Picking Up the PiecesChapter Twenty - Part Two
Janelle
As soon as I shut the door behind me, I look forward to see a set of carpeted stairs leading upwards, and some going down to a garage, all from a little rectangle of flooring I’m standing on. I walk upstairs, and the amazement continues. Right in front of me from the wooden floored hallway is the kitchen, and to the right and down a small step is a huge, spacious living room.
I practically scream as Leo comes up behind me from the other end of the hallway. “Do you like the house?” he laughs.
“Um…yes, I like it! Gosh, this is awesome!” I reply, still looking around. “What’s that way?” I point to the other end of the hall.
Leo shrugs. “Just bedrooms, really, nothing special.” I nod. I look over to Leo, as if asking what we should do.
“Now’s probably the last chance you’ll have to go swimming,” he offers, so I nod.
When I step out of the glass windowed door, my feet touch green grass. The back yard is amazing as well. With a tiny pool house, I fireplace, a wooden canopy with curtains, chairs, and a table that surrounds a counter, there’s not much more to ask for! And the swimming pool is perfect, too.
As soon as I set my towel down on a chair under the canopy, I walk alongside the pool, trying to dip my foot in. I squeal and scream again as of course, Leo has to pick me up again and hold me over the water, before I even got the chance to feel it. “Don’t you dare, Leo!” I panic as I dangle over the pool.
“Relax, I won’t!” he laughs, and I kick playfully to try to free myself.
“You’re right, you won’t. I just have to stop believing you! Now put me down!” I giggle. My feet move towards the ground at the side of the pool, but I gasp as they hit water instead, as well as the rest of my entire body.
I resurface and brush my hair out of my eyes. “You said you wouldn’t!” I shriek, but I can’t stop laughing.
“I wasn’t going to, until you asked,” Leo tries to say innocently, jumping in after me. You know, you really have to watch your word choice around him.
After maybe an hour or so of the craziness in the pool, swimming in October, I finally climb out and grab my towel, wrapping it around myself as I immediately become freezing cold. I sit down on one of the colorful cushioned patio chairs, slightly shivering as I huddle in a little ball. The sun is setting right about now, and that’s what’s really beautiful in our town. Sunsets.
“You’re missing it!” Leo says, running over to me, grabbing my wrist, and pulling me up off the chair to one of the backyard walls. I can tell that the view would be amazing if we were to stand up there. So, I step on a large rock, put my palms on the stucco wall, and use what little upper body strength I have to push myself up, with the help of Leo trying to give me a boost. I stay crouched down on the wall until he stands up to take my hand, because I can guarantee you, I would probably wobble off if I didn’t have something to hold onto.
The sunset is beautiful; like an abstract painting of pink, yellow, orange, and the last sight of blue sky. It only lasts for a few minutes before the sun sinks behind the distant mountains, so we hop off the wall and I sit on a towel that is laying in the grass, watching the first few stars begin to show. I lay down on my back and Leo comes to sit next to me.
“What happened to your mom?” I ask curiously out of nowhere, but realize I may have made the wrong decision.
Leo sighs. “When I was thirteen, she died from Leukemia,” he says.
I press my lips together and feel my eyes widen as I turn on my side to look at him. “Oh my gosh…I’m so sorry Leo, I had no idea-”
“No, it’s okay,” he says plainly. “But my dad was already a doctor, but now he works at this major cancer center, working to hopefully find a cure, so that’s why we don’t see him much.”
All I can do is nod. Maybe Leo does know how I feel since I lost Eleanor. Neither of us say anything now, as we lay facing each other. Me, being myself, would screw up any moment if I were to open my mouth at the wrong time. Then my nose starts to twitch and Leo gives me a weird look as I squint my eyes, and try, yet fail, to hold in a sneeze. I actually wind up making a really strange squeaking noise. “So cute,” Leo laughs and I blush, but he’s trying to keep from cracking up. Stupid grass.
“Okay well I thought you’d like these three movies,” Leo says once we are inside as he gets a pile of DVDs from the TV cabinet. “There’s Finding Nemo-”
“YES!” I interrupt, snatching the movie from his hands and running over to the TV. Once the movie is in, we bring candy, popcorn, and tons of blankets to the huge, comfy, couch.
“CORAL! JUST LISTEN TO MARLIN! PLEASE, YOU’LL GET KILLED IF YOU GO IN THERE!” I yell at the screen, watching some evil animated shark thing attack a family of clownfish in the movie. I laugh at myself, overtired, and position myself on my side and put my head on Leo’s shoulder. It’s hard for me after a while to keep my eyes open, and I’m pretty sure I eventually drift off to sleep.
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