I turn to see Leo smiling at me.
"Did you do this?"
"Do you like it?"
"Are you kidding? This is the most amazing thing anyone's ever done for me!" I throw my arms around his neck and squeeze tight without even thinking. I feel tears welling up in my eyes and I blink them back. Then I feel him wrap an arm around my waist and squeeze back. Then he buries his head in the crook of my neck. I can feel his warm breath every time he exhales and for the first time in my life I feel my heart do this weird fluttering thing.
I slowly pull back.
"You okay?" He asks.
"Yeah, I just…I can't believe you did this for me."
"You said last night that you felt like you were losing yourself in here. I know how much that feeling can suck. I also know that when you're in here you can't afford to lose yourself. So I called in a favor and got you a piece of yourself back."
I try to find the words to express my happiness, but none come. Finally, I just lean forward and plant a small kiss on his cheek. "Thank you." I whisper, before quickly turning away as I can feel the blush creeping onto my cheeks.
I walk slowly over to the piano and press a key. The note resounds through the room and I sigh, my first real breath since I entered the hospital. Instantly I begin playing Moonlight Sonata. The room fills with the sound just for a moment before Leo cuts through. "Stop!"
"What?" I turn to him.
"You said you hate playing that stuff, right? So why is it the first thing you play?"
"Habit…I guess." I shrug, defensively.
"Play me something you actually like." He moves further into the room, taking a seat on my bed. I look at him for a moment, then turn back to the piano. I sit on the cushioned bench and think. What do I want to play for him?
I think for only a few minutes before the song pops into my head. I don't know why it's the only one to come to me, but I don't hesitate to play and sing it for him.
We'll do it all, everything
On our own
We don't need anything
Or anyone
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world
There is a moment of silence before I hear clapping, not just from Leo but also further behind me. I turn to find my friends smiling and clapping for me, as well as Nurses Brittany and Kenji. I smile and blush lightly. "Thanks you guys."
"You're really good!" Emma states.
"Yeah, maybe we should play together sometime." Jordi offers.
"Yeah, of course. That would be awesome." I answer.
"You didn't say you could sing too." Dash adds.
"I only sing a little. I'm not that good." I shrug it off.
"No, you really are." Leo is staring at me in a way I have never been looked at before when he says this. Our eyes lock and I smile shyly at the complement.
"Thanks."
"What song was that?" He asks.
"Chasing Cars. It's by this band I love, Snow Patrol."
"So, what? Now we're starting a band?" Kara interjects. I sigh and roll my eyes.
"Yeah, Kara, and it's actually lucky we have you because you know every band needs that one person nobody likes." I smile brightly at her.
"Whatever." She scoffs but doesn't add anymore bitchy comments. "How'd you get a piano in here anyway?" She adds.
"Oh, actually Leo surprised me with it." I smile at him. The entire rest of the group turns to him as well, only their looks are much more shocked than mine.
"Wow, Leo, man that's a serious mack move." Dash nods approvingly at him.
"Seriously, Dash?" Leo looks at him with a bit of a blush creeping into his cheeks.
"My bad." Dash smirks, looking not the least bit sorry.
"What are you talking about, Dash? Leo isn't into me, we're friends. Besides we've barely known each other more than a week." I laugh the idea off. Dash raises an eyebrow at me. I turn to Leo, confused. "We are just friends right?"
"Of course we are!" Leo responds quickly, the light blush still tinting his cheeks. "Dash just thinks since anytime he does something nice for a girl he's trying to get her, that it must be the same for every guy."
I smile contentedly, but somewhere in the pit of my stomach this conformation doesn't sit as well as I expected it to.
"Alright, whatever, I guess I'm wrong." Dash rolls his eyes at us. "Anyway, Piper you should definitely play more. It's nice having some good live music in this hospital."
"Yeah, you definitely sound better than Charlie's dad." Kara agrees. I look at her in mock amazement. "I can be nice." She justifies.
"I gotta go to therapy, but I'd love to listen to you play again later." Emma smiles.
"I'll walk you." Jordi offers. I raise an eyebrow to them.
"Okay." Emma smiles and after a small wave they walk off.
"We're leaving too." Dash said, signaling to Kara. "Kara's gonna show me a great place to conduct my business." He smiles before leading her off.
After they leave I turn back to Leo. "Is something going on between those two?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I don't know, I'm a bit nosy. Plus they always end up doing secret, probably illegal things together." I note.
"Yeah, they kind of do, don't they?" Leo scrunches his eyebrows together as he thinks on something.
"Hey, about what Dash said…" I start.
"Don't listen to Dash." Leo cuts me off. "We're friends, right? Friends do things to cheer each other up."
"I just wanted to say that I'm glad we're just friends. With cancer, and the possibility of surgery, and my own unfinished business back home I'm just really glad we can be friends and not complicate anything more than it already is." I explain.
"Your own unfinished business?"
"Well, you know how you and Emma are in this weird place because you broke up with her but neither of you actually got closure? Well, there's this guy back at my school named Trevor. He was my first long term boyfriend." I smile a bit as I think of him. "He was sweet and popular, an actor and wannabe composer and for some reason he liked me. Until he broke up with me, that is."
"He broke up with you?"
