Diaries

Chapter 13

I knocked on Leo's door.

Again.

And again.

And again.

The door swung open to reveal Leo with his notebook in hand and pen between his teeth. He snatched the pen from his mouth and looked at me in disbelief.

"Hey! You know to meet me on the roof what if my mom was home?! She'd kill me!" He shouted.

"Yeah, well, then we'd be even. My dad killed me!" I looked around Leo's shabby yet orderly little apartment for the first time.

"What happened?" Leo looked at me, throwing down his notebook and pen and giving me his full attention as he saw the tears streaming down my face. The tears felt as though they were ripping through my skin like ice-sickles with how much weight they beard in my heart.

"Swifty knows, Leo. He knows about me and you—"

"So what? Fuck em." Leo held onto my shoulders, looking me in the face, "don't worry — look, we can just chill out for a while yknow? Like ... see each other a little less. See each other ... after school of somethin. At the basketball courts—"

"Leo it's bigger than that he knows we've been... yknow... Ms. Green of our building... you know... old nosy lady who always acted like she was watering the plants that have no sun shining down at them from the hallway anyway, told him she's been seeing you come in and out of the house when he's not home." I explained.

"Awh fuck..." Leo whispered, observing my face, "stop crying, baby... stop..." he pulled me closer and into his warm embrace. "Your face is all red. It's gonna be ok—"

"Leo, he slapped me! He does it all the time. He slapped me and called me a whore! I've been wondering where my mom has been all this time, he said I was just like her. That she's in Manhattan ..." I couldn't get the rest of my words to come out.

I could feel Leo's hand rubbing my back, even his body felt sad against mine.

He felt.

For me.

No one ever had

He pulled away from me slowly, "you're not. Swifty puts his hands on you?" He asked.

"Every time he gets mad... or ..." I shook my head, knowing better than to confess what else he'd done to me. Feeling ashamed, as if it were my fault. As if I'd be the one to judge.

"Or what?" I'd never seen a more angrier Leo than now.

"That's all..." I sighed and looked down at the book on the table, seeing my name between the lines in his script. As I focused in on what I saw, he quickly shut it, folded it, and stuck it in the back pocket of his jeans.

He led me back to his bedroom. It was even smaller than mine... almost as if it was meant to simply be a walk in closet transformed into a bedroom. I could hear screaming and shouting from his open window.

"THE LORD WILL SAVE YOU! ASK AND YOU SHALL RECIEVE!"

"SHUT UP, LADY!" He yelled back out of the window, slamming it shut and laughing a little.

"She's so annoying, she always does that." He said, his face turning shades of pink from embarrassment, "that's why I go on the roof."

I was able to manage a smile, looking around and taking a seat on his bed.

"First time in a boy's room?" He teased, reminding me of his first time in mine.

I nodded my head yes.