My Soul to Keep

Chapter 3

The summer after her sophomore year, her father was transferred to a different office out of state which meant they were moving and Leilani and Scott were starting over at a new school. Scott was upset to leave behind his friends at first, but as the moving day grew closer it didn't seem to bother him as much. Having made no friends at school anyway, Leilani couldn't care less about the move and grew excited at the idea of starting over. As the summer drew to a close and Leilani ranted more and more about being able to start anew with making friends, Hexander's smile became more and more strained with the thought. But, just as she usually was when she was consumed in her own thoughts, she was completely oblivious to his reaction.

             On her first day of school, Leilani practically flew in and out of her bathroom and room, changing clothes at least five times. Seeing her stop in front of the mirror again to assess her outfit, Hex knew she was prepared to go in search of another one and he couldn't take it anymore. Before she could move towards her closet again, Hex got up from his spot on her bed and grabbed hold of her wrist to turn her to face him. “What?” she asked, honestly looking confused.

            “You are not changing clothes again,” he said. “You're going to be late and you haven't even eaten yet.”

            “I'll grab a muffin or something on my way out,” she replied. “And if you let go of me, I won't be late.”

            “If you promise not to change again, I won't let go.”

            “But I have to,” she groaned.

            “What is wrong with what you're wearing now?” he asked, looking over her outfit. With light blue skinny jeans, black boots, a light blue tank top under an oversized black knit sweater that hung off one shoulder and a black beanie atop her slightly curling hair, he couldn't see anything wrong with it. Except that maybe it made her look too good. “I think it looks fine. Just like everything else you've put on this morning.”

            “Well, excuse me,” Leilani said with a roll of her eyes. “Not everyone can roll out of bed in the morning looking like a model like you can, you know.”

            “Like me?” Hexander said in surprise, looking down at his own dark outfit of boots, jeans and sweater. He hadn't even tried for anything to make himself look good and he knew for a fact that his hair was a mess, since he hadn't bothered with it at all. “I'm dressed perfectly normal.”

            “Exactly,” Leilani said. “Your dressed perfect.”

            “I feel like I'm missing something important to this conversation,” Hexander said with a sigh before shaking his head. “But whatever it is, it's beside the point. You look perfectly fine and I'm not going to let you change again. You're so worried about making a good impression on these new people, you would think you would worry about making it there on time so they don't think you don't care.”

            “I hate when you make a point,” Leilani said stubbornly and Hexander smiled ecstatically.

            “Really?” he said happily. “Because it brings joy to my life.” He paused for a minute and then let go of her wrist to readjust the sweater around her shoulders, covering the once exposed shoulder. “Better.”

            “That's not the way it's supposed to be worn,” Leilani sighed, clearly thinking it was a wasted effort to tell him so but doing it anyway. “The style is to purposely wear it off the shoulder. That's why it's big.”

            “Well I suggest you try to bring back the old style, then,” Hexander said dully. “The one where you don't attempt to look like an attention whore.”