3. Well, it ain’t much…

The days gone by before that fateful Friday seemed to have flown away like leaves after a severe storm. With the company of his friends, who had often joined the figure of Alessia, Tommaso had not even been able to feel the actual weight of having to wake up every morning and make the day go by. Not even at school had this happened: which was very strange, so much so that he had found himself surprised to follow a lesson in Italian literature without feeling asleep looming or lying on the table to sleep.

During those days he had seldom seen Leonardo, sometimes only in passing, perhaps smoking a cigarette outside the building during the twenty-minute interval between one lesson and another. But nothing more: he hadn’t found the courage to approach him and talk to him, he didn’t want to interrupt the conversation with what were supposed to be his new classmates every time he saw him outside or through the window of his class. Tommy thought he had made a new friend, but felt he was wrong: maybe Leo just wanted to have some information and found himself in the right place at the right time. That his presence had served nothing but this, suddenly ceasing to exist: nothing erased from having to move forward. But Tom was bound to be wrong. He realized this when, on the way home on the bus, settling alone in one of the seats, he began to check the notifications coming from his cell phone and the various messages sent by colleagues, but a short time later a voice interrupted all his thoughts.

« Are you here too? » exclaimed that voice, which surprised Thomas to such an extent that his head clashed by mistake with the window to his right, hurting him rather. A completely fleeting pain, which made the boy who had taken the floor smile. Before realizing that it was the voice of the famous Leo, who was not ignoring him at all, Thomas rubbed his hand on his head as if the pain, in that way, could pass faster. The eyes went from closed, due to the clash with the window glass, to suddenly opening. He didn't expect to see Leo smile, but when that happened Tom couldn't help but reciprocate, the head pain has passed. « I'm coming back from school, I would say that the bus is the only means I can afford. »

« Well, while we’re at it... » Leo continued, totally changing the subject and getting up from his seat, intending to sit next to Tom. The latter reacted by trying to pay attention only to the external background that moved, so as not to look Leonardo in the eye and make him perceive the small agitation inherent within him. Talking to people he didn’t know made him feel uncomfortable, and so did Leo. Tom didn't know how to find the courage to turn around once and for all and listen to him, as well as continue the journey with him without making any fools that, sooner or later, would come. « They told me I have to talk to you, for my order. » At first, again purple, the redhead said nothing, not even understanding what Leo was referring to, however, Leo's words made him turn suddenly. Tommaso squared him from top to bottom, observing his fingers making the gesture of quotation marks to indicate what his order was. It took him a while to realize that he was just making fun of him, so much so that he began to shake his mind annoyed, even though a little smile appeared on his face. At least now Tommaso was sure that it was precise that Leo by his side who was supposed to present Fontana, Lorenzo Fontana. The last guy he wanted to remember at the time.

« You’re a piece of shit! » Thomas said almost without thinking and shaking his head again, pretending to be amazed by his words and how he had been teased. He just wanted to disappear into his room and be left alone, where no one could interrupt his future sleep. « You’re shit, Leo! » Tom exclaimed again, giggling with his traveling companion for a while until the red decided to turn back to the window to see where they were. He hoped to get home as soon as possible to eat, sleep and take care of his belongings. Having to talk to someone, especially Leonardo, during an average long trip was not for him. So much so that he began to annoy his fingers so as not to look him straight in the eye.

« What do you do before you go to Fontana? » Leo then asked, as he placed a new white filter between his lips, and then began to create his cigarette, with bulk tobacco at hand, placed more precisely on his legs. To Tommaso's answer, the boy did not even turn in his direction to listen to him, although his attention was completely devoted to the cigarette.

« I would say nothing, why? » he asked for red, wearing a hand in his hair, smiling like never before. He did not tell him that he would be with his friends, drinking and smoking as was often the case at any party they were invited to, but rather told a lie. A semi-lie: not that the group of friends did who knows what, in those moments, but they used to talk about various topics and update themselves on what had happened. They had discovered Alessio's many girls just like that, often laughing at them too.

« Then let’s go to me, smoke something, and then go to Fontana, so you introduce me, » Leonardo proposed, carrying the now ready-made cigarette between his lips, turning to the nearest window to try to figure out where they had arrived and consequently approaching Tommaso. The latter did not know what to say or what to do, so much so that he remained still and silent, looking straight ahead of him. He wasn't a human contact type and for a second he dreamed of disappearing or Leo wasn't making any moves. Soon, they would reach – thankfully, Tom found himself thinking – their stop. Still close enough to him, Leo turned to Tom, raised his eyebrows, and eventually it was he who decided for both of them. « The next stop is ours. » and Tommaso could do nothing but nod, even more embarrassed, failing to do anything else.

