Lean on Me

9

*Lena*

I really like Arizona's parents and now I wondered why I even doubted them for a second. They are really nice people who care a lot about their children.

"Love, can you add the meatballs to the spaghetti." April said. For someone who isn't fluent in English she speaks it well enough.

"Leave the stove on?" I ask.

"Turn it off for a few minutes." She replied. "You know, Zona talks all about you."

"All good things I hope."

"Yea, she's always complaining about how perverted these boys are and how everyone talks about you."

"What's it like in Florence?" I ask purposely changing the subject.

"Uh, it's really sunny much like here, the sky is more blue, and the cheese oddly tastes different."

"I guess I could see why you would say that." I hesitated.

"Listen, I'm sorry, I think what I said came out wrong Zona really cares about you." She reassured.

"No, I know Arizona cares about me."

"Oh, it's about what she says the boys say." She realized.

"Yea, what has she said about them."

"Um, something like "they just want her body" and "they just want to get one night with her" and she always says "I would treat her different."

"Oh." I said smiling at the kindness Arizona shows when I'm not around.

"She really likes you, like a lot."

"I really like her." I replied grinning.

Her mom went back upstairs and I went into the family room to play with their dog.

"You wanna help me make the brownies?" Arizona calls out.

"Of course." I say walking back into the kitchen.

"I hope you like chocolate."

"Who doesn't?"

"Good question." She laughs. I could never get tired of her laugh.

She takes out the box and scans it looking for ingredients.

"I need 1/4 a cup of water, 1/4 a cup of vegetable oil, and one egg."

I measured out everything and got out the egg.

"Let me crack it, I'm a pro at this."

"Oh really?" She asks raising her eyebrow.

I cracked the egg with one hand getting no shells in it.

"Told you." I smirked.

"Now mix it up."

"Yes ma'am, did you preheat the oven?"

"Yep." She answered.

I stir the ingredients together well while Arizona just watched me.

"Can I ask you something?" I ask.

"Anything baby, what is it."

"I was talking to your mom April, and she was talking about how you're always saying you don't like how the boys treat me, why is that?"

"Are you asking me why I get jealous of the way people look at you?" She asks laughing.

"It's not funny, I wanna know."

"Come here." She says dragging me down the hall.

She led me to the bathroom and she turned on the light. I expected her to start kissing me but she stood me in front of the mirror.