how it is

"Are you sure, you really had fun?" Leo looked Henry in the eye. He was sure Henry was bored. Totally. Leo guessed he was very wrong about him. Hoping he'd want to come back to band.

"Yeah, of course I did." Henry was grinning, still keeping him company as they got back in Leo's pickup-truck.

"You, are such an effing liar, Henry." Leo joked. Hopefully, Henry wasn't taking him completely serious. They drove on. There was something at the church. A lot of people from band would be there. He was expected. He guessed.

Leo pulled into the epic parking lot near the youth center.

"We can get some food here." Leo mentioned as he waited for Henry to get out, all by his lonesome. "The heights didn't make you sick, right?" Leo looked back at Henry, thinking maybe the football game wasn't really a good idea.

"It was a little weird." Henry shrugged.

Leo thought he might have to actually carry him down from the stands, about 20 minutes ago. Henry sat there long after the game was over, as if he were glued to the metal bench, but Leo made great strides to get back up in the stands and take Henry by the arm. He'd forgotten how he had trouble with one of his eyes, but now Leo was seeing Henry's balance might not be perfect, either.

"I think its like.. Make Your Own Sundae, in here." Leo asked if he were hungry as he got the door for him.

Slowly, he was getting it. Crowds bothered Henry. At first Leo thought Henry was being rather snooty, but he guessed that wasn't true. Henry was just different now.

"We won't be long." Leo told him. "Ten minutes tops. Then we can go back to my place."

But it was loud inside. And hot. Leo made a dash for the ice cream. He told Henry to stay by the door. Soon enough they were back in the parking lot with cups of ice cream topped with lots of chocolate syrup.

"You, sure we won't get in trouble for this?" Henry asked.

"Hey, they like giving people stuff." Leo assured him it was no big deal. Of course, he could have gone back for seconds. But ice cream did that to him. Leo was ready to go as soon as he wolfed down the ice cream.

"Did you want to go home?" Leo asked. After all he was possibly not good at being a friend. This was not the way he did things. Sure, he usually took his ice cream home with him and usually had a moment with the TV, preferably with his favorite video games.

Henry shrugged.

Well, maybe that meant he wanted to come over. Leo would certainly like someone to see his clean room because that was a rare occasion.

"Are you sure, you're all right?" Leo asked as soon as they got to his room.

Henry nodded while Leo turned on the TV. He wanted to show him Asylum.

"This one scares the shit out of me, but I love it." He couldn't help but laugh. It was his new favorite game.

Naturally, creepy music started the suspense of the game. "You know, why can't we play something like this at halftime?" Leo was serious. "We never do anything new. Never."

He sat in the floor with his back to his bed. Leo made room for Henry. Leo had been waiting for this moment. Someone to play Asylum with.