Taunt

Chapter 32- Taunting Epiphanies

[] A M E L I A []

"Amelia..." Leo spoke into the silence.

I jerked my head over to him and rose my brows to let him know I was listening. His eyes were momentarily off the road, and landed on me instead.

"Stop bouncing your knee up and down."

My eyes widened and I turned to my knees, surprised to see that they were indeed bouncing. I gave him a sheepish smile and stopped. He turned back to the road, amusement evident in his eyes. However, a moment later, it began again.

"Hey, if it makes you that nervous, we can head back," Leo suddenly said, his eyes narrowing slightly in worry.

I turned to him with wide eyes.

"What? No! It's okay, I'm just... just a little nervous. But in a good way," I replied honestly.

Leo nodded, the crease in his forehead smoothening out at my words.

We had been on the road for nearly half an hour now, and the last little bit had been fairly quiet. We were both lost in our own thoughts, making it hard to keep up a conversation.

Andre's words were playing in my mind repeatedly, and kept I wondering if I should ask Leo about it or not. But before I could make up my mind, Leo spoke again, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"That picture I got mad at you for," he started off.

I frowned, wondering what he was talking about. It clicked after a few moments, that he was talking about the frame I found on his floor the day I went to go ask for help in English. I turned to him, curious about it now.

"The girl in the photo, it was my sister. It was taken back when I was 10 and she was 8. Back before things took a turn for the worst," he explained.

He let out a short breath and stole a glance at me. I nodded to let him know I was still listening and he continued.

"I didn't want you to see her, to ask questions. Even something as simple as who she was to me, was a terrifying subject for me. I was so terrified of questions Moonie, because I didn't know if I would be able to give you answers or not. I'm sorry about that day, I really am." 

I bit my lip, thinking of what to say to him in that moment. There was so much I wanted to ask him at that point, but I didn't know where to start. More than that, I wasn't sure if he wanted to answer my questions or not.

"But that was then Moonie. Now I know that I can answer any question of yours. Because I trust you," he simply said, turning to me.

His eyes held my gaze and I stared back at him, all my doubts from earlier seemingly vanished from my train of thought.

"You were forgiven a long time ago Leo."

I smiled at him and after returning the gesture, he turned back around to face the road.

After a little while, we ended up crossing a small town. We stopped there for breakfast and then were back on the road. It was already 10 in the morning, and because the roads were all icy, Leo was driving a lot slower than usual. Hence, the two hour drive was taking us nearly three hours to complete. We still had half the way to go, and as we were leaving the town, I suddenly thought of a burning question.

I bit my lip, contemplating whether or not I should speak my thoughts aloud. Thinking that this was a good time, I turned to Leo with a determined look.

"Leo," I called out.

He let out a small 'hmm' in response, letting me know he was listening.

"Did you...did you tell your family about me?" I asked hesitantly.