Author's Notes: …. Reviews, please.
Warning: This is rated 'M' story, it may not be so harsh to start, but they will get more and more risqué as they go on.
Summary: What happens when Leo let's out a personal secret to his best friends? Who will support him, who won't?
Chapter Seven: Longing for Warmth
Leo woke up and yawned, he hadn't got such a good night's sleep. He didn't even remember getting into bed. He got out of his sheets, he was freezing, he noticed that his shirt was off. Leo usually never took his shirt off, even when he slept. He slipped his shirt on and walked down the stairs to his kitchen, his mother sat at the table, sipping a coffee.
"Hi Mama, ¿Cómo usted durmió? Tenía un gran sueño anoche?" 'How did you sleep? I had a great sleep last night'. Leo said.
"Dormí bien. Pero usted durmió mejor, usted incluso no despertó cuando DJ le trajo adentro." 'I slept well. But you slept better, you didn't even wake when DJ brought you in.' She said back, Leo blushed at that.
"Why did you take my shirt off? I never sleep with no shirt on." Leo asked, wondering why he woke up less clothed than normal.
"Baby, I didn't take your shirt off, after DJ tucked you in, I went to bed." Ms. Valdez said. Leo's face began to sink, and panic started to set in on him, he tried to remain cool, but he made a whining sound.
"Ma, what if he saw my… burns?" Leo said meekly, then paused, and finished his statement in a hushed sound, like it was something that shouldn't be said in polite conversation.
"Oh honey, don't be silly, he wouldn't look at you any different." She said, getting up from her chair to hug him.
"Mama, if I don't like these burns when their on my body, nobody else will. I've never shown them to anybody else before." He said, clutching his shirt around his shoulder and right pectoral and tracing them down the right side of his body.
"Baby, don't be loco, i'm sure he couldn't care any less." She said, kissing his forehead. "Now go get washed up, Jason and Piper are picking you up in 10 minutes." She said, letting Leo out of the kitchen and to the stairs.
~~~
Jason and Piper pulled up at exactly 7:45, like they did every morning. Punctual to the point. From Leo's house, it took ten minutes to get to school, then it took him five minutes to get his books at his locker and head to his homeroom.
"Hey Leo, what's up?" Piper asked him. Getting out to let him in back seat. Leo sat down, still worried that DJ saw his burns.
"I'm good, I slept really well. Hey, did DJ seem weird after he carried me in last night?" Leo asked. Jason was about to say something but then Piper squealed.
"Jason! Why does DJ carry Leo in, but you never do that for me?" Piper said, looking at Jason with jealousy.
"Pipes… not now. He seemed fine, after he came out, he felt like he was being too clingy and he felt as if he should give you some space." Jason said. Leo kept his look calm, but he felt like he was going to throw up. DJ must've seen the scars and got disgusted by looking at him. "Oh, okay." Leo said, before looking out the windows, waiting to get to DJ's house.
After a while, they passed DJ's house. Leo stayed quiet, but Piper spoke up out of confusion.
"Jay, you passed DJ's house." She said, pointing back with her thumb to DJ's house.
"He said he was going to take a ride with Clarisse." Jason said, turning to Piper momentarily before looking back at the road.
"Wow, really? He hates driving with Clarisse. 'wonder why he went with her today?" Piper said to Jason, but Jason didn't respond. The car was quiet until they got to school.
~~~
Leo didn't talk until he got to homeroom, he waited for DJ at his locker, and he waited outside DJ's homeroom, he saw him, but all he did was wave hi and give him a quick smile. He had a different homeroom than DJ, Piper, and Jason. The only person who was in his homeroom was Percy.
"Hey Perce, I don't think DJ wants to talk to me, he's been avoiding me." Leo said, worrying that DJ was actually avoiding him.
"Dude, it's 8:00 in the morning, how could he be avoiding you?" Percy said, shaking his head at Leo.
"Well, he didn't drive with me, Jason, and Piper to school, he went with his sister Clarisse, which he never does. He didn't meet me at his locker or mine, which he usually does, even before we started to date, and then I finally found him in his homeroom, but all he did was wave at me and give me a quick smile." Leo said all in one breath.
"Okay Leo, breathe. We talked about this, remember? If he wants some space, give him some." Percy said, not knowing the details behind why Leo thought DJ was avoiding him.
"But…" Leo said, he voice trailing off.
"No buts. Give him space if he needs it. He probably feels that he's seen too much of you and wants to be alone for a while." Percy said, but all Leo heard was '…seen to much of you…" which made Leo's stomach drop.
The bell rang, and Leo went off to Mr. Chiron's, Leo hoped that DJ was just needing some space, and not disgusted at Leo's body. He walked into Mr. Chiron's as the bell rang, he saw DJ and went to go say hi, but Mr. Chiron wheeled his self in and said to Leo.
"Sit down Valdez, we're going to be reading Dante's Inferno today." Mr. Chiron said wheeling himself over to the front of the class. Leo sighed and sat down. After the first chapter, Mr. Chiron told everyone to do some silent reading for the rest of the class. Leo tried to read about the poor souls in hell, but Leo felt like he was in his own personal hell right now. He wanted to make sure DJ wasn't weirded out by Leo's injuries.
The bell finally rang, and just as soon as he was about to get to DJ, Mr. Chiron stopped him.
"Mr. Valdez, can we have a word?" Mr. Chiron spoke, Leo watched DJ walk out of the room, Leo sighed and looked back. He walked over to his desk. "You've been very distracted lately, speaking out of turn, getting detention, your distracted… Are you okay?" Mr. Chiron asked.
"Yes, Mr. Chiron, i'm doing fine, just a bit distracted." Leo said.
"Ah yes. Girl troubles?" Mr. Chiron asked.
Leo was about to laugh, but he felt sick knowing that DJ hadn't even turned around to wait for him, like he usually did. But he just looked out the hall and said. "Yeah, something like that." Then walked out.
~~~
"Piper, I think DJ might be mad with me." Leo asked while using his finger to smudge paint on this easel, this was Photography and Film, but this was some weird lesson about how people in the older times used to do portraits by hand. Leo was painting a picture of a person, but was getting very distracted.
"Leo, be real. He's not mad at you. He carried you to bed last night. Jason never does stuff like that for me…" She said, but then whispered to herself "…yet…"
"Yeah, but then he took my shirt off, and now he's been ignoring me… What if he think's i'm ugly." Leo said, getting sick to the stomach, he made a weird stroke to the chin of the portrait, so now it had a squarer jaw on it.
"Leo, your being insecure. I'm almost positive that DJ doesn't think your ugly." Piper said, Leo stayed quiet, but his mind was exploding inside, '…almost positive…" kept ringing through his head. Leo kept painting, but soon, he felt sick. Leo raised his hand. "Ms. Muse, can I please go to the nurse? I'm feeling really sick." Leo asked. The teacher quickly wrote him a pass and ran down the hall to the nurse's office. The nurse was going to check his temperature, but Leo threw up in the garbage can, so she called his mother to pick him up.
Back in class Ms. Muse told Piper to put Leo's painting in the closet to store it until tomarrow. Piper took the painting into the back and set it on the counter. She looked at it closely, it was beginning to resemble DJ.
