“Leo? Leo! Where is that kid…” Raiza called out. Leo took a deep breath.
“I’m right here!” Raiza smiled as Leo walked outside, clutching something behind his back. It was a rose, and he was holding it so tight, he was sure the thorns were probably cutting his skin open. But he was too numb to feel anything. “What ya got there?” She smiled, her hazel eyes catching in the light. Leo had to remind himself to breathe as his heart fluttered nearly out of his chest.
“You’ll have to wait and see,” he said, playfully smirking. Raiza rolled her eyes, still smiling.
“Aw, come on. Show me.”
“Close your eyes then.” She rolled her eyes again before obliging. Leo neared her and tucked the bud behind her ear, his skin tingling where it touched hers. “You can open them again.” Her eyes fluttered open. Her face flushed slightly, as Leo was still very close to her. For some reason though, she didn’t really mind.
“Well?”
“Hm?”
“What is it?”
“Oh, a rose, it’s behind your ear now.” A smirk made its way onto his face.
“Is it no-”
“Leo! There you are, sweetheart!” Raiza stumbled at the sudden interruption, nearly falling facefirst onto the ground. Luckily, Leo was there, and he caught her midway. He flashed her a quick smirk before she stood upright, and his own cheeks turned dark red as he turned to see his mom standing at the doorway.
“Hey, mom.”
“Honey. Raiz, so nice to see you. You’re heads clearing up a bit I hope?”
“Oh! It’s nice to see you to Ms. Thornton. Yes, thank you.” She stole a quick glance at Leo for courage as she spoke.
“Well, I was just wondering if you two wanted a snack? Some berries or something?”
Leo clenched his teeth. “No, mom, we’re fine, thanks though.”
“Alright, then.” His mom looked from Leo to Raiza and Leo to Raiza before she smiled and shut the backyard door behind her, leaving them alone once again.
They looked into each other’s eyes and burst out laughing, so much that they were doubled over and clutching their stomachs within two seconds.
They finally calmed down and Leo pointed to Raiza’s hand, in which she held a small brown paper bag.
“What’s in there?”
“Oh, it’s the whole reason I came,” she elbowed him, “While your company is, of course, valuable, I wasn’t just going to come and sit. He blushed but quickly concealed it with his trademark smirk as Raiza handed him the bag.
“It’s just some stuff I thought we could burry in your backyard and look back on when we’re older.”
Leo furrowed his brows jokingly. “Assuming we even still know each other you mean?”
Raiza rolled her eyes. “Yes. And if we don’t, you can keep this stuff I guess.” Leo stuffed his hand into the bag and pulled out a miniature drum set, smaller than the palm of his hand. His mouth dropped open as he traced his fingers over the details in the model.
“Wh-”
“It’s to represent your love for drums or whatever…” Raiza looked down shyly. Leo set the model back in the bag and pulled out one of those foam food things they put in displays. Naturally, it was a blueberry. He smirked and dropped it back in the bag. There were a few other things, but he felt he wanted to keep it a surprise for when they opened it in the future.
Because they would still know each other, he was sure of it.
“Why my backyard? Yours is so much bigger.”
“Well I thought here we’d get less interruptions considering you have no siblings, but obviously I was wrong. Turns out your mother equals my siblings.”
“Ya know, I still haven’t met the famous siblings.” She rolled her eyes.
“Ya don’t want to, trust me.”
“Aw come on, with you as a sister, they can’t be all that bad.” Raiza bit her lip and turned away from Leo, trying and failing to hide her blush from him.
“The only thing more fun than watching you roll your eyes is watching you blush.”
“Ha-ha” Raiza rolled her eyes again. “Anyway, you got, like, gardening supplies or something?”
“Do I ever? You came to the right place Raiz. My mom has a major green thumb.”
“Wonderful. Let’s begin then!”
“Follow me!” Leo led Raiza to a small shed in the corner.
“Oh my gosh, this is-”
“Crazy? Yeah, I know. Tell that to my mom every time we go to Ikea. I guess having only one child makes you lonely enough to get obsessed with a hobby or something.”
