Just friends (Sanantha & Sinfulrook)

Alexis bounced along happily walking with Leo to her first class before spotting the rest of their friends outside the door. This seemed to be their unofficial meeting spot for all of them before they went to their classes and separated for the rest of the day. That caffeine buzz seemed to be helping and Alex made a mental note to write it down in her journal as a cure to her bad mornings.

The last two weeks of school passed in a blur of tests and homework for Alex as her honors and A.P. teachers piled everything on until exams. Sleepless night followed sleepless night and finally before she realized what was happening she was walking across the stage and shaking her teachers hand to accept her diploma. Mind in a daze she walked back to her seat and waited while the rest of her class got their diploma. With one final class picture of them throwing their caps Alex realized she’d done it and finally graduated high school and her and Leo would be off to their next big adventure.

Looking around the field she tried to spot her friend through the crowds. She’d lost him when they’d had to sit far apart during the ceremony and now for the pictures. With all of the families and students milling about in the field she couldn’t find anyone she knew in the sea of people, but even that couldn’t wipe the happy grin off her face.

Tomorrow Leo and her would be off driving across the country to settle into their apartment and live for a few months in town before college started in the fall. The wind snapped her hair about her face as she turned grinning and bouncing still looking for her friends and specifically Leo. She still couldn’t believe they’d done it, finally.

As the two weeks passed quickly, Leo was stressed beyond belief, but when it all finally ended, he was happy to graduate and start packing for the new apartment that him and Alex picked out to live in together. Once the day finally came that they had to move out, he was all packed and brought his car to Alex's house, parking the car outside and going to her front door.

He rang the doorbell of her front door and waited for her to answer the door. When she did he smiled. "Hey you, all set?" He asked her, hoping she was all packed and ready to go to their new home that they'd be sharing for the first time ever.

((Sorry, I can't think of anything more right now... Took me 30 minutes to write just this...))

She pulled the door open and bit her lip looking between him and the stairs leading back up to her room. There were a few boxes sitting down in the hallway but she still hadn’t packed all her clothes and she knew that Leo would probably be upset with her. “Um…Almost?” With that she let out a squeak and fled back upstairs and into her closet to start stuffing more of her clothes and shoes into boxes. She was panic packing and knew it. She’d have to iron and clean most of her closet clothes before she could put them back up on hangers.

Alex heard Leo enter her bedroom and made sure she stayed hidden in her closet. “Hey help me pack start with the dressers.” She kept stuffing things for a few more minutes before something hit her and with another loud squeak she yelled out into her room in a panicky tone “Just stay out of the top drawer of my wide dresser!”

Leo walked inside the house and heard her squeak, then followed her up to her room when she ran up there and looked at her dive into the closet. He then shrugged and went to go pack the things from her drawer, and was about to open the top drawer of her wide dresser and then stopped, sighing a little bit. He went into the closet and stopped her, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking at her. "Alex, calm down!" He told her and shook her a little bit. He then smiled at her and gave her a light and quick hug. "Don't worry, we have all day to get there." He said to her kindly. He wasn't going to get upset over this, he was finally moving out with his best friend whom he had a crush on for the longest time in the world.

He left the closet and then went to go pack her things from her dresser, making sure to leave the top one closed so she could do it on her own.

Biting her lip she looked up at Leo with his hands on her shoulders and gave a jerky nod as he shook her. She was panicking, the whole moving away from home was getting to her and Leo was helping to ground her mind. Hugging him back hard she gave another nod against his chest before he went back out into her room. Sighing she was glad she stopped him from packing that drawer, who wants their best friend to look at all their underwear.

Giggling to herself Alex admitted at least mentally that she wouldn’t mind it if Leo asked to see but she’d never tell him that. Shaking her head she finished stuffing her boxes full in her closet and struggled to shove them out and into her bedroom. Looking around she was amazed at Leo’s progress and jumped onto her bed using it to bounce her to the other side of it. “Holy crap, Leo! It’s almost all done…” She saw that most of her dressers were empty and grabbed her little suitcase from under her bed.

