Leonardo felt something warm in his bed. He grasped at it in confusion.

It felt fleshy.

Soon, it giggled. "Stop that, Leo."

He froze and slowly, a smile grew on his face as he recalled the previous night's activities.

However, his smile quickly disappeared when he remembered that his mother was due to be home from her trip that morning at five. He glanced at the digital alarm clock on his black bedside table.

6:13 am.

If he knew his mother as much as he thought he did, she would be making breakfast now.

He swore. Not only would he be late for football practice that started at 6:20 but his mother would be on his ass for finding him in bed with a girl.

"Jocelyn, you need to leave," Leonardo said.

The girl in his arms frowned. "It's Paulina."

Leo sat up. "I'm sorry, Paulina but you really need to leave."

Paulina lightly touched his arm, trailing her fingernails up his bicep. Any other time, he would have indulged her and himself but at that moment, the smell of bacon wafting through his room's slightly open door was keeping his head straight.

He pulled her arm off his and made to get up before he remembered he was still naked.

"But Leo-"

"Paulina, I told you not to get attached. This is a one time thing, twice if you're up for seconds. Right now, I really need you to leave my room."

Paulina's eyes watered. Leo nearly rolled his.

He didn't have time for theatrics.

In his few moments of annoyance, he didn't register the sound of his mother's slippers on the stairs.

"Leo, don't you have-"

As opposed to what anyone might think, Leonardo's mother was not surprised. Her words didn't get stuck in her throat. Infact, her eyes communicated much more than her mouth dared to say.

Leonardo swore again and slumped on the bed. Paulina however haphazardly dressed and rushed out of the room, muttering apologies to the older woman in the doorway.

Leonardo subconsciously counted the seconds till the front door shut. As soon as he did, he sat up waiting for his tongue lashing. It didn't come as he expected. Instead, something worse happened.

"Be in the car in the next ten minutes," his mother said. "I'm driving you to school."

She shut the door behind her.

Her words barely scratched the surface of her punishment.

'Be in the car in the next ten minutes' meant she wanted his car, room and house keys on the kitchen table in five minutes, she wanted him showered and ready for football practice in eight and she wanted him in the car in ten minutes for a group call with his father, a surgeon at a fine hospital in the city. Group talks with his parents while in a car where he couldn't escape were the worst. Even worse, the punishment happened every morning for as long as his parents wished. Between his father's overly prying questions and his mother's facial expressions, they were the most dreaded punishments him and his two siblings could face.

'I'm driving you to school', on the other hand, meant he was grounded indefinitely. It also meant the camera in his room was being turned on so his privacy was effectively gone.

Take away his wheels, his keys and his freedom, what was left?

He groaned into his pillow, annoyed at the turn of events yet five minutes later, he was dressed and dropping his keys on the kitchen table where his siblings were eating breakfast.

Venessa, his immediate little sister glanced at the keys with amusement. "Told you you'd get caught."

The fourteen year old had really warned him not to go out last night but who listens to their little sibling?

Eight year old Thomas ran to him with wide eyes, his identical brown curls bouncing. "Yo, she's taking your house key? What did you do?"

"Something nearly unforgivable," Leo replied vaguely.

"Leonardo, swap your phone with the one in the cabinet," his mother said as she entered the kitchen, dressed to go to work although she had just gotten back a few hours before.

"Yes, ma'am," Leo replied, trying to be polite to assuage the angered beast.

He went to the phone cabinet in the living room and turned the key that his mother had left in the hole for him. He swapped his phone for a very familiar communication box (he was not going to call the contraption that seemed straight from the middle ages a phone) and went to the garage to wait for his mother.

He remained still until she sat in her car's driver's seat and signaled him to enter. After taking a deep breath, he opened the car door.

Before they left the garage, his father picked up, sounding as exhausted as he could. Leo could recall his father saying last week that he had a twelve hour surgery on Tuesday night. It was Wednesday morning.

"Sweetheart, how are you?"

His mother cut to the chase. "I caught your son in bed with a girl."

There was a momentary pause on the other end. "That's interesting. Do you have a girlfriend, Leo?"

"No," Leo muttered, crushing the hopeful interest that had risen in his father's voice.

