He was my person.
I was his.
Why do I suddenly want him to ask me to stay? Would I? If he asked me to not leave him… would I stay for him?
My mind ran rampant with question after question I never started thinking about until this very second.
As if he knew what I needed at that moment, Leo placed his arm around my body, pulling me into the nook of his arm. I felt him inhale a deep, steady breath as he hugged me closer to him, kissing the top of my head.
We stayed like that for the rest of the time we were there, in complete silence, watching the world revolve around us like we were the only two people in it. The bright colors of the sky started giving way to nightfall, blending brilliantly in deep oranges to fire reds.
Sunsets in Tennessee were always a sight to behold.
“You ready?”
Giving in to the emotions I couldn’t seem to control, I snapped, “What a loaded question, Leo. If you’re asking me if I’m ready to go to your next stop, then I’d reply that I’m ready when you are. If you’re asking me if I’m ready to leave tomorrow, to move away from you and my parents, my home here… then my response would be, I’m not so sure anymore. Was this your plan today?” I pulled away to look into his eyes. “Make me doubt my decision?”
“You sound upset.”
“I’m not. I’m just wondering.”
He thought about it for a second. “My plan wasn’t to make you doubt, it was to remind you.”
“Of what?”
“Of all the things we’ve accomplished together, and all of the future things we will do again someday. Today was supposed to be a day to remember our past, our memories, the years of friendship we’ve had, but—” he grinned “—your ass still found a way to make it a first one for us despite what I wanted.”
Smirking, I shook my head. Only Leo could turn this serious conversation between us into a lighter one.
Sweeping the hair away from my face, he placed it behind my ear. “It doesn’t matter if you’re here or there, Mila, you’re still going to be my best friend.”
“Promise?”
“What are you so worried about? I’m not the one that’s leaving.”
I opened my mouth to answer him, however God had other plans for us that evening. The sound that no one ever wanted to hear hastily invaded our peaceful atmosphere.
Whoop. Whoop.
“Oh shit!” I instantly stood, watching with a horrified expression as a cop car approached. “They’ve come for us!”
And not just any police vehicle, it was a sheriff’s SUV.
“Oh no, Leo! We’re going to jail!” I scowled at him, fisting my hands at my sides. “I told you! I told you it was a bad idea to break into the lake and now we’re going to get locked up! I’ll tell you right now, I’m way too pretty for prison! Do you see how cute I am?”
“Oh, I see how cute you are. Especially, right now.”
I ignored his compliment, too concerned with what was about to happen to us.
“Leo! I’ll be someone’s fiddle! Me! Mila Love Lawrence will be someone’s property as soon as I step into the yard.”
He laughed so hard his head fell back.
“Why are you laughing at me?” I argued, stomping my foot. “Have you taken a good look at yourself in the mirror recently? Do you see how handsome you are? You’ll—” I stabbed my finger into his chest to get my point across “—be someone’s bitch too. You’ll be fresh meat for the ring leader, he will have you shanking people in the big yard and doing all his care packages in no time. Yelling at you to make his mud and suck his… oh man.” I grabbed onto my stomach. “My belly cannot handle this again.”
Leo stood up, still laughing. “Relax, Lala, no need to shit yourself again.”
“What if my job finds out? What if I get fired? What if the school finds out? And they kick me out?”
He raised his eyebrows with an amused expression. “We don’t even know why he’s here.”
“Why else would he be here, genius? Oh my God!” I grabbed my face. My skin was getting clammy, and my body was slightly shaking. “They’re going to ask me to bend over and cough and no one has ever seen my butthole, Leo!”
“Really?” He jerked back. “Never? Not even to lick—”
“That’s where your mind goes at a time like this?”
“I mean it’s a fair question.”
“Not right now!”
The sound of the officer shutting his door echoed through the wind.
“Lala.” He grabbed my arms. “Take a deep breath. I promise you’re going to look back on this moment and laugh.”
I didn’t pay him any attention, the officer’s footsteps were fast approaching, and right when he came into my line of sight, I turned away from Leo and sang like a fucking canary, “I swear on my momma’s life, officer! I didn’t do anything wrong!” I sternly pointed at Leo. “It was his idea to break into the lake!”
His eyes widened. “You snitch! Like I could drag you over the fence!”
“I told him, officer, I swear to God I warned him that we were going to get in trouble, but he never listens to me. Even when we were kids, nope, never! He always did what he wanted. You can even ask his mom and dad! He’s as stubborn as a bull that man. I didn’t want to do it.” I was nervous which meant I couldn’t control my mouth, it was a severe case of word vomit.
“He made me! And he almost made me poop my pants! Do you know how embarrassing that is? I think I might have PTSD! But you know what? I didn’t do it! I held it in even though my stomach was on fire, even though it was cramping to the point of pain, kind of like it is right now.”
“Yeah, Shitty McGee, why don’t you tell him what you did to the door?”
I gasped. My appalled stare went from Leo, back to the officer who was standing there just intently listening to me. There was no indication of how he felt. I couldn’t tell if he was going to let us go or arrest us. So I kept going, in hopes that he would change his mind and take mercy on me.
Praying, I wouldn’t number two myself this time.
Chapter 20
—Mila—
“I’ve never broken the law before,” I went on. “I swear it! My cousin once stole lipstick from the Piggly Wiggly Mart and I went back and paid for it. In fifth grade, my teacher accidentally gave me an A on the spelling test but when I looked through my answers, I saw that one was marked right when it was wrong, and I went right to her desk to tell her. I have a ton of situations where I have done the right thing, I’m as honest as they come, I promise.”
“Hey, Poopy Pants, why don’t you quit while you’re ahead?”
I couldn’t control my nervousness and my belly grumbled, aching.
At least I think it was…
“Since we’re not entirely sure what end that came out of,” Leo countered, standing in front of me. Shielding my body with his. “Allow me to take over.” He looked at the officer. “What my turd burglar best friend is trying to say is she’s leaving Tennessee tomorrow to move to the Virgin Islands. My plan was to show her all our exciting firsts together. Four years ago, we went to that lake to open our college acceptance letters. We didn’t know the lake was now boarded up, but since it was already part of my plan, I told her to break and enter with me.”