remidurand:
Once again, Remi hid the blush on her cheeks by burying her face in the crook of her palms. “I was a perfectly good slide buddy, you would’ve been lucky to be my playdate,” she said, her words muffled by her hands. Her parents really hadn’t done her every favors back then and had made it very easy for the other kids to come up with insults. She chuckled, peeking between her fingers and fully removing them when he assured her she didn’t look as awkward now as she did then. “Alright, no need to stroke my ego. Not terrible to look at is pretty much the only compliment I can handle.” She almost added that anything more might cause a sneeze, but knew that would only egg him on. This might’ve technically been a fake date, but she did want to spare herself as much embarrassment as possible. “You had curly hair? Damn, I bet that was adorable. It does make me feel slightly better to know that we were both cursed with frizzy hair. Was that what you meant when you said you’ve always been stuck in your brother’s shadow?” She had a twin brother who was perfect at everything he did, so she understood what it was like to be practically invisible in your sibling’s presence. “No, I guess it wouldn’t be fair. Tell me about her?” The brunette was curious to hear what exactly his type was and what had been the final straw with her. They both seemed to be on a sharing streak, so now was the time to get her questions out of the way. Well, some of them. “Isn’t that what you meant when you said you got with girls who were just looking for a ‘really’ good time?” She asked him with a playful grin. He didn’t seem like the type of guy who went home with a different girl every night, but she was still getting to know him and she couldn’t pretend to know the inner workings of his relationships. “Oh, shut up,” she said with a laugh, tempted to flick him right in the middle of the forehead. Thankfully, the waitress appeared with their food and saved him. “Starving. You gotta at least try the pickles.”
“Not with those braces you wouldn’t have been,” Leo said, shaking his head to sell his point. However, given his lighthearted tone, he was only joking. Truth be told, he could have done with a few more friends growing up. “It’s barely even a compliment” He added, and it made him wonder what would happen if he paid her a true compliment and not just a statement of fact. In order to avoid any sneezing, Leo decided it was left best to another time. “Yeah, I did have curly hair” Leo nodded, almost as if he was remembering himself and regret sank in since he probably shouldn’t have told her that. “I still do kinda, it’s just tamed by a lot of product” he grinned, if only because it was mostly true. “My brother liked attention –– he’d jump off swings, start fights, talk back to teachers –– I mostly blended into the background” In reality, he and his brother just had two very opposing personalities and Michael’s tended to shine a lot brighter than his own. Letting out a scoff when Remi asked him to tell her about his ex, Leo almost considered leaving but figured honesty was the backbone of friendship and perhaps if Remi understood his past relationship then she’d leave his love life alone. “She noticed me” Not many people did that, especially when Micahel was also around, “I don’t know, she’s a free-spirit, like me. We both liked chasing a feeling and somewhere down the line, she left. Lied about a lot of shit and we never worked it out” he shrugged. Of course, there were a lot of details he chose to leave out but for the most part, it was accurate. “I don’t sleep with every girl looking for a good time” In fact, Leo tended to be quite picky. Did he make out with girls for the sake of feeling whole again? Sure. “I ain’t trying a pickle. I’m happy with my fries.”
