My Soul to Keep

Chapter 9

Leilani couldn't deny she was enjoying the day with her friends. From the moment they left Anthony's house she'd experienced one amusement after the other. Lauren all but pushed Anthony to the ground to get the passenger's seat, Anthony purposely sat behind her to pull her hair like a child the entire ride to the rink and once they'd gotten there she watched him chase Lauren around as she followed Aiden. He'd resorted to pushing Lauren to the floor several times to separate her from Aiden and now Leilani watched as a fed up Lauren chased after him. Leilani was laughing quietly to herself as she sat at a table outside the indoor rink and watched Anthony weave through couples trying to lose Lauren. Though she hadn't thought about him much since that morning, Leilani suddenly wondered about Hexander; whether he was feeling better and what he would say about them being immature as Anthony skated backwards to taunt Lauren.

            “I see Anthony is as mature as ever,” a voice said from behind her, making her jump in surprise. Her heart seemed to slam in her chest for a second as she thought it was Hexander, but realized the lack of an accent. Turning to her side, Leilani saw Aiden coming around the table to sit across from her as he watched his brother. “Sometimes he's worse than Zach.” He paused to look at her, his head tilted to the side slightly. “You've met our brother Zach, right? I'm not being some douchebag name dropper?”

            Leilani laughed. “Yeah, I know him,” she smiled. “You picked him up from my house remember?”

            “Right,” Aiden laughed back. “Forgot, sorry.”

            “That's okay,” Leilani replied. “I'm pretty forgettable.”

            “Somehow I only believe half of that,” he said nonchalantly. Leilani didn't understand what he meant but before she could ask him about it, Amber, Gavin and Kara sat around them with pizza and sodas.

            “We ordered the birthday special to get the discount,” Gavin said as he poured soda into a cup for himself. “So if anyone asks, Leilani it's your birthday.”

            “What?” she gasped incredulously and everyone laughed.

            “Relax, he's kidding,” Aiden smiled at her and she began to calm down. “No one's going to ask.”

            “What-” Leilani's eyes widened but she cut herself off as they laughed harder at her. She bit down on her tongue and glared at them all in silence. Hexander would probably spill the soda on all of them or smash pizza in their faces for laughing at me, she thought to herself. The thought was almost immediately followed by another from deeper in her mind. More likely something worse. The thought surprised her; Hexander had never done anything to hurt her or anyone else. Even when he was angry for the way she was being treated, Leilani never remembered Hex harming anyone. She honestly didn't know where the thought was coming from.

            “Hey, don't be mad at us,” Kara said, breaking Leilani from her thoughts. “We were just joking with you.”

            “I know,” Leilani said automatically.

            “Here, a peace offering,” Gavin said, handing her a plate with two pizza slices on it. “The two biggest slices of the pie.”

            “Thanks, but I'm not sure I can eat both of them,” she said, putting the plate down in front of her.

            “Then maybe you can give the extra piece to that hottie checking you out over there,” Amber smirked, nodding across the room. She didn't know why but her mind immediately jumped to Hexander as she looked over to the locker area and was immediately knocked down by a wave of disappointment. Thirteen years of him only being visible to you, and now you think he's just magically going to be seen by everyone? Idiot, she mocked herself. There was only one person standing there and he was undeniably hot and staring at her, but he wasn't Hexander.