Picking it up she dropped it onto her bed and looked at her nightstand dragging out the drawers and dumping its contents into her suitcase quickly hoping Leo wasn’t looking. She saw her little purple vibrating massager bouncing in the bottom of her suitcase and blushed before folding the lid closed and turning around. Everything was now packed except that drawer and she looked over at Leo and pointed to the door while she stalked over to her dresser, “Out…I gotta pack this…”

Leo was a quick packer, and a neat one too. He had filled a few boxes and suitcases full of clothes and things that she had lying around her room, knowing she wanted to bring all of it with her to her apartment. When she jumped across her bed and dumped her drawers into her suitcase, he stood on the other end of the room near the door, closing up a luggage bag full of her things. Once she closed her suitcase and told him to get out of her room, he looked up at her and chuckled. "Don't want me to see your undies huh?" He asked with a hearty laugh and then grabbed a box or two to carry to his car. "No worries, I'll be carrying this down to my car anyways." He told her before he went out of her room.

His car wasn't that large, but it was enough to fit his things, as well as hers, into the back seat and trunk. Once he put her boxes into the back seat, he closed the door and went back up to her room, hoping she was done packing by the time he came back. "Almost done?" He asked her as he grabbed another box near the door, looking at her with a warm smile.

Blushing when Leo teased her Alex quickly grabbed her underwear from her drawers. Of course she didn’t want him seeing there were a lot of silks, satins and laces in that drawer. Alex giggled to herself about the fact that she simply felt more comfortable in lingerie than in normal underwear, unless the regular underwear were really cute. Stuffing her things into the suitcase she was done by the time he came back in and was just zipping her suitcase closed. “Yea it’s all packed…”

Looking around her now empty room she couldn’t help but sigh at the feelings of leaving home. Taking a moment to soak up the feeling of still being in her room she grabbed her suitcase and her pillow and trudged down the stairs towards Leo’s car grabbing her backpack and purse along the way. Putting her suitcase in the back she hopped into the front seat pulling her pillow onto her lap and dropping her backpack on the floor.

She didn’t have long to wait as Leo brought out her last two boxes and filled the car with their things. “Ready to go? I can’t help but feel weird leaving home…but it also feels good.” Giving a little toss of her head she smiled at her best friend. “Lets go…”

Once Leo finished packing her things into the car, he noticed the rear suspension was rather low, so he knew there was a lot of weight on the back of the car. He noted to himself that he'd have to drive more carefully and use his brakes more often than normal. As he sat in the driver's seat and started up the car, he buckled himself in and sighed, looking at her house one last time past her. "I know what you mean, Alex, but don't worry, we can visit our parents during the summer." He told her with a smile and put his car in drive.

The drive to their apartment was about three hours long without traffic, but since luck was not in their favor that day, or at least not in his favor, there was traffic, and lots of it. He hated nothing more than driving through an interstate during traffic hours. He hated the monotone accelerate and brake five seconds later, trying to switch lanes and nobody letting anyone through. He held on to one lane and never let anybody through. "God I hate traffic." He said as they were now completely stopped for about five minutes, leaning his elbow against the bottom of the window, his other hand holding the steering wheel. He was hoping she wouldn't get a little stir crazy, because that would just cause more problems.

Alex dozed against the window until they came to the heavy traffic about halfway through and Leo started to get antsy and grumpy. Coming to a full state of awareness she looked around and saw the heavy stand still traffic and shrugged closing her eyes and stretching in the cramped car. Its confines making her arch her back and push her arms back along the ceiling towards the back seat she yawned and heard her back pop in several places before the settled forwards into her seat again and blinked her bleary eyes at him.

She knew that she probably looked a mess, her hair was scrunched up and she could feel the lines from her pillowcase on her face as she scrubbed at it. Her voice was soft and husky as she tried to finish waking up again. “Don’t worry Leo, we’ve got time.” She nodded her head slowly at the traffic, “If you want we can stop and get some food or something and let most of this pass?” Shrugging her shoulders to indicate that it was up to him she twisted in her seat and curled her legs up under her and leaned over draping her arm over his shoulder and her head on top of her arm. She figured it was safe since they weren’t going anywhere and her secret reason was it let her be close to him, feel his warmth and smell his uniquely ‘Leo’ scent.

When he heard her speaking huskily with her voice, he sighed and tried to calm down. She was right, they had plenty of time, but he wanted to at least make it to the apartment and set up their beds and bathroom before the day was over. He didn't want to sleep clothed and on just the mattress that was already there and waiting for him. They had two separate rooms, both next to each other's, so they would be able to easily sneak into each other's rooms no matter what. Suddenly, Leo felt her arm draping around his shoulder, and then getting weighed down more when her head rested on her own arm. He turned to look at her and smiled a bit, liking the way she was resting against him like that.

