Tony dropped them off at their grandparents house and went to his own.
This part of town had a bunch of nice houses, like a suburby. Leo stared at the white walls and the beautiful garden and the white fence. He had missed that place more than he was aware of.
Their grandmother, Kyla, walked out of the house with her hands on her hips like she was about to lecture them. She was small and thin, her white hair combbed up on a ponytail. Lena went to her with a wide smile on the face.
"Granny!" she said, hugging the old women.
"Hello, Lena." grandma hugged back and the shade of a smile passed over her face.
It was Leo's time to hug her, and he ruffled her hair.
"We missed you, granny."
She gave them both a sarcastic look.
"Drop the acting, kids. I know the two of you rather be in that dirty town than here." Kyla moved her hips while talking, as an angry mamma.
"Okay, we do rather, but that doesn't mean we didn't miss you." Lena, also known as Mrs. Honesty, said.
Granny rolled her eyes.
"What are you all doing there? I'm hungry." grandpa's head popped out of the front door. "Come inside already so I can eat my dinner. You kids were too late."
And that was it. No 'I'm so happy to see you, grandchildren', or 'join me for dinner', or 'did you make a good trip?'. But Lena and Leo were already used to it.
They followed grandma inside. Grandpa only looked at them once, with a face of disaproval, before going to the dinning room. Kyle rolled her eyes again.
"He only thinks about food! Even with his heart disease growing bigger..."
"Is grandpa sick?" Leo asked.
"Oh, yeah, I guess you didn't know. We did call you mother to tell her, but she never cared. He isn't as bad as he was two months ago, when he had a convulsion, but he still can't make much physical effort." She sighed. "It's good that you're here, Leo, so you can do some of the man housework he used to do."
"Isn't it good that I'm here too, granny? Now we can have some girl chatting!" Lena held her hand and smiled.
She always loved granny, Leo remembered. They've always been good friends, hanging out only the two of them everytime they came visiting. Leo used to get along better with his grandpa, but once puberty hit him, they grew apart. The fact that Leo came out as gay may have helped. Maybe the old man couldn't handle it with his antique ideals.
Grandma stopped in front of the low floor room, the one he and his sister used to sleep in when they were younger.
"Leo, you can keep this room. And Lena can stay with the one upstairs." she said.
There is no description of Lena's reaction. She spinned, then giggled, then skipped around granny and last but not least, kneeled in the floor.
"Finally! Separated bedrooms! I will never have to deal with Leo's hook ups again! I will never wake up to half naked boys! No more unknown underwears in the floor! No more 'don't disturb' sign! I'm free!"
If she was being dramatic? Pretty much all the time.
Leo couldn't tell if grandma looked more surprised with the girl's reactions or what she had said.
She gave him that look that meant they'd have to talk about this later and Leo gave the same look to his sister right after.
"We'll have dinner within an hour." granny said and walked away.
Lena looked confuse. The older brother dragged her inside his new bedroom and closed the door.
"Listen to me, Lena. You can't make any references to the fact that I'm gay when granny and granpa are around." He said the most serious he could.
"Why not?"
Leo hated to have to destroy her little fairy tale. She never had to deal with this kind of thing. She had spent her whole life in this beautiful place where everybody loved each other and hate wasn't a thing except if another girl was wearing the same outfit as her at a party. Leo never told her why he showed up full of bruises one night, or why his school bag was stolen, or why he was always picking up fights. He just wanted to keep her free from all of that. He knew that she would suffer for him if she knew, so he never told her.
"Because they disaprove it. And in this town, most people disprove as well. They're afraid of what's different."
"They disprove you liking boys? And what the hell does your love life has to do with any of them?" she was visibilly angry.
"It has nothing to do with them. But for some reason, they're still bothered. And probably my tattoos and your piercings and our clothes are going to be a problem as well. That's how the world is. There are places like New York and there are places like here. I'm not saying you should lower your head to everything they say, but I'm just warning you about the fact that they will say." Leo explained.
"This is bullshit." she pointed out.
"I agree. But we'll have to deal with that for now."
Lena sighed. "I'm going to my room. See you at dinner."
She left and the boy started to organize his things. It was good to keep his mind in place.
His room was nice. Next to door there was a queen sized bed; the wall on the right was empty except for the side of the bed; the wall on the left kept an wardrobe and the last wall was where the desk was, right under the window. All four walls were painted white. Leo would have to do something about that later.
He dropped his bag on the floor and openned the window. The first thing on the landscape was the neighbor's side wall of the house and a boy gardening. It took him three seconds to recognize Tony.
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