Envious // Leo Howard

•05•

"You dare me to what?" I asked, dumbfounded. I wasn't sure if I heard him right or not.

"I said, I dare you to kiss me," Leo repeated, smirking at my, now flushed, cheeks.

"Fine," I gave in. He puckered up and closed his eyes, waiting for me. I sighed, but just as I was an inch away from his lips, I maneuvered my trail to his cheek, leaving a soft and sweet peck there. He opened his eyes, mouth agape, and a slight twinge of playful pout as I walked away. "You never said where Howard!" I called as I continued my way to Liv's dressing room.

—•••—

We just finished the end of the day table read with almost everyone with their lines memorized. I say almost because we all get the idea of our lines but they aren't perfect yet. But that's fine considering it's only been a day. "Hey Sasha!" I heard Liv call as I was packing my bag up to get  ready to go home.

"Yeah, what's up?" I asked absentmindedly, putting my custom ear fit bluetooth headphones in my bag.

"Leo, Mateo, Dylan, and I are gonna eat dinner together. Leo's mom is driving us. Wanna come?" she offered.

"Sure, why not?" I agreed, grabbing my bag so we could leave. Once we got to the parking lot, I saw Leo, Mateo, and Dylan joking about something. Mateo said something I couldn't quite make out, but it made Leo flush red. He regained his composure quickly, making his face return to it's normal tan color. Me and Liv approached the boys, making them stop talking. I raised a brow, but didn't question it.

"Hmph," I heard Leo say as he looked away from me dramatically.

"What're you 'hmphing' about?" I asked, laughing a little.

"You didn't fulfill your dare, so you have to post an embarrassing picture of you on Instagram," he replied.

"You just said I had to kiss you! You didn't say where!" I defended. "Besides, I don't even have Instagram." The small side conversation that Liv, Mateo, and Dylan were having stopped abruptly. The whole group looked at me incredulously, making me self conscious for some reason. "What? I never really had friends, so I never really had the need for social media," I reasoned.

"What a shocker," came the sneer of my dearest cousin. "You see, unlike some people, I actually have friends. And a reliable following," she bragged.

"Hello to you too, Nicole," I sighed exasperated.

"You know her?" Leo asked, surprised.

"She's her cousin. Nicole isn't to happy about the whole 'Sasha got to portray Quinn' thing," Liv filled him in.

"Got it," Leo nodded, continuing to watch our interaction.

"What are you doing with them anyway? Aren't you supposed to be home? Oh wait. Why would you want to? Not even your own mother wants you home," Nicole snickered. I sighed, rolling my eyes. She's not wrong, so I couldn't tell her off. Plus we're in public and I'm a 'rising star', so I can't have my first article in a magazine say something like: Sasha Clearwater disrespects fans, or something crazy like that.

"What is she talking about?" Leo asked me, Liv looking at me just as worried.

"Leo, she'll share when she wants to share. She has only known us for at least 30 hours, so you can't blame her for not spilling her heart out to you," Liv deadpanned.

"If you must know, I'm going to eat dinner with them," I answered my cousin who clenched her jaw. I could tell she was jealous, but I couldn't do anything about it. Well, I could drop out, but that'd just lead to me being depressed.

"There's my mom," Leo pointed at the blue SUV pulling up towards us.

"Where am I driving you today, kids?" his mom asked in a silly accent. I let out a short laugh, making her gaze shift to me. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Randye Howard, nice to meet you."

"I'm Sasha Clearwater, it's nice to meet you too," I smiled.

"Ohhh, Sasha, huh? So you're the one-"

"-that lost at the memorizing lines game," Leo quickly cut off his mother. I laughed before it cut short because of a demonic cousin.

"It's no surprise she lost the memorizing game. She has the brain size of a peanut," she laughed.

"Why don't-"

"-Just leave it. It's fine," I cut off Leo.

"But-"

"-Leave it," I pressed.

"Fine," he grumbled, taking a seat in the passenger's seat. I scrambled into the last row of seats with Liv while Mateo and Dylan sat in the second row of seats, including the driver's and passenger's seat.

"Like we were talking about last night, I think Quinn would look great in combat boots and dark colors. It'll kinda bring that badass side of hers, out more," Liv suggested. The conversation continued from there, with little pitch ins from Dylan. He's surprisingly great with fashion. We pulled up to a local Chick-fil-a. I don't remember the last time I've been here. I've always loved their food, but Nicole says that Chipotle is way better so we go there instead. Sometimes my life sucks.

We all piled out of the car, waving goodbye at Mrs. Howard who promised to pick us up around 8:45pm. It was currently 7:43pm so we have an hour. "So, what does Ms. Sasha Clearwater, fancy at the fine restaurant, Chick-fil-a?" Leo asked in a fake posh tone.

"It's nice of you to ask, but that accent isn't workin' for ya hon," I patted his cheek, which was a bit of reach considering I'm 5' 4" and he's I don't know what. 5' 10" at a guess. "Anyway, I like a spicy chicken sandwich with waffle fries and a chocolate milkshake."

"I told you my order wasn't weird," Mateo scoffed. I sent him a questioning look. "I order the same thing all the time and they tease me about it being weird. I'm completely normal, yo!"

"Yeah. Normal," I sarcastically nodded, getting in line for the food. Once we were settled, we spent the next hour chatting and eating away. Mrs. Howard picked us up, as promised, at 8:45, taking us home in this order: Dylan, Mateo, Liv, me, then Leo. I have to say, this has probably been the best day of my life.