The two came down almost after five full minutes of silence and looks that had thrown themselves: moments when Leo carried the cigarette from his mouth to his fingers and vice versa, eager to light it as soon as he had the opportunity, while the red did everything not to look at it, even if in vain, with his cheeks full of embarrassment. The feeling soon managed to no longer be pressing when, finally, they greeted the vehicle without even looking back: they had to walk just a couple of minutes, before officially arriving at Leo's house. Tommaso wrote a message to his mother rather quickly informing her that she would not return home: only in this way would he be able not to make her worry, to take an interest in Leonardo's house.

It was a very simple house, suitable for a few people: various rooms including a beautiful medium-sized green kitchen with some hints of brown, a simple living room, and the various bedrooms that were hidden by two different doors and that both passed without dwelling too much. After that, Leonardo and Tommaso started in the living room mentioned above, lying on the brown leather sofa. They couldn't hold back a sigh of relief for the school day just ended.

« Well... it ain’t much, » said the moor looking around and shrugging his shoulders, as if to say that it wasn’t a house who knows how beautiful or big. It was enough for the people who lived there and it could only be fine like this. Leonardo turned his gaze in the direction of Tommaso with a small smile, Tommaso was attentive to every detail of the house. At that moment, the curiosity was so much that Tommaso's lively eyes were brought to look around, forgetting part of lunch. That's how he realized the small floor in the corner of the room. Here is another one of the many things he would have had the pleasure of knowing about Leo.

« Are you quoting Ron Weasley by any chance? » Tom asked instead, raising his eyebrows surprised: he hadn't read Harry Potter, like any boy his age, precisely because he had never been interested in reading. Despite this, he had seen all the films several times, but he knew nothing else: the sentence had brought to his memory just one of the phrases of the second feature film. Leo’s eyes lit up, as if happy to have finally found a topic he would talk about for endless hours without ever getting tired, along with his new friend.

« I’m now instinctive to say that every time I bring someone home, » he replied, settling better next to him on the couch and looking at an unspecified point in the room. « I’m not saying it’s the Barrow, but... it’s home. » and shrugged his shoulders, quiet enough. He then turned to look at him, while Thomas preferred to pay attention to his beloved shoes.

« Since you brought up the subject, » resumed the Moor, snapping red, almost unwittingly. He hadn’t even realized the reaction he had sparked in Thomas, and Thomas only pretended that his company didn’t give him a completely different feeling. Nothing he had experienced with his friends before then: maybe just with Alessio. « Do you like the saga? Have you read the books? »

Thanks to this excuse, they found themselves speaking for almost an entire hour, which didn’t seem to have passed – not so quickly – for either of them. On the one hand, Thomas admitted that he did not know exactly what a book was, other than what he was obliged to buy for school. Leo, on the other hand, told him that he had shelves in his room made specifically to be filled with books. He had brought many of them from the old house and placed them right on those shelves, to always have them at hand. They both went to the boy's room, intending to show them all to Tommaso, who was surprised to count as many as twenty volumes on a single shelf, arranged a little in bulk. « But how many are there? » Tom asked surprised, letting go of the rest of the room and its shape. He didn't even notice the small bed in the middle of the room, whose blankets were meddled, and the desk full of pens without a cap and torn sheets of paper.

«They’re not all either, actually,» Leonardo replied, finally lighting the cigarette he would have liked to smoke half an hour earlier. After taking a shot from the latter, he approached red, with one hand in his pocket and the other to support the cigarette, beginning to point out the various books and telling everyone the story: how they came into his possession, how he had read them, whether he appreciated them or not. Tom, couldn't realize it, but for the first time, he was careful about something he would normally consider too boring for him. He followed every single story with enthusiasm, laughing at the right times and not asking too many questions in cases of sadness. They flew like this in the afternoon, among cigarettes, grass, and books, until they realized it was time to go.

Before going directly to the party, however, they passed by Tommaso's house, with the good fortune that his mother was not in the house. The red did everything he could to look for everything he needed for the evening and disappear from his home as soon as possible, running to his room to take everything he needed from the bedside drawers. But even Leonardo, like Thomas just before, had observed everything about the house he had just entered and, as soon as they were out of it, he could not help but exclaim, without thinking too much about it, the words: «Well, it ain’t much... » and burst out laughing, together with Tommaso next to him, to officially go to Fontana's.