Serving Leo [Book 4 of the Stavros Series] ✔️

24

The plan was to finish this book by today... Clearly that isn't going to happen so instead I'm going to shoot for February and once this is done then I will begin to update my new series which contains Slapped with the Truth (Adrik's story) and Kissed with a Lie

I've never been to church in my entire life, not even when my mom died. My dad never believed in God so I didn't either. I guess that's how humans work. No matter how hard one tries they will always become what they are surrounded by. Put a human in the middle of the woods and he'll act like an animal.

How sad is that; that no matter how dominant our race is we will always be affected by someone or something else. We're all just clay and everything around us is the sculptor.

We can say we're independent but we're really not. We don't know what that word even means. We don't decide who we become, that's up to the people we grow up with.

And I grew up with a mom who died young, a dad who found his nirvana at the bottom of any bottle of alcohol, and an older brother who fought with all his might. I don't know what they made me into, who I could've been if I were born into a different family.

All I know is that since the beginning of time humans have believed in someone they couldn't see and I for one am not one of those people. But the Stavros' obviously are, hence why I'm sitting in the front pew of a church.

Behind the pastor Jesus is hanging on the cross and it unnerves me. Not because it's depiction of a man dying a horrible death but because his eyes won't get off of me. They seem to be telling me exactly what I'm feeling.

You don't belong here.

Even though the church is full of hundreds of people, all of whom had something or other to do with Xander Stavros's life, even a few people he went to preschool with, I still feel out of place. I wasn't his family, we were friends sure and thinking about him makes my heart ache, but still. . . Maybe it's because I'm sitting in the honorary first pew along with every other Stavros.

On my left is Alexandria followed by her family and on my right is Leo followed by his mom and uncle and his family. I look over my shoulder to see Jose and Ryan sitting a few rows back where I should be at; except Leo needs me.

Or at least I think he does.

It's been two days since Xander passed, two days since Leo had a mental break down in the hospital, two days since he ate anything, and two days since he said anything.

After my mom died my dad turned to alcohol which obviously wasn't very healthy but at least he turned to something. Leo hasn't, and that's what scares me. I want Leo to go back to who he once was, the man who confessed he cared for me more than anyone else in the world, the man who built a whole town around my desires, or even the man who irritated me to no end.

I didn't like this cold Leo. He was much different than the one I first met. He had bags under his eyes from no sleep, his skin was a sickly pale from not eating, and his eyes . . . what once was a bright and lively blue was now nothing. Xander might have been the one to die but you could see in Leo's eyes that he did too.

So as much as I felt like I belonged in the back with Jose and Ryan, I stayed seated next to a lifeless Leo who I didn't think knew I was even beside him. Did he notice that I slept in the lounge chair in the corner of his bedroom for the past two nights? Did he know that when he did finally fall asleep I would softly kiss his cheek and whisper peaceful things in his ear so he would have a good dream? Did he know that I suffered through his entire family moving into the mansion the past couple days just because I didn't want to make him feel alone?