CHAPTER EIGHT:

When Aurelio finished therapy and made it to the skatepark, only the girls were there. Leslie stood on a skateboard, holding Blair's hands, barely maintaining balance. They talked for a moment, and after hesitance, Leslie bent her knees a little than jumped and flipped the skateboard and...she landed. Normally. On her feet, on the board. Leslie's mouth hung open, eyebrows raised, disbelieving. Blair clapped.

"Slightly impressive," Aurelio said.

The girls looked at him and smiled. Cheeks flushed with thrill, Leslie stepped off the skateboard.

"Elio!" Blair said, walking over. "Hi." She stood on her tiptoes and curled her arms around Aurelio's neck and pecked his cheek. Aurelio felt his face heat up—maybe because there were a few strangers around the place, or maybe because he knew Leslie was watching them. Still, he mumbled hey and went along.

Blair poked his chest. "Matt hasn't shown up yet."

"No surprise."

As they waited for Matt, Blair went back to skateboarding. Aurelio turned around. Leslie's gaze was already on him, and they maintained eye-contact for a sec. Then her phone buzzed and she got distracted with it.

Matt arrived right then, wearing sweatpants and a hoodie even in the heat. He jogged over with his unkempt morning hair flopping. "Hey," he said and fist-bumped Aurelio. Then he spotted Blair. He raised a brow. "Still up for the challenge?"

"Who said this was a challenge?" Blair said. "It's just for fun." She grabbed a helmet off the bench beside her. "Helmet."

Matt snorted. "Helmet's for losers."

"Yeah," Blair said. "So wear it."

Matt made a face. "Oldest comeback in the book. At least try to be original."

"Um, guys?" Leslie said, looking squirmy. "My boyfriend just texted me. He's gonna come too. Is that okay?"

Blair nodded. "Of course."

"No," Matt said. Inwardly, Aurelio had the same reaction. "It's not okay. Sadly, we can't kick him out of a public place."

A good chunk of Matt's distaste towards Leslie's boyfriend was related to him bringing up the accident in front of Aurelio and nearly making him panic. And the other part...well, it might have something to do with the fact that the guy was more attractive than a perfect version of Aurelio and Matt could ever be.

In other words: they felt like incomparable dog shit around him.

Blair urged Matt over. They stepped onto their skateboards and skated around the place, doing these godly tricks and flips and stuff.

Aurelio turned to Leslie; she'd settled down on a bench, holding her phone, following Matt and Blair with the lens. She always did that, documenting little things. Aurelio stepped in front of her and blocked the view with an innocent smile.

"Elio." Leslie looked up at him, frowning. "Move," she said while trying to tug him aside. When Aurelio finally budged and sat down next to her, Leslie raised a brow. "You happy now that you ruined the video?"

"Ruined it? I made it better."

"Please." Leslie punched his arm. "That's something Matt would say."

Aurelio shrugged. "He's influential."

"Look here."

Leslie balanced her phone on her knee, camera front-facing. Aurelio sighed quietly. Pictures weren't his thing but he knew Leslie had an obsession with memories, so he leant towards her, fitting his face into the frame.

"Hold on." Leslie twisted so she was facing Aurelio, staring at his neck with furrowed brows. "Dude. You really didn't notice this hickey?"

"Huh?" Aurelio felt around his neck, and when he hit the sore spot, right where he'd press the violin, it clicked. "Oh..."

"Your violin?"

"Yeah."

"Good," Leslie said. "Lemme hide it for the pic." She hooked an arm around his neck in a way that covered the violin hickey. The side of her head touched the side of Aurelio's, and now she was a little too close, her hair a little too sweet-scented, her shoulder a little too crammed into him. A pink tinge expanded along Aurelio's cheeks. He saw it in the screen and it made him blush even more. Leslie looked at him. "You okay?"

"My personal space is crying."

"Blair's your girlfriend," Leslie said. "Your personal space should be dead."

"Yeah. She's...she's very affectionate." Aurelio's eyes fell upon Matt for a moment, and he thought that a deprived boy like him would probably appreciate Blair's nature a litte more than him. "Just forget about the pic."

"Already took it. Look, I love it."

Aurelio leant closer and glanced at her phone. He loved it too, maybe for how spontaneous it was, maybe for how Leslie was looking at him in it with that soft, adoring smile. "I like it," he said.

When Aurelio shifted a bit, he realized that Leslie hadn't removed her arm yet. Just an observation. Not that he wanted her to keep it. Not that he liked being so close to her. Nope. That wouldn't make sense.

"You two gonna kiss now or what?"

Aurelio flinched, slipping out of Leslie's hold fast like a reflex. Like someone caught him redhanded. He looked up at Leslie's boyfriend; he stood in front of them, wearing an unbothered smile, his height even more intimidating from this angle. Aurelio prepared to tell him that he didn't deserve Leslie if he didn't trust her, but the boy just slapped Aurelio on the back.

"Relax, bro," Leslie's boyfriend said. "Just kidding."

Leslie rose to her feet and greeted him, unaffected by his comment. Then a thump sounded from behind. Aurelio spun around, looking for Matt and Blair, only to find Matt sprawled on the ground with his head dangerously close to the edge of a ramp. Blair stood beside him, dangling her hand.

Aurelio hurried over. "Oh, shit." When Matt refused to take Blair's hand, Aurelio offered his. He helped Matt up. "Wear the helmet next time, dude," he said. "You could've hurt yourself."

Matt almost rolled his eyes. "Okay, Mom."

"I refuse to take Leslie's title," Aurelio said, only for Leslie to swat him on the back of his head. "What happened anyway?"

"Some guy tried to assassinate me."

Blair laughed. "You're so dramatic," she told Matt, then turned to Aurelio. "Nothing. A boy snaked him so he lost balance and fell. He apologized, it's all good."

"It's not nothing," Matt said, scowling. "It's annoying as hell."

Blair looked at Matt with a little smile, perhaps amused by his perpetual anger. "I'm a skateboarder too," she said. "I know how annoying it is when someone snakes you. But he didn't mean it and he apologized already, what's the point of staying salty like this?" When Matt just kept frowning, Blair pinched his cheek. "Come on, show us your smile." She glanced over her shoulder for a second. "Does anyone else forget that Matt has dimples with how much he frowns?"

Truthfully, yes. A lot of people didn't even know Matt had dimples.

But more importantly: Blair just pinched Matt's cheek. Mockingly or affectionately—whatever her intention had been, the action was a mistake. Aurelio watched Matt, expecting him to jerk away from Blair now, to lash out.

But he didn't even move, didn't get angrier the way he always did when people didn't take him seriously. He stared at her. She stared back. Their faces were close, their breaths mingling.

Matt never tolerated people he wasn't so close with touching him. Matt definitely would never let anyone talk to him with that cooing voice.

And yet it was all happening.

Chuckling, Leslie's boyfriend nudged Aurelio's shoulder. "Now it's your turn to ask them if they're gonna kiss."

Aurelio forced a laugh, pretending he appreciated the joke.

• • •

a/n: i know everything's boring rn but trust me the details are vv important and you'll see why soon 🥺 tysm for reading/voting/commenting <3

Btw snaking is basically when a skateboarder goes for an obstacle someone else is already using! just in case someone was confused :)