Madeline Corstolla-Klein Throughout the past week, me and Leo had a blast. We mostly spent our time at the beach with the whole family, but we also had some broken-humored fun. We prank called Taco Bell, and we painted a mural with Ethan of three silhouettes of birds at Sunset Beach. And I taught Leo some Spanish. He's pretty bad, but he'll get used to it. We had grown pretty close. Platonically, obviously. Duh. We were at Leo's house for our last Free Week day, since his parents were on a two week honey-moon. We were sitting on the couch watching The Three Truths Trilogy, Leo's arm draped behind my neck, his hand on my shoulder. We've grown comfortable with this. It's our 'friend thing,' as we like to call it. The last episode of season eight had ended. "No! Oh, come on! It can't end like that!" I yelled, standing up and throwing my last piece of popcorn at the television. "I don't wanna wait, what? A whole two months for the next season!" Leo was chuckling, turning off the TV. I went into his kitchen, which I had grown very familiar with, and put my bowl in the sink. I walked back into the living room and plopped onto the couch. Leo got up, and walked into the kitchen, I heard the fridge open. When he came back I was already in front of the doorway. "Do you want–" I grabbed the cake out of his hands, and sat on the couch. "– A piece of cake..." He finished somberly. "Thanks!" I said laughingly. The cake was fudge with whipped cream frosting, strawberries, and large milk chocolate chunks. I pulled a fork out of the pocket of Leo's hoodie that I had 'borrowed,' and took a bite. It was creamy, and thick with absolute deliciousness, so much so that I could die just from the goodness. "Did you seriously just pull a fork out of your pocket?" Leo said, sitting back down next to me, stealing a swipe of whipped cream. I batted at his hand, as he licked the frosting off his finger, he bore a teasing smile. "You never know when food may come around," I said, shrugging. He scoffed, and tried to take another swipe, but I slapped his hand before he could get to it. "Ow." He muttered. "This is my cake, buzz off." I said scooting away from him. "It's in my house, in my fridge, with my name on it!" He whined. I looked at the wrapper, which had his name in red Sharpie. I shrugged, finishing the last bite, "Here, want some?" I said waggling the empty plastic tupperware container at him teasingly. He threw the container onto the table, and tackled me, grabbing my arm and pushing down. He was reciting the boxing lesson he gave me when I couldn't figure out what sport I should sign up for at school. He gave me some lessons with boxing, football, soccer, lacrosse, and volleyball. He gave me a boxing lesson specifically because he wanted to give me a chance to defend myself in tough scenarios. I grabbed his leg, flipping him over onto the couch. He lay there catching his breath. "You...you catch on pretty quick, huh?" He said through labored breaths. "Learned it from the best." I said smiling, pushing him over and laying down. Leo caught his breath finally, which seemed to have taken a while, and sat up. "Hey, Maddy?" He said, sounding uncertain. "Yes, my good sir?" I said in an English accent. He chuckled softly. "Uh...can I tell you something?" He asked, nervously. "Duh. We're besties. What else would we do? Sit around and talk about finance? Psh." I said laughing. "Yeah," Leo looked thoughtfully at the ceiling and then looked at me, I sat up staring at his beautiful face. "Madeleine," he started, grasping my hand in his, "I think I have fallen in love with you." My heart skipped a beat. No, three. Six. Scratch that. My heart stopped. It plainly, bluntly, stopped. I stared, and stared, and stared at Leo trying to search his wonderful, beautiful eyes for an explanation. But his gaze was kept firmly on me. He was serious. Leo Marcer May had fallen in love with me. I could feel hot tears running down my face, but I didn't cry aloud. I could feel my stomach churning and twisting. I could feel my breath catch in my throat, choking me. I wanted to tell him that I had fallen for him as well. That all this time I wanted to hug him and thank him for all that he has done for me. But my body had other plans. My head felt like a paperweight, my eyelids trying to force themselves closed, my heart pounding in my ears, my breath quick and shallow. Leo was crying as he held me in his arms, he was dialing 911 sobbing, and sputtering something I couldn't hear. I found myself choking and gagging, and I coughed up blood on Leo's lap. I heard him cry out more, still on the phone. "Madeleine, stay with me. Stay with me. Everything will be okay. Please, I can't lose you. I can't!" His voice was fading, and the last thing I heard almost made me cry. "I can't lose someone I have loved for so long…"
