Drunken revelations

Ruth's POV

"But I'm not slurring!" Caleb slurred at Leo making him snort. I felt myself start to smile, but just then another gust of wind blew, making me shiver.

While it was entertaining to watch the ever so poised Caleb Cross so out of his element - and control - I wished they would hurry up just a little.

It was past midnight now, and we were standing in the Cross mansion's driveway, debating over whether or not Caleb was sober enough to drive.

One of my hands that Caleb still gripped in his felt warm, but the rest of me was freezing.

It was my own fault, I reminded myself. I had stupidly thought it was a great idea to wear a flowy top in late November. But even with the added layer of overcoat Caleb had loaned me few hours ago, the cold was starting to cut into my skin.

"No means no, Caleb. The only choice you've got is to sleep in the mansion tonight, or spend the night freezing your ass in the driveway. But no way am I letting you drive." Leo declared, folding his thick arms above his chest, looking every bit as formidable as his edgy looks promised him to be.

This had been going on for a little over 15 minutes now, and neither of them showed any sign of budging their ground.

"You're the one to talk! You are drunk yourself!"

"Ofcourse I am. But unlike you, I'm not insisting on endangering lives by being a stubborn ass." Leo countered. For all his claims of being drunk, Leo sounded remarkably calm and sober, unlike his cousin.

"But.. I am not drunk! Ruth baby, would you just tell him?"

I jumped a little, not expecting to hear that term of endearment, but recovered quick enough to focus on trying to reason with him.

"Well, Caleb," I started, only to have him turn his slightly unfocused, accusing eyes on me.

"What? You think that I'm drunk too?"

"Well, you might think you're not drunk, Caleb. But you're in no position to drive."

"She's right, dude. You can barely stand straight. I'm not letting you drive in this condition and—"

Before he could finish though, Caleb made yet another attempt to snatch the keys out of his hand, but Leo simply raised his hand above his head, making full use of his height and keeping keys out of his reach with ease.

"Juss gimme tha kes," Caleb made to get to the keys again, only to pounce a little too off his right, stumbling into the car, taking me along with him.

But before I could collide with car's metallic body, his arm wrapped itself around me, breaking the impact and for a moment, chasing the cold away.

"Hey, you okay?"

"I am. But honestly, I'll feel loads better if we are out of this cold." I sighed and saw his eyes soften.

I had no idea when he had gotten so drunk, but this side of him was, well, surprising. I had never seen him this gentle— almost loving — before with anyone else. But then, I had barely known him for a month, or in a non-working environment. It was a little alarming that I seemed to like it.

"Let's go and tuck you into a warm blanket, yeah?" He spoke softly, keeping his arm around me. Just then he stumbled again, relying heavily onto my shoulders for support.

"Would. You. Stob. moving!?" He snarled at the ground, and I sighed.

*

"How many stairs does this place have again?" I panted and then glared at Caleb who was playing with a lock of my hair, completely oblivious to the fact that I was teetering under his weight.

"Oh, I don't know, never really finished counting them," Leo spoke in a hushed tone as we reached second floor landing. It was darker than the rest of his house, and with party officially over, a deadly hush had fallen over the place.

For whatever reason, Caleb wouldn't let Leo help him walk, claiming he was sober enough and didn't need anyone's support. Like, hell he didn't.

As we took a left, walking deeper with doors on each side of the hallway, I felt the back of my neck tingle.

I had the weirdest feeling of being watched, and I moved my head sideways, instinctually trying to look over my shoulder.

Caleb picked that moment to press a kiss on my forehead, but as I stretched my neck further behind, his lips ended up caressing my temple.

For a second, all thoughts of being watched fled my mind and I looked up to find him looking down at me with an odd mixture of lust and adoration.

I had no idea what had gotten into him tonight, but the way he was acting had left me feeling warm and unsettled all at the same time.

He ran the tip of his nose up to my hairline, and that gentle act brought back the memory of us in the library.

Even though it was warmer inside the house, I felt a shiver run through me as I remembered his soft touches, so unlike the rest of the times and what very nearly happened if Leo hadn't interrupted us.

"Something wrong, guys?" Leo's voice reached us, and I looked up to find him standing a few paces ahead, appearantly just now realising that we weren't following him anymore.

I turned back to look at the dark, seemingly empty corridor that stretched behind us in the opposite direction, before replying, "no, nothing."

After a bit more trudging, Leo stopped in front of a door at the end of hallway.

"There you go," he opened the door and stepped aside, letting me and Caleb enter the room before him. He flipped on a switch, and lights near the door turned on to let us find our way inside.

