Watch the Stars with Me

Chapter 13

When Leon got up the next morning he felt a mixture of emotions. He was excited to spend time with Violet, he would always be excited to spend time with her. As he buttoned his shirt he found himself feeling a bit melancholy as he also realized that at the end of this day she would be leaving, and they still hadn't made any plans for when they would. As he brushed through his hair, that was still much too short for his liking, he decided that before she left he would tell her how he felt. He found himself mumbling to the mirror. "Violet, I love you. I realized it the moment you saw the comet's tail grow—" He shook his head and decided he would try to not over think the moment before it happened.

When they got to the hospital they sat in comfortable waiting room. Leon looked around, just two other patients waiting to be seen. "This doctor is one of the best in the country. Fern's family has known him for a really long time. He specializes in broken bones, he even helped develop the new prosthetics, like the ones you have." He was nervous and excited, if he had use of both thumbs he would be twiddling his thumbs. The cast was finally coming off, and he was spending an entire day with her, not working.

Violet looked at him very seriously. "Did you need to get prosthetics?"

"No. I'm very lucky to not, in fact, I'm pretty sure if this guy hadn't been my doctor I probably would have for my leg." He took a deep breath and kept telling himself to calm down.

A door that leads to several private rooms and offices opens and a nurse leans against the open door with a chart in her hands. "Leon. Are you ready to get that hand back or what?" She asks in a friendly tone. Violet was finding it surprising and somewhat refreshing that it seemed like Leon makes friends everywhere he goes now... so unlike the boy she met at the observatory that could hardly make friends with people he had known for years.

When Violet stood with him he laughed a little before turning towards her. "Would you mind waiting out here? I've been told it can be a little— gross— when they open it up. What with all the sweat and dead skin..."

Violet lifted an eyebrow. "I'm positive that I have seen and smelled worse."

He nervously laughs again. "I know... It's more about my embarrassment than your senses."

She nods in understanding before sitting back down and watching as he follows the nurse.

As soon as the door closes the nurse turns to him. "How long have the two of you been together?"

He let out a nervous "ha" before taking a deep breath. "Hopefully starting today."

Back out in the waiting room Violet listens to the ticking of the clock hung just about the receptionist desk that Leon checked in at. She listens and listens until her mind drifts to memories of that almost kiss the night before and she wondered why he hadn't tried again. Why didn't he lean back in when Fern and Calla walked away? Or in the car ride back? Or at the house? She wondered if maybe it had just been in her head that he wanted to kiss her, maybe it had been more her leaning in than she initially thought. All morning he has been acting strange, and more nervous than before and she wondered if that meant he didn't feel for her the same way she thought she might.

As Violet sat there in the waiting area drowning in these worries about Leon's feelings towards her the door that he had gone through opened and it pulled her attention away from her thoughts. She thought that a lot more time had passed, so her expectation was to see Leon there with his right hand finally free again. When she saw Gilbert Bougainvillea standing there looking just as shocked as herself, she wondered if her brain snapped. She immediately stood, and the urge to salute quickly faded as she realized that he was not a hallucination like the ones she had had before, but that he was definitely real as the nurse asked if he would like to make a follow up appointment and she heard his voice for the first time in over three years. "No thank you." He said to the nurse with his emerald green eye still glued to Violet.