Complicated Situations

He stared at me from the back of the room. His hair was dark and fell just on his forehead and he smiled at me as if he were in on some sort of secret.
“Grace,” my best friend Ashley tugged my arm. This was her favorite environment, a party.
“Who’s he?” I asked her over the music.
“Who cares? Jason and Drake are smoking but when they get back Drake and I are gonna go upstairs.
“Are you going to play a game?” I joked.
She rolled her brown eyes and pushed her hair back with a perfectly manicured hand. I turned around and looked back at the guy still in the back of the room, leaning against the wall, people around him, talking to him but he stared at me and he smiled again and mouthed ‘hi’.
I turned back around immediately and Ashley was laughing at me.
“What are you all red about?” she asked me then peered behind me and her eyebrow arched.
“Oooh, he’s cute!” she said as she shoved me into a crowd of teenagers. “Go talk to him!”
I turned back to her and said, “No.”
“Come on,” She grabbed my hand and pulled me through people and we found our way to his group of people who were passing around a joint.
“Hi, this is Grace,” Ashley said to him as he smiled at me.
“Hello Grace, I’m Leo,” He said.
I stood there awkward and shy. Ashley looked back and forth between us before saying, “I see Drake.”
Then she ducked away from me before I could grab her. I turned to walk away but Leo spoke, “What do you drink?” He asked.
I turned back to him, “I always learned it’s better to get your own drink.”
He laughed as he got off the wall and he let me lead the way toward the drinks outside. I picked up a bottle of water and so did he.
“You can drink,” I told him as he looked at me.
“This isn’t really my scene,” he shrugged. “Drinking around tons of people just sounds like a bad idea waiting to happen,” he laughed.
I looked over at him and then around me. People were littered inside and out.
“Well, nice meeting you,” I told him.
“What school do you go to?” He asked.
I thought for a second: lie so he can’t stalk me or tell him the truth so we can have a conversation.
“Sorawood,” I told him the truth.
He shook his head, “I go to Strathling,” He told me as he sat down on a nearby bench on the lawn.
We watched people come in for a few moments and then I saw him. The him who broke my heart and cheated on me with her. The her every guy has slept with and pranced around in barely anything.
“Hey Grace!” He said coming over. She pranced behind him.
My heart froze in my chest. This was the first time all summer I saw him since our break up.
“Oh- um hi, Jeff!” I said in a high pitched voice. “How are you?”
“i’m good, how have you been? I’m still really sorry about everythi-
“Oh, this is Leo-” I was cut off.
“I’m Grace’s boyfriend,” Leo said to Jeff. Jeff looked at him in an odd way but Leo just looked at him with a happy expression.
“You look familiar. Do you play hockey?” Jeff asked him.
“I play for Strathling, captain, I play center. ” He said and Jeff’s face changed completely. Strathling was their biggest competition.
“Nice, I’ll see you, Grace. Come on, babe,” He said to his prancing slut. It stung as he called her babe.
“You look like you saw a ghost,” Leo said to me. “Don’t make your pain so obvious. That girl was enjoying every moment of your agony.”
I hadn’t even noticed what she was doing.
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“Do what?” He turned to me.
“Say we’re dating.”
He smiled at me, “Did you see the guys face when we said that? It twisted and he hated that. Consider it me doing you a favor,” he said.
“Was he really jealous? You think?” I asked.
“Look at you,”He said “A man in his right mind who isn’t would be insane.”
I started to blush but he just laughed.
“You’re sweet. Grace,” he told me.
“You’re not so bad either,” I told him. “Do you have a phone?” I asked.
He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to me. I typed in my number and saved it.
“Call me sometime,” I smiled as I started to head back to the party. I felt brave, stupid, and daring all at the same time. But the question was: would he call?