birthday candles | the inheritance games

part nineteen

"I love it here!" Avery shouts, I've never heard her shout before so I stumble back in surprise, "look" she says calming her voice, "I'm sorry Malia, I just think you should give this place another try".

Avery noticed something was off, and asked me, I'm a horrible liar, I leave for Chicago in a week, and I made up another lie to Avery.

I told her in the winter I'll move back to my hometown, and attend college there.

She probably wont love it when I disappear, but she does loves a good mystery.

"I know, I gotta go Ave" I say before excusing myself from the room.

I find Amelia sitting on my bed flipping through a magazine, Brandon is sitting in a chair in the corner of my room staring at his new ID.

Last week we got passports under our new names.

"Are you ready for this?" Brandon asks me looking up, I nod before plopping down on the bed next to Amelia.

"This is the most careless and risky thing I've ever done" I say.

"Except for the time you and Scotty stole that motorcycle" Amelia cuts in.

I laugh at the memory of the two of us racing down the highway with a drunk and abusive mans motorcycle.

"Except for when we stole the motorcycle" I say grinning.

"Didn't you crash that bike into the bridge over on Lennon Street?" Brandon asks chuckling.

"Yep" I say wincing.

Amelia laughs and I start laughing too when I catch Brandon gazing at her like a fucking puppy.

"I just realized we will never see these people again" Amelia says sitting up, my laughing comes to a halt.

"Never again" I confirm, "we have to say goodbye without actually saying goodbye" Brandon says "this is all so mysterious".

"Scott would've loved this plan" I say smiling, Brandon breaks into a grin, "yeah he really would have"

Amelia slides off the bed and walks over to him, he pulls her into his arms and she fits like a missing puzzle peice, I look at them longingly, missing my puzzle piece.

"You wanna join?" Brandon asks laughing when Amelia punches his arm, "as if" I say throwing a pillow at them, "I gotta go talk to Xander" I say.

"He can keep a secret" I wink before closing my door behind me.

I find Xander in the kitchen biting into an apple, "well if it isn't my favorite Grambs" he says setting his apple down, "can we talk?" I ask motioning to one of the many studies in the house.

His expression shifts into something that looks a lot like confussion and worry before he agrees and follows me inside the study.

I close the door behind us and turn to face him while letting out a deep breath.

"So..." I say, "so..." he says.

"You might want to sit down for this" I say cocking my head towards a chair, he takes my adivce and sits down with an eyebrow raised.

"First off, I'm sorry for not telling you sooner" I say, "infact the first thing I will be telling you has not been heard by anyone yet".

"I'm sure you know by now of Scott" I say, Xander nods, "I never asked because I figured you didn't want to talk about it" he says looking at the ground.

I force out a small laugh, "you were right about that".

I clear my throat, "he died saving me" my voice cracks.

Xander stands up and I can tell he's about to comfort me, but I shake my head and point back at the chair, he sits back down without a word.

"he died saving me" I repeat, "on his birthday, less then an hour after he proposed to me, less then an hour after I said yes" Xanders eyebrows shoot up like a cartoon charecter.

"Y-you were engaged?" he asks his voice raw with emotion, "yeah" I say my voice cracking even more.

"Oh my God Malia" He says standing up, and this time he doesn't sit back down when I shake my head, he instead pulls me into a hug.

"I'm so sorry" he says, I bury my face into his chest.

it's nice to have a friend.

He finally pulls away as I say "there's more" he takes a seat and I clear my throat again.

"I'm leaving" I say, "what?" he asks seemingly confused, "I'm leaving and so are Brandon and Amelia" he blinks and then blinks again.

"You cant tell anyone" I emphasizing on the word anyone.

"We are leaving to Chicago, under new information, and we aren't telling anyone, I had a feeling you could keep a secret though" he smirks, "don't prove me wrong".

"This is a lot" he says standing up, "but that's fucking awesome" he strolls out of the study and I hurry to keep up.

"Where are you going?" I ask, "to find Brandon and Amelia!" he says grinning, I follow him all the way too my room where Brandon and Amelia still are in.

Brandon is watching some sports game on my TV while Amelia is curled up next to him back to flipping through her magazine.

"You guys are fucking legends" Xander says sitting on the bed, Brandon cracks a grin, "I see you told him?" I laugh and join them on the bed.

"like I said, he can keep a secret".

A/N:
I don't love this chapter, but I do love Xander.
I am almost done with this book and then I will start posting chapters of my Kenji Kishimoto fanfiction. my updates will be slow because I'm super busy with school, reading and summer prep.

sincerely, msswattpad