Lights on the Lake

For three days after the incident, Leo was nowhere to be seen. Trey's nose was broken and she had to rush him to the hospital that night. Of course, being more livid than she could possibly be, she rushed over to Leo's parent's house to try to give him a piece of her mind, but neither his parents or himself were home.

Trey, instead of wanting to hunt Leo down as much as Alana did, spent time with her family and friends and just like she thought it would turn out - they all loved him. Every time they sat at the dinner table and Trey told them a joke about something that happened in Germany, or told them the story about how him and Alana had met on a subway in New York where she accidentally grabbed his butt in the crowded underground train, they would laugh, and Alana would sit right next to him admiring how charming he was. When they weren't around her family and friends, only for a brief moment he would steal a kiss. Something that Alana would usually find incredibly romantic, but the one thing she couldn't stand, that was interfering with her mind, was Leo.

Alana awoke with a start when she heard her guest bedroom door being opened. Her aunt and uncle, being the tradition people they were, didn't agree with Trey and Alana sleeping in the same room, so Trey politely opted to sleep on the couch. He'd come in some nights just to say hi, but never at this hour. Alana turned to look at the alarm clock on her bed and saw that it read 4:45 AM.

"Trey?" She asked, not really being able to see. "Is that you?"

Suddenly the person turned the light switch on and there was Leo. He looked at her with an unsure expression on his face, as if he wasn't quite sure what he was doing there. Alana was wondering the same thing.

"What are you doing here?" She whispered, sitting up in her bed and smoothing down her auburn hair that was sticking up in random places. She had a stale taste in her mouth and wanted nothing more than pretend it was like the movies where you wake up with perfectly applied make up on and your hair curled.

Leo closed the door behind him and sat down at a chair near the window, making sure there was enough space in between them. He was wearing old jeans that looked like they hadn't been worn in forever and a black sweatshirt, something Alana thought he probably could have avoided wearing in hopes to probably not look like a burglar when he was most likely breaking into her aunt's house.

"I don't really know," Leo replied.

"How did you even get in here?" Alana asked. Leo immediately raised up his hand to reveal a key in between his index finger and thumb.

"Your aunt gave me a key when I took care of the kids for a few days like a year ago and I never gave it back," Leo replied with a shrug. "I didn't really think I'd use it again... until now."

"I think you should leave," Alana said quickly. As perplexed as she was by him coming in the middle of the night, her anger seemed to finally be making it's appearance. Every flash of everything he has ever done wrong to her played itself like a movie inside her end. The ending credits was him punching her boyfriend square in the face.

"Hey, you're the one that dropped by my house to see me. I thought you'd be delighted to see me," Leo replied. Alana shot him a surprised look. "This is a small town. My neighbors saw you and told me."

Alana stifled a bitter laugh. "Of course."

"Can you come with me?" Leo said in a quieter voice.

"Where?" Alana asked.

"Remember that one time in the 8th grade when we all snuck out and watched the sunset off the rocks on the hill over the lake?"

"Yes," Alana replied, remembering that morning to be nothing but perfect until all of their parents found out and grounded their children for sneaking out of the house. Alana remembered seeing her dad amongst the group of parents who had found them on the dangerous rocks due to Abigail confessing to her father about where she was when he called. They all were furious, but Ned had a slightly entertained look on his face. On the drive home, he said nothing to her until they arrived home and she was almost to her room. He had turned to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Oh how it is to be young. Go get ready for school." Was all that he said.

"Can you come with me?" Leo asked again, his voice even softer. Alana stared at him, her mouth opening and closing attempting to find an answer. "Please?" He asked.

Alana sighed and pulled her hair into a bun at the nape of her neck, but it immediately fell down past her shoulders. She looked to her left at the vanity mirror and saw her reflection, and then saw Leo's. His eyes were looking straight at her as his elbows rested on his knees.

"Fine," She said and threw the covers off of her in a swift motion. Luckily she was just wearing some bright red sweatpants and some old t-shirt of hers from her high school track team that she wasn't even on. She didn't care what she looked like in front of Leo. He didn't matter. He shouldn't ever matter. Alana stopped and looked over at Leo who was still sitting on the chair. "Well? Let's go."

Leo immediately stood up and the two of them opened the door and quietly snuck out from the hallway to the living room. Trey was fast asleep on the couch, his arm was in an awkward position so that it covered his eyes completely. His deep breaths were the only indication that he was sleeping. They passed by him quietly and towards the back door but Leo stopped for a second with an indignant look on his face.

