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Chapter 15 – Double Date

Leon’s eyes flickered through his thick glasses with a look that trailed between curiosity and disbelief, while the rest of his face remained expressionless.

“Yeah… about that…” I stammered. “It was Becky’s idea and she wouldn’t let me say no.”

Matt crossed his arms with a taunting grin flashing mostly to me. “Nerdy! Come on! Becky’s going to be furious if we’re late.”

Leon’s eyes narrowed as his hands caught my waist and with such ease, pulled me to his side. His hand was unyielding against me, though at the same time cautious. My heart raced frantically. If for exhilaration or for fear, I did not know.

“Becky did tell me that you should come along… If that’s what you want, of course.” I continued wryly as I watched the arrogant smile being washed from Matt’s face; his eyes fixing on Leon, then to me.

Leon tilted his head and let out a humorless laugh. “What’s not to like?”

Matt positioned himself in front of me as his dark eyes fixed somewhere else. “So… are we going?”

I nodded and made a hasty introduction. “Leonard—Matt, Matt—Leonard.”

“Her boyfriend.” Leon retorted, offering a hand which Matt just stared on for two seconds then shook so very reluctantly.

“Ah… The four-eyed new kid,” said he with a pretentious little smile before turning to me. “Is he coming with us?”

I threw a glare at him before turning to Leon for an answer.

“Sure,” said he, his face still vacant.

“Okay… I don’t suppose you need a ride then.” Matt wheeled back to his car without much enthusiasm.

“No need,” Leon called at him then, opened the door of the blue Audi then faced me with a sneer, waving his hand and stooping a little as he did. “After you.”

Matt’s car sped ahead of us while Leon revved the Audi’s engine with a smooth hum.

“Are you even allowed to drive this thing?”  I fumbled with the seat belt nervously.

“Yep. It’s mine.” A grin finally spread across his face which sped the thumping in my chest to a full throttle. “Got it delivered this morning. I didn’t like the idea of you having to ride with him.” He cocked his head to where Matt’s car disappeared.

I grunted and gripped on the seat as the speed gauge pointed to sixty and rising.

In no time, I was gasping as the car raced on the empty road. “I rode with him like, one time… One time and overnight you got yourself a car? Don’t you think this is going way overboard?”

“What? It’s an outdated model. Besides, I can’t drive Dad’s R8. It’d be too… flashy.” He was suppressing a smirk as his hand removed mine from being clutched so tightly on the side of my seat and weaved it through his fingers.

“Please keep your eyes on the road.” I said nervously. “And this isn’t flashy? Leon, it’s a race car!”

“I know, right? Good thing it comes in blue.” He chuckled softly, calming my brewing panic, making it easier to breathe. “Sarah, will you calm down for a second?” He squeezed my hand. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I swear. Now if you don’t like the car… or me driving, I’ll have it shipped back tonight.”

My eyes widened in incredulity. “Are you for real? How could you say that so easily?” I mumbled mostly to myself.

“What?”

“Things like… I’ll have the leaning tower of Pisa moved at your doorstep by tomorrow,” I mimicked his tone, lowering my voice as I did without much success.

He replied with a melodious chuckle that never failed to take the wind out of me.

“It’s not funny.” I groaned feeling the rush of blood on my cheeks.

It took him a while before he was able to compose himself. Still, the corners of his lips twitched uncontrollably as he spoke. “That, I cannot do.” He laughed quietly. “The Italian government would probably sue me.”

We were both laughing before he even finished what he was saying. His laugh became one of the dearest things in the world to me, second only to his smile.

“Does it offend you though?” He asked when the fit ceased.

“No… overwhelmed, perhaps,” I replied still gazing contently at him. “What’s it like… you know, being famous and rich?”

His brows furrowed as if to ponder on my casual inquiry. “It has its advantages. I get to buy things that I want… which do not necessarily keep me contented. Sometimes, it seems unreal… like I don’t really exist; as if I’m not me anymore.” His eyes trailed off somewhere far, far away. There was misery in his usually playful voice which curdled in the pit of my stomach.

