Leo

God, I really love Landon.

"Thanks, Lan," I say, slightly embarrassed.

"And by the way, saying something out loud doesn't jinx it, or else I would be constantly shouting about how donuts go straight to my ass. Damn, I'm addicted to Krispy Kream. Can't stay away."

I laugh loudly.

He smiles that huge Landon smile for me and then says, "Also, I learned something when I was back home. Apparently, I'm a cliché."

I look confused. "What do you mean, a cliché?" I ask.

"You know, a cliché… the boss boinking his secretary, a cliché!"

"Yeah, I know what a cliché is, what do you mean you are one?

"Oh, right. Well, I spent a lot of time at my mom's house while she slept and she reads all these romance novels. So I read several and evidently, it's a thing, the beautiful girl with a g*y best friend. It's a cliché. I'm a cliché."

I burst out laughing. "Ah, okay, well, it works. I guess because of my unequalled beauty, I can only hang around men who aren't tempted to molest me hourly. You're my only choice." I wink at him, slapping him on his ass.

Landon laughs too, squealing as I smack him.

An hour later, the kitchen is in full swing. Tina, our boss, a really nice woman in her fifties with a head full of frizzy blond curls and a great laugh, has greeted all of us and is helping load the trays. She owns the catering company, and is a great boss, fair and helpful, with a great, witty sense of humor.

I walk the floor of the ballroom, offering appetizers to the decked out guests, women in long, beautiful evening gowns, men in tuxes. This event is a benefit to help raise awareness about autism spectrum disorders and so I can't help but to have a soft spot for these party goers. I smile extra big as I offer Tina's delicious appetizers, moving around the room from guest to guest.

I've been around the room with three trays, when I rush back into the kitchen to fill another one.

Landon is next to me at the long stainless steel counter, filling his own tray. "Girl, did you clock hottie in the far corner by the bar? Serious meltdown every time I catch a glance. True story."

I laugh. "I don't think I've made it that far. I keep running out of food mid room. I’ll start over there this time though." I wink and he grins.

I walk back out on the floor and head over to the bar area, so that I can report back to Landon later. I stop at a small group, smiling as I offer them napkins and hold my tray out to them. It's filled with thin wafers, each holding a glob of black caviar. It looks dreadful to me, but these people are clearing my tray so what do I know?

As I move away from them, I see the man Landon must be talking about. He has his back to me, but even from this viewpoint, I can tell that he's good looking. All broad shoulders, slim waist and excellent backside. Too bad for Landon though, there's a blond in a red dress glued to his arm. I make my way closer and as the couple turns towards me, I inhale an audible gasp. It's Jake. Oh No!

Damn! Shit! Shit! Shit!

My heart plummets to my feet and I stand stock still for a minute, weighing my options for escape. Too late, Jake spots me and his eyes are surprised for a second and then this unbelievable warmth floods them and he smiles like I'm an old friend he hasn't seen in a decade.

God! I am such an idiot. I close my eyes very briefly and try to rally, shooting him a smile that I really hope looks as fake as it feels.

"Evie," he says, disengaging himself from red dress and coming towards me, a look of concern on his face. "I didn't know you’d be here." His eyes are wide and glued to me.

God, he's gorgeous.

He's also a playing, lying ass**le.

Before I can utter a word, red dress follows him saying, "Jakey, do you know her?" And it must be said, she says this pissy.

Jakey? Shit! Shit! Shit!

I glance at red dress and it sucks that despite the fact that she is pissy, I can't deny that she is stunning. Her dress looks like it cost more than my entire wardrobe put together, including my shoes and jackets. Then I look back at Jake and whisper stupidly, "Hi." God, I am such an idiot!

Jake clenches his jaw, and although he is talking to red dress his eyes are still riveted on me as he says, "Yes, I do know her. This is Evie Cruise." Almost as an afterthought, he cocks his head at red dress and says, "This is Gwen Parker."

My eyes cut back to Gwen and I whisper, "Hi." And again, I whisper it stupidly.

Gwen crosses her arms in front of her large, plastic looking br**sts and says, "I don't need an introduction, Jakey, I was just surprised that you know her." Then she hooks herself back onto Jake's arm and glares at me.

