Leo woke up to a faceful of black hair and an uncomfortable amount of physical contact.
He and Nico's limbs were intertwined awkwardly, Nico's leg stretching across his torso and Leo's arms somehow under and over Nico's body. There was much too much contact in all the wrong places and it made Leo's stomach sink in the oddest way possible. Leo wriggled his way out of bed with a flushed face, took a deep breath, and began his day.
He got dressed before Nico could wake up - if he took too long, there would be an awkward conversation about who would change where and that just meant extra discomfort. Leo was content to change in the bathroom. He slipped on his binder and put on his best pair of jeans and his nicest oversized Goodwill shirt. He finger-gunned his reflection and ran his hands through his hair.
Leo had not planned his speech. He knew his basic talking points: definitely an apology was in order, and maybe he could ask her out and they could do something more Callie's speed. First, he would need to figure out what Callie even liked.
Maybe she liked buff guys. Leo's own scrawniness was one of his main insecurities. It was something he really hated about himself, and always correlated it to his lack of a relationship. He got on the ground and began to do push ups.
He thought about digging out his old 1980s jazzercise VHS, the one his mom would watch every Monday, but something told him that wouldn't impress Nico - not that he was trying to impress Nico, but he didn't exactly want to make a fool of himself in front of him. Besides, every single routine he had tried would never stick - ADHD made routines hard for Leo. It was a wonder he showed up to work on time.
Besides the fact that he skated everywhere, he got little to no exercise on a day-to-day basis. So, he ended up wheezing five push-ups in. Leo flopped over and groaned, realizing there was no point in overexerting himself because he wasn't going to get ripped in the time before it took to get to Callie's.
Nico opened the door to the bathroom, a bemused expression forming on his face when he saw Leo lying on the floor. "Why are you just laying there?" Nico asked, prodding Leo with his socked foot.
Leo sat up, running a hand through his hair and hoping his face wasn't too flushed. "Uh, I assume you're ready to leave?"
"Yeah, just need to use the bathroom."
Leo nodded. "Go ahead." His mind was scrambled. He slipped past Nico and left the bathroom, hoping his baggy clothes would conceal his skinny frame and that Callie really liked non-muscly dudes.
…
"Are you nervous?" Nico asked. He had to take over driving the car after Leo nearly hit two stoplights and a stray cat. Apparently, Leo was not good at driving under anxiety.
Leo's back straightened. "What? No? What made you say that?" His voice squeaked at the end.
Nico snorted. "Maybe the fact that your hands are shaking?"
Leo shoved his hands under his legs. "No, they're not, actually."
"How about the way you keep looking around randomly? Or how you keep mumbling random shit? What about the way your leg keeps jiggling?" Leo stopped doing all three of those things immediately in that order.
"Doesn't mean I'm nervous," Leo said, crossing his sore arms and mocking Nico's voice by deepening his own. Nico rolled his eyes.
"Oh, cut the shit. You're nervous."
Leo uncrossed his arms and tapped his fingers against the center console. "Okay, fine. I am nervous," he admitted.
"Thank you. Well, I'm sure she will accept your apology," Nico said. "Just don't be stupid."
"Okay!"
After a small fight over the CD album, Nico put on a Red Hot Chili Peppers album, nearly snapping the disk as he shoved it into the CD slot. "Just listen to the music and relax." Leo slowly nodded. "And stop making your hands shake like that."
"Wha- I can't control that!" Leo complained, holding out his hands, which were vibrating nonsensically. "See?" He shook his hands for effect.
"Yeah, I'm not blind," Nico said. "Fine." He grabbed one of Leo's shaky hands and intertwined it with his own, squeezing it comfortingly. His hand was cold. "Sit on your other hand."
Leo froze up, relaxing a bit under Nico's touch. "Oh. Thanks."
"Not a big deal." Nico looked at the road pointedly, clinging to the wheel with his left hand.
…
"Well, here we are."
The ride had been rather low-key. They listened to random punk-rock albums and held hands. The gentle rocks of the vehicle managed to soothe Leo a bit.
They arrived at Callie's house shortly. It was on the outskirts of town, so it took a little while, but they got there in the end. Nico stopped the car, parking by the curb.
Nico rubbed a little circle on the back of Leo's hand. "Go on," he said, releasing Leo's hand. "Go get her."
"I think I'm gonna blow chunks, dude." He looked like he was being serious.
Nico's nose wrinkled. "Uhh, don't?"
