Page 41 of Dared

He sighed but fell silent. We both lay on our backs, staring up at the dark ceiling.

“I’msorry. I wish I’d been there.”

Leo inhaled sharply, and then he shifted over, nudging under my arm until I had it curved around him and his arm was slung across my waist.

“You don’t need to be sorry, either. I don’t want to be dependent on you or anyone.” He stretched to kiss my jaw. The light touch gave me a shiver. “I’m glad we’re here now, though.”

“Me too,” I said, closing my eyes and allowing sleep to drag me under.

17

When I made it downstairs in the morning, Leo was standing at the kitchen counter wearing a pair of my joggers and one of my hoodies, his hair damp from the shower, pouring water from the kettle into a collection of mugs while my mum buttered thick slices of toast.

“…No, it doesn’t really hurt anymore. It was only a brief jab. Finn did a good job of looking after me.”

I froze in the doorway. Leo was voluntarily telling my mum about last night? Why did that realisation bring a lump to my throat?

“He’s a good boy.” My mum smiled. “I think you should have two more paracetamols with your breakfast, even so. I want you to take care of yourself, love. No more putting yourself into situations where you could get hurt, okay? If you need a quietplace to go, you know our home is yours, whether Finn’s here or not.”

Placing the kettle down, Leo stared at her, wide-eyed. “Um.” He licked his lips. “I will. Thanks.” I thought he was going to stop there, but he carried on speaking, his voice growing soft and impossibly sad. “I wish…I wish my dad understood me like you do.” His lip wobbled, and I went to rush forwards, but my mum got there first, dropping the butter knife and wrapping her arms around him. I could see his body tremble, and it took everything in me to hold myself in place, but this wasn’t a moment for me to interrupt.

When they drew apart, I could see the glistening tracks of tears on Leo’s cheeks.

“I-I’ve never had a hug from a mum before. Not since I was a baby, and I can’t remember that.”

Fuckinghell. I couldn’t stay where I was any longer. As I barrelled into him, I saw my mum turn, discreetly wiping away her own tears. I glanced at her over Leo’s shoulder, holding out my arm, and she took the invitation. I hugged them both, so fucking grateful that I had a family who had made Leo feel so welcome, to the point where he wasn’t afraid to share the important things with them.

“Well…” My mum dabbed at her eyes again before giving me a tremulous smile. “I don’t know about you boys, but I think this situation calls for a nice cup of tea. Finn, do you want to grab the milk and help Leo finish making it while I get this toast buttered?”

I nodded, releasing Leo after kissing his temple. As I moved towards the fridge, I noticed my brother hovering in the doorway, shifting from foot to foot. He must’ve been standing right behind me, and I wondered how much he’d overheard. He glanced at me, then at Leo, then at my mum, and finally, back at Leo. Squaring his shoulders, he walked into the kitchen,straight up to Leo, who was fishing teabags out of the mugs, and threw his arms around him from behind. Leo startled, sending the teabag on his spoon to the counter with a wet splat, but he recovered quickly, his lips curving upwards as he squeezed Ed’s arm.

Ed went to move away, but he didn’t get very far. My mum grabbed him, hugging him and leaning up to whisper something in his ear, which made him give her an uncharacteristically shy smile. Okay, so that was probably my cue as his big brother. Grabbing the milk from the fridge, I detoured to Leo, placing the bottle on the counter next to the mugs, and then moved around him to dip my head to Ed’s ear.

“Thanks,” was all I said, but the word was loaded with meaning, and I knew my brother understood because he shot me a bright grin. In what I assumed was an effort to lighten the emotional atmosphere, he flipped the radio on, and we got the tea and toast set up at the kitchen table while Capital FM played in the background. My dad wandered into the kitchen, swiping a piece of toast from the pile and giving my mum a loud, smacking kiss when she told him off. She shook her head at him, Ed absorbed himself in his phone while he shovelled toast into his mouth, and Leo kept looking down at the table, smiling to himself in between sips of tea and bites of toast.

It was one of the best mornings I’d had in a long time. And I was pretty sure it was the same for Leo.

“One more game? Then we should take a break.”

I nodded, my attention focused on the screen as I watched the numbers increasing, a shower of sparks confirming that my character had levelled up. We’d been playingLesath Legendsall day, with a quick break for lunch, but it would probably do our eyes good to have another break. The house was silent—Ed was out with his friends, and my parents had gone to an art exhibition somewhere in London and then out for a meal afterwards. We had the house to ourselves, and I had a bit of an idea of what I’d like to do during our next break, if Leo was on the same page.

“Want to do the double loot challenge?” I suggested, scrolling through the list. “It’s only ten minutes.”

Instead of replying to me, Leo slid off the bed, leaving his controller behind. I stared at him, my brows raised as he came around to my chair and leaned back against my desk.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi. Want to do a dare?”

I grinned. “Hmm. I dunno. What’s the dare? I was actually gonna suggest we do dares for our break because I haven’t dared you to do anything for a while.”

“Well… We could take a break now before we start the next challenge.” Leo’s eyes sparkled. I was suddenly struck by the fact that he was so fucking pretty. That was definitely a weird thing for me to be thinking about him, but it was true. There was all that red hair falling into his sparkly green eyes and that mouth that, thanks to my efforts with the lip balm, was now all soft-looking again. The mouth that was currently curved into a mischievous smile directed at me.

I placed down my controller and rolled my chair forwards so my calves were touching his. “And what’s the dare…?”

He leaned down, placing his hands on the arms of my chair. I only caught a second of his expression of shock before the chair rolled backwards, Leo collapsing into me as laughter burst from my throat.

“Smooth, Leo,” I said between laughter. He straddled my thighs, glaring at me.

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