As Told By Nerdy

Chapter 19 - More Revelations

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Chapter 19 – More Revelations

I heard Leon shuffle uneasily behind my door as I get dressed, slipping into an old pair of sweats and a long-sleeved tee to hide my bruises.

“You can come in now…” I said rather hesitantly as my heart pounded on my ribs rendering me unable to breathe normally.

Leon let himself in, his faultlessness dazzling me as he did. He pulled the gray and white striped beanie he was wearing, revealing his perfect disheveled dark hair. He removed the glasses too and pocketed it. There was no need to pretend.

I sat on the bed weakly, shaking the gloomy thoughts that crept through me.

Leon sat beside me cautiously with a foot distance, his composed features frozen into a stark sculpture as silence prevailed for several moments.

“What were you thinking? You scared the hell out of me,” he finally demanded, quoting me in a sarcastic remark.

“I… don’t know.” Or at least I refused to face it. I avoided the subject. “Last night… you know that guy.” It wasn’t a question.

Leon’s jaw stiffened as his eyes shifted to the window and stared there for a long time before nodding.

“Yes,” said he without looking at me. His voice was strained, as though he was admitting to a crime in front of a court. “He works for my brother.”

I didn’t know he had a brother. It figures because I never really asked him anything. I was always so busy admiring his perfection and or gawking at his every move that I almost forgot that he was human. There were things that he liked and hated. He had a past and he has a family. How could I have been so stupid?!

I’ve always hated shallow people who knew nothing but the superficial with a passion; and now I have become one of them.

“I don’t get it. If he works for your family then why did…” I could not make myself speak the words but he seemed to have understood what I wanted to say.

“He works for my brother. Not my family.” His fist clenched almost involuntarily until his knuckles turned white.

My hand reached out to his and brushed the stiffness away. He weaved his warm fingers through mine and fixed his brooding eyes on it.

“Me and Nathan… we don’t see eye to eye. We were raised in two different worlds. I wouldn’t say he had it easier than me but I guess we’re opposites.”

“So you grew up apart…” I mumbled absently as the thought of Leon’s brother raised my curiosity. I wondered if he would be as strikingly beautiful as Leon but decided no one could.

“Yes. Arthur took me in while Nathan was left with our mother.” His voice shook with belligerence as he struggled with the last word. “She is a supposedly respectable woman who lived in high-society, married to a rich English man who couldn’t give her children.

Arthur was working in London as a private tutor to the woman’s adopted daughter and I’m guessing they made out and eloped.” He shrugged reluctantly, letting out a humorless chuckle. I hate it when he does that. “And poof, thus Nathan and Leon.”

His smile faded as his eyes finally fixed on my face. “After a couple of years, the woman could not live simply without her luxuries any more. Arthur could only provide a simple life for us as a teacher but he tried so hard. I knew he did, to please her. But she ran off to her rich husband who welcomed her back rather with open arms. But he wanted a favor if she wanted to return.”