surreptitious

day twenty seven

Tuesday, May 17th 2016

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I'd been thinking the whole break of a good hint that could make her do something, make her think about it. I'd decided with  "33 Allen Ave, Portland".

It was the place I always went to train, a boxing school. Maybe she'd get curious. I was secretly hoping she'd look it up and go there so she could find me there. I was there almost every afternoon after school. 

I was getting tired of everything having to be a secret, leaving hints, not telling her anything... It felt like she was getting tired of meaningless hints too. I mean, I could be anybody to her. Our school was pretty big, so even if she found a guy like me, it could possibly not even be me. She didn't know any specific details. There could be a dozen Spanish-looking, clumsy boxers. Who knew. 

Over the break, we'd texted casually, no hints. It felt a lot better.  I wasn't planning to keep things a secret any longer.

I walked towards her locker, cautiously looking around. Yes, I was going to tell her who I was, but I kind of wanted it to be a surprise. I didn't want her to see me just yet. I wanted her to come to the boxing school and find me. I knew it seemed kind of demanding, I knew that, but see it like a scavenger hunt. Another mystery. She liked mysteries, so this shouldn't be a problem.  I only hoped she would actually come...

I'd reached her locker and put the note on there, but when I wanted to turn around again I heard a familiar voice behind me. "Well, well, well," it said. "Care to explain who you are and what you're doing at my locker?"

I flinched. Shit. Shitshitshit. This wasn't supposed to happen.

"Uhm," I blurted, not turning around. "I was eh.. Just... putting a note here."

I knew she'd already recognized my voice and handwriting, because she chuckled. "Don't be so agitated, Leo. I waited for you, I wanted to surprise you. And I wanted to know who is behind the notes."

b e a u ' s    P . O . V .

When I'd seen the boy walk down the hallway, towards my locker, I just knew it was him. 'Leo' as he called himself. He looked exactly like he'd described himself; tall, dark eyes, dark hair, lightly tinted skin. What he hadn't told me was that he was in fact very handsome. 

That made me hesitate. Was he really Leo? How could a boy that looked like him have been looking at me all those years? If he wanted to, he could have all the girls in school wrapped around his fingers. Instead, he chose to look at me.

A small smile fought it's way onto my lips as I did what I'd been wanting to do for a long time; catch Leo in the act and find out who he was.

I knew he had to put the notes on my locker in lunch break. There never was a note in the beginning of it, but when I came back to my locker after lunch, there was. Every day.

"You're really Leo, right?" I asked to make sure it was him. The boy in front of me turned around, but didn't look me in the eye. He scratched his neck awkwardly.

"Um.. Yeah, I am," he responded. Satisfied with the confirmation, I took my time to analyze him again. Deep brown eyes. Dark, soft looking hair. I fought back the urge to touch his hair, to feel if it was really as soft as it looked. He was indeed a lot taller than me and had broad shoulders. He obviously trained his kickboxing skills a lot, he was pretty fit. Not bulky, but muscular nonetheless.

A few strands of hair flopped in his face and I had to hold myself back again to not touch his hair. Damn, this really was a beautiful boy. How could he have been interested in me?

"So, Leo," I said. "What's your real name?"

He looked pretty uneasy, almost embarrassed. Oh gosh. Too soon. He had told me he didn't want me to know who he was many times, but I still wanted to find out.

To my surprise, he now did look me in the eye. He blushed a little, then he answered; "It's Élias."

I smiled when I realised why he'd chosen another name at first.  Élias wasn't a very common name. I supposed he really hadn't wanted me to know who he was.

"What was on the note?" I asked curiously while trying to peek over his shoulder. It was already on my locker, but Élias was too tall. He stood right in front of it.

"An address," he said. 

I frowned. "What address? Your address, maybe even mine, maybe a certain place in Portland?"

Élias smiled to himself. He had the sweetest smile. No dimples, but that made it even better. Dimples were a bit too cliché for the perfect boy he was.

"A certain place," he said then. "I always train there and I thought since you like mysteries, you could look the place up and find me."

My eyes widened slightly. He was going to let me know who he was this afternoon! Then I shrugged. "Now we don't have to go anymore, do we? I found you already..."

Élias smiled again. "Yep. You found me."

"Why didn't you want me to find out before?" I asked. That question had been bugging me for a long time already and I was getting really curious now.

Élias smiled apologetically. "Because I'm not interesting, you deserve more than plain, boring me." I was about to argue when the bell rang.  He quickly smiled and then walked past me, off to class. I watched him walk away, too stunned to say anything.

I just got betrayed by the bell.

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hi. i'm back. and i'm sorry. i told you guys i'd try to update over my spring break, but i didn't. i was away most of the time and the days i was home, i actually forgot to update. so i'll just pretend élias and beau had spring break too and didn't have school. for your sake, i mentioned them having messaged over break, but i didn't update then. i don't think i'm also going to actually write those days out as chapters, maybe later as bonus chapters.

i'm (finally) coming close to finishing chapter sixteen (for Tiny and the Lifesaver) too. i hope to update that this week. surreptitious will from now on be updated ever day again. sorry for the wait.

if you're still reading the a/n now; THANKS! i got 300 reads?!?!?!!! woah. thanks a lot to all the supporters of surreptitious out there. and hey?! see what i did?! i made them meet!!!

please dont be silent readers, i love you guys! 

naomi