Laz went inside after Vivi to get changed. Although he wasn"t thinking this was a real date, despite what he said, he didn"t want to just show up looking like he normally did. After picking out something to wear, which going from a jeans and tee shirt to a nicer pair of jeans and a tee shirt, he headed out. Since the coffee place was pretty close, he decided to walk. It didn"t take long before Laz got there and sat down to wait. Looking outside the windows at the pa.s.sing traffic, Laz couldn"t help feeling a bit reflective. With everything that has been happening to him, he only now really stopped to think about how different his life was when compared with others. Parents driving their kids somewhere, couples walking down the road, arms locked. Various little things that make up the population of a small town."This is what normal looks like... sometimes I miss it. But other times, I can"t help but think how boring it is too. It"s safe, but safe just makes people lax. Even when the world is changing bit by bit, everyone just tries to keep going with life like it"s normal. Still, what other options is there?"
Waiting for a while and people watching caused the time to go by rather quickly. Soon, Laz noticed Leona walk past the window towards the door. Laz suddenly became dumbfounded when he saw her. Despite having seen her with nothing on, Laz couldn"t help but be stunned by how she looked in what she chose to wear. Maybe it was because of being spoiled by Kat"s crazy lack of clothing fetish, but Laz actually felt that a girl who dressed up for a guy looks far s.e.xier than just being naked for a guy. In Leona"s case, she wore white dress shirt with several b.u.t.tons unb.u.t.toned, a red plaid skirt, and knee high black leather boots along with her hair down. This shocking change from what she normally wore around him caused Laz to momentarily go blank. She looked stunning.
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As she noticed him and walked over, she quickly saw the look on his face which caused her to blush. It had been a while since Leona had dressed up for a guy so seeing his reaction made her a bit hesitant.
"Do I look weird?" she asked in a quiet voice.
"You look radiant," Laz responded without thinking, causing Leona to blush a bit more. As she sat down across from him, she suddenly didn"t know where to start. Luckily, the waitress came over and took their order before leaving to fill it. The interruption caused them to both have a minute to compose themselves, despite being silent.
After a minute or two of awkward silence, they both started laughing while looking at each other.
"Alright. You asked me out cause you have something on your mind. Feel free to ask and I will answer if I can." Although Dee and Reggie might not understand why she wanted to try to go out with Laz, Laz figured it out pretty quickly. He seemed to not only know too much but he also was helping them without asking for anything. Ever hear the phrase there is nothing more expensive than something given freely? That was pretty much what Leona felt and she didn"t like that feeling.
"Who are you?"
"Ah, well, my driver"s license says my name is Lazlo Dean, but I don"t think that"s what your talking about?" Laz tried making a joke but Leona didn"t seem to find it funny.
"I mean, who are you really? How do you know all of this stuff? How to fight, how to use our abilities better than we do? And why is it when I google your name, nothing comes up?"
"Oh? You tried that?"
"Yes. Actually I first checked the s.e.x offender registry but you weren"t there either..."
"Ouch."
"Do you blame me?"
"Not one bit."
Laz didn"t respond for a bit causing Leona to just sit there and wait. The coffee they ordered soon came and caused another interruption, but still Laz sat there quietly. In truth, he was thinking about how much he should tell her. Obviously telling her everything was out, but just a few things to satisfy her were needed.
"Well, my real name isn"t Lazlo Dean, it"s actually Lazarus Crowe. Obviously it"s still Laz for short though," Laz finally revealed to her.
"Lazarus Crowe... why does that name seem... Wait. The Lazarus Crowe who"s being sought out after having disappeared when his grandfather was arrested?"
"Oh? So now he was arrested huh? f.u.c.king a.s.sholes..."
"He wasn"t?"
"Well, I suppose he was taken away by authorities. But not for the reasons I"m guessing they are giving." Laz didn"t explain more. Even he wasn"t too sure what all that was about so it didn"t make sense to try to explain it.
"But wait... when he... er you... disappeared, you were only 14 right?"
"Yes."
"So, that means your..."
"16 now."
"WHAT?" Leona"s voice got loud, startling the other guests.
"Easy there. What"s the problem?"
"I thought you were like... 22 or something. At least 21 though."
"I look mature for my age."
"But that means your the same age as my brother."
"Yep."
"That"s... but that..." Leona couldn"t collect her thoughts at first. She wanted to know more about him, but she didn"t think it would be this kind of thing. She couldn"t help but think about the night exercise he made her do and also about how he looked naked. She couldn"t connect his body to that of a 16 year old.
"Are you sure you"re really 16? I mean... that looked a little too big for someone still going through p.u.b.erty..." Leona finally asked.
"I"m sure. I"ve changed a lot since I got these abilities and I"m not sure I"m done changing yet," Laz replied honestly. He wasn"t exactly thrilled about his skin going so pale, but that was what had happened and he could only accept it.
"So.. your abilities gave you a monster sized..."
"Well, it wasn"t exactly small before..." Laz somehow felt a bit offended by that.
"Alright. So talk. What are you doing here and why are you helping us?" Since Laz seemed to not want to talk much about his past, she decided to switch gears and talk about now.
"I"m waiting on some info. Until I get it, I"m going to be hanging around here. So no worries that I might just up and disappear soon."
"Info?" Laz seemed like the kind of guy who knew a lot about what was going on with the world so she was wondering what this info was that seemed so important.
"It"s.. about my mom and dad?"
"Your parents? Oh yeah, you did live with your grandfather huh?"
