She Was Ugly

Chapter 17: The Question

Leo ran into the living room and I chased after him.

He kept running in circles around the couch, trying to avoid me. After a couple seconds, a grabbed a pillow and chucked it at his head. My aim was off too and it narrowly missed his head by an inch.

"Ha ha!" he shouted at me. His lips were turned up into a goofy grin and it made my heart beat a little faster. I couldn't contain my own smile as he continued to run away from me.

I picked up the pillow I threw and attempted to throw it again, but I missed and it hit a lamp next to Leo.

The lamp fell to the floor and glass shattered everywhere. My dad decides to come downstairs right at this moment and sees the mess on the floor.

"What happened? I was only gone for like 10 minutes," my dad stated confusedly.

I went into detail about what happened and after I promised not to burn anymore food or break anything else he said he wouldn't take my phone away.

I let out a sigh of relief as I bent down and started to pick up the shards of glass from the floor. "Be careful AJ, you don't want to get cut and need stitches like me," Leo said as he bent down to help. The corner of his lips were turning up a little, indicating that he was half teasing half serious.

"I know. And that was an accident how many times do I have to apologize for it. I'm sorry for- OW!" I shouted.

As I was apologizing to him, I had managed to cut myself on the glass. "I told you to be careful," Leo mumbled. He took my hand in his and led me to the bathroom. "You still remember where we keep the first aid kit?" I asked him, surprised that he remembered. "Yeah, why wouldn't I. I've been to your house a million times before and nothing much has changed in the past 6 years."

Leo took out a cotton swab and poured some rubbing alcohol onto it, rubbing it into my cut. "Ah." The alcohol stung a little, and I was trying hard not to make any faces. Once he was done cleaning the wound, he put a band-aid on it. "All done. Just watch it and make sure it doesn't get infected or anything."

I watched as he put away the first aid kit back under the sink.

"Thanks for taking care of the cut. I'll go finish picking up the glass," I said as I walked out of the bathroom.

His hand latched onto my arm and pulled me back. "Wait, I'll clean it up for you. You just go back to the kitchen and worry about what we are going to have for dinner."

I nodded my head. Why was he being so nice all of a sudden? It was kind of weird. He hasn't been this nice to me in a long time. I know he's been nice to me since he came back from France, but this is almost too nice. I've gotten used to him calling me names and teasing me, but not in a bad way.

I wonder if he's sick. That would explain why he is acting so differently. Oh well, no point in dwelling on it. I walked back into the kitchen and saw my dad on his phone. "What are you doing?" I asked, peering over to look at his screen.

"I'm looking up take-out places. Are you guys more in the mood for pizza from Pizza Palace or noodles from ImPasta?" he asked me. I am in the mood for spicy Korean beef noodles so I told him to order from ImPasta. They have all different kinds of noodles from all over the world. The spicy Korean beef noodles are my favorite, though.

He agreed with me and then walked into the living room to take Leo's order. He already knows mine and Via's by heart, since we have ordered from them before.

---

After dinner was over, Leo and I walked up to my room to work on the project.

"So I was thinking that would should decide on what body system we want to do and then decide what type of project we want to do. Does that sound good?" I asked. Leo laid down on my bed after nodding his head. "Whatever you want," he replied.