"I won't, probably." Leo took a deep breath. "I'm going in," he said dramatically, as though he was going on a dangerous, life-threatening mission.
"Okay, Jack Swigert," Nico snorted. "You're apologizing to your girlfriend, not landing on the fucking moon."
"Thanks for the 'good luck'," Leo grumbled, unbuckling his seat belt and sliding out of the car.
He steadied himself as he walked, tucking his hands into his pockets and then taking them out and retucking them anxiously. Leo flicked his eyes back at Nico and nervously smiled before sprinting up to the door of Callie's house. It was in an older part of town, so the house was a little more run-down. Leo rang the doorbell.
About a minute later, Callie answered the door.
Her perfect, cinnamon-y hair was up in a messy bun. She was wearing a matching pajama set, with long sweats and a little tank top. Pretty.
Then, Leo noted her expression - Callie, who was usually sunshine-y and smiley, resembled a bull seeing red. Terrifying.
Her eyes narrowed further when they set on Leo. "What are you doing here?"
For someone dressed in such an elegant pair of pajamas, she looked like she could rip Leo to shreds.
To say she was pissed would be an understatement. Leo opened his suddenly-dry mouth. "...I'm sorry," he said stupidly, blurting out the first thing he could think of.
"Excuse me?" Callie made a move to slam the door, but Leo intercepted her move by propping his foot into the doorframe, stopping the door with his foot. The door made a painful thud as it collided with his shoe.
"Wait, wait, wait!" He moved his hands in panic, wincing from the pain, which had suddenly made his voice turn squeaky. "Hear me out, hear me out."
Callie raised an eyebrow, but she didn't shut the door or say anything else, so Leo decided to speak regardless. "I'm listening, I guess," she muttered.
"I know I'm an ass. I know I was being stupid, but I was drunk!" Leo reasoned. Callie looked down at him- she had a couple inches on Leo. "Anyway, I promise I'm not normally like this. In fact, I'm normally better. So...wanna give this dating thing another shot?"
Callie smiled. "No."
Leo deflated. You can physically see his soul leave his body. "Why not?" He genuinely thought his plan was going to work.
"Why not?" Callie challenged. "Maybe because you showed up at my house at nine in the morning to give me a half-assed apology?"
"But -"
"How did you even find my address?"
"Um, the phone book?"
Callie's face set into disgust. "That's creepy, and we're over, Leo," she announced, rolling her eyes to set in her point. "You were a bad boyfriend. I know I'm not even the one you wanted to go to that stupid dance with," she said cryptically.
Leo stopped, rewinding her words in his head. "Wait, wait. Hold on, I wanted to go to the dance with you."
Callie smiled tightly. "Sure. It didn't seem like it, though," she added airily.
Leo's brow furrowed. "Actually though, that doesn't make any sense, I-"
"If you're just gonna babble, leave," Callie scoffed, flipping a bit of hair for dramatic effect. "Goodbye, Leo." Callie kicked his foot out of the doorway and slammed the door for real that time.
Leo recoiled in emotional pain. He could hardly even feel the sting of the door hitting his foot or the sharp wind in his face or note any sense of time passing.
He just felt pain.
Leo stood there, the words 'goodbye Leo' echoing in his mind, over and over again, a broken record repeating itself. He felt frozen as he stood at the doorstep of the girl who he thought he liked, arms tied to his sides, feet rooted in place.
What grounded him back to reality was a careful hand on his shoulder.
"Leo." His voice was soft. "Come on."
Leo felt himself nod, and then Nico was leading him back to the car by his hand.
…
Nico had no idea what the fuck he was supposed to do when comforting someone.
Leo was still like a statue. Nico didn't know what to say, what to do. "Leo? Are you okay?" he asked stupidly. Like, I know you got your heart broken probably, but I just wanna make sure if you're chill or not.
Leo gave a vague grunt and sighed, covering his face with his hands. "I don't even know, Nico," he replied, voice hoarse. "What did I do wrong?"
"I don't know," Nico said, honestly.
Leo sunk in his seat. "Life just loves to fuck me over. The second someone is anywhere close to liking me like that, poof! Gone. Now I'm back to square one." He sulked in his seat, normally twitchy fingers remaining still.
"I thought I finally got a girlfriend, I finally filled in the last bit of my life, kinda, and then she stomps on my heart."
"I- Leo…" Nico said, not knowing what to say. "Don't get mad at her for that. And don't get mad at yourself. Sometimes relationships just...don't work out." Nico reached a hand out before faltering.
