Beautiful Souls (5 page)

    
              The corners of his lips began to curl up into a crooked smile --- oh, that smile --- that he flashed my direction. That’s the smile, that I’ve learned over the years, meant he was surely up to something.

    
              “What is it?” he had my complete and total focus.

    
              “Oh, now you’re interested,” he teased. “You’ll just have to wait and see, but right now I think we should head back to your house before your mom comes out here and chews my head off for keeping you from your rest.” Leo motioned toward my house with wary eyes as he spoke.

    
              Sure enough, when I looked back toward my house, I could see my mom had been watching us through the kitchen window. She waved when she'd known we looked her direction, motioning for us to return. I put my hand up in acknowledgement to let her know we were on our way.

    
              I looked back to Leo and shot an eye roll his direction. “Yeah, we’d better head back,” I agreed.

    
              Leo and I walked in silence as we crunched our way across the plowed cornfield. The only other sound, besides the cracking cornstalks and dead leaves underfoot, was the slam of the kitchen window my mom had closed when she was sure we were returning to the house.

    
              These same familiar noises --- besides the slamming window --- were the ones that accompanied us on our walk out to the woods, but now there was a definite change in the surrounding air. The air, more than likely, felt changed and now altered by the tension between us. A strange, uncomfortable sensation rose from the pit of my stomach. Butterflies. I realized another difference was the birdsong was now absent. I chalked it up to the breeze which had picked up to a full blown, swirling wind.

    
              The walk back was not as comfortable as the walk out had been. That one, although quiet, was as easy and natural as the past seventeen years had been. This one was tense and awkward, heat and shivers played across my skin and bounced across the electricity that shot between our bodies.

    
              Leo and I were perfect together. There wasn’t always the need to fill every quiet moment with words and babble about inane things. We were fine with the way we were and had accepted each others' quirks. We balanced each others' moods and personalities flawlessly. Leo was outgoing while I was more quiet and reserved. When he was angry, I was the only one who could talk him down; when I was upset, it was always him that could always make me smile again.

             
Now, something was different. There was tension, maybe nervousness, this time as we headed toward home. Something changed between us while we had been talking out by the woods, and at that precise moment I felt the thickness in the air squeezing its way between us. It wasn’t necessarily bad, just different. Things had changed between us and I didn’t know exactly what that meant. Honestly, I was scared to find out.

    
              The difference was so pronounced and obvious, I was certain Leo could feel it too. If by some chance he hadn’t sensed the change on his own, I was positively sure that my constrained manner  definitely gave it away.

    
              I felt Leo’s hand graze the side of my finger as we walked and warmth ran up my arm, sending a chill to my spine. I felt the hairs tingle on the back of my neck. What the hell was that? I could tell that he felt it too when I caught sight of his clenched, white-knuckled fist he had made after the touch.

    
              I looked up toward those ocean-colored eyes, trying to read his expression in order to better understand the meaning behind his reaction. I had to smile a little when I saw that the bead of sweat had reappeared on his temple. Leo really liked me. Like, liked me like me. Could that be true? Was else could have been causing all this weirdness between us?

    
              Leo and I continued to walk in silence till we reached my back door, then we awkwardly said our goodbyes.

    
              I stood on the back steps, watching him as he easily hopped up into his truck and started the engine.

    
              “Oh, Leo, wait!” I shouted. I had completely forgotten, with the chaos of today, that my car was still parked in the school’s parking lot.                   “My car’s still at school. Can you, please, drive me to school tomorrow morning?” I batted my big chestnut-colored eyes toward him for good measure, teasing him just a little like I’d always done whenever I need him to do me a favor. 

    
              I asked even though I knew it to be unnecessary, because with Leo I never  had to ask. We both knew that. He’d do anything and be anywhere for me if it meant I needed him.

    
              “Sure, Bec. I’ll be here first thing in the morning,” he assured me with a wave, then he drove off.

    
              I walked back toward the house, stopping on the steps for a moment while I watched Leo drive off down the country road.

    
              My mom must have been watching through the kitchen window still, waiting for me to come inside. As I watched Leo’s truc
k
disappear, I heard the screen door beside me creak open. I turned to see my mom standing there with her free hand propped against her hip.

    
“You coming in anytime soon?” she asked with a hint of annoyance.

    
              I grabbed the door, letting it slam behind me just to see the look of disgust on my mom’s face. I always got a little pleasure out of that disapproving glance being shot my direction.

    
              “Why don’t you head up to your room, and I’ll bring you up a snack.”

    
              “Mom, I’m fine. It’s not a big deal. The school just sent me home to follow procedure, not because there’s actually something wrong with me.” I insisted, hoping that it was true.

    
              “So, what did Leo want?” my mom asked, as I made my way to the refrigerator to grab a drink.

    
              “How do you know Leo wanted anything? I’m the one that asked him to go for the walk.” I was slightly perturbed at my mom’s flawless and uncanny intuition.

    
              My mom only responded with an annoyingly knowing glance.                   I sighed, deciding on the truth rather than sarcasm. “Oh, not much. He just wanted to check on me to make sure that I was feeling all right.” I popped the top of my pop can and watched as the drink fizzed from the opening as I took my first sip. “And he wants us to go to Homecoming together this weekend,” I volunteered reluctantly.

