AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay, buddy,” Leo sighed. “You’re losing it.”
“I assume that has to do with the book?” Piper asked. “I haven’t read it.”
“No clue,” Leo said. “Sam, shut up and do what she says.” Sam mumbled a protest but opened his mouth obediently. When the thermometer beeped and Piper pulled it out from under Sam’s tongue, Leo leaned over to clock the temperature at one hundred two point six. “Fuck. Okay, take this.” He shoved the pills he had prepared into Sam’s hand and grabbed the lemon honey tea from their shitty chipped coffee table.
“Yes, Dad.” Sam’s joke lacked enthusiasm, his entire body drooping with exhaustion as he dropped a pill into his mouth and chased it with a sip of tea.
Leo reached for the VapoRub and watched Sam’s throat bob slowly on a swallow. “Okay.” He held up the jar and the clean pair of plaid socks he had retrieved from Sam’s room. “This goes on the bottom of your feet and your chest so you can breathe better.” Leo was a good friend, but he wasn’t about to slather Sam’s feet for him.
An hour later, Sam was passed out on the couch again, and Leo and Piper had a full container of chicken noodle soup cooling in the fridge for when he woke up. In the kitchen, Leo had learned that Piper’s lack of spatial awareness wasn’t limited to walking and balance. By the time they had finished the soup, he had blocked at least three open cabinet doors from hitting her head. When they moved on to Sam’s room, stripping the bed of its sheets to wash them, she had managed to smack her shin on his bed frame. She finally agreed to get her eyes tested at Leo’s insistence despite her multiple proclamations that she was simply tired.
Leo wadded up Sam’s laundry and wandered out to the tiny closet in the hallway that housed their washer and dryer. Piper yawned and wordlessly pulled open the door for him, then lifted the washing machine lid, anticipating all of his requests before he voiced them. He shouldn’t have been surprised given the way Piper took to the stage at rehearsal. Leo tossed the sheets into the machine and then reached for the massive canister on the shelf above it.
“What’s that?” Piper asked.
Leo unclasped the side, releasing the rubber seal, and held it open for her to look. The contents were murky white and looked a bit like milky pond water or the whey on top of an unmixed tub of sour cream. “I make my own laundry detergent. It’s my abuelita’s recipe. It looks gross, but it works better than the normal stuff, and it’s cheaper. It’s basically a fuck ton of Jabón-Zote, borax, and Arm and Hammer.” He pulled out the plastic measuring cup and slopped some of the stuff into the washing machine as Piper looked on in interest.
“That’s so cool,” she said. He figured she was joking, but he looked over to her and found she was leaning toward the canister he had set on the dryer to breathe in the scent. “This is why you always smell so good.”
“Oh, yeah?” Leo smirked and stepped toward her. “You can smell me any time.”
Piper shoved at his chest with a small laugh before she took a cursory glance at the front door. “I should probably go.”
“No.” Leo shook his head. “It’s late, Piper. Just stay with me.”
“I don’t know.” Piper bit her lip. “What about Sam?”
“He already knows. He came back early once, and you’re very vocal.” Leo winked.
Piper scoffed, then looked thoughtful. “I don’t want to impose. I can just suck it up and drive home.”
“Princesa, I imposed on you. It’s three in the morning. You’re not driving home.” Leo could see the moment Piper broke her facade of trying to stay strong right before she flung her arms around his neck.
“Thank you. I had a shitty dinner with my brother, and I really don’t want to drive this late.”
“With Carter, you mean? What happened?” Leo pulled away and tucked his hand at the nape of her neck.
“He said he’s not coming home for Christmas. I guess his girlfriend’s family decided they were going skiing, and she pretty much forced his hand into going to see her family instead of ours.” Piper shrugged sadly, then started to walk toward Leo’s bedroom. “They got in a huge fight about it, apparently, and Carter just gave up. He kinda shuts down when it comes to conflict.” Piper paused for a minute to pull back Leo’s covers, and he watched with rapt attention as she stripped out of her jeans and crawled into his bed in her underwear and his hoodie. It looked so domestic. So natural. “Anyway, we’ve already missed Hanukkah with Talia every year we’ve been away from home, so it sucks that we can’t all be together for Christmas, at least, you know?” When she noticed he was just standing in the doorway, watching her, she patted the spot beside her in bed.
“Yeah.” Leo nodded and started to strip down to his underwear. “I get making sacrifices for the people you love, but I don’t think it should be all one person all the time. That seems unhealthy.” He flicked the lights off and crawled under the covers beside Piper, meeting her face to face. “I think if I was dating you, I wouldn’t just insist on Christmas with my family every year when I know how much your family means to you and why you need to go home sometimes.”
“Exactly,” Piper agreed, and Leo felt his heart skip a beat. She hadn’t completely discounted the idea of them being together, and, because he was a complete fool, it gave him a glimmer of hope. “I was actually going to ask if you wanted to ride back together for Christmas?”
“Yeah,” Leo said. He took a deep breath and leaned forward to kiss her forehead. It was probably crossing a line, but he didn’t care anymore. “I’ll drive, and you can be a passenger princess. Buenas noches, mi vida.”
“Good night, Leo.” Piper rolled away from him, and his heart sank until she wiggled back into him, her ass spooning his crotch. He was thankful she couldn’t see him, or the smile that crossed his face when she came in close would have been a dead giveaway. The arm that he draped over her was still probably a giveaway, but, again, he no longer cared. He would play house with Piper for however long she let him.
Forty-Eight
LEO
A fresh shower and a few classes down, Leo sat in the office he shared with Moreno, scouring the day’s script and making notations so he wouldn’t easily forget his ideas when they came up in rehearsal. Sticky notes with his chicken scratch handwriting lined the desk, ranging from a sick-Sam-level fever dream of half-thought-out ideas to structured and competent plans. He picked through the notes to find the ones that applied to the upcoming rehearsal and stuck them to his clipboard. A lot of this night’s rehearsal would be reliant on Emma, and although she had been doing great in rehearsals lately, he shot her a text to make sure she was up for it after their business class that morning. Her response made him chuckle.
Emma 4:56 PM
I’m fine, Mom. I drew a picture of Professor Pervert with his head chopped off and I feel great.
The text Leo sent back, demanding to see said drawing so he could frame it, was followed up with a question from Emma about his status with Piper. He patently ignored it in favor of confirming with Moreno that he could use some of the theatre budget to buy donuts for the whole cast as a morale boost after the plight of sickness everyone had experienced the week before. Thanks to Piper’s contributions to the set, the usually tight musical budget had a little wiggle room for higher-quality costumes and props along the way. The last stretch of mapping out scenes and musical numbers had finally come, and they were well into performing large chunks of the show and working out only the small details. Details Leo had obsessed over for the last few months and was happy to throw himself into again before everyone arrived on set.
