28: Shrimps

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Chapter 28: Shrimp

I got dressed as soon as possible. Leo was waiting for me downstairs. We were going by his bike since my car was in no condition of going anywhere. I took the helmet from him and sat behind him wearing it, wrapping my arms around his waist.

It was almost a fifteen minute ride to the Sunshine Mental Health hospital. I clearly remember Leo got a mail from this place when he saw me with the envelope he bursted out in anger. No wonder he reacted like that. Maybe this was his secret that he had been hiding from everyone.

The place was huge, and eerily quiet. The staff here seemed to know Leo very well. He didn't have to tell the desk anything. A nurse took us to the cabin.

"How is she doing today?" Leo asked the nurse.

"She is fine. She is progressing a lot. In fact when she heard you were coming, she decided to cook for you. She is at the recreational room waiting for you actually".

Leo looked pleased," Wow this is the first time in years I will be having ma's cooked meal".

I was awed by Leo's reaction to this. He looked like a little kid who was going to have his favorite food after a long time.

We stopped in front of a white door which had the words 'recreational room' written on it. "If there is anything you need just press on the emergency button. We will be there. Besides I will be around in case she does something".

Leo nodded. The nurse left us. Leo was nervous, he was fumbling his fingers. I took his hand in mine to stop him from fidgeting," Relax everything will be fine".

"If anything happens just don't freak out okay? I have never brought anyone here to be honest. As she is unwell, I don't know how she is going to react to people".

"It's okay I will be fine. Do you want me to stay outside?" I asked since he seemed nervous to take me inside.

"No you will come with me", he squeezed my hand reassuringly.

He opened the door to reveal a beautiful woman who must be in her late thirties. She had jet black hair, olive skin and the same piercing blue eyes as Leo.

"Leo... vita mia!" She said something in Italian that i didn't and hugged him. I was touched by this little mother son union.

"Ma I missed you so much", Leo said hugging her back. She let go of him and pulled him by the ear. "Then why don't you come to meet me then", she said in her thick Italian accent pulling his ear.

"Owwhh ma I was here last week but you were asleep. Ahh please stop pulling my ear", Leo said in pain. I laughed.

She stopped pulling his ear,"I was? I don't remember. In fact I don't remember anything from last week", she said sadly. "This place isn't helping me at all Leo. Please take me out from here. I want to stay with you".

"But you are improving
I promise you ma I will get you out of this place as soon as possible", Leo said. It was sad how Leo's mother had to be at the hospital. Poor Leo had to stay away from his mother.

"I know you will", she looked at me and gave me a warm smile," I am sorry I am being a bad host here. And what's your name?" She said looking at me.

"I am Emma. It's really nice to meet you", I said.

"Its nice to see you too. My name is Eleanora but you can call me Nora. This is the first time Leo brought a girl to meet me. I thought he was gay", she mused.

"Ma I told you that I am not gay!"

I chuckled. "Why don't you guys sit down?" The recreational room had a set of sofas and a LED TV with a mahogany coffee table in front, there were two computers at the corner of the room. On the table there were two casserole dishes, they smelled really good.

"I made Leo's favorite creamy lemon chicken casserole and spaghetti carbonara. The hospital staff was kind enough to borrow me their kitchen to cook this for you".

"You made all of these? For us?" Leo asked awed by the gesture.

"Hmm. Like I used to do", she said. "I am sorry son I can't be with you to take care of you".

"It's okay Ma. I am doing fine actually", she served us the food.

"This is delicious Nora", I complimented helping myself to a second serving. Leo was already on his third, he just couldn't get enough of his mother's cooking.

After we were done, the nurses took away the dirty utensils. "So tell me about yourself?" Nora asked me.

"Well I go to the same high school as your son. But I am a year younger than Leo".

"How cute. How did you two meet?"

"We uhh-", what do I say to her? That I met her son when I kissed him to take the last slice of pizza from him? "We uhh-"

"We bumped into each other at school", Leo answered tersely. I was relieved. I was really close to spilling our actual story of how we met. That would have been embarrassing

"How cute. I remember that's how I met your father", she reminisced. Leo started fidgeting again, maybe this was a sensitive topic between them but Nora seemed okay with it.

