4. Leo
4
LEO
W hen his Subject opened the door Leo wasn’t sure what to expect, but a young woman wearing purple slippers so fuzzy they made her feet look four times as large and wearing a scowl was not what he had anticipated. The familiar face didn’t ever let her scowl drop the whole time he was there and the only thing that distracted from the furrow in the young woman’s brows was her awful shirt (that pumpkin print should not be allowed to exist) and her little rat-dog thing. Her couch was covered in plush pink and purple blankets. It was like a cotton candy machine exploded and the furniture was the primary casualty.
Just his luck.
And luck had always been on his side. Why leave him now?
He had pressed on with the whole first meeting checklist and gave his spiel on safety and checked all the boxes he was supposed to. And he was rather pleased with himself that he managed not to (totally) bumble his way through it, which was quite the feat considering he had broken out in a cold sweat due to the flood of (unwelcome) memories that tried to drown him.
He handled that like a champ.
His stomach was in knots.
His heart beat irregularly (probably trying to kill him and put him out of his misery).
She was extremely uncomfortable to be around and he had no one to blame but himself.
So what did a total idiot do to avoid the onslaught of high school memories trying to weasel their way into his “let’s replay this over and over” part of his brain? He worked.
Despite how relatively easy it was to check all the cameras (the Filbert incident not included—it would take him days to recover from that sight) this job was going to test his limits.
Instead of dwelling on this present storm of events (he glared at Sage’s house in the rearview mirror), Leo opted to ignore the whole Sage dilemma and berate himself instead.
Leo was kicking himself for not reading the case file more closely. The name had felt sort of familiar, but not enough to spark his memory of that particular incident. To be fair, most of high school was a blur to him. Between chasing girls, playing football, the long weekends away partying and skiing on the mountain, and just trying to graduate made the day-to-day life of high school turn into one fuzzy memory.
A fuzzy memory that turned into fuzzy slippers that were ready to kick his butt.
He should be grateful despite this turn of events. Normally bodyguards stayed in the house with the Subject, but Lily had mentioned that Sage might be resistant to that idea and to start slowly. If other incidents occurred then he could pull out all the tricks. Lily was quite commanding. “My girl’s safety is the biggest concern,” was a mantra she often repeated in her emails.
They’d catch this stalker guy trespassing and that would be it. Job over. He’d be able to monitor the cameras from afar and accompany his Subject to her public appearances. In the meantime, he’d get to catch up with his friends and sister (if she ever answered his texts—he needed to debrief with someone!).
No better time to procrastinate than the present. He called his sister for the hundredth time.
“Good grief why are you so obsessed with me?” she yelled into the phone.
An unhappy Tess was better than no Tess. “You’re alive!” Leo said.
“Of course, I’m alive you nitwit. What do you want? A ride from the airport? When do you land?” she asked. Ever to the point she was.
“I’m already here. Where are you? Let’s get dinner. I have crap to unload on you.”
“What a weird way to ask about joining girl’s night. I’m at The Hook getting wasted on sushi. You in?”
The timing couldn’t be more perfect. Girl’s night it was. “I’m literally pulling into the parking lot now.”
“For real?” She hung up and not two seconds later came barreling out of the restaurant and into Leo’s arms for a hug only twins who had not seen each other in nearly a year could share. Then she pulled him inside and ordered another round of sushi. Leo had crashed enough girls nights in his lifetime so he didn’t feel too bad about adding another to the list, but no one seemed to mind. He knew most of them from his high school years. Jules, Tess’s best friend and the bride, was always around the house growing up.
“Good to see you again,” Jules said. “This is my cousin Danny.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“So why on earth are you looking like a down dog and what has made you decide to take a job here?”
Leo, through mouthfuls of sushi and authentic wasabi (none of that pasty stuff), explained that he had been asked to squeak in a last-minute (solo) job that happened to be in town. He also scolded Tess for not having her phone on when he had tried calling for a ride but she brushed that topic away and gave death glares at her friends.
He’d have to unpack that later.
“So, is it a creepy boyfriend?” Tess asked.
“Boyfriend?” Leo shook his head and settled into the booth, sipping on a crisp water with lemon. “Possible stalker. More than likely a couple of kids who vandalized her house.”
