Hide (Sequel to RUN)

Chapter 9

"I'll pick you up at eight."

"Actually, I'll meet you at eight. Where did you have in mind?" His smile widened, showing that he was perplexed and amused. But he went along with it.

"If you go north on Kamehameha, there's this new restaurant with an outdoor patio. It's called Double Rainbow," he smiled, leaning in closer than usual. "I'll see you at eight." Without missing a beat, he leaned back and strode out of the open door.

I smiled a bit, wondering how he could be so cocky.

"That was interesting," Carly commented, shutting the door behind him. "What was it about?"

"I promised I would go on a date with him if he took me home," I admitted. Carly's gaze hardened slightly, "Lekia..."

"I'm desperate, Carly. I hate the stares and looks that follow me everywhere!"

"A date?" I nodded and averted my eyes. She was furious with me. Just like Lansing would be furious with me if he found out. I was skipping school and getting Palika in trouble with me. She should be fur-

Carly nearly bowled me over as she wrapped her arms around me in a strangling hug.

I guess she wasn't furious after all.

"You got a date! I am so happy for you, getting out into the world!" She screamed in my ear, jumping up and down. She suddenly pulled away, a look of joy on her face, "We need to go to your house and pick out an outfit! And then we can do your hair and makeup... What do you have here?"

Carly turned and ran up the stairs to my room. I sighed, looking up the stairs. She was more excited about this date than I was. Was that a bad sign?

I threw my head back to look up at the ceiling before following her up the stairs, dragging my feet all the way up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I had plenty of clothes at my house," I told Carly as I looked through yet another rack of clothes. We had driven thirty minutes to my house, skipped over the Wahiawa Shopping center, and drove another thirty minutes back to the Pearl City shopping center. Despite Carly's good intentions, I was slightly crabby.

"None of those were good enough for a first date!" Carly smiled. "We had to get a special first date outfit." I pulled out my size in the black leather jacket I was looking for.

"This is cute," I marveled, turning it from front to back.

"That would look really good," she grabbed a shirt from the rack she was looking at, "with this." The shirt she was holding up to it was bright pink and decorated with a girl in front of the Eiffel Tower.

"Ummm...." I scrounged for a nice way to tell her the shirt was hideous.

"Whoever designed that needs to get either their eyes or their head checked," I decided.

"I have this shirt," Carly mumbled, looking at it with a furrowed forehead.

"Maybe if it wasn't such a bright color and was an A-line and had some lace trimming it. Then it would be really cute." She looked at me, and then back at the shirt before putting it back on the rack.

"You know I'm right," I told her, going over to another rack and picking up a shirt that I liked. This one was a nice powder blue tank top that flowed out slightly and had dark blue lace trimming it.

"This one is cute." I looked up at Carly, grinning at my accomplishment. Her gaze made my grin fall immediately.

"Did I insult you by telling the shirt was ugly?"