Leo removed his hands from his face. He wasn't crying, but his eyes were sharp. "What do you know?" Leo snapped. "You aren't in a relationship."
Nico closed his eyes. "You're right, I'm not in a romantic relationship right now," he voiced, confessing to the backs of his eyes. "But I have a stepmother and a father. I don't necessarily get along with either of them. We don't have much of a relationship at all."
"That's different," Leo decided. He looked odd while standing still- his hands weren't twitching, his leg wasn't bouncing. He didn't look like Leo. Leo was a choppy river, churning and overflowing and hitting the riversides with great might. This Leo was a still pond, a moment of calm before disaster struck.
Nico grunted. He was going to have to dig deeper for examples - examples he wasn't keen on discussing. Ones buried in the depths of his mind, concealed under layers and layers of coping mechanisms.
"Well, I also dated a guy last year." Leo blinked. He didn't know that. "And things were great, but we didn't work out. We both realized this together and accepted it, because life is like that sometimes." Nico's words were awkward and clunky, like he was forcing the words out of their hiding place.
"Why not?" Two words, yet so many answers could be attributed to that.
"I guess we were just...different," Nico said carefully. "I wasn't the most healthy mentally, and I wasn't really confident in being out. He was training to be a doctor and he kept talking about fixing me and it made me uncomfortable. Like I was his pet project or something."
"Gross."
Nico chuckled, the sound tasting of dark chocolate. "I mean, he wasn't a bad guy or anything," Nico quickly clarified. "He had good intentions, and I still hold fond memories - it was my first relationship, after all. He helped me through a lot, but ultimately, we would have gone different paths in life. We still talk sometimes. Rarely. But we do."
Leo smiled, leaning back in the car seat. "That's good. You're very mature, Nico."
Nico bit his cheek. "I guess I just grew up too fast in some regards. Lost my mother, then my sister, and then I just had to be an adult." Nico sighed. "I wish I could have had a normal childhood."
"I feel that," Leo said. "But hey, it's good to be a kid sometimes. Don't be afraid to act your age. It's never too late to catch up on your childhood."
Nico reached over the center console and wrapped his arms around Leo awkwardly. Leo flinched, surprised Nico was initiating physical content. He turned into Nico's body, slotting his body against Nico and resting his head in the crook of Nico's neck. He relaxed into Nico's arms, avoiding the way the cupholder dug into his stomach.
"How about we get Burger King after this?" Leo whispered into Nico's ear.
Leo could feel goosebumps form on Nico's skin. Electrifying.
"Okay," Nico said, pulling away from Leo.
His face was red.
...
Surprisingly, Leo found himself forgetting about Callie pretty quickly.
As the days went by, he didn't even really think about her much. His thoughts were on the new Pokemon movie and cars and school and other more important things. During work, he would just go on autopilot, thinking about what he'd get his friends for Christmas or whether or not that dimple on Nico's left cheek was always there.
November passed by like a blur. Orange leaves died off, the temperature dropped heavily, and shipments of Christmas movies would arrive at the Blockbuster out of nowhere. On top of that, the pressure was on for scoring well on midterms and getting good grades for the semester.
Leo couldn't focus on some lecture or sit there and take notes - it wasn't how he learned best. However, the teachers all expected him to learn that way. He couldn't retain information well because of how they taught and it managed to frustrate even the nicest of his teachers.
All of the teachers would call Leo 'lazy' or 'stupid' just because he wasn't the best at focusing in class or learning in the way they wanted to. It wasn't his fault, his brain was just wired differently, especially with the presence of his ADHD and dyslexia. But teachers didn't care about that.
"Get your grades up, Valdez, or I'm…"
"You have a lot of potential..."
"...troubles at home…"
"We're looking into possible tutors…"
"If you don't get at least a…"
"...I'm going to have to…"
Their voices overlaid and melded together in his head until all he could think about was how badly he was doing.
Fortunately, his friends noticed, and ended up stepping in to help him clean up his act a bit.
Eventually, movie nights became study sessions after it was clear everyone needed the extra help - especially Nico and Leo, who had work and school and thus struggled to keep up with their homework. All four of them (and sometimes even Thalia and Reyna) would sprawl out on the floor of Jason's basement and cram for tests and complain about their work.
They all struggled with different subjects and all had different learning styles. Jason was the kind to have meticulously color-coded notes, Leo was more for hands-on stuff, Nico was good at memorization, and Piper had to talk about the subject with someone else just to understand it.
