The First Date

After the disappointing run at the haunted house, we headed to the food court to eat. Leo simply grabbed a hot dog while I grabbed a burger. We sat on a bench located under a tree.

Leo took the sausage that was on the hot dog and protruded it outwards. He started licking all around the sausage while staring at me with hot eyes.

"Stop. We're in public." I warned.

Leo ignored me. He then stuffed his whole mouth with the sausage, trying to speak. "Ahh! Huuntuuur, it fuulls soo guud!" He wanted to sound sexy but all they came out of his mouth was some gibberish. I rolled my eyes.

"Stop it. You'll choke yourself." I cautioned.

Leo swallowed the sausage down his throat and ate all the bread in one go. "His eating habits never change" I thought to myself.

************

Later, we played on the turbo drop. Every time Leo dropped a few meters, Leo would scream. I simply watched the scenery from my seat, completely unfazed. It felt kind of boring. "Are all the rides here boring?" I thought to myself.

We then headed to the pirate ship ride. We headed to the very top role, which was the most exciting part of the boat to be in. The pirate ship swung upwards to one side and then returned downwards. It then swung to the opposite side. To be honest, even Leo felt unenthusiastic about this ride compared to the others.

After spending a few more hours playing different attractions, we left the amusement park and headed to the cinema to watch a movie. Leo decided that we should watch a romance movie, since that's what was expected for a date. I rolled my eyes.

When we came out of the cinema, Leo was balling his eyes up. "*sniff sniff* the main character clearly didn't deserve this! *sniff sniff* why did he have to die! He should've stayed *sniff* together with the main heroine!" I held my arm around his shoulders and pushed him towards me. He continued to cry on my chest. I ruffled his hair and rubbed his back to comfort him.

At night, Leo made a dinner reservation for a restaurant serving French cuisine located in a 5-star hotel. "Why are we spending so much money just for dinner?" I asked, dissatisfied with the wasteful spending.

"It's our first date, Hunter." Leo whined. "I wanted to make it special! You're not romantic at all!"

"Romance are for girls. We're both guys! What's the point of doing this!" I fired back.

Leo pouted. "Boys can have romance as well. At least, I want to feel this sort of romance with you." He wrapped his arms around my neck to coax me. "I'm paying for the meal anyway, why does it matter to you?"

"No. I'll pay for this." I said. We entered the restaurant at 7pm. The waiter walked us to our seats.

Our table was located next to the window with a view of the entire city landscape. Two candles were lit on the sides of the table, while a menu was placed in front of us.

I opened the menu and found that everything was written in French.

"Hunter." Leo whimpered. "I don't know how to read any of this."

"I'll order for us." Leo sighed.

"You know French?" Leo asked in surprise.

"Yes." Along with 6 other languages, I thought.

"You're amazing!" Leo praised, his eyes shining.

I ordered 2 portions of fresh salad as a starter (hors d'oeuvre), foie gras as a second course (entrée), pot-au-feu as a main course and raspberry and blackcurrant galette topped with vanilla ice-cream as dessert. I also ordered two glasses of grape juice as both of us could not drink alcohol.

*************

It took the first course 15 minutes to arrive, in the meantime Leo asked, "So how was today?"

"Hm?" I tilted my head.

"Was today fun?" Leo asked again.

I nodded.

"Would you like to go on a date again?" Leo smiled at me, he was giving me a hopeful look, expecting a certain answer.

I frowned. "There's no need to go on dates." I answered.

Leo felt slightly disappointed. "But didn't you think that today was fun?"

"There's no need for us to go through all this." I replied. "Can't we just spend time at your house with your parents?"

"That's different!" Leo pouted. He wanted to dig my brain up and see what's inside to see my thought process.

"Leo." I said softly.

"I don't want to hear it." Leo sulked.

"We're family."

"As in husband and wife?" Leo joked with no energy.

"As brothers."

"Isn't it possible for you to see me as something else?" Leo pleaded.

"I can't." I replied.

"Why not?"

"Because you deserve better, Leo." I stared at him with conviction. "You deserve a better person than someone like me."

"You're the best person in my mind, Hunter." Leo replied with similar conviction. "No one is better than you, and no one ever will."

My heart jumped. "I-" Just then, the waiter arrived and gave us the starter, immediately cutting off our conversation. We started eating the salad without saying anything.

I elegantly reached for the outer fork and knife and ate the salad buy pushing the vegetables from the knife to the fork and lifting it up to my mouth. Leo, in the meantime, simply used a spoon and shoved all the vegetables into his mouth. I wanted to faceplam.

"We're in a high-class restaurant, can't you conduct yourself in a better manner?!" I whispered at him.

"But I'm hungry." Leo looked at me innocently.

"At least slow down a bit, eating that fast is bad for your health." I warned.

Leo clearly did not hear me because when the foie gras came, he shoved it all in his mouth again. I wanted to roll my eyes but that will be quite impolite so I just inwardly cursed.

When Leo finished the foie gras, he simply stared at me using my fork and my knife and cutting it into a few pieces before slowly placing it in my mouth.

"What?" I asked after I swallowed the meat down my throat.

"You look like a prince right now, Hunter." Leo gleamed.

"Are you saying that you're the poor girl that ended up being taken by the prince and became the princess then, Leo?" I joked.

"Yes. I'm your princess, Hunter." Leo smiled, staring at me while putting his elbow on the table, supporting his head threw his hand.

I choked.

When the main course came, I already felt slightly stuffed. Leo, however, gladly wolfed down all of his food again. I ate slowly while Leo stared at me. I felt slightly uncomfortable on the inside.

"Can't you go on the phone or something?" I asked.

"No." Leo replied.

"Aren't you bored?"

"I can stare at you all day without getting bored, Hunter." Leo said with a sleazy smile.

"It feels like I'm being hit on by a bad man." I thought to myself.

Leo's favourite course, the dessert, arrived after I finally managed to finish the main course. I stared at the galette, unmoving. By the time I took my fork and knife, Leo have already finished the whole thing. He licked his lips that was filled with ice-cream in delight. I slowly nibbled on the food, waiting for my stomach to finish processing my previous course. By the time I finished the dessert, it was already 10pm.

I asked the waiter for the bill. Leo wanted to pay for me, but I refused. I took a look at the bill and widened my eyes. Tearfully, I gave the waiter my debit card. It's lucky that I get a high salary from tutoring Adrian, or else I would've needed to declare bankruptcy after this meal.

We took the bus home. While on the bus, I stood beside Leo. He was starting to get quite sleepy so I grabbed his waist to prevent him from falling.

"Hunter." Leo breathed close to my ear. "I want to be with you forever."

My heart started beating faster.

"He's really good at flirting." I thought to myself.

I returned the favor by pinching the fat on his waist. Leo furrowed his brows in discomfort.

"Don't joke around." I whispered back.

"I wasn't joking, Hunter." He stared at me. "I want us to stay in the same class all the way through university, then we can get married, maybe adopt a few children, and live until we die of old age."

"You're thinking way ahead of yourself, Leo. Just live day by day." I retorted.

"Mhmm...." Leo fell asleep, unable to hear me. His head was leaning against my shoulder, his body slumped close to mine.

I dragged Leo off of the bus and went back home. Tucking Leo to sleep on my bed, I decided to sleep separately this time. I took a shower and slept in the master bedroom, thinking about the sequence of events that happened today.