Chapter 18- Taunting Homecomings

Okay, so I feel like I really have to explain Leo's anger about the whole photograph thing. The thing is, Leo is a very reserved kinda guy. He doesn't like people getting into his bubble. At all. He barely likes talking to people, let alone having someone in their house. Leo wasn't rying to be violent. He was trying to be protective. It was a defense mechanism for him to not let people in. He was angry that Amelia broke through it. He didn't want her to. It scared the heck out of him. His anger, was his way of trying to get Amelia to not pry into his life.

Moreover, I'm sure none of us would be too happy to see an acquaintance sort of friend standing in the middle of our room when we weren't even aware they were in the house. Yes, his anger was uncalled for. But maybe, it wasn't. He's human. Let him breathe. Let him decide how to deal with situations, and more importantly, how to fix his mistakes.

And yes, that goes for all of you too. Trust me, I get anger. I get being on both sides of it. It's an emotion. We all feel it at some point. So it's okay. It's okay to be angry. But it's also important to overcome it.

》《

[] A M E L I A []

The rest of the week went by as smoothly as it could. After Leo's apology, it seemed like we all fell back into our old routine. But this time, I let go of all my insecurities. This time, I found myself trusting the group more than I did before, and also, found a better friend in Leo. We had spent more time together, and ended up even studying together once.

For the first time in a while, I felt myself relax.

Another good news was that results for the midterms were out. I had aced two of my exams and sadly, was nearly at the brink of failing Sociology. I blame it on the fact that I barely joined Gemma and Andre during their study sessions. I had convinced myself that I would do okay in that exam without the extra studying, but I was proven completely wrong.

On Saturday evening, I ended up heading over to Gemma's dorm. She also lived in a single dorm, but it was in another building that was nearly a five minute walk from mine.

It was a girl's only weekend, since the boys went over to Leo's parents' house for a sleepover. I had a feeling that they had been friends for a very long time, maybe from middle school or so. They confirmed this when they told Gemma and I that they were leaving, during our Friday lunch. They were telling us how they were going to Leo's for the weekend, and were going to visit their favorite family. Jamal had also excitedly told us a few stories from their middle school times, to which Andre and Leo groaned, and Gemma and I laughed to.

They left just this morning and were to return on Sunday night. It was already quiet without them.

I finally made it to Gemma's place and she opened the door for me. We walked inside and it was no surprise that her place was almost identical to mine. It was also just as clean.

"Alright Amelia, what are we doing today?" she asked brightly.

I shrugged, since I really didn't have anything in mind.

We ended up painting each others' nails. Gemma being Gemma, had a whole box full of assorted colors of nail polish and random tools for decoration. We sat crossed legged on her floor, right across from each other. She insisted on painting mine first and I agreed. As she was painting my nails intently, a random thought occurred to me.

"Gemma?" I asked.

She mumbled out a 'Mhmm' in response.

"Why did you choose to be friends with me? I mean... not just now, but back then. Even when I pushed you away," I mumbled.

At my question, Gemma simply sighed. It was almost as if she was expecting this.

"You needed someone."

"Huh?" I mumbled out, dumbfounded.

She finally put the nail polish brush down and looked up at me.

I let in a shaky breath at her words, my eyes watering a little.

"Everyone left Amelia. Everyone left you when you needed them. It's like they all forgot what you did for them. But I couldn't. I couldn't forget anything. So I wanted you to know that I remember the person you always were and still are."

I could only blink at her words.

* * *

We spent the rest of the night doing random activities, all of which were mildly entertaining. After painting our nails, we decided to get dinner, then came back to her dorm to watch a movie.

Halfway through A Walk to Remember, my phone tinged, indicating that I had a text. I frowned and pulled it out of my pocket. My screen was too bright in the darkness of her room, and Gemma groaned, telling me to put it away.

I quickly turned it away from her and looked down to my phone. To my surprise, Leo's name was flashing on the screen, indicating that he had texted me.

Although he got my number from me sometime in the last week, specifically when we were planning to study together, he had never really used it to text me. We had just met up that time and got the studying out of the way.

I opened up his text, and his words left me speechless.

Have a good weekend, Moonie. -Leo

I stared at the words on the screen with wide eyes. Apparently, I had been staring for a little too long, since Gemma paused the movie and turned her attention to me.

"What happened Amelia?" she asked with a twinge of worry.