They would tutor each other in little groups and explain to each other subjects they barely understood. Piper was somehow naturally good at French but didn't understand any of the conjugations, making her lessons especially confusing.
Even though Leo was failing the most classes by far, he wasn't a complete liability - he was great at teaching math and Spanish. "Come on, Jason. You don't even have to have stellar pronunciation." He shuffled the flash cards in his hands.
"Um, estar de vacaciones, means to go on vacation." Jason pronounced 'de' as 'day', but Leo was too good of a sport to mock him.
"Nice one, Jace!"
Surprisingly, Nico ended up being the best tutor. He was decent in nearly every subject, understood everyone's teaching styles, and was level-headed enough to teach even the most stubborn of students (Leo).
"Leo, your essay sucks."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, your introduction paragraph reads, 'The War of 1812, which took place in the year 1812, had adverse effects on the world. The War of 1812 was mostly fought in the U.S. (the United States of America), in the year 1812 particularly. I consider this the main reason the War of 1812 was named the War of 1812, although there might have been other reasons as to why the War of 1812 was named the War of 1812.'"
"So?"
Even with Leo's stubbornness, Nico managed to get certain concepts through his head - ones Leo thought he was broken for not understanding properly. "It's like, Pokemon. Repeating your points like that when you need to fill out the word count isn't very effective, but expanding and creating new talking points is more effective."
"How do I do that more easily?" Leo was eager to learn when the things he was supposed to be learning flowed from Nico's lips.
"Read out your essay and compare it to the facts, then try to add onto the points you made instead of stretching them thin."
"Oh! I can do that. I just need to work part-by-part."
"Like a machine," Nico ventured.
"Like a machine," Leo repeated.
Nico felt an odd sense of pride when Leo ended up with an A- on the essay.
School was putting everyone on edge. For Jason, Piper, and Leo, it was junior year, which meant thinking about college and careers and the SAT. All of it was stressing Leo out especially- he didn't know if he wanted to seek higher education or go right into working or what. Times like this made him ache for his mother.
What he would give to just be able to ask his mom for advice. She had first-hand experience, as she was a college grad herself. More than that though, his mother always knew what to say, what would comfort him. She'd joke around with him and explain everything the way he would understand it and it would all just make sense.
At least Leo wasn't the only one who was confused on what he was going to do in life.
Surprisingly, Jason was just as unsure as he was. Piper was dead-set on being an environmentalist and Nico was just a sophomore so it wasn't as impertinent to him yet.
But Jason, who always seemed so stable, didn't know what he was doing in life either.
"I'm just not really that interested in any of the choices," Jason said, running his hands along the seams of the couch absentmindedly. Piper and Nico were preoccupied playing a game of Mario Kart together. Somehow, during their lesson, they (Piper) managed to convince Jason and Leo that Mario Kart would help her with physics.
Leo hummed along. "I get that as well." He groaned in frustration. "All these stupid teachers acting like it's the end-all be-all...we're still just sixteen! We're kids! We're supposed to mess around and shit, not stress about the future. It's only Junior year, for fuck's sake."
Jason took off his glasses, rubbing them with his shirt. "I feel you," Jason muttered. "I mean, I'm sure I'll get into a college. I have a fund set up, and I'm class president and in Honor Society, so I bet they'll eat that up," Jason acknowledged. "But I don't know what I want to major in."
"I don't even know if going into college would be a good idea," Leo said. "'M family isn't the most well off…" he muttered, embarrassed at the fact. "So I could be putting myself in debt just to go somewhere I don't wanna go."
Jason smiled. "Glad we're in the same boat." He sighed, leaning into Leo's side. "Maybe we could try working a job first? Have an apartment together?"
The word 'we' made Leo's heart soar. "Are you and her gonna move in together?" He was careful to make sure Piper wasn't listening, just in case.
Jason let out a gust of air. "I don't know if I wanna start discussing that. What if she thinks I'm too weird for thinking so far in the future? We could break up or something, too."
"Wow, optimistic much?" Leo chuckled. "I definitely want us all to keep living in the same city, though."
Jason nodded. "I love you, man. We gotta stick together." He stuck out his fist.
"I'd say bros before hoes, but that's rude and Piper is my bro as well." Leo accepted his fist bump and smiled. "What are you considering? I think mechanical engineering, like my mom, would be awesome, but I also don't do well with cramming and stuff."
"Dude, I don't know. But I'm sure we'll figure it out together."
"We always do."
Together.
It was the little moments like this, the feeling of belonging, the sense that people actually liked you, the rare stability in life, that made Leo happy.