“Nah, if that was the case you’d be like that too. Wait- Is that how it is between you and drums?” His eyes clouded over and Raiza immediately regretted her words. “I’m so-”
“It’s fine. Really. I’m fine. Besides, I’m not lonely anymore, I have you.” He bumped her shoulder and she smiled, grateful the clouds had lifted from his eyes.
“Well, all we need is a simple shovel I think.” Raiza dusted off her shorts. Leo grabbed a couple of shovels from beside the door of the shed and closed it back.
“Pick a spot.” He said, gesturing widely with his arms. Raiza walked to a spot where there was slightly shorter grass and pointed to the ground.
“Here should be good. Hand me a shovel.” He did, his hand slightly lingering by hers for a couple of seconds before he let go. If Raiza noticed, she made no comment. She started digging, dirt staining her skin and socks until she had a hole about 2 inches deep. She wiped the sweat from her brow and looked over to where Leo stood, smirking as usual.
“What?”
“What?”
“Come on you know what, why're you smirking at me?”
“There’s no reason,” he shrugged, his smirk unwavering.
“There’s always a reason.” He walked closer to her.
“You’ve got dirt on your cheek.” She rolled her eyes and rubbed her hand across her right cheek.
“Nope. Other side.”
“Oh my-” She wiped her other cheek. Leo laughed.
“Here, lemme…” He rubbed his thumb delicately across her cheek, the dirt falling away. He let his hand stay, let his eyes stare into her widened hazel ones, seeing from the corner of his eye her light pink cheeks. He smiled, a genuine smile, it wasn’t a smirk for once. She walked closer to him, stepping on his shoes because of their height difference. He cupped her cheek in his hand and bent his head closer to hers and-
“Leo! Are you out here?” Raiza scrambled to get off his shoes and Leo ran a hand through his windswept hair and his face heated up. He cleared his throat.
“Yeah mom!”
“Would you come give me a hand with this please?”
“Yeah mom. Just a sec!”
Raiza smiled sheepishly and placed her hands in the back pockets in her jeans shorts. She bumped Leo with her elbow.
“You better go.” He put his hands on his hips.
“Yeah, I better. Don’t miss me too much!” She rolled her eyes as Leo backwardly walked inside. As soon as he was out of side she covered her face with her hands and groaned at the awkwardness.
She had actually stepped on his shoes.
Actually.
On purpose.
She dropped her hands to her sides as she heard Leo coming back out and had to smile at how flustered Leo looked, even if she probably looked the same.
“What’d she need help with?”
“Oh, just opening a pickle jar.” Raiza giggled. Leo cracked a smile
“It’s getting kinda windy, wanna do this later and spend the afternoon in my room?”
“Hmmm, only if you play the drums for me.”
“You got it!” And they walked inside, side by side...
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137 comments
"...we could burry in your backyard," should be bury, not burry. "You’re heads clearing up a bit I hope?" Should be, "Your head's clearing up a bit I hope?" But it might sound better as just, "Your head's clearing up alright?" or "I hope your head's clearing up." I don't know, just doesn't seem right to me. :) "Assuming we even still know each other you mean?" Add a comma before "you mean." "The only thing more fun than watching you roll your eyes is watching you blush." Really like this line, so cute! Just as some general feed...
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Thank you so much for all the edits! I'll certainly fix those ASAP/ Hehe, thank you!
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Yeah, anytime! :)
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Ok but whi did I think your pfp was a skull?
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NO clue...
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Aww this is so sweet! Another great story as usual, sorry for being late. I noticed in your bio you like Japan, and I found out Amany in Japanese is Ōku (I’m not sure if that’s correct because Google Translate is always weird). That’s so pretty!!
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Thank you! Aw, no need to apologize! Really? Huh, never thought to do that. :) Thanks again!
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Anytime! 👍
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Hiya Amany!! Umm what's Fighters block?
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It's a website! Search it up :)
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Amany, do you possibly remember when i was asking you to do cover art for me??
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https://youtu.be/hoihoGGdQ4U watch this :D
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Hey, A! That was a sudden cameo. 😂
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BROOO I OBSESS OVER JAPANNNN WANNA KNOW SOME URBAN LEGENDS???