I finally snapped out of my daze and shook my head at her.

"Nothing. I just- uh, well, Leo texted me," I blurted out.

Gemma's brows furrowed at my words.

"So...?" she trailed off.

I shook my head again.

Of course he can text me. That's what humans do these days. There is absolutely no reason to get confused, I thought to myself.

Irritated with my thoughts, I turned my attention to my phone again. I simply typed in a reply and sent it.

* * *

[] L E O []

You too. -Amelia

I stared at the words, a smirk making its way up to my lips. I briefly wondered how she reacted on the other side of the phone. I had never texted her before, and I'm sure her reaction was nothing short of pure shock.

It had been nearly six hours since we arrived at my parents' house, and I had somehow managed to keep my sanity. My mom was over the moon when she saw us at the door, but that also meant she fed us nearly every dish on the planet, since all of us had apparently gotten too skinny. I'm sure this was not true, especially for Andre, who constantly ate everything that was available in my house.

We had just finished dinner, which was our second meal here since we arrived. Andre, my sister, Lars, as I called her, and I were now the only ones left sitting at the table, currently stuffing ourselves with dessert. Well, Lars and Andre were doing most of the eating, while I was busy staring holes into my phone. Jamal had gone to help my mom and James clean up in the kitchen, since he had to stay away from the sugary stuff while he trained.

Suddenly, I felt a nudge to my side. I put my phone down and turned to face Andre.

"Dude, she's been calling your name for literally the past two minutes," Andre said, pointing to Lars, who was sitting opposite to me.

My eyes widened and I quickly looked over to her. Her eyes were narrowed at me and she was pointing a fork in my direction.

"What are you hiding?" she suddenly said.

I cocked my head at her words.

"Nothing," I said, shrugging.

She glowered at me in response.

"Don't 'nothing' me. I haven't seen you smirk like that in ages. Heck, you started to have the emotional range of a banana before you left for college. Now, you're staring at your phone as if it holds all the answers to life," she said, sighing dramatically.

Andre laughed at her description of me. I whipped my head around to glare at him.

"Ha-ha-ha," I mock-laughed. "Laugh all you want, Perez. You won't be laughing when I drench all your stupid class notes in acid."

At that, Andre immediately shut his mouth. I grinned at his reaction.

Bold move, that was, since my sister's fork clanked against her plate as she stared at me open-mouthed. My grin fell as I stared at her in worry. When I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, I slumped back in my seat.

"Andre," she suddenly said, turning to him.

"Yes?" he asked sweetly.

I sensed something was wrong and immediately sat upright in my chair.

"Who is she?" she suddenly asked. "The girl who Leo was texting."

My eyes widened at her question and I turned to Andre.

This was bad. Not only had Lars discovered that something was up (which it really wasn't), but she also guessed that it was because of a girl (which it really wasn't either). However, if she finds out that there is a girl involved in the mix, she will never let me live it down. Nor will she let me explain that nothing has really changed, but rather, I've only gotten slightly more talkative. That too was because I had managed to meet someone quieter than me.

But will my overly excited teenage sister who reads too many teen romance books and watches too many chick flicks, understand that?

Never in a million years.

I gave Andre a 'Don't you dare look', and he simply grinned at me. Then he looked over to my sister with a wicked grin.

"Her name is Am-"

Before he could finish spewing out her information, I quickly covered his mouth with my hand. He tried pulling out of my brace, but couldn't. I looked back up to Lars, who was leaning forward with wide questioning eyes.

"It's nobody. I was just texting someone for homework purposes," I quickly lied.

She narrowed her eyes at me.

"Why are you trying to hide her from me then?"

"Because you will make a huge deal out of nothing," I retorted.

Before she could say anything, Jamal poked his head out of the kitchen door.

"Hey, has anyone checked up on Amelia? I asked her to look after my hamster while I was gone."

I slumped in defeat and Andre burst out laughing.

Of course. Jamal's stupid pet hamster that just stays in one spot on his desk in his little hamster cage. He had to be the reason that Lars found out about Amelia.

"Amelia?" Lars questioned, turning to Jamal.

"Yeah, she's another friend of ours. Nice girl," Jamal explained. "And lover boy here, finally decided that having more than two friends won't hurt," he announced, gesturing to me.

Can glaring at someone kill them? Because I'm sure if it could, Jamal would be six feet under by now.

