The Pretty App by Katie Sise

blue pane of glass that bordered the front door. If I ran out right when Leo pulled in, I could avoid a conversation with my parents.
    I checked my watch for the thousandth time. I heard my dad curse again in the kitchen, and my nerves went haywire. My dad was obviously in some kind of foul mood, and it was already 8:01, and what if Leo wasn’t coming at all? I started to open the door, figuring I’d just wait outside on the porch, when a mustard-yellow vintage Mustang curved around the bend of our street. I watched in disbelief as it pulled into our driveway.
    Leo opened the door and stepped out of the car carryinga bouquet of wildflowers. He wore olive-colored chinos and a crisp blue oxford shirt.
    I tried to breathe as he walked toward me cradling the flowers in one arm, and I was so taken aback that I forgot about needing to get going before my parents saw him. Leo was halfway up the driveway before I could think straight. “No, no, no,” I said. I moved across the lawn, waving my arms in the universally understood gesture for STOP , but he didn’t. He kept moving toward me with his massive white grin, his dimples like pinpricks of sunshine, his free arm waving like he had no cares in the world.
    “Leo, we should go, we should really—”
    “Nonsense,” Leo said as he strode toward me. Unlike the untailored, lopsided way that most guys wore button-downs, Leo’s fit him perfectly. It nipped in at all the right places, and you could see how built he was beneath the fabric. The sun was glinting on his thick blond hair, and the whole thing was like an Abercrombie and Fitch ad. I went weak in the knees, which I’d always thought was a made-up expression, but which turned out to be a perfect description for how he was making me feel.
    “I have to meet your parents,” Leo said, still smiling that wide sunshine grin. “It would be rude not to.”
    I opened my mouth to protest, but then his arm went around my waist. We’d never been that close. His arm felt heavy and strong and warm and perfect. He pulled me a little closer and kissed my cheek. Was this really happening?
    “You look surprised,” Leo said as he pulled away.
    “I—I am,” I said, staring him up and down and tryingto get myself together. He usually wore his Levi’s in school, and I’d never seen him dressed up like this. “I thought we were just going to get brunch or something,” I said.
    “We are,” Leo said, guiding me gently toward our front porch. He rang the doorbell and said, “In Chicago.”
    “What? Leo—no, no, no, you don’t understand.” My heart was racing. Chicago was almost two hours away. “My parents will never go for that, they’re not—”
    The door swung open. It was both of my parents.
    “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Dawkins,” Leo said smoothly, like he didn’t have an ounce of nervousness in his entire being. “I’m Leo Bauer.” He stretched out his hand.
    I looked at Leo and then at my parents. My mother was fake-smiling, but my dad had the oddest expression on his face. His eyes went wide with the kind of look you’d give someone you were surprised to run into. He was probably just startled by Leo and his fancy car. I was, too.
    “These are for you,” Leo said, passing the wildflowers into my mother’s hands. Then he looked at my father as my mom gushed over the bouquet. “I was thinking I’d take Blake to Chicago today for an afternoon together,” he said.
    My heart pounded against my ribs. My mother’s mouth dropped an inch, but my father’s face went still, just like it always did before he lashed out. I wanted to jump in and say Leo was only joking, but the look on my father’s face was so severe it stopped me from saying anything. I just stood there, waiting for the moment when everything crashed.
    “That sounds wonderful,” my father said in a monotone.
    What?
    “Blake could use some city culture,” my dad went on, running a hand self-consciously through his hair. I was so shocked he was