he asked.
"Yeah, stupid pebble."
"Were you imagining you were in front of the titanic?"
"I dunno what you're talking about," I muttered.
He shut his pie hole and continued to push me. Some skater boys watched us judgingly. But they were just jealous they couldn't get their own Avril Lavigne. I was the skater boy, and Nathan was the girl who said cya later boi, and I wasn't good enough for anyone because I was Leo.
"You guys gay?"
I immediately dropped my hands after pretending I was on the titanic behind held by the love of my life who would later die because I let him go after I said I wouldn't. I shot a look at the skater guys who were definitely way younger than us. Did they want to fight us? Because I will fight them and their moms.
"Isn't it your bedtime?" I asked them, checking my invisible watch.
"We're sixteen."
"DID YOU SAY SIX?" I shouted back from across the skateboarding park. The four boys got on their skateboards and rolled down the ramp in front of them and rode directly towards us. I panicked because I've never had to fight off teenagers before. I looked back at Nathan and whispered in his ear, "They're teenagers so their balls are still growing, just kick those and run."
"What? They don't look like they want to do anything."
I was going to say more, like come up with a plan but these guys were fast on those wheels. They stopped in front of us and grabbed their skateboards. They were going to hit us with it, I was sure of it.
"My brother is gay and he's too scared to ask my friend out, you got any tips for him?" the only one with the blonde hair asked. He looked way older than sixteen. That frightened me. When I was sixteen I basically looked like I was just born.
"Um. I'm going to try not to be offended that you're asking me the question and not my straight looking friend," I said, seeing Nathan awkwardly move from the corner of my eyes.
"What?"
"Wait, what? So you don't want to fight us?" I said.
The blonde one looked at his friends, confused. "Uh, do you want us to fight you?"
"Anyway, so your brother needs help asking a guy out and you go to me, of course. Is your friend gay?"
"I don't know."
I rolled my eyes at his stupidity. "Listen, we still live in a sucky homophobic world, so you guys need to find out if your friend is interested in bananas."
"We think he's gay, but his dad is pretty strict so maybe that's why he hasn't said anything to us."
"Hm, that's sad."
"Yeah, but my brother is completely in love with him and won't shut up when he's not around. It's annoying."
I nodded, pretending I was listening to the straight words that were coming out of his mouth. After a few seconds his words finally caught up to my brain and I rubbed my chin like I was some science professor. "You guys realize being gay is not that different from being straight right? It's all still love. Everyone can be nervous to ask others out."
"But we don't know if my friend is gay for sure."
"That's why I said find out. He's your friend. Or you can be evil and tell your friend someone likes him, then when he asks who, don't say anything. Tell him to meet you guys at some secret place that has a closet, maybe your house when your parents aren't home, then tell him to wait in the closet while they go get the person that likes him. Once he's inside, get your brother and throw him in and hold the door so they can't get out."
"That sounds way more fun and less complicated," blondie said.
"Yeah, I'm pretty good at being evil."
"But then what happens?" he asked.
"You wait. If your friend isn't stupid, it will click fast. Then he either begs you to let him out or they start making out."
"Thanks for the help, bro," he said, reaching out with a manly handshake.
"No problem, bro," I said, putting on my bro-persona and shaking his hand.
"Here, for your help." He gave me a piece of paper. "It's a coupon. Free milkshakes at my grandpa's dinner. It's just a few blocks from here. Derek's Diner."
"I'm triggered."
~ Squishy the scene transition worm
"It's actually called Derek's Diner."
Nathan grinned as we parked our skateboards outside on the parking lot. It was night now and the diner's blue and violet colors were beautifully bright in the dark. We ran inside when it started to rain and shuddered at how cold it was. I was still wearing Nathan's stupid shirt.
"Table for two?" a waitress asked us. When we nodded she took us to a table that could fit at least six people. Now I wasn't sure why she even asked that since the diner was kind of empty. "Here are your menus. Can I get you anything to drink?"
"Yes," I slid the coupon towards her and winked.
She laughed nervously and picked it up. "Okay, two strawberry milkshakes?"
"I love strawberries," I said.
"Okay, I'll be right back with your drinks," she said and left.
"Leo, you're creeping her out."
"Oh, fuck. I forgot I didn't turn off my bro-persona."
Nathan laughed, shaking his head. "You want something to eat?"
I lifted the menu and it was so long that I accidentally hit Nathan's chin. I didn't apologize. "Probably curly fries with some chicken fingers."
"That's the kids' menu."
"And?"
The waitress came back with two pretty pink milkshakes and placed them in front of us. She took out her little notepad and a pen and asked us if we were ready to order. I ordered from the kids menu because I didn't care and Nathan ordered nachos because he was basic.
"By the way, I'm gay," I told the waitress.
"Oh, wow," she said, acting genuinely surprised, or maybe scared. "Okay, that's, um, good."
When she left I took a sip of my drink and my cheeks burned at the taste of strawberries. I didn't like strawberries.
"So..."