"I didn't catch that," his parents said in unison.

"No, I don't have a girlfriend," Leo said louder.

"And the girl in your bed?"

"Not my girlfriend."

His father sighed. "Did she want to date you?"

There was no point lying. They would know. "Yeah."

"And you slept with her knowing it would be a one night stand?"

Leo didn't reply to that question. Their questioning was starting to irritate him. Last night was a slip up. He was coming from a party and his place was closer than hers. Next time, he'd just not do it at home.

He went for the remorseful approach. "I'm sorry."

His mother finally jumped in. "I'm sure you ain't sorry for messing around. You're sorry for being caught."

Leo didn't bother refuting her statement or glancing at her facial expression.

"Seriously, Leo?" his father said. "Nothing?"

"Great, he's gone mute. You're not getting anything back until I see fit-"

Irritation bubbled up his throat, threatening to turn into words he was sure he'd regret.

He was going to college in nine months for goodness' sake. He was no longer a child.

"-Also one more slip up and you're going to college in the state."

His head whipped towards hers.

She wouldn't...

The determination to school him pooled in his mother's eyes. "Try me."

She would...

She would take away the one place he knew no one would keep an eye on him by making him go to college from home.

By the time she pulled up to school, his courage to defy her was wavering.

Without a goodbye, he opened the door and stomped to the outdoor field for football practice that he was late for.

"Hey, where have you been? Coach has been yelling my ear off," Damian said, not really concerned about Leo's whereabouts but more about his ears. Leo rolled his eyes tiredly.

Damian's eyes narrowed. "Do that again, I dare you."

Leo was about to repeat the action, itching for a fight to let out his anger until he felt a hand touch his shoulder.

"You okay?" Valentine asked. The tallest of the three boys was the soul of the group and had a knack for knowing when any of them was upset.

At Val's question, Leo's shoulder slumped. They joined the other members of the team to jog around the field as Leo narrated everything that had happened that morning.

"She'd actually make you go in-state? That's crazy," Damian said with an incredulous look.

"Tell me about it," Leo replied.

Valentine remained silent for a while. Too long that it started to bother the other two.

"Spit it out already, Val," Leo said.

"Maybe you should adhere to her wishes until she gives you your phone back at least. I mean, she's never taken your phone and your car at the same time. She seems more serious this time," Val said lowly.

"This is where I leave this conversation," Damian said and jogged ahead.

Leo ignored Damian as he thought about what Val had said. Realizing there was no way out of his mother's decree, he groaned.

"I hate when you're right, Val," Leo said with a rueful smile.

"Sometimes, me too."

Practice went fairly smoothly and the berating he received from Coach afterwards wasn't as bad as expected.

As he left the locker room after freshening up back to the field to get his shoes he had taken off during practice, he saw Damian hunched near the ends of the west side bleachers looking at something.

"What's he doing?" Val said after catching up to Leo.

"I have no idea."

They walked to him as silently as they could. Before they asked him their questions, he gestured for them to duck behind him.

"Why are we hiding?" Leo whispered.

Damian hushed him. "Listen."

"Who?" Leo heard an unfamiliar voice ask.

"Leo."

Leo risked a peek around Damian and saw three girls. One of them was unfamiliar and spinning in circles. One was in his English class that year. The last one who was crying was in his bed that morning.

"That's Paulina," Valentine muttered and glanced at Leo.

Leo didn't need Val to tell him. He knew Paulina was crying because of him.

"Hey, calm down. It's not your fault you liked him. You'll get over it."

Leo scoffed. It wasn't his fault that the girl chose to cling to false hope.

He stood up. "I'm leaving. I'll see-"

"It's not his fault either," the unfamiliar girl said.

Leo darted to his earlier position just in time to see Paulina's eyes narrow. Val and Damian snickered.

"Excuse me?" Paulina said.

The girl continued. "You like him and I'm guessing you asked him out?"

Paulina was getting red in the face because of anger. "Yes. And?"

"Granted he's misguided and can be considered greedy or lustful for agreeing to your wish to date him, you knew his reputation before you asked him out. You're not the first girl this month that he's broken up with. This is also added to the fact that you might not hold romantic feelings towards him. There is a part of the average human to desire the unattainable and he is unattainable compared to the other males at this school. Is that correct?" The girl said in one breath.

