L e o
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When Leo clocked in for work that night, he hadn't been expecting much during that shift. His work shifts at the mechanical shop were usually uneventful as it was, save for the occasional angry, delusional customer who seemed to think they knew about more than the trained mechanics in front of them. But Leo knew that night would have an especially light workload, so he was fully prepared to spend his shift taking it easy.
What Leo wasn't expecting, however, was a certain girl with warm brown eyes who had barely left his mind those past few weeks.
For the past few minutes, Leo had been working under the hood of a newer car that only needed a few small repairs. He had been so focused though that he didn't hear Calypso enter the shop and stand close next to him until she spoke up.
"Hard at work there still, Repair Boy?"
Leo looked up from inside the hood of the car and grinned brightly at the sight of Calypso leaning against the doorframe of the workshop entrance. Her caramel hair had been taken out of her usual plaits and now fell loosely around her shoulders. "Normally, I would be annoyed by someone scaring me in the middle of work and coming into my workplace," He said. "But, you're a good distraction though."
"I feel like this shop is the only place I can find you other than school, right?" Calypso chuckled. "And in school, we're both so busy that we barely cross paths besides Physics and lunch."
Grabbing one of his only non-greasy rags off the table, Leo wiped his forehead of oil and sweat and stood up to his full height – which, frankly, wasn't much. "You know I barely leave this workshop, right?" He responded in a joking voice, even though it was far from the truth. "What's going on?"
"Yeah well..." Calypso sounded nervous as she sat down on the folding chair close to the car Leo was working on. "I kinda wanted to talk with you."
Oh boy.
Leo tried to continue acting normal, even though his stomach kept twisting in on itself. The words "I want to talk" were never good. Whenever someone says something like that, you can't help but think that you've done something majorly wrong.
"Actually, I really wanted to talk to you," Calypso continued in a nervous voice. "And I remember you saying you didn't have much you didn't need to do tonight and I just...really needed to see you."
"What's up?" He asked, trying to sound as casual as he could. But given the fact his voice seemed to go up two octaves, Leo wasn't sure he was doing so well at that. "What do you want to talk about?"
"It's about us."
Leo snapped his head up and let out a yelp when the back of his head hit the open hood of the car. Calypso rushed forward and frantically asked, "Are you alright? Are you hurt too bad?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Leo rubbed the back of his head as he stood back up straight again, being careful not to avoid the hood so he wouldn't have a repeat of the incident. Thankfully, the pain in his head was quickly beginning to subside, so Leo was able to put his full attention on Calypso. "So...what's up with you? What did you want to talk about?"
Calypso was quiet for an uncomfortably long time, causing Leo to let out a nervous laugh. "Well, Sunshine, we can't exactly have a conversation if one of us isn't talking–"
"I want to be official."
Leo froze mid-sentence, his mouth slightly agape. Calypso's face matched Leo, as if she didn't expect to suddenly blurt it out like that. He certainly didn't expect her to be so up front about it, especially after weeks on end of secrecy and seemingly no end to what they were doing.
"I want to become official," Calypso repeated more slowly, as if she was truly processing what she was saying. "I don't want to hide our relationship anymore or the fact we're soulmates."
His brain was so muddled with emotions that it took Leo a few seconds to respond. Even then, he still had to sit down next to her because he could feel himself getting weak in the knees. A part of Leo was overjoyed because Calypso was finally wanting to stop hiding everything.
But a part of Leo also wanted to know why now?
"As much as I'm happy to hear you say that," Leo eventually responded as he rested his hand on top of hers in an attempt to comfort her. "What made you decide so suddenly that you had to run over to the workshop to tell me?"
Calypso didn't respond for a few seconds. Leo wasn't sure what caused her hesitation. Either she was nervous or hesitant about telling him the reason, or she couldn't even put it into words just yet. But Leo didn't push her to respond, instead choosing to hold her hand and wait until she wanted to speak.
