“Would you think me a monster if I said yes?”
“No. Your dad is a bastard.”
“He’s not my dad, Charlie. Wasn’t long before he killed Mum.”
Mum. It was the first time Leo had ever referred to his mother like that in front of Charlie. On the rare occasions he’d mentioned her, it had always beenmy mumorWendy.Charlie wanted to stop a moment and consider what that meant, but with the shadows still absent from Leo’s clear gaze, he let it go. And with that release came an epiphany: the light in Leo was that of freedom. Justice had been served, and Leo and Lila could finally move on.
Charlie fiddled with the frayed edges of the bandage around Leo’s elbow. It was much smaller than the one Leo had arrived with so long ago, even with the minor surgery he’d endured a few weeks ago to repair the failed skin graft, and its shrinking size was yet another reminder of how far Leo had come in the last few months.
Leo sat up, mirroring Charlie’s pose, and gently reclaimed his arm, the wooden beads around his wrist rattling with the movement. “You seem different.”
“Different? Since when?”
Leo shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“What does?”
Leo had Charlie there. “Maybe it’s my hair. I had it cut after school.”
“Yeah, I noticed that. It’s shorter at the sides and longer on top. Like the dudes you’ve been drawing, right?”
Leo had little interest in art, but he seemed to like watching Charlie draw, like the stroke of the pens on the paper soothed him somehow. “Yes, it’s kind of manga style, but not as big. I’ve wanted it like this for ages, but—” Charlie broke off and fingered his hair that now rivalled Leo’s in length, though it was nothing like Leo’s wild curls. “I thought people would laugh at me, but I don’t care anymore.”
“I didn’t know you ever did.”
Charlie shrugged. “Neither did I really, but I suppose I must have done.”
“Now you’re not making sense.”
“Sorry.”
“Nah, Charlie . . . don’t be sorry. Not with me.” Leo was suddenly in Charlie’s face, his forehead finding its groove in Charlie’s, like they’d been made to be pressed together this way. “I wouldn’t be here without you. You know that, don’t you?”
Charlie gulped at the lump in his throat. He didn’t like to think about the rough months they’d lived through before Leo’s undiagnosed PTSD had finally broken him down. Leo’s crying in the night. The emptiness in his eyes. “What did I do?”
“You reminded me to be happy.”
“Are you happy, Leo?”
“I’m learning.”
It was a phrase Charlie had heard a lot recently, but it had never sounded as good as it did right now. Charlie grinned so hard his face hurt, and he lunged at Leo, but before their lips met in a kiss that Charlie needed as much as air, Fliss’s voice reached them, summoning them inside.
They both knew better than to ignore her. It was only last week that she’d turned the hose on them. With rueful groans, they hauled themselves up from the grass and jogged up the long garden.
Fliss waited for them at the back door. At first nothing seemed amiss, and then Charlie saw him—the tall, dark-haired man who hovered behind her. Charlie slowed to a stop, apprehension creeping into the persistent happy bubble in his belly. He’d heard rumours of Fliss having a new boyfriend, and had even expected to meet him sometime soon, but the unease in his gut wasn’t for him. Leo’s reactions to new people—newmen—were still unpredictable.
The obvious caution in Fliss’s face didn’t help. Her smile was forced as she stepped outside and beckoned the tall dude to follow. “This is Steve,” she said. “Steve, these two goons are my brothers.”
She stared hard at Charlie, clearly hoping that he could act normally enough to make up for whatever Leo was doing behind him. But as he opened his mouth to grind out a mechanical greeting, Leo breezed past him, stepping in front of him and extending his hand.
“Hi, Steve. I’m Leo.”
Charlie blinked, and the surprise in Fliss’s face mirrored his own, but as Leo glanced over his shoulder and spared him a playful wink, he mouthed three little words that meant the whole world.
I am Leo.
Charlie smiled and lifted his hand to sign back, “Yes, you are.”