"My parents took off around 4 years ago, leaving me with my grandfather. But it wasn"t because they wanted to. I don"t know much of anything and all I was told was that around here was the place to look. Actually, I have someone collecting some information for me from over there in D.C. It"s just that I haven"t heard anything from her in a while."
"So, you don"t even know where your parents are?" Leona asked, feeling concerned. Before, when she thought Laz was a bit older than her, she felt like he was a strong and independent guy. But now that she knew he was actually her brother"s age, he feelings towards him shifted a bit. A woman"s heart truly is a strange thing.
"No. I just heard they were somewhere in D.C. the last time they contacted my grandpa."
"And you"ve been travelling all alone since leaving New York?" Leona couldn"t believe it. She couldn"t help but to compare Laz to her brother now. And when she did so, she had no idea how Laz could have survived for so long by himself. She felt extremely bad for him.
"No. I have Vivi with me and she"s a great travel companion. Almost like a little sister really." Laz actually meant this since that"s pretty much how they lived, but to Leona, it seemed incredibly pitiful. The words almost seemed to break her heart.
"What do you do about money?" It was the next thought that entered her mind.
"I had quite a bit from when I left and it"s only really started to run out now. But I got a job."
"A job?"
"Yeah. Over at that dance club called Waves? Right outside the city?" Laz felt like maybe she was misunderstanding him, but he didn"t know how he could be any clearer. Sadly for him, when Leona heard that, it felt like her heart had taken another blow. She couldn"t help but think that he was going to be doing hard, meaningless work like washing dishes and carrying beer up and down stairs. The things he was going to have to do got worse and worse in her own head, imagining that this was the only kind of place that would take in a kid to work. It wasn"t easy finding jobs in a small town so more often than not, you could only do what was available.
As a girl who had rather recently lost a parent, she had thought to herself how hard life would be if she ended up losing both of her parents and couldn"t help but consider herself lucky. Her mom took good care of her and Reggie and they had lots of help in government aid thanks to her dad working in the army. And yet, in front of her right now was a boy who had neither parents and whose only other relative had been taken away, forcing him to wander the country by himself. As Laz looked at her while drinking his coffee, he notice that Leona looked like she was about ready to cry.
"Did I say something wrong?" Laz questioned himself. He couldn"t imagine what he said that would make her so upset. He then saw Leona take out her wallet, grab all the money in it and tried to give it too him.
"What"s this now?" Laz said without taking it.
"Please. You obviously need this way more than I do..." Leona tried to convince him to take it. As she thought about where he lived and the broken down car seats that served as lawn chairs along with his always casual wardrobe, she was convinced that he didn"t have enough money to live.
Laz, realizing her intentions, couldn"t help but laugh.
"It"s not that bad. Honest. I will be getting paid soon anyway so you don"t need to worry. I swear!" Laz rea.s.sured her with the brightest smile he could. But all Leona could see was a boy who always tried to act strong despite the hardships he was put under. She ended up relenting since Laz refused to take the money in the end. He finally got her to give up by simply telling her to trust him and that if he needed it, he would ask her for it.
After seeing him agreeing to this, she finally felt a little better. Just based on their interactions together, she knew Laz was a bit prideful and felt it was the reason he didn"t want to take the money was because he didn"t want to come off as poor. But since he agreed to let her know if he ended up being in need and that he always kept his word, she knew it was the best possible result she could get. He even agreed that she could pay for the coffee today. After that brief interlude about his past and his current situation, Leona seemed to open up a bit more to him as well and they both couldn"t help but to share stories with each other. Leona talked about her life, school, what she wanted to do and where she wanted to go. In return, Laz shared with her lots of stories from his time on the road. She couldn"t help but be fascinated by it since she never had the chance to leave the area. Pretty soon, they couldn"t help but feel quite a bit closer to one another, as though they had known each other for a long time.
And the more Leona talked to Laz, the more she realized that he was mature, even more so than her. And Laz now saw Leona as a strong, driven, independent and thoughtful girl who would do great things one day. Although it wasn"t strong, they both couldn"t help but feel a bit of attraction to one another after really getting inside each other"s heads.
As it turned out, they had actually been there for several hours before they realized it. Seeing the time and knowing it was getting late, Laz and Leona started to get ready to leave, all be it with some reluctance. It had been too long since either of them found someone else whose company they enjoyed keeping.
"So. Do you think we could do this again? I would love to hear more. The guy in the truck dragging people down the freeway on skies was crazy. I can"t believe people actually do that. I would have never believed it had you not gotten a video." Leona was still laughing as she got up to pay. Laz also walked over and got a latte like Vivi had wanted. But she told Leona it was just one for the road for him since he enjoyed it. She happily paid for it as well, even before he could get his money out.
Just as they were getting ready to leave, Leona leaned over and gave Laz a kiss on the cheek. Laz was a bit stunned and couldn"t help but ask with a bit of a chuckle,
"What was that for?"
"That was because I wanted to, a"ight? And because I never said thank you for not taking advantage of me that other night." Laz immediately knew what she was talking about, especially because her light brown colored skin had a healthy shade of red mixed in.
"Well, if I had, then we probably wouldn"t have been able to have a day like today. So I guess I made the right choice. Although I still feel like I missed out..." Laz couldn"t help but joke. Surprisingly, Leona responded back to him,
"Your not going anywhere yet so who knows?" she said rather suggestively.
As they both smiled at each other, Laz suddenly got a bad feeling and looked out at the street. Leona, also feeling like something was wrong, did the same thing.
As they both looked on, they saw a white Mercedes drive up and park on the side of the road in front of the door. Before either of them could react, Brian jumped out of the car, followed by his two buddies.