"I think the bandaged nose is a good look for him," He said. Alana immediately punched him hard on the shoulder, causing him to cry out in pain. They both stopped and looked to see if Trey had woken up, but he just stirred, and both of them snuck out of the back door as quietly as they could. For the summer, the air was actually quite crisp and Alana hugged her arms over her body as the slight wind blew in her hair. They both walked to Leo's car and she got in immediately and put her hands forward to turn on the heat. She opened the glove compartment where she saw the case of Altoid mints she knew Leo to always carry since she could remember. She popped one in her mouth as Leo got inside.

Leo pulled out of the driveway and headed down towards the lake as Alana stared out of the window at the passing houses as they drove by and bit the mint in her mouth. Almost every house here seemed to have been built forever ago. There were never any new developments really, no new suburbs with families moving in from different parts of the United States. It was just the same old Iowan people with the same old Iowan values. Even now, as she was clearly older, the same animosity she had as a young teenager was still there stirring within her as a young adult. She remembered going to these small town events and clenching at how much she wanted to leave. She could never understand why someone would want to stay in a place like this their whole lives. They never wondered what it was like to be somewhere else? Where not everybody knew your name or your past? The concept had always been so inviting to Alana.

"What are you thinking about?" Leo asked as he turned a sharp left onto a road that Alana knew led straight uphill and towards the rocks.

"I'm thinking about why I'm here with you after you broke my boyfriend's nose," Alana mumbled and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Leo openly laughed.

"I broke his nose?!" He asked. "I didn't think I even punched that hard, I thought I might have just made it bleed or something."

Alana scoffed and looked back out of the window and closed her eyes for a second, trying to drown out the overwhelming anger stirring within her. She never quite saw herself as an angry person, but the more she thought about this place, the more she thought about Leo in particular, every angry thought she ever had seemed to come rise from below and surface within her.

Alana opened her eyes immediately when she felt Leo's hand on her leg. The car had stopped without her even realizing it and they were finally at the rocks.

"We're here," Leo said quietly. He immediately took his hand off of her leg and she didn't even look back at him, instead she opened the door, got out and closed the door behind her. She also didn't wait for him to walk next to her before she walked forward onto the dirt path towards the pile of large rocks that overlooked the lake. It was still slightly dark, but the sun was rising slowly and everything was completely quiet and peaceful. A small tinge of red from the rising sun was casting it's glow in the pale sky as Alana sat on a rock and looked straight forward. She felt a shift of movement next to her. He picked up a small rock next to him and threw it as hard as he could but it didn't quite reach the lake, instead it disappeared amongst the bushes before it. "Different from New York, huh?" Leo asked.

Alana shrugged. "There's still beauty there. You've just got to look harder."

Leo laughed and pulled his feet up to rest his arms on his knees again.

"I'm sorry," He said.

"Now, I'd normally ask 'for what?' but there are probably a million things you could apologize to me for by now. So I guess I can just say 'for what exactly?" Alana said icily. Leo just laughed again.

"You're way too sassy for this town," He said and then paused. "I'm sorry for your boyfriend's broken nose, I guess."

"Just his broken nose, or possibly the fact that you tried to ruin his and mine's relationship? I mean, cool you're sorry that you punched him in the face when he was trying to defend me against you, whatever. But I'd rather hear an apology about the fact that you acted like you were thirteen years old."

Leo said nothing at first, instead it was his turn to stare forward as Alana watched him. His light brown eyes scanned the lake and his hair blew in the wind that was picking up.

"I saw Mackenzie's parents the other day," Leo said, clearly changing the subject. "It was down at the gas station off 2nd. They were both walking out of it as I was walking inside. They smiled at me and said hello of course - but as they were walking away I saw her try to hold his hand. Almost like a reflex, he pulled away at first, as if he knew that her hand didn't quite belong. But then it was as if he thought twice about it and grabbed it. She didn't notice a thing," Leo stopped and completely turned his body until he was facing Alana. "I mean, I'm sure her father loved his wife at one point. He had to have. They had Ariston after they were married so it's not like he accidentally got her pregnant and had to be forced to marry her. He loved her, I'm sure of it. But somehow... somehow he lost that love along the way. Everyone loses love for someone at some point in their lives. Whether they lost it for someone and then gain it forever with another. It's like we're a force of beings just trying to find our way in and out of one another's lives. We love each other. Then we don't. We don't love someone until they're gone. We don't appreciate something until it's gone. It's like a neverending web that never quite comes to an end, instead it interweaves and meets, but then goes the opposite direction almost instantly after. We're never happy with what we've got."

