Pumpkin Spice Mocha

-15-

"Should I call?" Aaron looks at his phone nervously.

He whispers under his breath and checks the phone number for what feels like the 10th time.

"It should be fine. Still... Should I call? What if they're busy? What if they changed their mind about the party?"

Aaron angrily throws his phone on the bed and then stares at the ceiling with a sigh. Button sniffs his hand before looking at the phone that was now on the pillow. He takes tiny steps towards it ready to investigate what made Aaron so angry.

"Hey Aaron? There's someone that's looking for you" Ewan gently knocks on the door and Aaron almost immediately stands up like something just electrocuted him.

"W-who is it?" He opens his room's door and is met with Leo smiling while holding a book in one of his hands.

"Hi! I'm sorry if I'm intruding but you left this at the café yesterday and I thought you needed it so here it is" He hands Aaron the book and then turns around ready to leave.

Aaron looks down at the book but then snaps out of it and grabs Leo's shoulder. It happened without him realizing what he's doing so of course it was a shock when Leo turned around feeling confused.

"Wait... Um... Come in. I was bored anyway so... I guess some company wouldn't hurt" He scratches the back of his head with a nervous smile and the other nods smiling back.

"I guess I can stay for a bit"

"Great"

Aaron opens the door for him to enter and then starts panicking. He didn't think this through and he's not very good at starting a conversation so of course he loses it when he sees Leo standing on his bed looking curiously at Button.

"You have a hedgehog? That's so cute!" He gently pets Button's head with one of his fingers.

"Yeah... Um... Thanks for bringing me my book. I'm such an idiot. Always forgetting things"

"Don't stress yourself out. I forget things too. Quite often actually"

"You don't seem like the forgetful type" Aaron laughs and sits down next to Leo on the bed.

"Really? Then what do I seem like?" He takes Button in his hands and smiles at him while Aaron touches his chin with his finger, like he is thinking hard about the answer.

"Like the type of person who is confident, isn't afraid to be himself and gets things done no matter what"

"Do I seem that serious? Believe me I'm not that mentally stable" Leo gives his shoulder a nudge.

"Well at least you seem like you know what you're doing. Even if I try to be confident I end up looking like a mess"

"That's not true. You should have more faith in yourself. It's not easy being confident but you can try"

"Someone else said the same thing... That I should be more outgoing and everything"

"Well they're right. Who is it if you don't mind me asking?"

"An old friend from high school"

Aaron takes his phone from his pillow and Leo's eye twitches as he turns his head away to look at button.

"Um... I wanted to ask... Your eye... Are you aware that sometimes it twitches? Not to be rude or anything it was just something that stood out to me"

"Oh... Yeah I'm aware. It happens when I'm nervous but sometimes it's just completely random. I can't control it thought"

"I see... Um... Do you think it's good to get in touch with people that mattered to us in the past but we stopped talking to?"

"Well yes. If that person mattered to you in the past... It means that they're important to you. Is this about your old friend from high school?"

"H-how did you know?"

"You're pretty obvious. You can say it was just a guess though"

Aaron looks at his phone thinking about his next move. He doesn't know if talking to Alexis again is the best idea. They came so far and made a lot of friends and he's afraid that maybe he's coming in the way. This doesn't surprise Aaron, Alexis was always the friendly and social type but people at high school just avoided them. Now they finally found people that accepts them and maybe talking to Aaron will bring back some bad memories.

High school wasn't a very good time for Alexis and it was hard to get out of the state they were in. A state in which they felt like no one accepted them. Still through Aaron they found some hope, maybe someone can accept them.

Aaron doesn't want to hold them down. They have a new life now and he has to accept that.

"You seem very deep in thought. I feel like you need to contact them when you're ready. Sometimes meeting old friends isn't easy" Leo still looks at Button and Aaron smiles for a second before looking back at his phone, feeling ready to overthink everything about Alexis again.

"You sound very wise. I guess when you're not fighting with Nicholas you can actually be sensitive"

"Wish I could say I'm wise. That makes me feel old" Leo laughs and Aaron just lies down on the bed with his arms behind his head.

"I envy you sometimes"

Before Aaron can do anything he realizes that what he's thinking just comes out of his mouth. Leo's face is filled with surprise and he holds back a smile not knowing if Aaron regrets what he just said or not.

"Why would you do that? I don't have the happiest life. It's actually the opposite"

"Then I envy you even more. You went through it all while remaining strong. Over the years I just became more pathetic. I'm acting like a kid. I'm always being sensitive and I can't even talk to people. You're not like that... You're still down to earth and you know what you want. I wish I was like that. Maybe it would have been easier"

Aaron feels like he just got every thing off his chest. He just told Leo almost everything he hates about himself. Of course he regrets it immediately and wants to just hide far away from him, but he's surprised when Leo just smiles at him and then puts Button down, on the bed, from his hands.