    
              With this new bit of information, my mom stood a little straighter. She looked up from the mail that she had been sifting through on the counter and turned to give me an approving grin. “I thought there may have been more to it than that,” she commented, quite pleased with this new information as she tossed the junk mail into the trashcan.

    
              “So, you going?” she asked without looking up from the counter.

                  “Well, yeah. It’s not a big deal, Mom. Please don’t make it a big deal. We’re just going as friends, okay. I’ve told you a hundred times that we’re just friends.” When was I ever going to stop lying to myself, and others?

    
              “Oh, I know, I know,” she spit out very quickly, too quickly. She turned toward me, throwing her hands in the air as a sign of retreat.                   My mom had always thought that one day there would be more to Leo and I than just friendship, so she was beyond delighted with this new development. From what I could tell by the smirk on her face, that she was trying to unsuccessfully hide, my mom was totally patting herself on the back for a job well done --- as if she had anything to do with it.

 
                 My mom must have been grinning from ear to ear on the inside, but to save me from a multitude of embarrassments she was definitely attempting to hide her inner and outer smiles behind her long mahogany hair. She dipped her head back down, concentrating herself on the rest of the mail still lying on the counter.

    
              My mom had listened to me use the
“just friends”
line for the past couple years now, and for the most part she always backed off the subject whenever I used the phrase. I think she did that for fear that something she would say, or possibly her pushing the subject too hard, may one day ruin any chance of a relationship between Leo and me. She tried to watch from a distance, but every once in a while she’d still give me her unsolicited input. I don’t think she could help herself.

    
              “I’m going upstairs to start on my school work that I missed out on today,” I voiced to my mom. I glanced back toward my mom as I made my way toward the staircase and tried not to crack a smile at how incredibly satisfied she seemed to be with the news of Leo asking me to Homecoming.

    
              “Okay. Try to take a little nap when you’re through with it all.”  She paused for a moment, then continued more hesitantly than before, “Are you positive that you’ll be fine here by yourself for the rest of the day?”

    
              “Mom, of course. I’m fine, really.”

    
              “Okay then, if you’re sure.”

    
              “Yes, I am.”

    
              “I’m going to head back to the shop for a little while then. Do you need anything before I go?”

    
              “No, I’m good. I’ll just be in my room all day doing homework.”

    
              “All right then, if you’re sure…”

    
              “Mom, go. Bye,” I called from the top of the stairs, exasperated.

    
              “Okay. Bye, hon.”

    
              I turned, headed for the stairs and waited for the moment till I heard my mom’s van start and pull out of the driveway.

    
              “Alone with my thoughts at last,” I spoke out loud, and felt a sense of relief that for the time being I only had myself to contend with.

    
              I turned and headed toward my room, my backpack slung over my shoulder and drink in hand.

    
              When I walked into my bedroom, I went straight for my bed with my bag, placed the pop can on my nightstand, stared at the very large pile of books and papers that I had just emptied from my backpack, and contemplated where to begin.

    
              A minute or two of mental preparation passed, then I spread out all of my books and papers across my comforter to see what, and how much, work I had to deal with. Finally, I decided to organize it all in to stacks according to subject and priority for which subjects needed tackled first and foremost. The task was daunting. Did we really cover this much work in a day’s time at school?

    
              I was grateful to Mr. Stanley for collecting all my missed work from all my other teachers, but I was beginning to wish that he hadn’t been so thoughtful. All of this homework was a good four hours worth of work if I buckled down and completed it in one sitting, and that was with the assumption that I would have a clear frame of mind but knowing very well that I didn’t.

    
              How was I going to get through it all with the visions of Zoey coupled with the continuous thoughts about what it all meant, the glares from Luke, and the ever-growing tension and heat between Leo and me? I just had to do it. Everything had to be put out of my mind so that I could move on with my daily routine. I did my best to wipe my mind clean, and set out to concentrate on my school work and
only
my school work.

    
              Almost two and a half hours in to my four hours worth of work, I was brought out of my deep train of thought by loud rustling in the yard outside my bedroom window. I figured that the distracting sound was probably just the wind, or maybe a squirrel running around collecting and burying nuts for its winter stash. I shook the thought and the rustling sounds from my mind, cleared my throat, and set myself back to work on my geography paper.

    
              I was busy outlining various cities across the world, for which I was preparing my paper to compare and contrast these various locations, when not more than a few moments later I heard the rustling sounds again outside my bedroom window. This time surely louder than before.     

    
              The mysterious sounds were incredibly too much commotion, for my assumption of the sounds being caused by a squirrel, to be accurate. My curiosity of the unknown got the better of me, as usual, and I was driven to find the cause of my distraction with the rustling sounds of leaves and autumn debris leading the way.

    
              I stood from my bed, no longer able to concentrate, and walked over to my second floor bedroom window in an attempt to catch a glimpse of whatever had pulled me away from my concentration on school work; work that I was attempting so desperately to get finished in the shortest amount of time possible.