"No," I said fast. "I haven't and I won't."
"But she called you."
"Yeah, obviously because she was upset after Derek told her."
"It's been a week. You're not gonna return poor Molly's call?"
I flickered an eye at him. "I'm currently trying to survive a breakup, the last thing I want to do is talk to my ex's little sister." I even felt sick to my stomach referring to Derek as my ex. I wasn't used to it and every time I had to either correct myself after I still called him my boyfriend or make sure people knew he was my ex now I'd get a little burn in my eyes.
"Look into my eyes," Nathan said.
Sighing, I leaned forward and rested my chin on my hands as I stared hard into his eyes. He did the same and we just stared, not knowing why, maybe we were having an eye staring contest. I squinted my eyes as I felt the urge to blink.
"Why are we doing this?"
"Your eye fluttered."
I snorted. "Is that why you wanted me to look into your eyes? So you can see it happen again?"
"Yes. It was weird."
"So, how's your girlfriend?" I asked, moving back against my seat.
He raised a brow at me, leaning in even closer and making prayer hands against his mouth. "Leo, what girlfriend?"
Suck my cockiness, lick my persuasion.
I quickly grabbed my phone when I heard my mom's ring tone. I knew why she was calling. Nobody knew Derek and I broke up except a few selected individuals. And because my mom was a mom, she found out when Derek broke us up on Facebook, too. I was expecting the call.
"Mom, I don't want to talk about it," I said when I answered the call.
"Leo, what happened?"
"Mom! I just said I don't want to talk about it! I'll tell you later, okay?"
"Where are you?"
"With Nathan at a diner, why?"
"So the road trip is done?"
Rolling my eyes, I groaned like a lion nutting for the first time. "Mom, I don't want to talk about this, please. I promise I'll tell you later."
"Okay, you better. I love you."
"I love you. Later gator."
Our food arrived a few minutes later while I thought about ways I could tell my mom what happened between Nathan and I and why Derek decided to break up with me. I hated making her nervous. She worried too much for me and I just wanted her out of this drama. I knew she was going to call Derek once I told her so for her own good I was going to take my sweet ass time before I called her to tell her the news.
I stabbed my fries angrily and shoved them into my mouth as I stared at Nathan's nachos.
"You want some of my nachos, don't you?" he said.
"They look good."
"What do I get in return if I give you some of my nachos?"
"You get to keep my friendship."
"What? That's not fair."
"You sound like a fuckboy," I said, chuckling. "What do I get in return, babe? Can I get some, uhhh, good lovin' for my nachos?"
"Can I please? I'm so lonely."
I took a nacho from his plate and popped it in my mouth. He tried to take a curly fry from me and I smacked his hand. I gave him a death stare. The trade was nachos for lovin', not nachos for lovin' for fries. That meant he would have two things over my one nacho. I was stupid but I knew math.
"No."
We finished our food and left the diner without any mention of Derek, relationships and cats. But I just sensed that it wasn't going to be that case tonight. Too many things reminded me of him. As we walked towards an abandoned building in the middle of a scary night, I realized something.
"We forgot the skateboards."
"Fuck." Nathan slapped his forehead. "They're probably gone now."
"Yeah, why did we even park them outside?"
"Because we're both dumb."
"Honestly."
We went inside the building and ran up the stairs. The building had five floors and all were empty and dirty. There was graffiti all over the walls and broken furniture everywhere. We went to the roof where Nathan's friends usually hung out to do totally not illegal things. But tonight it was just me and him.
We sat down on one of the couches and looked up at the stars. They were easy to see when you were this far. And it was beautiful with the huge lake next to the building. I hugged my knees together and drew pictures in my mind with the stars.
It seemed like Nathan was doing the same thing I was. His beautiful eyes sparkled with the moonlight as they fixed on the stars. It made me wish I had beautiful eyes seeing his. Derek had the best eyes, though.
Oh. Derek.
"Distract me," I told Nathan.
"I forgot to bring my music, sorry."
I groaned loudly and stretched at the same time.
"I hate this feeling so much."
"I'm sorry."
"Why do you keep saying that, Nathan? I told you to stop. You have nothing to be sorry about." Which was true, regardless of me wanting to put the blame on him when it all first happened. Nobody was in the wrong and that was what people didn't understand. And by people I meant Derek. Nathan went over it so many times and we were positive that stranger did something to the drink he gave me. It made sense because we both drank from it. And we drank a lot but never became that intoxicated that we would just have sex. I would never do that to someone I was with, ever.
"Because maybe if I didn't like you, I could have stopped myself."
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[Author's Message]: *fans myself* is it getting dramatic here or is it just me? OH BOY. I'm mostly excited about the next chapter, which will be uploaded in a few hours. I wrote TWO chapters for you guys. And instead of waiting weeks between them, I'm just gonna upload them both in one day. :) I know not much happened in this chapter but it's the little things that matter. But I've been waiting next chapter for so long. O.O also not much happens, EXCEPT A LOT HAPPENS. Ty for reading my unicorns <3