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Hey amany. Would you mind chking out my new story. And a perfect storyline. Didnt find any mistakes till now. Well written
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I'll add it to my list of neverending reedsy stories I need to get to. Thank you!
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Welcome pls resd my story too
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Aww... So cute! I ship them times 1000!! The dialogue was like you took it straight out of a wire recorder (let's go old school) and one of my friends also plays drums and eats blueberries without checking if they're poisonous. I usually hate lovey dovey stories but this had a bit of uniqueness that made it more captivating to read, not like some of my friend's stories which I abandon at 5%. Please don't tell them, I will get murdered before I get to finish my last pack of dried seaweed. Overall brilliant writing, keep it up.
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Thank you 😊 Haha, the character of Leo was based off someone I know who plays drums. I don't know his take on blueberries though... Thanks! I won't :)
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★彡 Life is tough darling, but so are you. 彡★ wow thanks for the quote! Was having a rough day...
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Aw, your welcome :) Keep fighting :D
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:)!
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"her natives, the bibliophiles" Me: looks at my username Also I love the idea of calling ourselves "Reeders." It's so cute!
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Haha, I remembered you while writing it lol. It was Zillia's idea!
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Oh yay! You remembered me lmao. I'm going to go tell Zilla how amazing her idea is.
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Yes, go! Couldn't take credit for the awesomeness lol, but doing it in my bio ruins the aesthetic of it XD
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I get what you mean :)
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Awww cute cute cute cute! I missed thisssss! Are they dating orrrr- Anyways this was really nice I liked all the cute moments and your romance writing is getting better and better!! I liked that one part with the dirt!! I was just smiling the whole time!!! AMAZING job! Hopefully there will be more stories cominggg...right???! ~Snow❄*~
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YEEEEEEEEEEES! Are you sure you’re called Ama-ny and not Ama-zing? They both work, because you’re SO DARN GOOD! You’re really great at romance. I’m sure you get that a lot. Your work captures the adrenaline rush of everything going on and then perfectly describes the interruption of Leo’s mom. I’ve been hoping for an addition for so long and you DELIVERED! Raiza’s signature attitude and Leo’s nervous kindness are so welcoming and drew me in instantly. PLEEEEEASE 🙏🙏🙏 make a sequel! Either a sequel to this or a sequel to the OG story, I don’t ...
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Awwww you're so sweeeeeeeeeeeeet. Thanks, this made me day :D You think soooooooo? :) Thank you so much, I'm glad ya like it. Haha, I willlll :)
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Awwwwwww Dang, Amany! You rock at romance!!!! This is sooooo cute! I call ship Laiza!!! I loved ittttttt!!!!!!!!! Btw I got a story out! Its Fantasy! Mind seeing it?
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Awww, really, you think soooo? Thanks so much! Alright, alright, calm down, this is the second time you asked, I'm going I'm going lol.
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Yessas! Lol, I did?must have been some error. 😬😬
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It's so sweet!! <3
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Thank you!
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Awww, the dialogue in this story was so sweet! Nothing like a good old romance, you captured their chemistry so well and I just loved their interactions. Amazing story, Amany!
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Thank you so much 😊
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Whoa, that was so good! It was a great addition to the story! I loved it! Great job!
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Aw, thank you!
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You're welcome!
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oh, this was really good ^^ this is supposed to be something like a part 2 to one of your older stories 'blueberries' right? I don't notice any mistakes or anything but i guess that i'd have to agree on what anyone else says that you need to fix. Though i do hope that you'll go and edit/fix the stuff instead of just leaving it there when you do get the chance. Though this is still a really good story, just like your other ones. 10/10 :) i also hope that you'll make a new wrirate type story, those have been interesting so far ^^
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Thanks so much B! I will :) Haha, be patient with me, it's coming :)
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No prob ^^ yeah, i will. i was also actually wondering if your possibly really good at drawing? maybe you could help me with my novels?
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awww that was really sweet. It was just as good as "The Blueberries" I loved it
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Thanks so much! I'm so glad!
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Your welcome, It was amazing. Hey just wondering If you have checked out my new story yet. It's part 2 of "Summer Break Blues"
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Nope but I'll add it to the neverending list of Reedsy stories I really need to get to :)
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thanks :)
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