We're Not Alone

Chapter 8

In the past 2 and a half hours me and Shelly have finished baking 111 cupcakes (she insisted on making a few extras for the 3 of us to eat/take home) and we now have 25 bowls of varying sizes, with different colors in them, all the colors needed to create 7 different pride flags

"I think this is a good place to take a well deserved break" I nod in agreement, washing the powdered sugar off my hands, we close at 6:30 today, which means in 1 hour Leo will be joining us to help frost all the cupcakes until we're both off at 8:30. Shelly lets me know she's going to finish some paperwork in her office, and I take the opportunity to start on some homework.

After about 20 minutes I've completed my physics homework, a fairly easy worksheet. Shelly opens the door and heads to the sink, washing her hands as she talks to me "I'm getting antsy sitting around so I'm gonna cover the register until we close, That way Leo can also have a 30 minute break, since you are both working such long shifts'' I nod my head, despite her back being towards me "okay, let me know if you need any help" she shakes her head "nonsense, you've been working late, I'm giving you a double break"

I glance back down to the biology homework in front of me. After a moment I hear footsteps and the chair next to me squeaks as it's pulled out from on the counter, Leo sitting down on my right side, "Really? You're doing homework? You do know it's not due until Monday, right?" I give a halfhearted laugh, my mind being elsewhere, thinking about the cupcakes, how when Shelly returns I'll have to eat one. I look up at him, a fake smile lining my lips."Shelly is giving me a 50 minute break and I have nothing better to do." I shrug, my pencil regaining its motion, the graphite sweeping the paper explaining what Ribosomes do.

After a minute I let out a frustrated sigh, looking down at my paper, the last sentence being complete gibberish, my mind was wondering while I wrote it, back to the cupcakes. I flip my pencil over, Leo still looking at me, ignoring that, I erase the last 2 sentences, I flip my pencil back over, but when I start writing I press too hard and the graphite point breaks off, making it unusable without a sharpener.

"Are you okay?" my eyes wander to meet his hazel ones, not knowing exactly what to answer, I press down on my thigh, as hard as I can without him noticing, "yeah, I'm just tired." Which isn't completely a lie. He nods, unconvinced, but decides to let it go. "well I think" he points to my broken pencil "that is a sign to stop doing homework" I let out a low chuckle, "Who says I dont have another pencil in my bag?" I raise my eyebrows, challenging him to answer "I do" he says, but it comes out as more of a question. I roll my eyes. "Fine, what am I supposed to do for the next 30 minutes?" he shrugs "tell me a story"

"A story?" I say in complete confusion "About what?" he tilts his head slightly, his shoulders rising and falling again. "I don't know, all I know about you are the 5 facts we learned on the first day" I nod, realizing I really do only know 5 things about him. "what do you want to know?" he sighs "Lets play 20 questions" I stifle a laugh but I agree "I'll go first, do you have any siblings?" I nod "An older brother, he's in our grade though" he lets his eyes wander "do you guys get along?"

For the next 30 minutes we go back and forth, asking questions, we mainly ask basic questions, favorite foods, animals, a few questions about family ( I find out his parents are divorced ) we share a few random childhood stories, I find out his favorite show as a kid was Caillou, mine being Curious George.

Shelly walks into the kitchen to find Leo laughing his ass off, and me mumbling through laughter. He used his last question to ask about the cocoa powder incident that Shelly had mentioned earlier. As soon as I get to the part of the cocoa powder bucket falling off the shelf that was above my head he starts cracking up, it's the first time I've actually heard his real laugh, and I notice the pain in his eyes disappear temporarily.