Leo's jaw dropped.

"She managed to insult you, Paulina and more than half of the girls in our class without using a conventional insult," Val whispered in awe.

"That too in one breath," Damian added.

The girl looked at the other girls with an expression so innocent that Leo almost believed her next statement.

"Jaiyana, did I say something out of line?"

Leo could feel Val stiffen.

"Wait, ain't that your girl, Val? Janina?" Damian asked.

"It's Jaiyana and she's not my girl, Damian," Val replied.

"You've liked her since tenth grade. I don't know why you haven't asked her out," Damian said.

"Mind your own business, Damian," Val spat.

"Shut up, both of you," Leo said and the duo quieted. "Do either of you know her name?"

"Jaiyana?" Damian asked.

"No, idiot. Her friend."

His friends remained silent.

Leo sighed. "Well, I might as well just ask."

When he stood up, Val pulled his shirt. "Don't be an idiot; they'll know we were listening."

"You're only concerned about looking good in front of Jaiyana even though you'll never ask her out, you pussy."

Val turned a vicious glare in Damian. "At least I'm not at risk of catching STDs before I'm 25."

Before Damian could fire back a retort that definitely would not be as good as whatever Val would come up with, Leo was strolling out of their hiding spot. They hurried after him, Val whispering for him not to yell.

"Jaiyana," Leo yelled.

The other girl who was facing the other direction flinched and with shaky hands, reached for her headphones.

Before she could put them up, Val said. "You idiot, I told you not to shout."

She stopped and slowly turned around. Leo had stopped within two feet of her, ready to turn on his charm. Her eyes darted to Damian and Val before she took two steps back and looked up at him.

He smirked. It felt good to know that he had an effect on her, despite what she said to Paulina earlier.

Leo glanced down her and back up. She was short, more than half a foot shorter than Leo. Her baggy knee-length shorts and oversized yet oddly fashionable hoodie swallowed her so he couldn't see much of her body stature. He glanced at her face, devoid of makeup. She was pretty. Not exactly the kind of pretty Leo would go for but pretty nevertheless.

"What's your name?" Leo asked.

Her eyes began to flit around before settling at a spot above his head.

"Davina," she replied. "I've been meaning to talk to you but you always seem to be in a crowd."

Davina. Nice name.

"What are you doing?" Jaiyana hissed in Davina's ear.

Davina turned to her with a blank expression. "I want to make your life easier."

Davina took advantage of Jaiyana's silence and spoke. "Leonardo, I would like for you to stop breaking up with so many girls. Jaiyana's the school's resident love shrink and I hate disrupting my morning schedule because I am listening to different girls cry about the same guy."

Jaiyana facepalmed. Val snorted. Leonardo blinked, once, twice, then burst into laughter.

After all the girls he had met, Davina seemed like a breath of fresh air.

Davina blinked in confusion, looking at Jaiyana. "Did I say something funny?"

Jaiyana just shook her head slowly in response.

"I like you. How don't I know you?" Leonardo said, his interest piqued.

"Do you interact with anyone except your football friends and your harem of women?"

Leonardo flinched and swore. Val outright laughed.

Her words wouldn't hurt as much if she said it with a little bitterness or a spiteful expression. Her facial expression was blank.

"Language," Davina said.

Leonardo said. "Your words hurt me, Davina."

"I'm sorry, Leonardo," she hastily replied.

"I was joking."

No, I wasn't.

"Oh."

"Aha! I remember," Damian exclaimed.

All eyes turned to him.

"I remember where I know you from," he continued. "There were rumors. People call you this weird name....um...A-something."

"Aspie," Jaiyana said with a glare. "If you call her that, I'll feed you to my uncle's piranhas."

Damian wisely took a few steps back. Jaiyana looked terrifying, like his mother looked when she confronted the mother of a boy that had been bullying Venessa in second grade.

Leonardo looked at Davina with a questioning glance. "Aspie?"

"It's a nickname for my Asperger's," Davina replied.

Leonardo was starting to feel increasingly stupid, the longer he stood in her presence. "Asperger's?"

Davina maintained eye contact with him for a second. "I'm autistic."