"Alright, we'll stop for a late lunch, the nearest food place is only a mile away, so hopefully we can get there soon." He said with a smile and turned to look that the traffic was starting to move a little bit. He accelerated slowly and followed the traffic, stopping every now and then to a complete stop. He then heard an ambulance and a fire truck blaring their sirens as they passed by on the shoulder slowly. "Well, that explains everything." He said as he saw the flashing lights go by them. He sat back with one hand on the bottom of the steering wheel and the other gently going up to pet Alex's hair a bit. He could smell her scent as well, and he loved it, it was so unique, but he wouldn't dare tell her that, he didn't want the possibility of ruining their friendship.

Alex wouldn’t admit to anyone just how comfortable she was leaning against Leo’s shoulder just relaxing and taking in his warmth and smell as he drove slowly with the traffic and worked his way to the next exit and several fast food restaurants. She strained to see what the emergency vehicles had gone ahead for but she saw that all along the highway for at least several more miles was congested traffic. “Maybe it really is a good thing we stopped; it looks like traffic is backed up really bad.” Her fingers were swirling in abstract patterns on Leo’s upper chest from the arm she had draped on his shoulder as she thought about what they should do.

“Hopefully it gets cleared up, otherwise we’ll have to find another way around or find someplace to sleep.” Shrugging she laid her head back on her arm for a few moments until Leo pulled up to a restaurant and she scooted back to her side of the car with a little sigh and pulled on her shoes. Feeling the loss of her contact and the warmth and comfort it spread through her Alex hopped out of the car stretching again this time arching her back and reaching up high, she felt her shirt ride up exposing her stomach before she dropped her arms and bent down to touch her toes. When she was all stretched out she skipped over to Leo and put her arm through his linking their elbows. “I hate how cramped car rides are…”

The entire time that they were stuck in traffic, Leo was angsty and getting frustrated more and more, but when Alex first put her arm around him on his shoulder, he felt at ease and calmer than ever. After about twenty minutes stuck in traffic, they finally made it to the exit. He let her pick the fast food place they'd be going to to get some lunch, and so he drove there slowly and carefully. Once the car was parked, he turned off the ignition and grabbed the key, getting out of the car and locking it once they were out of the car. He stretched along with her, except he did it in the opposite order. He bent down first to reach his toes, but he never could, but then stretched his arms up and bent his back backwards, feeling it crack a little bit.

When she linked their elbows, he felt that fuzzy and warm feeling inside himself again. "Yeah, I hate it as well... At least we're out and about for a little while." He said with a smile and squeezed her arm just a little bit, leading her towards the fast food place. "Get anything you want, my treat." He told her with a smile as he opened the door for her and let her go in first, looking at the menu while they stood back and away from the counters. He was going to get something not too filling, but enough to keep them filled until they got to their place.

From the corner of her eye Alex watched as Leo stretched his muscles clearly defined under his shirt and his pants showing off his firm butt when he bent over. Biting her lip she mentally gave herself a little shake and told herself to get it together before he noticed her acting strange. As they walked inside Alex looked up at the menu glancing back and forth between several things that sounded good and rocked from side to side as she put her weight on each foot. She knew it was a nervous habit that she had when she couldn’t decide on something and she grabbed Leo’s arm again to make herself stop and stand still.

“Um…I guess I’ll just get a burger and a small fry…” Biting her lip again this time she gnawed at it for a moment wishing she had a bigger stomach because the chicken nuggets looked amazing as well. Giving a quick shake of her head she stepped forwards dragging Leo with her and put her order in before letting his hand go and rushing over to the drinks before she could try to change her mind and order something else. Quickly finding a seat she sat down and waited for Leo her feet kicking in the air as her legs were too short to reach the floor.

Leo noticed Alex rocking side to side as she looked at the menu, then felt her cling to his arm again. He chuckled and nodded when she said what she'll get. When she grabbed her cup for her drink, he made the fry a medium, and ordered the chicken nuggets, knowing that she loved those things. When he got his cup for a drink, he waited for the order before going to set the food down on the table that she picked to sit at. "We can share." He said with a smile to her and then went to go pour his drink.