"He- he was cute in a boyish kind of way. I remember-", she paused for a minute. "But he- he left me", she said wiping tears off her eyes.

"Ma you okay?" Leo and I got up to hold Nora who was shaking uncontrollably.

"I am fine-", she said looking lost. I held her, but she couldn't stop shaking. She looked down to wipe the tears that was steaming down her face.

She finally stopped shaking, but she was looking at Leo in a strange way,"Mi manchi".

"Ma...".

"Why did you leave me Luca?" She cried out.

"Ma I am not him", Leo said holding his mother in his arms.

She backed away," You left us. Please come back. You left me and our son", she sobbed.

"Ma... I am not him. Please come to your senses", he was crying now. "Emma please press the emergency button there", he said pointing to the red button on the wall.

I pressed it and immediately three nurses rushed inside to take Nora away.

"NO I AM NOT LEAVING YOU ANYMORE", she screamed as the nurses dragged her away. "PLEASE STAY WITH ME. I MISS YOU. I MISS YOU EVERYDAY", One of the nurses injected her something and immediately she passed out.

.............

"Go inside. I need to park the bike in the garage", Leo said as I got off from the bike in front of our house.

I got inside and immediately went upstairs to change. I decided to go downstairs to check on Leo who was sitting on the couch with a far off expression on his face. The whole ride from hospital to our house, we didn't talk about what happened at the hospital. I thought Leo needed some time of his own so I let him be.

"You okay?" I asked taking a seat beside him. What kind of a question was that? Of course he wasn't but I didn't have anything to say.

"I am sorry you had to see this. That's why I never take any visitors with me".

"Don't be sorry. It isn't your fault".

"He ruined everything. After he left, ma was broken. She loved him, I thought he loved her too but he proved us wrong. He cheated on her. Now he is living happily with another woman but my ma is still suffering for this", Leo said through gritted teeth.

I can relate to what Leo and his mother must have felt. My dad left us too but my mom coped up with it by drowning herself in work but his mother just couldn't get over the trauma.

"I am sorry you had to go through this.. Your dad-".

"He isn't my dad!" He cried out. "After all he had done, at least he used to fund for my mother's treatment. But last month he stopped it. I had to bear the cost of my mother's treatment alone. It has been hard on me. But I am trying my best- that's why... I have been an asshole these past few months. I was worried all the time. And I took that out on you. I am sorry. I am sorry Emma", tears streamed down his face. I wiped it off and hugged him tightly. My heart couldn't take it anymore. It felt like someone shattered it into pieces.

"Shhh... don't cry. You are a great son. Your mom will be okay. And you don't need to apologize anymore. In fact I am sorry for misunderstanding you", I found myself crying too.

Leo finally fell asleep shortly after having dinner. I decided to make dinner so I cooked eggs and toasted some bread, the only thing I was good at making. Leo barely touched his food but after having some he went to sleep immediately.

I decided to stay beside him, till he fell asleep. He looked tired. It's quite obvious he has been working hard, his hands were blemished from working too much at the garage and he had dark circles under his eyes. Leo Arsen was more that what I thought of him to be. My stupid mind got me to thinking maybe all these time he had been seeing girls but he was just working 24/7 to raise money for his mother's treatment. He didn't even bother taking help from anyone else. He was so much more than a delinquent who gets into trouble all the time. I traced my fingers over the faint freckles just underneath his eyes. He stirred, so I immediately retracted my hand away. I got up but not before lightly pecking him on his lips. Of course that got my heart beating faster. "I like you Leo. I don't know whether it's love or not, yet. But all I know is that I really like you Leo Arsen. I am glad you came to live with me".

............

Not edited.

An early update as you guys are the best! Thanks a lot for 300k reads!

Next chapter I would be writing in someone else's point of view (other than Emma of course). Any guesses?

I realized I haven't posted a pizza GIF in a long time so here you go!

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