“And she wanted a bodyguard?” Danny asked.
“No,” Leo answered. “No, this chick has a career in gaming and live streaming. She has a sponsor and everything. It was the sponsor that forked up the cash to hire me.”
“Hold up!” Tess said, pointing her chopstick at him like a weapon. “You're the one protecting Sage Moon?”
“Uh, how’d you know that?” Leo was not in the mood to explain in front of an audience. Tess didn’t count. She knew the history.
Tess rolled her eyes. “I, unlike you, have social media and keep up on things?—”
“And yet you don’t turn on your phone.”
“Whatever,” Tess said, pushing the wasabi around her plate.
“And social media rots your brain!” Leo said. “Seriously, get off that nonsense.”
Tess just rolled her eyes. “But Sage seems to be doing really well for herself now.”
Leo rubbed his temples. “I didn’t know she had changed her name?—”
“ No,” Tess looked from Leo to Jules, horror growing in their eyes. “Leo, please tell me you didn’t?—”
“Just show up to her house having no idea who she was?” Leo asked, sarcasm dripping in his voice. “Yes. That is exactly what I did.”
Jules let out a bark of a laugh. She just shook her head and shoved his shoulder. “You are a total jerk. Everyone knew you did it. I can’t believe you weren't expelled for that crap. “
There was no use justifying it, but Leo tried. “I was a senior. They just wanted to see me graduate…”
“Absolutely false!” Tess said, slamming the soy sauce on the table like some sort of gavel, calling the gaggle of girls acting as jury into order. “The secretaries and principles were in love with you, Mr. Charming. You talked your way out of that. Gaslit everyone. No one important was totally sure who did it, but everyone knew it was you.”
“I am a jerk,” Leo said, hands over his face.
“Yep,” Jules agreed.
“You’re in deep trouble,” Tess laughed. “I cannot believe this is happening to you. I call it justice finally served.”
“Will someone please explain what the heck you’re all talking about?” Danny asked. “Is this some kind of inside joke?” She poured some water into their glasses as she talked.
Leo bit his lip, shook his head, and stared at the wasabi. It was as green as he felt.
“He was a jock and a jerk all through high school,” Jules said in a way that only friends could.
“Still is,” Tess added. Leo shot her a glare. He did not need her commentary right now. “So,” Tess continued. “It was our senior year and he just liked to be a menace to society. Prankster. Always causing trouble. Nothing major. One day he thought it would be funny to sneak into the girl’s locker room while they were all out on the track running laps and steal this poor girl’s clothes.”
“Look,” Leo said, trying to defend his horrid actions. “She was an odd kid. Just a little strange, and, well, you heard the song. She smelled of cigarettes and all that other essential oil crap. Very hippy and ‘new age.’ Just weird and I—I knew it was wrong. I still know it was wrong. But I took her clothes and hid them outside.”
“You’re a real jerk,'' Danny said, clearly still not understanding the severity of his actions. “So, she had to wear her PE uniform all day instead? So, she smelled like sweat and the gym instead of tea tree oil? Boys make no sense.”
Tess softened a little after seeing the shame pouring off of Leo. “No,” she said quietly. “It was worse than that. I heard about it later from the gym teacher, but this girl, Sage, didn't have a uniform or she’d forgotten it so she had to use the school’s spare. The teacher had a rule that the spare had to be returned to her office before you could go change. It was a humiliating experience. Literally standing in your underwear and bra and handing over sweaty shorts and t-shirt, but I think they did that so people wouldn’t forget their uniform, you know?”
Leo gulped. “Yeah, so when this Sage girl got back to the locker room before she discovered her clothes missing due to my uh, involvement, she gave her uniform back to the gym teacher.”
“So, then what?” Danny asked, still not understanding.
“She had no clothes!” Leo said.
“Yes, I am well aware of that. So did he have to borrow some for the lost and found or?—”
“You have to realize this girl was shy,” Tess interrupted.
“Yeah,” Jules said. “She was a new kid, clearly from a rough background—” she glared at Leo.
