Love Hurts (Lakewater Town, #1)

Chapter Two

Past: Age 11

Aurora

"Ari, when is Emmy picking us up?" I ask my best friend sitting on the couch next to me. She turns her head towards me and shrugs.

"I think they're picking up Alex's friend Blair first." She says and turns back to the long t.v on the wall. Ari is the daughter of two famous actors, who were never there for her. She was forced into wearing a pair of jeans and tucked in shirt, I was wearing a pair of leggings and my sister's shirt.

We were interrupted by the doorbell ringing loudly. The both of us walked to the door opening it. Emmy stood with a bright grin on her face in front of us. Ari, shorter than the both of us, jumped into her arms and gave her a hug.

"Hi Emmy!" She said and rocked a little before letting her go. Ari came up with the nickname for her a little while ago, and now we both call her Emmy.

"Hi Rory." She greets and hugs me a little tighter. I lean my head against her shoulder and pull away shortly after.

"We're driving with Mason, come before he yells at us." Emmy says before walking down and into the front seat of the car. Ari and I climb into the backseat. Mason starts driving and Emmy talks to us from the passenger seat.

We arrive at a large house outside town, and my eyes widen. I can hear the screaming from here.

"Oh isn't that just fucking great, it's probably Leo throwing shit at Kacy." Mason groans and opens his door before slamming it shut. Emmy opens my door for me and Ari slides out on my side.

"Just a warning, it gets very, very loud." She says and proceeds to walk in the house, with a bright grin on her face.

"Hello! Your favourite cousin is here." Emmy calls out. A stampede of footsteps sound and a chorus of Emory is screamed with high pitched voices. Emory is tackled by a bunch of children.

"Well, that's fun." Ari says and steps over them followed by me. Emmy finally stands up her hair wild and her shirt hanging off one of her shoulders. Six children standing behind her.

"Ari, Rory. This is Grace, Leo, Kacy, Macy. They're twins by the way. And the last two are Kay and Jai." She introduces us to the kids close to her.

"What cuties." Ari gushes and proceeds to get tackled by Grace and Kacy. I think.

"Is that all of them?" I ask Emmy standing next to them.

"There are actually categories. I like to call them babies, younger kids, middle kids, Older kids and adults. These are the younger kids and there are three babies, Leah, Jeremy and Patrick. There are a few middle kids, that's us. And around 10 older kids." Emmy explains really confusingly. She reads the look on my face.

"I'll show you outside." She says and proceeds to grab the two kids off of Ari and drag them away. I walk quickly trying to catch up to her but Jai stops me. He grabs onto my hand and proceeds to make me walk with him.

"You okay kid?" I ask him, he nods his head but his grip tightens on my hand. I decided not to pull away no matter how sweaty my hands were. He takes me outside where everyone is. Emmy is holding a baby and Ari is sitting with Kacy and Macy talking to them. Jai takes me over to a table with colouring things on it.

"Do you want to draw with me?" He asks shyly and ducks his head. It was hard to say no to him so I nodded my head and he handed me a piece of paper.

"You're very pretty." He says and blushes going back to colouring. I laugh a little and do the same after saying a quick 'thank you.' He continues looking up at me blushing when I catch him staring.

Someone taps my shoulder, snapping me out of my thoughts, I look next to me to find Emmy.

"Come say hi to everyone." She says and Jai looks at me like he's about to cry if I leave.

"I'll come back." I reassure him and he nods quickly, turning back to his drawing.

"He really likes you." Emmy says and I nod my head turning back a little to look at him. Jai was still focused on the drawing in front of him, his bottom lip curled up and tucked under his teeth. Emmy takes me over to a small group of people, Ari was already sitting there with them.

"Rora this is Amelia, Courtney, Alyssa, Michael, Kai and finally my favourite cousin. Jayden." She introduces and the last one grins, throwing his arm over Emmy's shoulders as the others call out their protests.

"You're my favourite as well, bug." Jayden says kissing Emmy on the head. Alyssa punches Jayden who punches her back, twice as hard. They end up brawling on the floor, almost everyone joining in.

"Are you friends with Emory?" Michael asks me, scaring me. I jump a little and turn to face him, his bright blue eyes piercing mine.

"Yeah, from school." I explain and he smiles. Ari is talking to Kai and she looks over at me giving me a small wave.

"She your friend?" He asks me again, pointing to Ari. I nod my head again and smile thinking of her.

"Best friend." I corrected him. His mouth forms an o as he nods his head and sits next to me. I try not to inch away from him, sometimes it's a reflex.

"I have to go back to Jai." I blurt and stand abruptly giving a little wave before heading back over to the kid.

"Your back." He exclaims looking from his drawing. I nod my head taking a seat next to him, instead of across from him.

"Told you I would be, kid." I say and he grins, leaning his small head on my arm. I relax a little and he nuzzles closer. I pat him on the head, I don't know what the heck to do. Last time I was near a kid my mother's boyfriend threw it in front of a bus.

"Jai, get off the poor girl," A voice calls from behind us. Jayden grins as Jai nods a little shifting over and continuing his colouring.

"Bug sent me over to ask if you're going to play soccer with everyone." He says, I shake my head no and he smiles before walking away.

"I wanna play." Jai calls out from next to me. He drops his pencils and runs to play with the older kids. Not wanting to be left alone I stand and follow Jayden taking a seat next to him on the step.

"Hey." I greet and he snaps his head over to me, a little surprised. He grins covering it up quickly and says hello back. We sit in silence for a little bit before he looks at me.

"How did you meet bug?" He asks me quietly. I think for a little bit to try and remember, it was a pretty funny memory.

"I was standing with Ari when Emmy ran at us and fell into the fountain smacking her head against the floor. I helped her out, and Ari and I took her to the office so we could help her. She ended up having a mild concussion and broken nose." I explain laughing at the memory of how I met her.

"Are you serious? Do you know why she was running?" He asks me, throwing his head back and laughing, holy crap, why does he look cute right now? Why do I think he looks cute right now?

"We found out she was running from a bee." I say and he laughs harder. My head feels like it's going to start spinning from the sound of his laugh, what was happening?

"That's pretty funny." He concludes laughing again. I can't help but laugh with him and we both fall into a larger fit of laughter. How he was able to have me comfortable with him in a matter of seconds surprises me.

"How did you get Jai to like you?" He asks me and I shrug my shoulders. I don't actually know.

"He didn't even start liking me until last year, I'm his bloody brother." Jayden complains and it makes me smile.

"I guess, I'm just more likeable than you." I say and he snaps his head up to me laughing.

"I guess so, I like you very much," He grins and my face heats up. What the fuck is happening?

A/n:

There will be longer chapters in the future, please continue reading.

Word count: 1424