You Plus Me Equals

Leo slurped up his pasta carefully whipping the little bits that flew up, and onto his cheeks as he chomped away.

The sun beat down on the long blades of grass and his own peachy-pink skin. Baking his skin like the warm pasta Leo looked at his arms and was thankful that when he decided to put on his yellow tank top this morning that he had remembered to lather on the sunscreen.

It wasn't even fully summer yet, but it was like thirty degrees out. The sky was a deep azure blue littered with giant fluffy clouds that looked like you could pluck them out of the sky and eat their big clumps of candy floss.

He watched the large park in front of him, this was his favorite thing to do when the weather was nice. Just sit out on the lawn in front of the four principal campus houses where all the buses passed by and tons of people came to use the big flat lawn.

It wasn't technically a park with anything in it, but rather just a big splay of grass they cut frequently. But it was enough that many students came to picnic here whenever it was nice, and there were quite a few picnic blankets and student circles set up and spaced apart for privacy. There were even a few families that he could see. One of them a mom with her daughter sitting quite close by him, maybe less than fifteen feet away.

He took another bite of his pasta.

The girl squealed and ran around her mom holding a little stuffed bear and throwing it in the air up and down; the toy was rather small and reminded him of a very tiny version of Mr. Bear; the mom sat there reading a textbook engrossed in the pages while the girl played aimlessly.

"Watch me, mommy, watch me!"

Leo grinned. The girl was really cute with her dark brown hair up in bouncy pigtails on either side of her head, and her bangs coming down to frame the pretty girls' blue eyes. She wore a rainbow-striped T-shirt under a pair of jean overall shorts. Her little light up pink runners flashed prettily every time one of her little feet hit the ground.

'Ah, so she is a student here at this campus and her little girl is with her. I wonder where the kid goes while she learns?'

"Mommy! Watch me!" The girl w.h.i.n.ed unhappily, probably because her mom wasn't giving one hundred percent of her attention to her.

Leo couldn't blame her, he found barely enough time to study and he was alone, mostly when he wasn't hanging out with Evan or Max. He couldn't imagine trying to learn and be a parent at the same time. Parenting looked scary enough on its own.

"Yes, yes, mom is watching." The mom looked up from her book and watched the little girl. The girl grinned when she saw her mom was giving her attention and she grabbed the bear and tossed it high into the sky, as high as her little arms could throw.

Which was not very high up, but rather very far away towards him. The bear landed on his shoes and bounced off his runners, and he couldn't help but grin at the pretty girls' poor sense of aim. Leo reached over and grabbed the bear and held it out to her.

The little girl ran over and the mom got up and followed her as her daughter approached a stranger.

She smiled.

"Thank you for catching BearBear. He is my favorite, I would be sad if he was gone. Mommy would be too." She lisped out, then grinned at him sweetly, her enormous smile showed a missing set of front teeth.

Leo smiled.

"You are a great thrower. Do you like playing catch?" he asked.

"I am so sorry, Asha is still learning how to throw up towards the sky." She said softly, she threw her arm around Asha gently but firmly.

"Ah, it's okay, she is doing really well, actually."

Leo grinned up at the mom softly, then turned to Asha.

"I also have a bear I really love. I keep him on my bed in my room, but he is pretty old and so not good for throwing."

Asha's eyes widened.

"You like stuffed animals... But you are a grown-up!"

"Of course, a.d.u.l.ts can still love all sorts of stuffed animals."

"Mommy says that I have to play lots now cause when I am older I won't get to play as much and I won't have any toys."

"Oh no, you can still keep some of your toys. But your mommy is right. You definitely do not get enough time to play when you are an a.d.u.l.t. So you should have fun right now since you are so little."

"I am not little, I am a big girl. I am seven."

"Wow, you are seven! You are right that is big!" Leo said, pretending to be shocked. The mom's eyes twinkled with humor and she relaxed, letting go of Asha as she realized he was safe enough.

"I am old enough to get my own seat on the bus now, and my mom even lets me press the button sometimes."

"Do you want to play with me?"

"Asha, he is a student just like mommy."

"Ah," Asha looked at the ground looking sad.

Leo smiled and was suddenly relieved he hadn't pulled his books out of his bag yet.

"Oh, it's okay, I finished for the time being and was just eating my lunch but I just finished. I would love to play catch with BearBear while your mommy does that stinky boring studying" Leo stood up and smacked his hands together to dust them off.

"I don't think I ever want to go to school, it seems very boring," Asha said.

Leo chuckled.

"School is more fun than you think, and you meet lots of great people at them and make new friends."

"I have lots of friends and that makes me happy and feel less lonely."

"I love meeting new people thanks to school."

"Oh, then you can be my mommy's boyfriend," Asha exclaimed excitedly.

The mom's head snapped up looking startled.

"Ah, of course, I would be happy to make friends with your mom."

Asha smiled, and the mom gave him a look of thanks and a sigh of embarrassment.

Leo chuckled and gave her a small wink. She nodded before walking over, grabbing her stuff and moving it closer to Leo's bag.

Leo ran after Asha, laughing and playing with her just enjoying the sun and the afternoon.

"Leo."

Leo looked up at Max's call and waved to him grinning, Max grinned back cheerily.

He ran back to the mom who Asha had said was named Scarlett and she waved at him, then handed him his phone.

"Your phone was ringing a lot but you and Asha were too far away to hear me call you."

"Really? Thanks, Scarlett. It was probably just Max." She looked pleased he knew her name.

"Sorry, I hope it wasn't important."

"It's okay Max is my boyfriend. We normally meet up in the afternoons. So it was nothing super important. If I don't answer he just meets me at the place, we talked about the night before."

She grinned.

"That's really cute."

Max came up and slid his arm around Leo.

Leo grinned. "Hey, you are here already."

"Max this is Scarlett, Asha's mom. I was playing with Asha and missed your messages, sorry."

���Ah, it's okay, I actually thought maybe you had fallen asleep in the grass again with a full belly."

"Wow, you do that too?" Asha said,

Leo giggled, he was getting used to how quickly she could appear beside you from nowhere. He had stopped a few times to get a drink and so had she and the baby girl had popped up everywhere each time.

Max kissed him on the cheek gently, his arm rubbed Leo's back in slow circles. Asha went to sit on her mom's l.a.p.

Scarlett squinted up at them.

"Thanks so much for giving me a chance to study today. I was really stressing because I have a test tomorrow."

"Oh, it's really no problem. I have a really light class load right now, as some of my classes have finished and I haven't started anything for the next term yet."

"Wait, doesn't that mean you have tests to do too?" her eyes widened with worry.

Leo chuckled.

"Nah, I finished most of mine, but you should add me on Line I would be happy to hang out with Asha and babysit her for you. So You can work."

"Awe, thanks, Leo."

Leo handed her his phone, then when she was finished putting it in took it back.

"I have to go now, see you soon." Leo waved goodbye and walked away, Max cuddled into him and held his backpack tightly.

"Didn't get any of your homework done did you?" He asked, smiling so bug the corner of his eyes wrinkled.

"Not at all." He laughed.

"Did you have an excellent lunch at least?" Max asked.

"Fantastic."

Max chuckled and ruffled Leo's hair.