She continues to look straight ahead but then her face crumples and she face plants into my chest. I freeze for a second but then I bring my hands up and stroke her hair, planting my lips on the top of her head and murmuring, "Shhh, it's ok, talk to me, Willow." I wait, but only get silence and the occasional sniffle.
"She showed up at my place stoned out of her mind," Leo says, his jaw clenching. I had to sneak her away from there. My foster parents would have called the cops if they'd seen her. They're not exactly the easygoing types.
"Do you know what happened?"
"Yeah, she was mumbling about a court date, her dad showed up and leered at her the entire time, apparently he's expressing some interest in getting her back even though he hasn't given a shit about her for the last three years. That was all I really got out of her about that. Then some so-called friends snuck her out of her house and got her stoned and drunk and dropped her off to walk home. She showed up at my place. Nice fucking friends."
"Leo!" I hiss, "Don't swear!" I cover Willow's ears.
He looks at me for several long second and then his face breaks out into a grin.
I look at him, shocked. "What are you grinning about?" I demand.
"You. You're so damned cute."
I snort. "Honestly, Leo? What is wrong with you? This is SERIOUS!"
He sobers his face, and says, "I know, Evie, believe me, if I knew who her friends are, I'd go teach them a lesson about giving drugs to twelve year olds and letting them walk home alone."
I continue stroking Willow's hair until I notice that she is snoring softly. I lay her back against the couch and grab the blanket on the end and cover her up with it. I watch her for a minute, chewing the inside of my mouth.
"Jodi's shows will be over in an hour. I'll need to get her out of here by then," I tell Leo.
He nods. "I think that will be long enough for her to sleep some of it off. Come on over here and sit by me so we don't wake her."
I move over to the loveseat and sit down next to Leo, scooting as far as I can to the edge.
Leo gets a small frown on his face, but he doesn't say anything. He's been acting differently towards me lately, both in school and whenever we get together, which is usually at least once a week. It's confusing. He goes silent a lot and gets this strange look on his face. I can't tell if he's mad at me or what. He rarely tells me he loves me anymore like he used to. But then he makes comments about how cute I am… boys are strange.
After a minute of silence, I bring my legs up to sit in the criss cross position and turn my body towards Leo. When I look at him, he is staring at my chest but he quickly snaps his eyes to mine when he realizes I'm watching him and his cheeks get flushed.
Oh God! He's embarrassed for me because he realizes that I totally need a bra. I'm not overly large but I'm big enough now that going braless is unacceptable. He must be grossed out. My own cheeks flush too and I grab a pillow that's fallen to the floor and hug it to me, averting my eyes.
After a minute of awkward silence, Leo says, "I saw you talking to Max Hayes at lunch today." He sounds mad again. What is going on with him?
"Um, yeah, we have homeroom together. He's nice."
He doesn't say anything for a minute or two and then, "I heard that he kissed Zoe Lucas AND Kendall Barnes last week. I'd prefer it if you didn't talk to him at all. He's a player."
I laugh. "Leo, I'm not interested in kissing ANYONE, so relax, okay? You don't have to play this big brother role forever. I know you've protected me a lot in school over the years and I appreciate that but Max Hayes is not a threat to me."
He clenches his jaw again and moves his shaggy dark blonde hair out of his eyes and glares at me. "You wouldn't know a threat if it hit you between the eyes, Evie."
I narrow my eyes at him. Oh no, he didn't… really? And now I'm getting mad. "Oh, okay, LEO. I forgot that you're the worldly one and I've just been living in a protective glass case my whole life!" I hiss, glancing nervously at Willow to make sure that I haven't woken her. She lets out a snore and continues sleeping.
Leo glares back at me, "That's not what I meant," he says. "You just don't know how guys work. You have no idea what Max is thinking when he's 'just talking' to you."
"Oh really?" I say, leaning towards him. "And how do you know what Max is thinking, exactly?" I demand.
"Because I'm thinking the same thing!" he hisses back.
We stare at each other for several seconds before he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and then says quietly, "What I mean is, I'm thinking similar things about other girls, so… that's how I know."
I stare at him, a strange tight feeling expanding through my chest. I don't let myself think about it. Instead, I nod and look away, saying, "Thanks for the heads up, Leo. I'll make sure that I don't' encourage Max, okay?"
He's silent for a minute and then, "I think Willow has probably slept enough. I'll sneak her into her house."
We both stand too quickly, almost colliding but he moves away first, going to Willow and shaking her slightly. She sits up, murmuring, "What's going on?"
Leo helps her up, saying, "Come on Willow, you're gonna lean on me and I'm gonna walk you home, okay?"
"Okay," she says, sounding a little more with it.
He guides her to the door, barely glances at me as I open it for them and then calls out quietly over his shoulder as they walk down the stairs, "See you at school tomorrow, Evie."
CHAPTER 16
I wake slowly in the early hours of morning and feel a warm, hard body against my back and smile as I remember the night before. I slowly move out from under Jake's arm and make my way to the master bath to do my business. After I'm done, I crawl back in next to Jake, snuggling into him again. I turn towards him this time and watch his beautiful face for a few minutes, peaceful in sleep.
He cracks one eye open and smiles a sleepy smile at me. "Are you watching me sleep?" he asks, teasingly. "Who's the creeper now?"