Leo:

“Hey bro, where you been?” Ryan said as I walked into the kitchen.

“Wouldn’t you love to know,” I said to him.

Ryan shook his head a couple times and blinked his eyes.

I walked up to my room and closed the door. The last person I felt I needed to answer to was Ryan. Especially right now when I was missing my dad.

A memory had popped into my head when I was walking home from seeing Brooklyn. I had taken my leather jacket off as I was walking. The air was really warm. I started thinking about how my dad had given it to me when I turned sixteen. 

He had died suddenly five days later. 

I remembered being so surprised to open it. I didn’t actually think he would get a leather jacket for me when I told him that’s what I wanted for my birthday.

I didn’t really think about whether it looked good on me. It made me feel like nobody would mess with me when I wore it. And in this way it gave me an immense amount of strength. I liked to pull the big collar over the back of my neck and over the sides of my face. It was like armor from the world.

I lay down on my bed and just stared up at the ceiling for a while. 

My brain started to feel fuzzy and I knew I had been lying there too long. I had been thinking about how I was going to earn some money. 

Racks on racks. 

The thought both stressed me out and excited me. There was so much to be earned. I started getting overwhelmed and decided to walk downstairs. I was getting hungry.

Ryan was in the kitchen. He was attempting to cook something.

“Hey bro, just cooking dinner for us. Your mom will be late home from work,” he said.

“Oh, I think I will just get a burrito down at the Mexican take out place instead,” I told Ryan. I walked toward the front door.

“But I told your mom I would make you dinner, Leo,” he said. It seemed like his voice had risen an octave.

“Okay, well I don’t really want that. Sorry,” I said. And then I walked out the door.

When I got back Ryan was sitting on the couch watching baseball. It looked like my mom still wasn’t home. He stood up.

“Leo, you could at least try,” he said to me.

“What? What are you talking about?” I said.

“Well, I mean you could try to be nice to me,” Ryan said to me.

“You are not my father, Ryan, so stop acting like you think you are. You don’t even know my father.”

Ryan rolled his eyes at me and took off his hat and placed it backwards on his head. He sighed and placed his hands in his jeans pockets. 

“Look, Leo. I’m sorry your dad died.” 

“I didn’t exactly choose to come here. But I am here.”

Excuse me? What was that supposed to mean?

I looked at him. I really did not even want to be having this conversation, but I kind of wanted to ask him what he meant.

“Do you want to be here because of my mom?” I paused. I didn’t like to play guessing games.

”Is that what you mean?” I said to him.

“Well, I adore your mother,” he said.

Cringe. Sorry I asked. Not sure if I want to hear more.

“It’s just, it wasn’t supposed to be with someone who had a teenage boy,” Ryan said slowly as if he was in a trance.

“Okay, who was it supposed to be with then?” I said.

Was this some kind of a joke?

I needed to ask my mom about this. Like soon. But what would I say? Can you give me the run down as to why Ryan says he didn’t exactly choose to come here?

Ryan looked really tired all of a sudden. His face had gone a little pale. He told me he needed to go to bed. 

I watched him walk slowly down the hall.

What the? I said to myself. 

The mystery of Ryan’s words was on my mind the whole next day.