CHAPTER 14 : LEO'S CONFESSION

Nat's POV

"Hey!" I call out to Leo but he keeps moving and doesn't turn around.

I run up to him and hold his arm.

"Why'd you come after me and not him?" Leo asks me but doesn't look at my face.

"Because he's not worth it, worth anything," I say but Leo still doesn't look at me and just snorts in return.

"What's the matter with you?" I shout at him. This seems to bring his attention to me and he looks at me.

"What? You're acting like all of this is my fault! You think I plan for this kinda stuff to happen?"I yell at him.

"You didn't invite him to the game?" he asks me.

"No Leo, I didn't invite Nick. Why would I?"

"Why wouldn't you? You're in love with him. It's written all over your face!" he yells at me.

"Ya, that's why I came after you and not him," I reply sarcastically and he snorts again.

"I'm going," I tell him and take out my phone to call a Lyft.

"Where?"

"Tell Nina I'm not coming," I tell him and move away from there. I thought he would try to stop me but he doesn't.

Five minutes, the cab pulls onto the road and I tell him to take me to Nina's house where my car is.

Why did Nick come back?

To my school?

"Ma'am we're here," the cab driver says and I pay him and get out of the cab.

Nina lives close to the school, I never really noticed.

I sit in my car and head home.

When I park my car in the driveway I see Mario standing in Leo's lawn and all the blood leaves my face when I see Leo standing next to him.

Fuck.

I weigh the odds of leaving and they seem in my favor.

So I leave before they can even notice and acknowledge my presence.

I call Nina and tell her that I'm coming to their gathering and she texts me the address.

I tell her that I'll be with her in another ten minutes or so.

When I pull up my car in the restaurant and go in, I find the whole team sitting there and they're all cheering and hooting.

It's a wonder they haven't been kicked out yet.

Nina waves to me when I come in her sight and motions me to come sit next to her.

I sit down and Chris sits on the other side and Katherine sits across me with her new boyfriend whose also the captain of the team.

Of course, she would date Markus.

Katherine looks at me and fake smiles at me. She passes me the french fries she was eating and I politely decline her order.

She doesn't seem to mind and goes back to eating them.

I order myself a coke and look at Nina whose busy talking to Chris.

Its been only five minutes since I came here and I'm already bored.

I look at everyone around and find Justin looking at me. I smile at him and he smiles back.

"How's Nick?" he asks me.

"We broke up," I say to him and his eyebrows raise.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he says and lowers his head.

"It's fine, I don't care," I say with a fake laugh.

"Good," he says with a chuckle.

He's about to say something else when he gets interrupted by his friend Jake and starts talking to him.

"What was that all about?" Nina asks and I furrow my eyebrows.

"What was what?" I ask her.

"He likes you. I can tell"

"What no, I think it's perfectly normal for two people to start a conversation without either of them having feelings for each other," I say with much more harshness that I intended to add and she just nods in return.

I look at everyone once again and I feel I don't belong there.

"Hey, I'm going home. This is bullshit," I tell her and get up.

"Why what happened? Aren't you having fun?"

Fun?

This is the most boring night of my entire life.

"I'm not just feeling it, I'll see you tomorrow," I say and get out of there.

I close the door of the restaurant and see Leo standing next to my car and looking at the ground.

"What are you doing here?" I ask him and he just looks up at me.

"I wanted to talk," he says after a moment of silence.

"I don't want to talk to you, Leo. You'll tell me that I still love Nick and won't even hear me out," I say to him and look him straight in the eye.

He sighs in return and doesn't say anything.

I walk past him and am about to sit in the car when he stops me.

"What?" I ask him.

"I'm sorry," he says and makes eye contact with me.

"Leo why would you even think that I'm in love with him?" I ask him.

I am in love with him.

I'm still reeling from our more than a toxic relationship but I'm moving on and him saying that just crumbles the wall I've been building for so long.

"I just thought you were. I could see it in your eyes and I'm going to be honest. I wasn't comfortable with the fact that you were still in love with him after he cut your wrist and I'm not comfortable with you being in love with anyone else," he says.

"Why are you not comfortable with me being in love with someone else?" I ask him.

"Because I like you," he says and steps closer to me.

"Hunh?" I ask him.

"Yes, I like you Nat and I don't like the fact that you love Nick. That guy makes me sick," he says.

"Oh," I say and turn around.

I can't process anything Leo just said.

Leo likes me?

I turn around and look at Leo.

He takes another step and I don't move.

He lifts his hand to my cheek and caresses it and I lean into his touch.

He leans in and crashes his lips onto mine and I'm lost in the daze that Leo is.