🏆Featured on TeenFiction | Head Over Heels
To Leroy 'Lee' Hiew, home's never felt like home. He has a huge mansion, a big car, and more money than he could ever spend. And yet, the idea of home always seems to elude him.
Armed with his dog, Socks...
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Lee is standing on the edge of a cliff. He moves backwards, trips and plummets. He moves to the side, topples like a stone. He moves to the front---falls, falls, falls, dashing his head on rocks and getting swept off by the waves, his hand stretched out in a desperate attempt to touch something. He wants it---wants to be saved so badly, but the rushing river carries him away until he's left grasping at nothing but the sweet throes of death and disappointment.
That's a little what Jack's confession feels like.
So Lee doesn't move, because he doesn't trust himself to do so without falling. Instead, he freezes in place. The invisible wall slams down between them again. This time, it's Lee who's built it there.
"Don't patronise me," Lee mumbles, fisting the hem of his dress anxiously. He can sense his heart straining against his ribs. All the blood rushes to his head, nausea flowing through every pore. "You don't need to say this kind of shit just so I won't...do anything stupid. I already told you, I'm not going to kill myself. Don't---don't---fucking---play with me like this---"
"I'm not playing with you!" The words come out of Jack's mouth in a scrambled yell, as if they'd scurried off his tongue a little too fast and tripped over each other on the way. "I'm not playing with you, Lee! I know I'm shit at expressing my feelings and I'm terrible with words and I don't know how to say shit properly, but I'm not lying!"
Lee doesn't reply, keeping his gaze trained on the ground.
"Lee. Hey. Lee, look at me." When Lee doesn't, Jack's fingers slip beneath his jaw and gently lift his face up. Shock fills him at the sight of the tears glistening in Jack's brown eyes, crystal and amber melding into a glittering waterfall. Jack's cheeks are bright red, so flushed Lee worries he might explode. "Look me in the eye and tell me that I'm lying to you. I'm a terrible liar, Lee. You know that. And I'm being serious right now. More serious than I've ever been in my life."
"That's a lot of seriousness," Lee manages to get out, feeling his own cheeks turn pink.
Jack sighs, a quick exhale that's less exasperation and more What am I going to do with you. His arms snake around Lee's back, pulling his shoulders together as he hugs him tight. Lee practically melts into Jack's embrace, pressing his chin into Jack's shoulder as his something something pulls him closer. They stay like that for a while, suspended in the infiniteness of the universe, locked in each other's warmth. Lee's heart thumps, rises, swells, pulse thudding a symphony over his paper-thin skin as Jack holds him like he means it. Holds him like he loves him.
"I'm in love with you," Jack murmurs, something hot and wet soaking into Lee's shoulder. "For five years, I thought I just really, really liked you, but when we kissed on the roof that night...I knew it wasn't just a crush anymore. I've never felt this way for anyone before, and I don't think I'll ever feel this way again. I love you, Lee. I love you so much."