As soon as he got his drink, he came back to sit across from her. He grabbed a few fries and munched on them slowly. "How's the burger?" He asked her as he watched her eat it slowly. Hopefully she would share that burger, because he was willing to share the chicken nuggets. He took a nugget and dipped it in ketchup, chewing it slowly. He enjoyed spending time with Alex, even if it was just during lunch breaks. Come to think of it, he'd be spending a lot more time with her now, and he wouldn't want it any other way.

Alex bounced in her seat seeing that Leo got chicken nuggets and offered to share. Unwrapping her burger she took a big bite out of it and right then Leo asked how it was. Glaring at her best friend Alex slowly worked on chewing the huge bite. She watched as he finished a chicken nugget before she could even finish chewing, with that she shoved her burger up against his lips and waited for him to take a bite as she swallowed the huge bite she’d taken before snatching up a nugget and eating it plain with a hum of pure bliss.

Her face seemed to be stuck in a permanent grin as they finished lunch, she’d flicked a few fries at him and had shoved more than one chicken nugget into his mouth as they played around and ate waiting on traffic to clear up. Looking out the window towards the highway she asked Leo over her shoulder, “Hey, do you think it’s cleared up or should we find a way around it or what?”

Leo munched on the burger as she almost literally shoved it in his face and then took it in his hands just as his teeth sunk it, watching her grab a nugget for herself to munch on. He chuckled a bit just as his top teeth met the bottom ones, and chewed his food slowly with a smile. He would flick fries back at her for payback, but mostly just fed them to her. They acted like they were out on a date, but they were just friends who did silly and childish stuff like this all the time. When they had finally finished their meal, he finished up his drink and was ready to go get a refill, but her voice stopped him. He sat back down and looked out the window that she was looking out of.

"Not sure... We could probably see if we stepped outside. I think we should wait a bit longer, go hang out by the car or something." He told her and looked over at her. "Do you mind waiting a bit longer?" He asked as he got up and went to get his refill, filling it with tropical punch like he always does. The carbonation was never a good thing for him, not only would he burp loudly, he would burp something that smelled funkier than a 2-week-old gym sock. He came back quickly and sat down across from her again.

Sitting back with a sigh she just nodded, “Alright we can wait a while but what should we do?” Alex knew that her boredom was bound to set in if they waited for very long at all. Trying to find something to do she looked around the restaurant wanting to make sure she didn’t embarrass or irritate Leo with her boredom and attention issues. Swinging her feet back in forth under the chair she felt herself already starting to get jittery and decided to put her hands under her butt to sit on them to keep semi-still.

Giggling she watched Leo and tried to behave but couldn’t, “I’m bored….” With that she picked up her straw wrapper and scrunched it up into a little ball before flicking it at Leo’s head. “Leo….” Dragging out his name Alex gave him her best puppy dog eyes that she could do, “entertain me!”

Leo flinched a bit after she flicked the wrapper at him and then chuckled a bit. "Come on, we'll go take a walk." He told her and slowly got up, holding his drink in one hand and grabbing the tray to carry it to the trash. After he dumped everything in the trash, he put the tray on top of the others to stack, then went back to Alex. "We'll go see how bad the traffic is still." He told her with a smile and reached his hand out to her. He was ready to take her by the hand and lead her out of the place, and out towards the nearby bridge. He didn't know how to entertain her, mostly because they had no way to entertain each other.

Taking his hand Alex tried to drag Leo out of the restaurant while she skipped her feet. Stepping outside Alex twisted and hopped up onto Leo’s back wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing. “Carry me! Wheeee!” Being really bored made Alex act completely crazy and stupid, apparently her loud playful, hyper actions were the way that was being expressed today. Lifting one hand Alex ruffled Leo’s hair and leaned down putting her head over his shoulder and whispered into his ear.

“Traffic looks fine from up here…” Looking down Alex felt like doing something daring, acting a little on her crush for her best friend and being teasing and playful and mean at the same time. Pulling her head back a little she bit down on his shoulder and growled at Leo before letting go and running away through the parking lot laughing as she tried to get back to the car.

