This Alien Soul

Chapter 15

Amber

"If I have to hear her mention her 'hot date' one more time, I might strangle her." Lindsey rolled her eyes in Kelly's direction as we finished tying off the last of what felt like thousands of balloons that now decorated our gym. "And I might strangle you if you make me blow up one more balloon."

"No, I think we're done here." I laughed in the face of  her annoyance. I would admit that I had been a slave driver all day trying to get the gym transformed to a dance floor. But I wanted our Senior Homecoming to be perfect and that started with the decorations being on point. "And Kelly can't help herself. You know that."

"My you've sure changed your stance on the whole 'date'." Lindsey had seen how I had almost blown my lid when I first learned of it.

But after hearing from Kelly's own lips how it wasn't anything 'real' when asked about her relationship with Alek. That she was just taking on a pity date, but a really hot pity date. I was feeling a lot better about it. Now I knew she wouldn't be heart broken.

"I talked it over with Alek and I'm feeling better. Besides, he's just going to set things right for the Zionians." I admitted, as I directed some of the guys to move a table to the side of the room. "No, over a little more... a little more..no, too far...perfect."

"Wait..." Lindz grabbed onto my arm, pulling my full attention back to her. "You talked to Alek! How? When?"

"I went back to the beach last night." I admitted, telling her a little about our conversation. Most of what he confided I kept to myself. It all felt too personal somehow.

"Amber..." She chided softly. "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean? I was just making sure he wasn't going to hurt Kelly." I defended my actions. Blushing with guilt because I was already thinking about my plans for that night. I was trying to convince myself not to go back. It would be just was asking for trouble.

But I wanted to know what he was going to show me so bad....

"No, you weren't. And you know that." Lindsey was using her serious voice, so I knew things were bad. "You need to be careful, or you're the one who's going to get hurt."

"Hey babe." A heavy arm fell over my shoulder, breaking into the scolding I was getting from Lindsey. I turned to face Brad's boyish smile, while wishing that his dimples effected me even half as much as Alek's half smirks. I shrugged out from under his arm pointedly. We weren't together but once again that line was getting murky. We were falling back into old, familiar routines.

"Hey Brad." Lindsey waved awkwardly at my side. "I see you got out of dance prep duties."

"Yeah, I had practice." He ruffled his sweaty helmet hair off of his forehead. "Somehow I think Coach was easier to handle than this one here."

"Hey! I wasn't that bad." I protested, looking critically at some streamers that were hanging a little too low. "Hey, Kelly, move that streamer on your left a little higher." I called over, to which she responded by throwing a middle finger my way from the top of a ladder.

"Guess someone is still mad at you." Brad pointed out needlessly.

"She'll get over it." I sighed. She always did. Unfortunately, this wasn't the first time Kelly and I hadn't been talking to each other. We were like sisters, and like sisters we sometimes fought. Some fights being worse than others. On a scale I could consider our current situation about a five out of ten.

"So, are you here to pitch in?" I asked hopefully.

I had told Lindsey we were done. But now that I looked around, I could probably do with a few more balloons. And the tables weren't right, we needed to move them again.