PULSE

(twentyfive) march 15

(TWENTYFIVE) MARCH 15

I could tell that Lev had a lot on his mind before he'd even taken two steps into the bedroom I was waiting in. He pushed the door slowly closed behind him, tossing his backpack aside and running a hand through his hair as he finally turned to me.

"You missed school. Again." His words weren't a question, but a statement. He didn't need to know why; he already knew that. He simply wanted me to acknowledge it, or maybe even apologize. I could do the former, at the very least.

"Yeah. And?"

He sighed. Even I could tell that he was exhausted all the time these days, but that was one thing that I refused to acknowledge, for his sake.

"You're getting behind. What are you going to do during exams in a few months? You're so close to graduating. Are you really going to risk screwing that up?"

"Sorry, Mom," I said flatly, bouncing a tennis ball off of his bedroom wall.

"Seriously, Aidan? I've had a long day. I don't need this from you."

I listened vaguely to him, but focused most of my attention on my phone as a buzzing in my pocket spurred me to take it out and squint at the bright screen. Lit up on it was a text message from Candace, who was still sending daily texts asking how I was doing. Suddenly, the room that had felt safe for the last two months felt as if it was suffocating me.

When I finally looked up, I found Lev glaring at me, undoubtedly noticing my lack of focus.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey. What?"

"Do you want to go get food?"

Lev raised an eyebrow at me. He had every right to; in the time since I'd moved in with him, I'd never once asked him to leave the house for anything. I'd spent my time finding reasons to stay holed up in his bedroom while he shopped, while he worked, while he brought home every assignment from my classes that I was missing more often than I was attending.

He didn't act overly shocked, though, when I asked him to go out of the house with me; he knew better than that.

"Where?" he asked.

"Anywhere."

Once again, he paused, staring questioningly at me, but ultimately shrugged in resignation. "Yeah. Sure. It's not like I have homework or anything."

"How soon can you be ready?" I asked.

"I'm ready now," Lev said, eyeing me. "What about you? Would it kill you to put on a clean shirt?"

I glared at him before slowly rising from his bed and moving toward my suitcase in the corner of the room.

He sighed. "I'll be outside. Hurry up."

It only took a few minutes before I met him out on the sidewalk, having exchanged my same old shirt for one of Lev's clean ones and a coat. He seemed to notice this and was mildly irritated by it, but he didn't bring it up.

"So?" he asked as we started to walk. "Where are we going?"

"I don't know," I muttered, shoving my hands in my pockets.

Lev scowled at me. "Okay. So am I supposed to pick where we go?"

"Well, I didn't invite you out for your charm and good looks."