The Trouble with Love

❝ give a little time to me ❞

Oops.

I dialed Kaden's number and waited for him to pick up. He did, after two rings. "Lena? Where are you? It's past midnight! When are you getting back?"

I took a deep breath. "I'm staying at Ashton's tonight."

"No," he said immediately. "Absolutely not."

"It's not like you haven't let me before," I reminded him. Without me knowing, but that's not important. Not like I would've tried anything if I had anyway. Not like I'll try anything or do anything today.

"That was because it was necessary."

"It's not like it's just me and him," I protested. "The rest of the Elite will be there too."

"That's even worse!" he replied.

What? So it's alright for me and Ashton to have an impromptu sleepover without anyone else but it's bad if there are other people there? Does he think I want to be part of an orgy or something?

"How?" I demanded.

"Because you could end up in a body bag," he said.

"I thought you said Ashton would be able to protect me," I reminded him. Not that I'd rely on him to do so, but since he apparently made Kaden feel better about me being around the Elite.

"He could be sleeping."

"They've had plenty of opportunities to hurt me and they haven't yet." Except trying to drown me, but Kaden doesn't know that. At least, I didn't think he did. Hopefully Ashton hadn't told him.

"Just because you haven't gotten bitten by the shark yet, doesn't mean you should keep swimming in front of it," he said.

I blinked. "Kaden?"

"What?"

"Leave the metaphors to Devon," I told him. "And I can take care of myself. I'll wear shark repellent."

If the Elite were drunk, then maybe it would be easier to get answers from them. I could get actual answers, or at least a little closer to what was going on. Jacen, Keira and Ashton were the ones who seemed to know what was going on, but that didn't mean the others were completely clueless. Maybe they knew something about it, but didn't think it was important, or didn't make the connections.

"The answer's still no," Kaden said. "It's a school night."

"It won't affect school," I reassured him.

"It's your senior year, Lena," he replied. "I don't want you getting distracted by the Elite."

"I won't. I've been doing fine." So maybe I had skipped class a little more than usual, but I was still getting nineties on assignments and tests. My grades hadn't dropped.

"Len-"

"I'll be fine, I promise. Don't you trust me?" It was a low blow, but if the Elite were going to get any more drunk, then I wanted to take advantage of it.

He sighed. "Fine." Yes! "But you better not-"

"I won't drink too much, do drugs or get pregnant," I interrupted. Kaden, overprotective as he was, had given me this talk several times.

"I was going to say you better not get caught if you're going to snoop, but it's nice to know you won't do any of that either." He sounded a little amused now, though still worried.

"I'll be okay," I repeated for the third time. "Thank you."

"Be careful," he said anyway. "Love you."