I couldn’t feel apprehension anymore and the blur of the street became but a background to his wistfulness. “Like the video…” I mumbled.

“You’ve seen it?” His eyes were still fixed on the road or something else that was not visible to me.

I nodded ruefully though I would have preferred to put up a wide grin and rave about how cool the video was. Sadly, I couldn’t bring myself to feed him anything close to a lie as if it was a mortal sin that I would never forgive myself of.

“You didn’t like it.” It wasn’t a question.

“Hmm… I wouldn’t say that. It’s just that… when I watched it, it was kind of… empty. The song was brilliant but I couldn’t quite feel it. It’s like… like—“

“It wasn’t me…” He finished the sentence for me, bitterness evident on his flawless face.

“Wait. How do you do that?” I muttered somewhat annoyed that everything that I was about to say seemed to be written on my face. Was I that much of a simpleton to figure out?

His forehead creased as he seemed to deliberate silently for several seconds then hesitated when he gazed back at me with eyes that screamed of yearning. “I wish… I could tell you.”

I couldn’t understand back then the gravity of his words but seeing him like this suffocated me in a way unimaginable, so I put up a smile and blurted out my thoughts. “So, you’re a mind-reader now? What could be next?”

His musical laughter reverberated in my ears but I could see that it never touched his eyes when he placed my hand on his lips. “You’ll be surprised Sarah. You’ll be surprised.” There was a relief on Leon’s face when the car came to a halt, stirring the silence which prevailed for a couple of minutes. All the while, he never let go of my hand.

There was something he wasn’t telling me; something that I was bound to find out.

Becky was so excited when we arrived downtown; she forgot all about Matt for a while and anchored her arms around mine before I could escape. While we walked to the shopping district, I was forced to recount how it happened between me and Leon, leaving out Leon’s secret and the kiss of course. But still, I couldn’t help but blush while I did, as Becky nodded with her eager eyes widening and narrowing about the details. We kept our voices low, just in case the two boys trailing behind us were snooping.

“That’s it?” Becky’s raised an eyebrow. “He didn’t tell you that he loves you?”

“No.” It was Matt who told me that. I shook my head and perished the thought. “Is that bad?”

Becky shrugged. “Maybe… maybe not. Matt hasn’t said it either.”

We sighed in unison. The boys stayed silent as they walked far apart with a tension that radiated to me.

“So where do you want to go first?” I asked Becky as I fell back to walk beside Leon, who, almost automatically took my hand and enclosed it in his own.

Becky copied him and did the same to Matt who remained oblivious. “Hmm… where to?” She asked him.

“Anywhere’s okay,” he shrugged impassively.

“How about the bookstore?” said Leon which gave him five hundred charm points to my score board.

And Leon makes a home run! The announcer cried in my head. I suppressed the urge to snigger.

The whole time, Matt’s unmasked indifference towards book shopping irritated me. He kept sighing and yawning as he nodded at whatever Becky was telling him about. And at times, I caught him glaring at Leon whenever the latter turned his back.

Ugh. The nerve of him! He could’ve at least pretended to be thrilled about it, if just to make Becky happy. I’d love to chastise his actions with a passion as the soonest possible time we get to be alone but just the mere thought of his presence sicken me.

The three of us ended in an argument on the better novel between Harry Potter and Twilight; me and Leon teaming up for the former and Becky sticking up for the vampire series.

“Matt! I need backup here!” She glanced almost irately at her boyfriend who seemed unmindful of the matter as he sniggered at the comic book on his hand.

“Yeah—what?” was all he could manage as Becky retaliated once more for her favorite series which ended only, when Leon decided to buy The Alchemist perhaps to please Becky, who swore with her life that he’d never regret it. Nice move.

On the way to the restaurant, we passed on a music store with a big poster of Leon. Becky stopped to look at it and rambled on and on about how she’d be the happiest girl on earth if she had a ticket to his concert at the Staples Center.

