Chapter 10 - Brian's House

Leanne’s POV

I sigh happily, wiggling my bare feet in the sand. Brian looks over at me and flashes a smile. I grin back – it’s not hard at all, seeing as I’ve been grinning for the past…uh…while. Ever since we broke apart from our third kiss.
We’re silent, but it’s okay. The silence is like a warm fuzzy blanket in the wintertime. It covers us but it’s really comfortable. It feels right.
Just by chance, I glance down at my watch – it’s 12:15. Two things hit me at once – I’m really hungry, and that it’s Wednesday. My day to go get juices and whatnot.
“I have to go,” I say, and get up off the sand, brushing it off my legs. He gets up too, startled.
“Why?” he asks, bringing me into his warm embrace. I can feel his minty breath on my skin, and I suppress a shiver of pleasure.
“I’m really hungry, I never ate.”
“I’ll get you something.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. Come on over to my place.” His hands rub over my back, and I find it hard to concentrate on what he’s saying. But I do.
“O-okay. I’ll stop at my house on the way there to let Mom know where I’m going.”
“Sounds good, sweetheart.” He picks up my red cover-up, draping it over my shoulders and trapping my tangled red hair beneath it.
“I should put this on,” I say, and he lets me go briefly as I slip the terrycloth dress over my head. Then Brian takes my hand, and we walk back, past all the tourists and hotels.


“Mom, I’m back!” I call, and she sticks her head out the living room door, busy folding laundry to music on her mp3 player. She nods to me absently, and I continue talking. “I’m going to Brian’s for lunch, ‘k?”
She nods again, and goes back to her laundry, but not before smiling at Brian. She likes him, unlike most of my friends. Which is basically only Tanya and Gina.
Gina’s gone on a technology-free vacation into the mountains, which makes my Mom happy because she hates Gina. She calls her a “bad influence”. Which I guess she is. Her parents are divorced, and her dad is always drunk. Gina takes after him in two major ways: she’s a total cheater (in so many ways, believe me) and a drug addict. We’ve been friends since 7th grade, when we had drama class together and she came up to me and asked to be my partner. Mom has never liked her.
Her dislike of Tanya makes no sense to me, though. She’s a very nice person. When Mom objects to our friendship, I get just plain mad.
But she adores Brian. I can see why – he’s one of the cutest guys at school, he’s involved in swimming and cross country year round, and he’s always nice to her. He’s nice to everyone.
We walk over to his house, his arm around my shoulders. I’m nervous – this is the first time I’ve met his parents. He gives me a light squeeze, seeming to sense the fact that my nerves are acting up.
After what feels like an eternity of nervous agony, but is really ten minutes, we come to his house. It’s nice – light, open, welcoming, and not old like ours. It looks like something that we wouldn’t be able to afford because of all the junk Mom buys instead. He walks me up the porch and into the house.
“Mom, I’m home!” he calls, and I fidget anxiously. She pops her head into the entryway from their kitchen.
She’s so normal. A normal mom, that cares about the grades he gets in school, who isn’t crazy, who probably already knows that we’re going out rather than just being friends. She smiles and quickly walks over, carrying a dishcloth in her hands as though they’re wet.
“Hey, Brian. Is this Leanne?” She looks over at me, still smiling.
“Yeah. Leanne, this is my Mom. Mom, Leanne,” Brian introduces, taking his arm off my shoulder so he can gesture to each of us in turn. I try not to feel disappointed that he did.
“How nice to meet you, Leanne! I’ve heard all about you,” she says, flashing a mischievous look at her son while she shakes my hand. Brian rolls his eyes at her.
“Thanks, Mrs. Cole.” My heart is still pounding a million miles an hour.
“You can call me Sophia,” she says kindly, and asks us if we’re hungry. Which we are.
Soon we’re sitting at Brian’s kitchen table eating the BLTs his mom made us. She’s a good cook, unlike my mom. She’s so much better than my mom. We all chat for a bit, and I can feel myself gradually loosening up around her.
I glance down at my watch and see that it’s 12:45. I need to go now if I’m going to get to the store by 1.
I stand up. “Sorry, guys, but I need to get going, I have shopping to do.”
Brian looks up at me, confused. “Are you sure you have to go?”
I nod regretfully. Who would want to leave? I’d only leave if I had to. Which I do.
He sighs, and gets up too. “I’ll walk you home, ‘k?”
“That would be great!” I accept enthusiastically, and his face brightens.
We leave and walk home together, his mom waving goodbye from the door. I’m relaxed this time, and the walk goes by quickly.
“I’ll see you later, Leanne,” Brian says as we stand in front of my front door. I nod, reluctant to leave him but resigned to it.
He turns to go, but then something possesses me to cry out, “Wait!” Brian turns around, and I look desperately up into his eyes.
And then I kiss him one last time.
We’re both smiling as we break apart – only his smile is huge, and mine is small. Small and sad, sad that I have to leave him. “See you later,” he says again, and I let him walk off home.
I’m glad I have him. It makes my life so much easier. Without him –
“Leanne!” screams a voice from behind me. I whirl around to find Mom standing there, looking shocked and horrified from behind the screen.
“What?” I say exasperatedly.
“He KISSED you!” she screams, and I mentally slap myself. She totally saw us.
“No, Mom, I kissed him,” I say, and cross my arms.
She stares at me like I’ve come from another planet.
“What the heck is so wrong with kissing a boy that I like?”
“Your birthday is in a week,” she says, completely off topic.
“Yeah, so?”
“So you can’t date him! Not until after!”
“After what?”
“Your birthday!” Mom’s face is livid as she glares at me. I continue my calm stare into her narrowed chocolate brown eyes.
“I can date who I want, when I want. I love him and you can’t make me let him go.” I don’t know why I’m not yelling. Something is forcing me not to; something’s calming me down. My vision of what’s happening is clear, and I feel that it’s blindingly obvious that I’m going to win. So there’s no point in yelling.
“That’s the problem! You CAN’T love him! He’s so sweet, and so therefore I don’t want you to love him! Go fall in love with someone the world could do without.”
“I can’t control who I fall in love with. He’s right for me. You’ve always said that that’s what matters.”
“I don’t want him to DIE!”
What?
Mom sinks to her knees and begins to cry, loud gasping sobs. I run up to my room, change into some shorts and a t-shirt, and plod back downstairs.
I walk away from the house, feeling guilty that I made her cry that hard.
But it was necessary, I tell myself in that calm, soothing tone that isn’t me at all.
I walk to the store, arguing with myself the whole way. But the closer I get, the stronger the calm me gets. As I walk up to the door, my normal angry self puts up a last effort.
“But I SHOULDN’T have!” I scream.
A woman walking by with two young gives me a look, and ushers them away. She needn’t have worried; I’ve calmed down by now. I walk in the store, feeling peaceful and tranquil. Everything will be for the best.
And then I see my new neighbor, Rob. He looks me right in the eye and smiles. I smile back, bouncing on my feet a bit.
“What a pleasure, Leanne,” he says, then walks over to hug me. I hug him back, and find that despite the heat outdoors he’s not in the least bit sweaty; he’s cool as if he’s been standing in the store all day.
We release each other and he puts his hands on my shoulders, a proud smile on his face. He nods. “Your Mom raised you well,” he says. “You’re a strong girl.”
Rob leads me out of the store. “A strong girl,” he repeats. “Someone who won’t die.”

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