#*leigh

I love fall nights. They really fill me with energy. Me and some friends are going night skating tonight, should be a good time. But I have to get ready first. I really want my black hoodie. I’ve had it since high school, it’s been washed all to hell and is pilling on the inside, but it’s just heavy enough for tonight. Where the heck is it?

I feel like it’s not in my room. I knock on Ray’s door even though it’s open. “Yo, have you seen my black hoodie?”

He shrugs. Dude’s got a tiny little TV set in his room that’s all the way across from his bed. Twin Peaks is on. I don’t know how he can see it, but then again, he’s doing a crossword puzzle. “No, I don’t know,” he replies, not looking up. “I don’t know where your stuff is.”

I don’t know why I even bother. I roll my eyes and skip downstairs. Casey’ll be here any minute, so I’ve gotta find it...

I barrel into the living room and stop dead. Zoe’s on the recliner chair with a knitting project in her lap. “Shh,” she says, and points to the couch in front of me.

Leon’s there. He’s fast asleep. That kind of exhausted sleep where your mouth hangs open, and you look like a sack of potatoes melting into wherever you are. He’s in a flannel and his usual jeans, and looks so, so cozy...

“He said he’d been up all night,” Zoe whispers. The TV is on in here too, but it’s low and she barely speaks above it. “Conked out at around 4.”

I smile and lean against the entryway. My urge to run out in the fall air is being challenged by the urge to curl up against Leon on the couch. “His sleep schedule is so fucked,” I murmur.

“No kidding.”

“I hope he didn’t have to work tonight...”

“I think Ray would’ve gotten him.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah. He likes him more than he lets on. He wouldn’t screw him over like that.”

I nod, and spot something under Leon’s head. There! My sweatshirt! He’s...using it as a pillow. I watch him stir just a little to hold the sleeve close to his chest.

Zoe snorts. “Hey, gaylord.”

“No! Well, yeah, but no!” I point. “He’s got the sweatshirt I was gonna wear tonight.”

“Aww.” Zoe resumes knitting. “Well, if you gotta get it, you’re gonna have to take a chance.”

I sigh through my nose and tip toe over. From what I’ve been able to tell, Leon sleeps like a log, so I might be able to pull this off. I crouch down beside the couch. The hood his hanging over the cushion, so I pull from there. Slowly, slowly...it does move his head, so he stirs again, and with that I pull it free...

...almost. Except for the part in his hand. I know my hands are ice cold, so when my fingertips brush his, he opens his eyes a crack. “Hmmn?”

“Sorry,” I whisper. “I just...I just need my sweatshirt.”

“Huh?” He lets it go in his confusion, and I hold it up for him. Blearily, he looks at me, then it, and nods. “Mm’kay...”

“Go back to sleep,” I coax. I brush aside his hair from his face.

“Shouldn’t...what time is it...” he mumbles, his eyes closed.

“Don’t worry about it.”

He yawns, and his will wanes. Within a minute, he’s back to a steady breathing rhythm, lulled back to sleep by the clicking of Zoe’s needles and the drone of the TV.

“If you’re lucky, he’ll still be here when you get back,” Zoe says.

I rise and walk backwards, unable to take my eyes off him. “I’d like that,” I say.

When I do manage to break away to see Zoe’s reaction, she’s smirking at me. “What are you making?”

“Trying to make a wide neck sweater.” The yarn she’s using is black with a silver sparkle thread in it. “Would you be interested when this inevitably shrinks in the wash?”

“Maybe,” I say. I’m not really much for sweaters though. I look back at Leon. “I think he’d look nice in a sweater.”

“Pay for the yarn and give me $50 and I can make your boyfriend even cozier.”

Boyfriend...I feel my face getting hot. “I gotta go,” I say.

She giggles as I dash back down the hallway. “Ah, young love!” she says after me.

I’m in so deep. It’s a relief when I burst out the front door, the fresh fall air in my lungs. My timing’s good, because Casey is skating in a circle in the road outside the house.

“Hey!” she says. “Ready to go?”

I’m glad it’s dark enough so she can’t see how pink I probably still am. I grab my skateboard off the porch and toss it in front of me on the sidewalk. “Yup!” Before I hop on my board, I throw on my sweatshirt, which is now warm from him sleeping on it.