Leon just smiled and said. “Maybe, if you’re lucky.”

I gave him a nudge on the ribs which he dodged, ever so enchantingly with a sneer. Then, before I knew it, his arm welded on my shoulder, pulling me closer to him as he bent a little to whisper on my ear. “What would Becky think if a couple of tickets just appeared out of thin air on her doorstep?” he asked pressing his lips together to suppress a chuckle.

Quite unaccustomed to his presence, my chest thumped loudly as his breath touched my neck, giving me a jolt. “Hmm... She’d probably be running around screaming…”

“Why? It’s not the like I had the leaning tower of Pisa at her doorstep.” His quiet laugh somehow managed to make me lightheaded and I was glad that I could prop myself on him to keep my wobbly knees straight.

“Very funny,” I mumbled between my ragged breaths.

“It’s very nice of you to do that. Becky’s going to be insanely thrilled.” I whispered to him when I finally composed myself, upon entering Becky’s favorite restaurant, only to be mesmerized by him again as the incandescent light radiated to his almost perfect face; the flaw owing to the glasses he wore to conceal his true identity.

Sometimes, it awed me so much what a pair of stupid glasses can do. In my case, the aversion to it was greatly brought upon by years and years of discrimination which cost me the loss of a few good friends and too many chances for happiness. For Leon and probably, Clark Kent, I guess it would be the opposite. My train of thought was interrupted when the waitress came to have our orders, dawdling as she enumerated the best sellers mostly to Matt who remained uninterested.

The tables were half full with a few families, a couple sitting in the coffee lounge and a few other assortments of people who came in to make light of the week’s slog over a lovely casual dinner.

With my permission, Leon ordered for me. Then, when he was done, Leon dragged his seat closer to mine very indiscreetly that I had to press my lips together to hold back a gasp, not without getting furtive glances from Becky and Matt from the other side of our small square table situated with an overview of the grayish-purple sky that contrasted against the sparkling city lights.

“You know I’d do anything to keep you happy.” He whispered back in relation to my previous compliment, his soft voice drowned by the soft music, the occasional chatter and the clinking of silverware.

“So, care to tell me what happened in L.A.?” I whispered as he bent down a little after a taste of the shrimp marinara. The food smelled enticing but I was too ill at ease and preoccupied to eat.

He stiffened and wiped the sides of his mouth quite ceremoniously before whispering back to my ear. “I would but this isn’t the time and place to do that.”

I nodded unwillingly and sipped on my lemonade. There were so many questions in my head, I was afraid that I’d soon forget about them as I was increasingly becoming scatterbrained with every second spent with him. Arthur said Leon would be gone for three days but he’d been gone for a week. And who was that girl who answered his phone? All these thoughts and more left an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach so I distracted myself between forking the pasta and staring blankly at the brightly lit street that stretched our view.

I blinked rapidly to clear my vision at what I saw. My heart started thumping violently inside my chest, as if to choke me. Before I knew it I couldn’t breathe anymore. I averted my eyes from the tall, balding man who stood across the street, as I shifted nervously on my chair with the sudden desire to get away. His dark eyes pierced me with great intent and precision that I cannot help but think that he was there for me and not anyone else.

Leon’s hand tightened on my shoulder. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” he mumbled.

I breathed deeply in a desperate attempt to hide the panic that seemed to consume me. “It’s h-him,” I stuttered as my misty eyes shifted to Leon’s face then back to where the lanky, soot-haired man stood, only to find it empty. “N-never mind. I thought I… saw someone.” It must be my imagination. How I wish.

“Are you sure? Sarah, you look pale.” He breathed and tightened his hold of me as a form of reassurance.

“I’m always pale.” I muttered in a struggle to prevent my lips from quivering as the fear that I thought was long gone flooded me again.

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So that's it for now... and I hope to update soon enough! I've had lots of ideas for the next chapters and I'm really looking forward to it. I hope you continue waiting for the updates!

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shim *_*