“What do you want me to say! I was an idiot.” Leo turned to Danny, trying to rush the ending of this horrible story so they could move on. “Basically, from what I later heard, she was embarrassed and confused and didn’t really know anyone. I guess she stayed in a bathroom stall, to do what? I don’t know. Maybe search the locker room for clothes or something but it was late and—” Leo swallowed. He was gonna be sick. What the heck had he been thinking back then? He was about to experience eating sushi in reverse.
“Basically,” Jules said. “She stayed in the locker room long enough for the school to lock her in.”
“Oh no…” Danny whispered.
“It was a Friday,” Tess said. Her earlier amusement at Leo’s discomfort was long gone, likely feeling a fraction of how awful he was currently feeling. “So, this Sage girl literally spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night in the locker room until the janitor found her early Monday morning.”
“No...” Danny looked mortified.
“Yeah…” Leo said. “I was horrible. A jerk who just wanted to stir things up.”
“Poor girl,” Danny whispered. “She didn’t have a phone?”
“Guess not,” Tess said.
Leo cleared his throat. Was it the wasabi making him hot? Oh no, that would just be the utter humiliation and shame. “But things seem to be fine for her now. She’s got a house and a job playing video games. Living every teenage boy’s fantasy.”
“Yeah,” Danny said. “I guess so. But at least you had a chance to apologize.”
Leo couldn’t hide the guilt on his face .
“Oh Leo,” Jules admonished like a very disappointed older sister. “Please tell me you apologized.”
“We didn’t even talk about the incident…” Leo admitted. He had meant to, instead he just talked about how weird her name was like some idiot.
Jules smiled brightly. “Well, maybe this is a chance for you to apologize and patch things up?” Ever the optimist.
“Maybe,” Leo said. In truth, it happened just weeks before graduation and he really hadn’t given the incident more thought. But now? He wondered how Sage had coped the rest of the year, hell, even the rest of high school with that unfortunate story attached to her.
The night continued on. Leo changed topics and caught up on all that was going on in the lives of his friends, the new jobs Tess was looking forward to, Jules’s wedding, and the strange feeling of being back in town. It was like old times, and Leo wondered why he’d spent so long away.
Tess pranced into her little condo, showing Leo to the guest room. Just a bed, dresser, and beige sheets and blankets.
Perfect.
“I have two towels. You can have the smaller one. Generous of me, I know. I also have not gone grocery shopping yet. No rent needed other than your famous popcorn.” Tess tossed him the rag masquerading as a towel.
“So generous,” he murmured.
His body ached. A long travel day and scaling up ladders to check the camera work had made him stiff. His knee throbbed and it was like a ghost of the past coming back to haunt him. Funny. There were a lot of ghosts today.
A hot shower and a warm bed would be a one-way ticket to dreamland.
Too bad the train had left without him.
The jetlag should have caught up and knocked him out. He was full of great food (thanks sushi) and his body was tired, but Leo’s mind buzzed as if he’d had espresso beans for breakfast.
Leo couldn’t push the image of that fifteen or sixteen-year-old he’d subjected to his personal brand of torture out of his mind. She looked nothing like that now. As a teen, she wore baggy clothes that reeked of hippy stuff, her hair was always tied up, not that anyone ever saw it since she always wore a hat or hood. Her eyes were dead then like she slept only when forced. Now? She was, despite her rather juvenile approach to life, pretty. Geeky and immature in some ways, like wearing those awful slippers.
Leo groaned. The pit in his stomach wouldn’t go away.
Leo opened the app on his phone from bed, the screens lit up. He had mounted several cameras outside to monitor the perimeter of the property, but he also had some angles (from the outside) to point into her office, living room, and even her bedroom. It was shady, but it was necessary. It was his first solo and he would leave nothing to chance. He’d emailed her the form with locations and information about the cameras. She likely had opted not to read them, assuming they were all outdoor cameras. Which they were, just some happened to point inside .
He watched as Sage paced the living room. There was a roaring fire and she knelt in front of it, poking it with a stick. Then she stood and paced again. Then she went to a box and began wrapping things up and packing them away. Then she paced the room again.
It was a strange comfort to know that he wasn’t the only one with a lot on their mind this night.