Leo paused for a second and grabbed Alana's hand. She let him have it.

"I probably don't make any sense," Leo said.

"No," She responded. "You're making perfect sense."

"I just don't understand how something can feel so perfectly right one second and then completely mixed up the next. How someone could love someone and then just stop. Or not realize they ever loved someone until it was too late."

Alana finally turned her body now so that she was facing him. They both sat crossed legged in front of one another.

"I guess we just can't be content with what we have, so we let it go for something new," She replied. "But then the new isn't quite what we thought it'd be but it's too late for the old. We're all impatient."

"What would you do if you could have that old thing you wanted again, though?" Leo asked.

"It probably wouldn't be the same," Alana replied. Leo furrowed his eyebrows and turned his head towards the lake again, where the sun was still making it's way above it. "Why are we here, Leo?"

Leo turned his body away from her and pulled his knees up again.

"I wanted to see you," Leo asked. "I've been avoiding you but wanting to see you at the same time."

Alana stayed facing him and he turned his head to look at her.

"In just two days there will be thousands of lights around here. People are going to be celebrating a town that they love oh so dearly while their rotten kids will be sneaking up to these rocks with some hard alcohol from their father's cabinet," Leo said with a laugh. Alana rolled her eyes. "It's like a whole new generation will come and take over ours, and then another generation will take over there's, and soon enough we'll be completely forgotten. And it's like we never lived in this town where our lives seemed so important to others at a certain place in time."

"I'd rather them forget about me without having me grow up and die in this place," Alana replied.

There was a pause between them as neither of them said nothing and Alana shivered from the wind. She started to get up.

"Listen, Leo, can we just-"

"I'm in love with you, Alana," Leo said so quietly that Alana almost didn't hear him. Her breath caught in her throat.

"What?" She asked back. Leo turned his head to look at her.

"I'm in love with you," He said more persistently. "To be honest, when we were growing up, me saying that to you probably would have sounded so absurd in my head. You were Alana Bennett, the daughter of Ned who owned the shoe repair shop. The daughter who let me copy off her homework in math class, so I thought I might as well be friends with her to keep getting my answers right. The smart girl who turned into the notorious one. Who got into car accidents and let Ol' Pete's dog run loose and disappear. You kept me on my toes all of the time. You kept me interested all of the time. But I never appreciated it... and then you left, and now you're back and so close to leaving again and I had to say it.. I had to say it now before we part ways again and it'd be too late."

Alana's eyes felt dry, and she didn't quite realize that she wasn't blinking at all. Leo stared at her intently, and reached forward to place his hand on her cheek. His fingers grazed her neck and she closed her eyes.

"I.. I think I've been wanting to hear you say that to me since the 5th grade," She said quietly, her voice shaking. "I always wanted your approval. I always wanted you to look at me the way you looked at those other girls, even if it was for a brief moment until you moved on from me. I wanted to experience that... I wanted to experience you."

Alana placed her hand over Leo's and finally opened her eyes. He leaned forward and his lips hovered over hers as she breathed heavily, trying to grasp onto any reality she could to help her push away. The reality that her boyfriend was sleeping on her aunt's couch at the moment that Leo had his lips centimeters from hers.

"I'm sorry," Leo said again, his lips touching hers as he spoke. "I'm sorry I make everything complicated."

And with that statement, their lips crashed into one another. She grabbed onto him and pulled him close as their lips parted, deepening the kiss and the moment between them. She leaned back, holding onto his sweatshirt as he complied by leaning forward. The kiss felt like it would last forever as they moved their bodies until there was no gap between them. They broke apart for a second for Leo to place soft kisses on her neck, on her cheek, on the corner of her lips. She closed her eyes, and a small tear fell from the corner and onto the rock below her.

"Leo," She breathed. Leo kissed her again, and she let him. But right when he pulled away, she pulled away even farther. She sat back and then stood up and wiped the tear from her face.

"Alana, please-"

Alana touched her lips with her shaking hand and shook her head. Leo stood up as well. He reached forward to touch her but Alana took a step back and looked straight into his eyes.

"Leo, please, you.... you know it's too late. I'm sorry. Please, drive me home."