🏆Featured on TeenFiction | Head Over Heels
To Leroy 'Lee' Hiew, home's never felt like home. He has a huge mansion, a big car, and more money than he could ever spend. And yet, the idea of home always seems to elude him.
Armed with his dog, Socks...
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Stepping onto Yumeko's doorstep feels like walking into the light---ironic, considering how the crumbling walls look even more filthy than usual, bare and bony. Lee swipes his hand across his forehead, the suddenly-humid air making his hair stick to his skin. Guilt prickles through his veins. He'd left his father curled up on the couch when he'd fled the house this afternoon---so still he hadn't been sure if he was even still alive.
Let him suffer a bit, he thinks selfishly. He's not the only one who lost someone. She's---was---fuck, I can't do this---
The door flies open. Yumeko perches on the stoop, still in her school uniform. A cigarette hangs from her fingers, thick grey smoke billowing around her face. She hasn't smoked in a while, Lee realises, the sudden presence of the cancer stick in her hand less of a shock than how suspiciously empty her ashtray's been for the past few weeks. Her skirt sways high above her knees, and Lee makes a mental note to get her a new one when he manages to get his life back together. Through her heavy bangs, which seem to have grown even longer in the last few days, she shoots him a grim smirk. "Hey, stranger. Heard you got suspended."
A small smile curves over Lee's lips, but it drops off soon enough. It doesn't stick. Nowadays, nothing really does. "Expelled, actually. But daddy dearest is fucking loaded, so I'll be back next week. How's my honey?"
"Doing a lot better than your wife," Yumeko replies. Right on cue, a small yip echoes from behind Yumeko, before a blur of white and brown leaps into Lee's arms. He staggers under Socks' weight, laughing as his dog licks his face like a starved man, Yumeko grabbing his shoulders to keep him from falling. "She missed you." Her face softens. "I did, too."
Lee gently sets Socks down on the stoop, chuckling hollowly at the way she bounds around him and barks like she hasn't seen him in years. "I've been gone for...what? Two days?"
"Three. But I don't mean you swinging over the other day to pet your dog before fucking right off again. I meant in school. It's lonely without you." Yumeko leans against the stained wooden doorway, a ghost of a smile lingering on her scarlet lips. "I got your homework for you, by the way. Had to track down all your teachers for it, so you'd better buy me more pastries next time." Up close, her eyebags seem even darker than before, angry black circles ringing even blacker eyes. There's a million stories in every line of her face---the tension in her mouth, the furrow of her forehead, the sharp slant of her brows.
A frown crosses Lee's own lips. "Did somwthing happen, Yu? You look stressed."
"Everything's fine."
"Everything's not fine."
"You don't look like everything's all sunshine and rainbows with you, either."
"Yumeko."
His best friend stares at him for a full minute before sighing, finally dropping her gaze from Lee's. She stubs her cigarette out on the grimy wall before crushing it into the grass, and Lee tries not to look too hard at the round, ashy mark it leaves behind on the peeling paint. "Fine. Tell me what's wrong with you and I'll tell you what's wrong with me."