"So, Amelia huh?" Lars asked, turning to face me.

I simply shook my head at her grinning face and finally got up.

"She's a friend, Lars," I attempted.

Lars jsut smirked at me.

"Mhmm... sure," she said with a grin.

I rolled my eyes at her, then picked up my plate and started heading to the kitchen to avoid being in the same vicinity as these three. Andre hadn't stopped laughing yet, and Jamal was making his way over to the table now in confusion. As I was making my way there, I heard Lars yell at me.

"You better bring her next time! I want to meet her!" she said giddily.

I rolled my eyes once more.

'Like that would ever happen.'

* * *

[] A M E L I A []

Monday afternoon, we all gathered for lunch in our regular café. Andre, Gemma, and I were making our way together from Sociology, and Jamal and Leo were already waiting for us there. Andre had spent the few minutes as we walked there to tell us all about his weekend, and in turn, Gemma told him about ours.

After the movie night on Saturday, I stayed over in Gemma's dorm for a sleepover. When we got up in the morning, we decided to head to the nearest grocery store for necessities. After getting back, we retreated to our own dorms and studied the rest of the day, and met up for dinner. The boys had returned very late last night, and I was already asleep by the time they came back. I had only found out they got home safely this morning, when I finally read the text Andre sent me the night before.

We made our way through the cafe and immediately spotted Jamal and Leo in the corner. Once we got there, we all sat down and exchanged greetings. I ended up beside Jamal, with Leo across from me, and Gemma and Andre beside him.

All three boys looked healthier, and I inwardly smiled seeing them glow. It was a well-needed getaway for them indeed.

From across the table, Leo smiled and nodded at me, and I returned the gesture.

We all caught up on our weekend, with Jamal sharing more stories, and Leo simply adding details to each incident.

Afterwards, we all switched the topic to more recent news.

"Can you believe finals are already coming up?" Gemma sighed.

"Midterms just ended Gemma, chill out," Jamal said, nearly whining.

"Hey, it's never too early to start studying," Andre suddenly butt in.

We all mumbled out in agreement.

And thus began the treacherous task of studying for finals. Or at least attempting at it.

* * *

I sat in my usual spot in English, with Leo beside me. He was unusually quiet since he came back, and I couldn't help but wonder if he was okay. Hesitantly, I opened my mouth to ask him.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

Surprised, Leo turned to me.

"Yeah, why?" he asked.

"You look a bit lost," I said.

In response, he simply gave me a lazy grin. My eyes widened at this, unable to hold in my surprise seeing the dimple form in his left cheek.

Before I could ask him anything else, the professor began the lecture. I looked away from Leo and faced the front.

Ever since his apology, I've been trying to open up to him more. Not only was he trying to be nicer, but I felt that he felt really guilty about what happened too.

When I got home from The Pub that night, I had opened up my English notebook to see that all the lectures I missed were contained in there in Leo's writing. After that, he left for the weekend, and I wasn't able to see much of him since. But ever since he came back, I knew that something shifted between us. What it was, I wouldn't know.

However, what made me skeptical of him, was what he last said to me in The Pub. Questions ran through my mind at once, making my head spin.

'What did he mean by it? Does it mean he can see beneath me? He can see that I'm hiding? Or that he wants to know what I'm hiding? But how can he see that? Why would he care?'

I sighed and focused on note-taking for the rest of the class, trying to distract myself from the boy beside me. He didn't say anything at all during the class, making this task easier. By the end of it, I was ready to spin in my chair and ask what he meant by what he said. However, the professor's words stopped me in my tracks.

"Alright class, just before we end here, there is a short presentation someone would like to share. Now, I know all you aren't English majors, but this is for people who are doing it, or are even thinking about it," Professor Benny announced.

As he was speaking, the sound of the door opening resonated throughout the room, and another person had joined him on the stage. However, I was too busy looking at Professor Benny to notice.

"Alright, now over to Mister Adams here," he finally said, gesturing to the person who stood beside him.

I sighed and followed his gaze.

Before the class, stood a young man who was sporting a light beard, a classy shirt, tie, and slacks. He had sleek brown hair that was flopping on his head, disheveled as always. He had warm brown eyes, and a dimple formed in his cheek as he greeted the class.

The person before me, was John Adams.

And once again, I was staring at an aspect of my past that I didn't wish to relive again.