It was an averagely proportioned room with a queen-sized bed dominating the space in the center.

As I dropped Caleb onto the bed, and looked around, it struck me of how remarkable this room resembled Caleb's house back in Seattle with its dark furnitures and accessories.

"Huh, this room looks like it was custom-made for Caleb," I murmured, admiring the dark drapes that covered glass windows on both sides of the bed.

"It was," Leo answered, as he flipped on the bedside lamp, finally letting me admire the room in decent light.

"It was the least I could do after... Well, after he agreed to live here for some time."

"Lies, all lies," Caleb mumbled drunkenly from his place in bed, looking like he was seconds away from passing out. I honestly had no idea when and how he had gotten this drunk. The last I saw him drinking was— wait, a moment.

Leo's words registered, distracting me from Caleb's state of drunkenness.

"Agreed to live here? But Caleb said he has never lived here for any substantial amount of time," I asked, confused.

Leo snorted, then shrugged. "Ofcourse, he did. For some reason he pretends to have had a memory loss of his time here. Maybe he doesn't want to recall that time."

"He said you like to make up fake stories."

"Look around you, Ruth my dear. Does this look like a fake story to you?"

It didn't. Infact, some of the things here looked like they were picked and placed here by Caleb himself.

Like books on basics of coding and its future in computer business and some fiction novels that looked well-used, some DVDs, and a few trinklets and concert tickets pinned of a soft board near a small study table in the far corner of the room.

"But why would he want to pretend?"

I asked, mostly to myself as I watched Leo move Caleb's near limp body until it was comfortably on the bed, placing a pillow under his head even as Caleb mumbled a weak protest.

But Leo straightened and answered me anyways. "Everyone has a way of dealing with certain things, don't they? Don't tell me there aren't things in your past that you pretend never happened."

His words put me on alert for some reason, especially because of the way he was looking at me. Like, he could just read my face and tell that there were, infact, things that I would pretend never happened.

Choosing to ignore his comment, I focused on the way he was tucking Caleb in, taking care to slip his shoes off, even if he was rolling his eyes, while he did so.

"You care a lot about him, don't you?" I commented, partly for changing the topic and partly because I was actually curious.

"Ofcourse, I do. He's family." He replied.

"From what I've seen and heard this evening, there's no shortage of family in the Cross Clan. You take care of all of them like this?" I asked casually, running my finger over the writing desk, and feeling impressed at not finding even a speck of dust on it.

When my question was met with silence, I turned and saw Leo eying me from his place next to Caleb's feet on bed, a contemplating look in his eyes.

As if coming to a decision, he replied, "Don't really have time to tuck everybody in, darling. But even with all his misgivings and our differences, Caleb is, well, he's special."

"Why?"

"Why not? There are innumerable things about him that makes him special, don't you think?" He spoke with a teasing lilt in his voice before sighing getting serious again.

"He was there for me at a time when I was alone and desperately needed someone. With no regards to his own trauma at the time."

"Trauma?" I asked, realising a second too late that it might have been too personal to ask that to someone I barely knew.

I opened my mouth to apologise, and maybe even bite my tongue, but Leo beat me to it.

"Yeah, losing someone tends to be traumatic."

He stood up and shrugged, like it was no big deal but I could see the change in him. Suddenly, he looked old and mature. The older brother he was notoriously known for. It was a stark contrast from the playful guy he played out to be most of the time.

"Caleb told me about it."

"He did?"

"Not much," I admitted. "Just that it was a car crash."

"I can't believe he told you. He wouldn't even talk to me about it. I thought he pretended it didn't happen, just as a way to cope with it."

I shrugged in confusion. Maybe Cross men liked to talk about their personal lives with near strangers.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear about that. Must be hard, losing your father at such a young age."

"He talked to you about my dad as well? Well, he must like you a lot more than I thought he did," he attempted to lighten the mood again, but there was thick confusion in his voice.

I felt cheeks grow warm. Damn him for embarrassing me again. I frowned and said, "its nothing like that. He just mentioned about your dad's car crash when I asked if he'd be here tonight. That'll all."

For some reason, I suddenly felt like there was some missing piece of puzzle in this conversation.

Leo seemed to sense it too, because he stared at me for a moment, as if coming to a realisation. Then his face hardened. It was an expression so unlike the guy I had known so far that it took me by surprise.

"So he feels comfortable sharing my shit with the world, but forgets to mention his own?"

"What do you mean?"

He shook his head, and walked over to door. I thought he was going to ignore my question, but he paused before leaving, and turned.

"That car crash didn't just kill my father. It killed Caleb's mother, too."

With that, he left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.