Love Takes Trust

12

(warning: slight talk of suicide)

Santiago

"Are you okay?" I ask in Spanish while standing outside Leona's door. The door was closed and definitely didn't want to invade her personal space. "You can come in," her soft voice barely heard through the door. I was talking to Alex and Nyma...well I wasn't apart of the conversation I was pretty much just a translator so I decided to check up on Leona.

She sat in her bed with a blanket wrapped around her. 

"What's wrong?"

"I'm cold." 

I walk over to grab a blanket for her, "Gracias," she wraps her self up in the second blanket. I sit down next to her, neither of us say anything. 

"Are you hungry?" She shakes her head.

"You sure?" She nods.

"You can go back to school, you know. You don't have to stay here and worry about me. Won't you get in trouble?"

"I'm staying here because I care about you. I don't care about getting in trouble." She doesn't say anything. It's obvious she's trying to hold back tears. Seeing her so broken hurts me. I wish I could go back in time and meet her a little bit earlier and stop every bad thing that has happened to her from happening. I want to see her happy and fearless. I wanna make her happy.

"Why are you nice to me," Her voice cracks mid-sentence, "What do you gain from this?" 

Her question caught me off guard. Why would she think I gained anything by being nice to her? 

"Do you think I'm weak? Or crazy?"

I take a deep breath, trying to hold back tears I've holding back for a long time, "Leon, do you know how old I am?" She shakes her head no. "Do you look at articles written about me?" She shakes her head again. 

"Some people question a lot of things about me, make up things about me, judge my background. I use to think that my parents gained something from adopting me." I stop to take another deep breath, "I'm turning eighteen soon and if we're being honest I'm terrified. No one knows about this but Hunter and my parents. Not even Rose, Alex, or Romeo knows this but, when I was twelve I tried things. Things that if it actual happened then I wouldn't be sitting here talking to right now." 

I looked up to see Leona looking at me with sad eyes. She looked as if she wanted cry then she spoke, "You don't have to continue." She must've noticed I was holding back on my own tears.

"I was so broken," I continue only because I felt like she needed to know this, "My parents died when I was young and then my grandparents were killed which is why I was sent to an orphanage. So when I tried that  William, my dad, had a talk with me. Not the kind of talk as if I was in trouble but he reassured me that even though I was going through a very hard time I was gonna get through it. That when I turn eighteen not only will my birth parents, grandparents, my new family be proud of me but I should be proud of myself too. And I am. I got through it and yeah I do miss my family a lot but things happen and you can't control it sometimes. So you gotta accept it as hard as it might be."

By the end of my story my voice was shaky and a few tears slide down my cheeks. "Santi? Can I hug you?" I nod, I'm not looking at her so I'm not sure if she saw me. I guess she did when I felt her arms wrap around me. I was hesitant to hug her back, until I gave in and hugged her. She didn't move or jump when I did. Instead, she squeezed me harder. 

"I know how you feel," she says in a shaky voice, "I lost my brothers in a car accident. One minute I was driving and we were laughing, and the next...I don't know what happened."

"It's not your fault, Leon."

The two of us sat in each other embrace while sobbing.  

"Thank you for being my friend, Santiago."

"Thank you for being mine, Leona."

***

Hunter

As I close my locker I feel someone's arms wrap around me from behind. I turn around quickly, nearly punching Romeo in the face. "Maybe I should've gave you a warning," Romeo chuckles despite the fact that I nearly punched him. "You scared me," I take a deep breath trying to calm my racing heartbeat. "Sorry I should've asked before randomly doing that," Romeo looks away as he starts to awkwardly mess with his earring. A nervous habit I noticed he does often.

Cute. 

"It's okay to hug me."

"I didn't wanna make you uncomfortable."

"You have permission to hug me whenever."

I feel my cheeks turning red from my own words. Ugh maybe I shouldn't have said that. "You have permission as well?" Romeo says awkwardly then speaks again, "So um you've seen Rose and Alex?"

My cheeks turn even redder thinking about what Rose asked me earlier today, "Are you and Romeo dating?" The thought of us dating didn't seem too bad. Sometimes when I looked at him I secretly wished it was true. Sometimes I wish I could kiss him, hug him whenever, without a care in the world. But I have a job that wouldn't be too happy about that, well they wouldn't mind but there's people who do nothing but waste their time writing stupid articles all day about bullshit. If I could I would scream about how much I liked this man.

"Hunter?"

"Huh? Oh! Rose is somewhere around school and Alex took Leona home with Santiago."

"Is Leona okay!?" I nod, "I think she had a anxiety attack, I'm sure she's fine now." Romeo sighs in relief. "Roma," I take a deep breath, "I gotta get to class but I have a photo shoot after school. Wanna come watch?"

"Sure, text me before you leave school." He says, smiling. God he's so beautiful.

"I will," before I walked away somehow I mustered up the courage to hug him. Surprisingly, it wasn't awkward at all and then we both went on our separate ways.

"Ugh, I can already hear Rose saying, "I told you so." In my head," I say to myself.