"My dad's never really been into this whole soulmates thing," She eventually said in a small voice. "He says they're a waste of time. That the universe can't determine 'all that shit' and no one can ever have a true soulmate. Him and my mom were soulmates, and it was terrible. She was gone before I turned seven. I think everything he said just kind of...ingrained itself in my mind, if that makes sense."
"But aren't you always saying how much of an idiot your dad is?"
"Yeah, I know! That's the weird part! I know damn well that my dad sucks and all the things he says are full of shit, but I can't help but listen to him anyways."
Leo had always known he wasn't the best at comforting people. Most of the time, his idea of breaking the tension was cracking a joke that either went over very well or made the situation even worse. He didn't want to risk messing things up badly with Calypso, especially now that she was finally opening up to him.
"Well I know you know your dad's an ass, so I don't think I need to say that again," Leo began, his old habits slipping through. But Calypso let out a small laugh, so Leo felt at ease that the joke wasn't too bad. "But I know there's some people who find their soulmate and things between them just...don't work. People think everything will be perfect once they find their soulmate, and then they don't know how to deal with it when it isn't. I don't know what happened between your dad and mom, but it kinda sucks he pushed what happened onto you. I think there's a lot more soulmates out there who work out than your dad thinks, including us."
Leo gave Calypso's hand another reassuring squeeze, earning a small smile out of her. "I know relationships take work, even with soulmates, but I want to work with you," Calypso responded. "I want to make this work, and I want us to be official with our relationship."
Calypso then looked up at Leo with the biggest smile he had ever seen, and he felt both relief and happiness flush through him. A huge, matching grin appeared on Leo's face as he pondered aloud, "So...now that we're officially a couple...does that mean I can actually hold your hand in public?"
"Maybe..." Calypso teased, shrugging her shoulders slightly as she tried to hold back laughter. "If you're lucky, you might be able to kiss my cheek."
"Oh really? I feel so honored."
"Oh shut up, Repair boy," Calypso murmured as she leaned in to press her lips against his.
Life was pretty much perfect for a few moments. But as things usually were for Leo, it didn't last forever.
"Leo!" Leo's head snapped up at the sound of his boss Burt's yell, and he found his boss looking out his window of his office above his shop down at the couple "You're on the clock! You better not be making out with your girlfriend down there!"
Leo groaned quietly, leaning into a giggling Calypso. "No!" He yelled back up to him. "Is there anything you want me to do, or are you just trying to bother me?"
"No!" Burt peeked his head down from his office window. "Just wanted to make sure nothing too bad was happening down there."
Calypso laughed again and waved up to him. "Hey, Burt!"
The older man grinned at the brightly-smiling teenager. "Hey, Calypso!"
"Do you seriously like my girlfriend more than me?" Leo shouted up the stairs, kind of serious but mostly joking.
"She doesn't back-talk me the way you do," Burt shrugged. "You don't know how to keep your mouth shut."
When Burt disappeared back in his office, Calypso smiled in victory as she turned back to face Leo. "You hear that? I'm his favorite."
"I hate you. Leave me alone."
"Fine," Calypso shrugged and stood up quickly. "I'll leave you alone then! Have fun without me"
Leo groaned, clutching his chest dramatically. "You're breaking my heart here, Sunshine."
She looked like she was about to leave the shop, but just when he thought she was about to step out the door, Calypso turned back and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Love you too, Repair Boy."
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a/n:
i know. i know. it's been a very long time since i've updated.
right around i last updated, i moved into college, started working a job on campus, and began all in-person classes for the first time in over a year. it's been an absolutely crazy semester so far, and i literally just got through midterms and am currently on fall break.
not only that, i was having some severe writers block with this book. i ended up cutting a chapter that was originally in the book that just didn't feel right keeping it in for some reason ?? anyways i didn't really want to put out a chapter that i wasn't proud of, which is why this chapter took a while to come out. the next chapter (and last one) will hopefully be coming soon.
i really hope you all enjoyed this (extremely late) chapter, and i will see you all at the next update!!
- g ♡