Leo almost stumbled forward as Alex jumped onto his back, but he managed to steady himself and catch her at the same time. He held her legs and carried her slowly around, noticing that the traffic was practically gone from what it was before. As she bit into his shoulder, he wanted to yelp out in a groan, but then he felt her jump off him and run away. "Hey!" He said and rubbed his shoulder, watching her run towards the car. It was locked, so unfortunately for her, she would have to wait for him. That bite on his shoulder wasn't an ordinary bite... It felt different.

"You need to learn to control your boredom." He said while still rubbing his shoulder while trying to grab his key from his pocket. As he finally unlocked the car, he sat in the driver's seat and buckled in after starting it up. He waited for her to buckle down before he put the car in drive and drove slowly away from the restaurant and towards the exit. The traffic seemed mostly clear, so it seemed like they will get to their place in no time.

Laughing as she ran she heard him yell behind her before she bounced up to his car. Her body was still shaking in delight at her playfulness as well as at the fact that she’d gotten to do something so daring to the boy she cared for so deeply. Once he’d started the car she hopped inside buckling her seatbelt and stuck her tongue out at him for his comment about her boredom. When he’d started to drive she turned in her seat pulling her knees up to her chest, “Maybe you should entertain me so I won’t be so bored.”

Watching Leo as he drove gave Alex time to admire his profile taking in his firm physique without seeming like she was actually checking out her best friend. She crossed her arms on her knees and put her chin down onto them, “We really need to find word games or something to do during trips…like I-spy, or the license plate game. You’re so serious when you drive…” she gave a soft “hmmph” noise and kept staring at him.

As Leo drove, with the corner of his eyes he could tell that she was shifting around and was getting stir crazy, again. When she mentioned games, he thought about playing I spy, but he had hoped that it wouldn't hinder his driving. "Sorry if I'm so serious, but I just don't want to risk your life." He said, then after a short bit realized that he didn't say his own life, but her life instead. In a way, he meant that he loved her and wouldn't put in her in danger, but he hoped she wouldn't say anything about what he said.

"Alright, let's play I spy then, if you want to so badly." He said with a chuckle. "Or we can play 20 questions." He tossed in another idea there and waited for her response. He kept his eyes out on the road the whole time he spoke, feeling that she was getting bored by the second. They only had about an hour or two left until they were at their new home.

“But we already know practically everything about each other, why would we play 20 questions? “ Alex was still bouncing in her seat bored and wondering when or if they would ever get to their apartment. “How much further?” struggling to keep the whining tone from her voice Alexis knew she would probably drive Leo crazy before they ever got to college. “Oooh! I know we can play truth or dare!”

Grinning she looked at Leo wondering if he’d even go for the game. “And no silly stupid stuff either, only stick to fun questions or dares.” Putting on her best puppy dog face she waited hoping he’d look at her and give in to the idea. For some reason Alex wanted Leo to play and ask her questions he normally wouldn’t as well as daring her to do things, it was outside their normal pattern of friendship, and Alex felt the need to just keep pushing those limits and patterns.

"Well maybe we could play 20 questions by pretending to be something else, like an animal or acelebrity." He suggested just before she suggested truth or dare. "Do we have to?" He asked her and then turned to look at her, noticing her puppy dog eyes. That face always got to him, and he could never say no to her that way. "Alright fine we can play, I'll go first." He said to her, waiting a little bit.

"Truth." He said without her having to ask her. He was going to take this one slow, since he couldn't do many dares. He was curious to know what she was going to ask him. There were very few dares that he could do, but when he did think of one he could do, he blushed a bit to himself, still waiting on her question for his truth.

Clapping her hands and grinning in victory she watched as Leo caved to her puppy dog eyes and settled into her seat again as he chose truth. Groaning in disappointment Alex decided that she’d have to use this opportunity to pry into his love life, or crushes because as long as she’d knowing him Leo had never been one to have a steady girlfriend. “Hmmm, Alright then, who was your biggest crush?” She stared at his face waiting to see how he would react.

At the same time her own heart was hammering inside of her chest, she wanted him to say her but she knew intellectually that he’d never say her name. That knowledge crushed her a little inside but she still wanted to know who he really liked so that maybe she could slowly change some little things about herself to make him more attracted to her, and maybe one day gain his attention. Unconsciously she bit her lip nervously, not knowing that she did that every time she wanted to know an answer but didn’t at the same time.