Heart at War // JJ Maybank

11

I turned to look at her, tightening the towel around my chest as I gulped. "What... What do you think?"

Sarah steps forward and then runs her fingers through my hair with a soft smile. "I think... That you look like your Mom." I find myself smiling back at her, "The brown is really pretty on you, Lena."

I turn back towards the mirror and laugh to myself, my once blonde hair now a dark brunette. "I do look like my mom, don't I?" Sarah laughs with me. "Yeah, just like her but with blue eyes." She points out and I take notice of how the new dark hair made my eyes look even brighter naturally.

"Sarah! Lena! Someone's here for you!" Ward calls up the stairs, instantly making my heart race as I turn to Sarah. She touches my shoulder, "Relax if it was any of them my father wouldn't have been that nice."

My nerves calmed down at her statement knowing just how true it was. Ward Cameron wasn't the biggest fan of me or the boys. The only one he liked was Kiara, which was simply because she is a Kook as well.

"Get dress, I'll go see who it is. And if it is any of them, I'll send them away." She tells me before leaving the bathroom and shutting the door behind her. I put Sarah's hair dryer back in the drawer and quickly pulled my bra and tank top back on.

After slipping back into my jean shorts, I pushed open the bathroom and walked across the hall towards Sarah's bedroom. Chuckling to myself as I thought about how in my Pogue house I have my bathroom attached to my room and she doesn't- Granted her house as at least four and mine only has two.

As I got to Sarah's room, I stopped as I noticed Ayden sitting on her bed and Sarah nowhere in sight. "Hey..." I greeted him, causing him to look at me.

"Oh! Hey, Sarah said you were in the bathroom so I'd figure I would wait for you." He says, standing up with a smile on his face. "Holy shit! Your hair!" He exclaimed as I walked closer to him.

I giggle as he grabs a strand of my hair and brings it closer to his face. "Do you like it? Or do I look too different?"

Ayden looks me deep in the eye, making my breath get caught in my throat for a second. His eyes looked like pools of honey, "You look really pretty, LeeLee."

I couldn't help the blush that found its way to my cheeks as I looked down towards the ground, my hair falling in front of my face to try, and fail, to hide my now rosy-colored cheeks.

"Do you want to grab lunch? Sarah said she needed to run out and that I could take you out." Ayden offers, and I find myself mentally cursing Sarah. Of course, she'd leave me alone with Ayden.

I smiled at him. "I'd like that."

          "You're right. They do have some of the best food I ever had"  Ayden admits to me, as I shove a fry in my mouth. I had refused for him to take me to some fancy restaurant in Figure 8, reasoning it with wanting to be able to pay for my whole food too.

Ayden agreed, which is how we ended up back on The Cut, but he still paid for my meal. I took him to a little food truck that I loved here, so at least I knew my meal was under ten dollars.

"I told you so! See, I'm always right." I wiggled my eyebrows as Ayden took another bite of the messy clubhouse sandwich he chose. Some of the sauce fell onto the sand, as we sat next to one another on the beach we first met on.

Ayden gives me a wide smile before turning back to face his food. I watch him in silence before I notice a scar on the right side of his neck, "Where's that scar from?"

Ayden hums and looks up at me before touching the scar on his neck with his fingertips. "Oh... Uh, when I was younger, I'd say like ten maybe... I saw this cat being attacked by a German Shepard. I'm a sucker for animals so I jumped to the rescue." He chuckled.