"Yep, with no real reason and no warning that I could pick up on. He tries to be my friend, but sometimes when we're alone together things get…complicated." I blush.
"Complicated…?" Leo looks at me.
"Like, oh hey I don't want to be with you but I totally just kissed you, complicated." I explain.
"Yeah, that sounds complicated." He nods.
"Right?" I sigh. "Which is why I'm going to say something to you I don't want you to be upset about."
"What's that?"
"Let Emma go. I know you say you don't care about her and Jordi liking each other, but you're still holding her back from moving on by not allowing you both to finish whatever it is you have to and moving in."
"But, I'm not trying –"
"I know. That's why, as your friend, I'm telling you that you guys need to talk. You need to let her know you don't want to be anything other than friends and let her speak her piece too."
"Yeah, okay." Leo stares out the window in my room for a moment before he sighs. "Hey, I'm gonna go. Enjoy the piano okay?" He smiles before leaving me.
I begin playing again.
As the days continue to pass I notice that I have connected with each of my new friends on a different level. When I was with Emma we just sat around reading books and talking about them. I felt like a girl with her, like a normal teenage girl with her friend.
With Kara, I felt more like a mother, but that's exactly what she needed. Someone who wouldn't step down to her fear tactics and tell her the truth even if she didn't want to hear it. She was vicious sometimes, said things that actually hurt me, but when I stuck it out and crack her shell I found the real Kara actually endearing.
With Dash, I was a bro, a wing woman, a friend. He often got us into the most mischievous situations and I imagined him to trickster incarnate. He bet on things he probably shouldn't. Being friends with Dash was like being friends with a more female obsessed Weasley twin. It was fun, if a bit dangerous, but at the end of the day he only had the best intentions.
In Jordi I found a brother. I'd never had siblings, but a brother was what I would've wanted if I'd had the choice. Jordi was like that brother, I'd wished for. He was sweet, if a bit immature at times. He could have a bit of a temper and hold a bit of a grudge, but he would listen to reason if you just gave him time to cool off. It was also really nice to be able to speak Spanish with someone other than my family. Most of my friends preferred to be Americanized, and while I didn't mind that I also loved my heritage and wanted to celebrate it as well. With Jordi I got that chance.
Then there was Leo, who I somehow began to spend most of my time with. I'd often find myself wandering to his room when I had nothing else to do. We would just talk, sometimes for hours before either of us realized how long we'd been together.
I found that my feelings for Leo were unclear. With everyone else I found where I belonged, but with Leo everything was a bit confusing. I wanted his friendship, but every now and then he'd look at me and that feeling would come back to my heart and mess everything up.
I wanted life to be as simple as it could be in the hospital. I was trying hard to avoid anything more complicated than it needed to be. My feelings for Leo were challenging that. They were much more complicated than I wanted them to be. Unfortunately I was about to find the situation could only get more complicated from here.
I was wandering in the directions of Leo and Jordi's room as usual a week after the piano incident when I overheard Leo and Emma talking. I thought I ought to turn and walk away, or at least make myself known, but like any nosy person I didn't.
"I just think you and I were always too different to work." I heard Emma saying.
"We were, but I want you as my friend." Leo responds.
"I want you as my friend too." Emma says and I think she may be smiling. "Besides, I think we both found people we can move on with."
"What do you mean?" Leo's voice is thick with confusion.
"Well, I really like Jordi and I think I'm going to give it a chance."
"Okay, but you said 'we both'. I don't have anybody." Ouch, that hurt in a way it shouldn't have.
"Are you being serious, Leo?" I guess he nodded. "You clearly have feelings for Piper." I freeze, barely breathing.
"No I don't, we're just friends. We even talked about it."
"You surprised her with her piano. You've never done anything that sweet for anyone, not even me when we were dating." Emma says, with a tone that said she couldn't believe how thick he was being.
"Yeah, but I just wanted her to be happy."
"Exactly."
"I don't have feelings for Piper. She definitely doesn't have feelings for me; she has a guy back home that things are confusing with. She just wants a friend." Leo defends.
"But if she didn't, you'd want to try wouldn't you?" This question is met with silence. "I thought so. It's really obvious to everyone except you guys it seems like. You're perfect for each other. Just don't mess it up this time Leo." There is a shuffle and I realize Emma might be leaving.
I jump quickly and then turn to rush off. Instead I crash directly into Nurse Jackson. "You should watch where you're going Piper." She says in a normal tone, but she might as well be yelling as far as I'm concerned.
"Piper?"I turn to see Leo and Emma in the doorway of his room staring at me. I can feel my face burning red.
"Hey, guys. I was just coming to see what you were up to but you look busy, which is cool, because I have to be somewhere now anyway so I'll just talk to you later, okay? Great, bye." I say all of this in one long horrified breath then turn and walk, very quickly as far away from them as I can get.
"Piper!" I hear Emma call after me but I don't stop. In this moment, I can't get too far away from them.
AN: Hey guys, I had a hard time getting this chapter done. I feel like I sort of lost the characters when they show was off for a week. Seems like lots of interesting stuff happened and I toyed with the idea of following the show on a very vague level, but (Spoiler Alert!) with Leo and Emma clearly a thing now I might drop that idea fairly quickly. Anyway, thanks for the reviews and likes and follows as always.
More songs will most likely follow, just a warning.