Keep Me

Chapter Four

Present day

I left the diner, quite eager to get home. Lisa spent most of the night trying to nudge me into confessing something to her, but I wouldn't budge. Sighing, I walked across the parking lot to my car and sighed. The night's cold air penetrated me through my coat and my teeth chattered involuntarily. At first, I walked with a stroll but suddenly a growing sense of dread creeped up my back and I began to jog to my car rather than walk.

I couldn't seem to slide into my car fast enough, and I didn't even bother to look around the parking lot to make sure I was alone. Itching to just get back to the safety of my home, I sighed and reached around in my pockets, looking for my keys. It took me a minute to get them, but I hurriedly shoved them into the ignition and let my old car roar to life. 

As I pulled out of my parking space, it began to rain. For some odd reason, I smiled. It had rained the same day I met Leon, hadn't it? As I thought hard and tried to remember, I just ended up getting  sucked back into the memory period.

August 23rd

12 Years ago

" Here, you can wear these shorts," I told him, pulling the flowered clothing from my dresser and laying it out on my bed where he could see. " Sorry it's so girly, I don't think I own anything a boy would like." He only stared at me, blinking ever so often. I stared back at him, watching his face and once again reminding myself to ignore his nudity. " Aren't you cold," I asked, when I noticed that he didn't move towards the clothes I'd laid out for him.

Simply, he shrugged, staring at me with blank, wide eyes. " I don't know," he muttered, " I don't think so." I nodded and then moved towards him, of course he took a step back.

" Don't you want a bath?" He stared at me a little longer before he shook his head. " Well you can't just put clothes on while you're dirty." When he didn't respond to me, I sighed. " You want a shirt?"

" Yes, please." Nodding, I turned again and began digging in my drawers.

" How about some socks?" I heard him begin to answer me when a large crack of lighting was heard and then it began to pour rain outside. " Oh my," I said, " it sure is raining hard out there."

" Doesn't it always rain this hard this time of year?"

" In the summer? No, not really. Sometimes it rains this hard in the fall."

" It's summer?" I couldn't help but pick up on how shocked he sounded.

" Well duh, silly! It's too hot to be anything else!" I laughed, hoping he'd laugh with me but when he didn't I quieted and went back to getting him a shirt. When I found a plain white one, I tossed it next to the shorts and sat on the floor. I covered my eyes while he got dressed, despite that I'd already seen his nakedness, so that I felt more polite. When he was finished, he sat on the floor in front of me and ran his hands over the rug on my floor.

" Are you going to stay," I asked.

" Huh?"

" Are you going to stay, it'll be a shame if you leave in the rain, you'll get all wet out there! And besides, it's getting pretty dark."

" Well, I need to get back to Roland and my-", he stopped in the middle of his sentence.

" Your what," I asked, leaning forward. He dropped his head, his semi-dry hair veiling his face.

" I-I....I can't tell you." I stared at him, wondering if I should pester him into telling me what was wrong. Deciding against it, I shrugged and chose to ly on my back instead.

" Okay, it's alright to have secrets," I hummed, though I wasn't sure if I really believed that. My mother had kept secrets from my father, and it was tearing our family apart. Silence stretched on between us, and I could feel his eyes on me for the longest time. For a while, I didn't say anything because I couldn't figure out what to say. Eventually, words found their way into my brain.

" Your eyes are a weird color, did you know that?"

" Huh?"

" Well-it's just that, I've never seen someone with eyes as dark as yours, let alone with purple flecks in them."

" Oh," was all he said and then it was right back to the silence. I thought about what I wanted to say for a while, and I could feel time stretch on for a while as we sat and stared at eachother. 

" Do you want to spend the night," I finally asked, looking away from him to hide the coloring of my cheeks.

" Huh," he asked for the third time.

" You know, sleep here for the night," I stated, sounding a little miffed.

" Um, well I-," just then, something hit my window, the thud of it startling us both. When I looked, there was nothing but Leon sprang up like he saw something I didn't. " I have to go," he said hurriedly, stripping himself of the clothes I provided him. Before I could stand to protest, he'd ran to the window, pushed it up, and crawled out. I ran to my window as fast as I could but when I looked outside, there was no trace of him anywhere.

That was the first and not the last time that Leon Coldmen had disappeared from my life.