Love Takes Trust

6

SANTIAGO

I walk into the class to see Leona at her seat reading as always. What is she reading?

"Anyone still sitting here?"

"You already killed Billy so you might as well just sit down."

She places the book down into her lap and starts to write, I'm not sure what she was writing since class hasn't started yet. I take the time to examine her...wow that sounds wrong.

Her long brown hair is messily tied up into a high ponytail much different from it being down, her green eyes stare down at the paper their a slightly lighter shade of green than my own green eyes. She has her uniform buttoned unlike someone I know, she also wears black stockings under her skirt unlike most girls in school.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5-

"Why are you counting?"

Was I counting out loud?

"I was counting your freckles." I smile apologetically. "Of course you were." I laugh at her response.

A substitute walks into the class, you could practically hear everyone sigh in relief. They start to call attendance, "Santiago Smith?"

"Here." Good at least the sub doesn't recognize me. "Santiago Smith?" Leona questions. "My last name was changed when they adopted me but I just go by Santiago Cruz in memory of my family."

"Belle- sorry if I pronounce this incorrectly. Bellezza?"

Everyone in the class looks around confused until Leona raises her hand, "It's Leona." The substitute nods and writes down something, I'm guessing "Leona" on the paper. "Bellezza?" I question. She sighs, "My first name, I hate it. Leona is my middle name but I'd rather go by it."

"What does it mean?"

"Beauty."

Why would she not like her name? It suits her completely. Just like her name, she's beautiful in every way. "Pretty." I smile at her. Her lips curl into a slight smile even though it wasn't obvious. It wasn't much but it was enough for me, she goes back to writing still smiling slightly.

"Oh and who might you be?"

"Ryan Batten."

I see Leona jump in her seat. Her smile faded into a terrified expression, shaking slightly while looking at Ryan. Ryan notices her and winks at her, tears roll down her cheeks. "You okay?" I place my hand on her shoulder causing her to jump.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She quickly wipes the tears from her eyes and goes back to writing. "You know I still owe you lunch."

"I thought you forgot." She says nonchalantly. I poke her cheek, "Of course I haven't forgotten." The motion causes her to smile fully unlike last time. Damn her smile is really pretty. "Actually, my brother Marshall um his sisters coming from Cuba. She could make us some Cuban foods?"

"I'm the one who's supposed to get you lunch but that's fine. My mom used to make Mexican food all the time so I've never had Cuban."

"It's really good!" Her eyes light up in excitement. It's the first time I've seen her this excited about anything since she moved here. Sadly, her expressions quickly turns back normal like she realized she broke her own barrier and is now trying to build it back up. Maybe it's as Romeo said, she's slowly gaining trust in me within the three or four days that we've spoken?

He stated that she still doesn't fully trust Rose and Alex. It's probably because of their personalities, Alex is extra and questions things a lot and Rose always states her mind. Guess their personalities could be confusing to her considering it's hard to tell if their being serious or not.

---

ROMEO

I sigh for like the hundredth time today as I open my locker. "Hey." I jump from the sound of the voice, then turning to see who it was just to see Rose eyeing me suspiciously. "You're really jumpy. Are you okay?" I sigh again, closing my locker, "I'm fine." She makes the same questioning look before sighing.

"Ryan Batten is back. Isn't he in Leona's first period? We- you should probably check on her." I nod even though I wasn't worried. Leona had Santiago, he doesn't question things when asked. If anything were to happen Santiago would protect. "Hey, don't you two have classes to get to," A arm wraps around me causing me to tense up. Why? I don't know. "You're right I should get going." I move out of the grasp and starts to walk away.

"Did you do something to make him mad, Hunter?" I hear Rose's voice as I'm walking.

"Not that I know of."

Hunter wasn't every other rich boy jock...kinda. He was popular obviously and people were obsessed with him, girl were all over him, and he was probably all over them but I didn't care. His sex life isn't any of my concern. We are just friends. Friends is a funny word to me, my brain knew what it meant but my heart didn't.

It pissed me off.

It was like my heart was purposely setting me up for heartbreak. Have I not learned my lesson from last time? Clearly not. Hunter did nothing to make me angry, maybe?

It's just he's him.

He was carefree and had filter around me. Whenever I tried to forget and at try get my mind off him, he was always there.

There was no doubting it anymore, I, Romeo Luciano, had a crush on Hunter Smith, but he didn't like me.

I'll just had to accept that fact.

---

a/n: This is really short, sorry!