Jake takes a deep breath, his jaw ticks again, and he does not look happy.

I am shaking now and I need to get far, far away from Jake and Gwen. And by far, I mean like, Mexico.

"Right." I say. "Well, have a nice evening." And then I start to turn away from them, but because I am shaking, my tray tips forward and one wafer slides off the edge before I can right it and said wafer, full of an extra large glob of black caviar plops loudly onto Gwen's beautiful, silver, strappy sandal.

For a second, no one makes a sound and I am frozen in horror. Then, Gwen screeches, "Oh my God! Do you know how much these shoes cost? No, of course you don't! These are $1400.00 shoes!"

And oh my God, I'm frozen, but it registers that I didn't even know $1400.00 shoes existed and that my estimation about my entire wardrobe equaling the cost of her outfit was way, way off. And not in my wardrobe's favor.

Landon rushes up to us seemingly from out of nowhere and takes my tray out of my hands, putting his face close to mine briefly as he leans in to take it, eyes wide, and says while barely moving his lips, "You okay, Fancy Face?"

I nod slightly to him and then bend down with Gwen where she is using a napkin to try to clean the caviar off of her shoe, swearing under her breath. "I'm so sorry," I say, "Please, let me help you clean it off. If you'll come with me to the ladies room, I can use a cleaning cloth on it. I bet it will come right off."

She glares back at me but she starts standing anyway and says, "Fine!"

Jake is standing there watching this, his jaw clenching and if that goes on much longer, he's going to need a mouth guard because TMJ is no joke.

Landon rushes up again, offering Jake a glass of champagne from a tray of glasses and I lead Gwen towards the ladies room.

Once we're there, I motion for her to sit on the chaise lounge, and she removes her shoe and hands it to me with a scowl. I open a small Bounce packet from the complimentary guest basket on the bathroom counter and wipe the top of the shoe off completely. I also offer Gwen a baby wipe from the guest basket so that she can thoroughly clean the top of her foot.

When I'm done, I hand her shoe back to her and say, "Good as new! I'm really very, very sorry. I hope I haven't put a dent in your evening." I'm just being nice. Truthfully, I hope I put a big dent in her evening because the feeling is mutual.

She ignores my comment, straps her shoe back on and then heads to the sink to wash her hands, as I wash mine in the sink next to her. "You know," she says finally, "Jake loves a good cause. I can see why he's friends with someone like you."

She dries her hands and then turns around. "It's sweet really. Just don't get any ideas, okay? He's in my bed at the end of the day and I'm the one screwing his brains out."

With that, she brushes past me, knocking me to the side a little and walks out the door. I will not cry. I will not cry.

Damn, Leo, why did you send him? He totally played me. All that talk about do you feel it, too, Evie this and you're so amazing, Evie that and God! He has a girlfriend! And that thought makes me want to cry again so I shut it down and exit the bathroom.

I head back towards the kitchen. Landon is there and he pulls me aside whispering, "Holy SHIT, Evie, that's HIM, isn t it? Like him, him. Holy SHIT, he was, like, pacing the floor after you took off to the bathroom with Bitchy Barbie. Honey, the look on his face was tragic. WHAT is going on?"

I sigh as I take his hand and pull him over to the tray stocking counter. "Obviously, Landon. He has a girlfriend. He was probably shitting bricks that we'd both find out what a douchebag he is. Obviously I'm just an idiot who got all swoony about a guy after one date and some sweet words. When all along, he was just… I don't even know what he was doing! This is exactly why I do not need this type of thing. God, that was humiliating!"

He looks at me sadly and squeezes my hand. "Evie, remember what I said to you earlier. No matter how this ends, I am f**king thrilled that you put yourself out there. Do you hear me, Fancy Face?" He takes my face in his hands and looks at me for a minute and then whispers, "God, so f**king beautiful. No wonder Devil in Red was shooting eye darts at you."

I smile a real smile at Landon because he is seriously so sweet, and squeeze his hand back. "Hey, do you think it'd be okay with everyone if I stock trays back here instead of working the room?"

