Promise

Leo

And on the day of April 13th, 2015 a special boy was born. He wasn't that big, he wasn't too important to man kind. But to a small group of friends and family this boy meant everything. His blue-gray eyes opened for the first time and he saw the face of his mother and his father. His mother's eyes were heavy after several hours of labour, but it was worth it. Her smile showed her teeth and his father, with his incredibly bald head, smiled with her. The doctor took the baby away and the mom fell asleep.

"What will you call the baby boy?" The nurse asked.

"Leo." The father answered.

~*~

16 years later

He sat in class with nothing to do. He stared aimlessly at the front of the room, nothing to be learned. Why should he care about how to find the derivative of C if he can't even find the nerve of talking up how his day went? His pencil was still on his desk, so was his paper and there was nothing written. Yet, his paper was filled with drawings of everything you could think of. From eyes, noses, and faces to drawings of spheres and planets. He took pride in his drawing ability, for he got it from his mother. He was in a line of artists in his family. His mother, his grandmother, his cousins. All artists with great talent and he joined them. His classmates all took awe to his ability, as most of them could draw a stick figure and geometric shapes with no form whatsoever. All of a sudden the bell rings, and he wakes up from his blatant day dream. He picks up his note book and he shoves it in his bag, along with all his art supplies and other school materials. He jogs out the class and joins his two friends, Josh and Eric.

"Hey guys." He says running his hands through his hair.

"Hey." They say in unison. They were talking about college football, and how there are hardly any good Maine colleges that could ever really make it to the playoffs. And they were right, and even if there were good teams he'd still root for the Iowa Hawkeyes. They keep talking, but he wasn't really into the conversation. Leo's eyes drift down the road as we cross and he see a girl. Not much about her, gray beanie, long hair, and a cute nose which slants just about right. What the hell? What did I just say? Leo shook his head and continued talking about how Christian McCaffery should have won the Heisman.

They finally get to the intersection where they head out opposite ways. Leo takes a right and yells, "Bye!" Over his shoulder. He hears a quiet reply as he pulls out his phone. The earbuds are tangled in knots which no one could imagine. How does this even happen? He thinks. But after he, unsuccessfully untangles his earbuds he turns on his phone. _chloex_ has followed you. He right swipes on the notification to check who the girl is. It takes a moment for him to type his password and then for the page to load. But Instagram finally opens and he sees the same girl who he had seen earlier. Same gray beanie. Same long hair. Same cute nose. Chloe, huh? He thinks to himself. He follows her back and closes the app turning on some music. First song, Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time — Panic! At the Disco.

And after 10 minutes of jamming out to Panic! And TØP, he finally reached home. He enters his house to see that there is a note.

Chores
Take out recycling
Unload dishwasher
Bring clothes to laundry room.
I'll be home around 5:30.
Love you,
Mom.

"Oh boy." Leo sighs. What to do, what to do. He thinks. He decides to get done with the recycling first, especially since it's a nice february day. Upper 40's with a clear sky. On a day with no chores or homework he would invite a friend over to play some basketball. But, today is chore day. Yay. Thanks mom. He thinks as he walks out the door with the recycling bin. After running around the house finishing chore after chore, Leo finally finishes. He sits down on the couch and he pauses the music coming from his phone. His phone has two notifications. _chloex_ liked your photo. _chloex_ commented: whoops. Leo smiled and ran his fingers through his hair. He unlocked his phone and realized that she had liked a post from over 83 weeks ago. Leo smiled even bigger. He had had this happen to him before, girls would come and go stalking his account. But he never really cared. He just let them do what they wanted and he didn't interfere.

So what made this any different? Girls would come and go at will, and Leo didn't care. Of course his mother and his aunt who both followed him on Instagram wanted to know everything about these girls, "Are you dating them?" And the answer was either, "No mother./No Aunt Lisa." or "Can you please not stalk my social media?" Which always got a laugh from them. But Leo always just let the drama go over his head. He didn't want to get attached and get hurt as he saw his cousin do. It was hard for Leo, as one of his biggest role models his cousin staying in the basement not wanting to talk to him or the rest of his family. They didn't get to see each other often so Leo tried to talk to him. The most he got out of the conversations he had was the story behind it, and it was a very short bitter story. And after being told how his cousin's girlfriend dumped him as he got to their house in Maine, there was a pause. Leo could see tears building up in his cousin's eyes. He could see the torture that this trip had brought him. Leo could see the heartbreak. And the last thing he said before Leo went back upstairs was, "Don't do it Leo. They'll build you up and you'll start to look at them as if they're the stars in the sky. But one day they'll leave you. And it sucks. It truly sucks. Leo, I'm begging you. Be careful, because when the stars in the sky leave the nights get harder and harder. The demons come out and you start to wonder how anyone could love you. Leo be cautious with girls." And that was it. He stopped talking and his breath slowed down. The tears were done, but his eyes still showed fear. And then he laid down on his mattress.

Leo remembered it clearly. And that's why whenever a girl, no matter how she looked or how her personality was, tried to flirt with him he always turned them away. But now Leo, still sat on his couch, looked at his phone and felt something that made him feel uneasy. His mind was running millions of miles an hour, all about what he was feeling. Was it the urge to get to know this girl? Was it the way she looked?

Or was it the ineluctable knowledge that he was falling for a girl he just met.

A/N

A couple weeks later and we have it. A book that I'm "sure" I'll keep writing. Anyways I wonder if anyone will catch a hint at a big surprise at the end of the book. *nudge nudge* Alright, have a good one everyone!

-Ben