"Yeah, I think everyone would be fine with that. Plus, cocktail hour is almost over. Dinner is about to be served. Why anyone wants to eat dinner at nine at night is beyond me but I guess when you're the type of people who can afford $1400.00 shoes, you can make your own rules."

"Oh my God! You heard that?" I say, incredulously, loading a tray up with delicious looking phyllo dough pockets.

"I did, but honey, I saw some strappy sandals that were nicer at Payless Shoe Source last week for $29. I was gonna buy them but they didn't come in my size."

I burst out laughing and Landon winks at me and heads out the door.

I spend the rest of the night in the kitchen, loading up trays with the dinner courses for the other servers.

I'm loading up desserts when Tina breezes in saying, "Evie, darling! I heard you dropped caviar on the tall, blonde in red’s foot!"

I freeze. Oh no. I turn slowly towards Tina and cringe. "I did, Tina. It was just an accident. I cleaned it for her and it came out completely."

"Honey," she continues, smiling her big smile, "Do I look upset? That one looks particularly vapid. I'm just sorry you didn't score both feet." She squeezes my shoulder and rushes off.

God, Tina is so great.

Once dinner is served, including coffee, we servers are free to leave. There is another clean-up crew and they are in full swing in the kitchen now.

I'm washing my hands at the industrial kitchen sink when Landon walks back in. I notice he has a small frown on his face as he walks over to me and so I say, "What?"

"Dreamboat slipped this to me and asked that I give it to you. He said to tell you that they're his new favorite. And it must be said, Evie, he's hot, but he's strange." Then he hands me a mint and I recognize them from the complimentary bathroom baskets.

I furrow my brow, looking at the plain white wrapper of the mint lying in my hand. Then I turn it over and I can't help it as my frown turns into a smile. On the other side of the small package, it says in bold print, World's Greatest Mints.

I chuck it in the trash and go back to work.

CHAPTER 11

Evie is 12, Leo is 13

I am lying on the roof outside my room, staring up at the clear, summer sky. I love looking up at the stars because they make me believe that some things in this world are permanent.

I moved into this foster home a year ago, and I like it here well enough. My new foster parents have three of us living here, but I have my own room because there is a set of sisters and they share one. My space is small, an old transformed laundry room, but it has a window that lets out onto a very gently sloping portion of the roof and I love to come out here and lay under the sky.

My foster parents are clearly fostering for the checks they get for our care, but they're not mean people, just mostly disinterested in us, which is fine by me. Ideal, even.

A small stone hits the roof next to me and I smile. It's Leo's sign that he's coming up.

I hear him climb the trellis and then he's crawling across the roof to me and he plunks himself down next to me, reclining like I am. He's wearing baggy athletic shorts and I take in his knobby boy knees.

I look over at him and he's frowning.

"What's wrong, Leo?" I ask.

His face gets angry and he says, "What did I do to make him hate me so much Evie, other than BREATHE?"

I roll towards him, bending my arm and resting my head in my hand. "Leo, - " I start.

But he interrupts me, saying, "He sent my brother to live in that hell hole just to hurt me. It wasn't even about Seth, it was about ME. He hurt an innocent little boy because he hates me so much he can't see straight."

My eyes fill with tears because I know he's right. I've learned over the two years that I've known Leo that his dad is evil personified. Leo's big mistake was that his mom cheated on his dad and got pregnant with him. And because of Leo's grievous sin, being CREATED, his dad made it his mission in life to make Leo suffer.

Leo's second mistake was that he loved his younger brother, Seth, diagnosed with a severe form of autism and developmentally delayed. Because Leo's dad knew that Leo loved Seth, he used him to hurt Leo. He threw beer cans at Seth's head, he let him wallow in his own waste all day while Leo was at school, unable to take care of him, and he was all around cruel to Seth as a way to make a point to Leo. The sickest part of it was that Seth was his own flesh and blood, but all he saw him as was a pawn to use against the personification of his rage and humiliation.

"They put Seth in a state run home." And I hear the tears in his voice so I move closer and meld my body to his, and take his hand in mine. "That place will kill him."