Chapter 111 He's Mine
1091words
Was it just me, or were people friendlier than usual?
I glanced suspiciously after the last girl who greeted me. Kimberley, I think. Since when did she talk to me?
"Hey." Ember appeared beside me. "How are you feeling?"
"I've had better days," I admitted. "But I guess it could have been a lot worse."
"So, there's another dance coming up."
"No way." I quickly shook my head. "There's not a chance in hell I'm going to another dance, not after what happened at the last one. Forget it."
"You should tell that to Kayn," she breathed. "The whole school is already under the impression that you two are going together."
I stiffened. "He told everyone he's going with me?"
"You should see it," she snorted a laugh. "He so miserably hopeful and bragging about it, too. You should have seen Belinda's face. She's fuming."
I bit down a smile. "Maybe if it ticks off Belinda..."
"I knew that would persuade you," Ember laughed. "But seriously, I don't know what happened to make him that confident that you'd be going with him." She eyed me suspiciously. "What did happen?"
"Uh," I flushed. "We just hang out a lot. I guess."
"You expect me to believe that?" Her brows shot up and she gave me a knowing look. "He's been way too chirpy and you're always together."
"We've just been hanging..." Her brow quirked and I sighed. "So we may have had a bit of a make-out session when we went swimming."
Her eyes bulged. "I knew it!"
"If you knew it then why did you ask?" I teased. "But of course, then came the big discovery of the—" I peered over my shoulder and lowered my voice. "The great, big white tail."
"Yeah, that's insane," Ember admitted. "You're freaking royalty."
"Poses a lot more problems, doesn't it?" I sighed.
"You're worried about your mom, aren't you?"
"Pretty much. I have no idea what the hell she's up to," I said. "It's as if she's purposely trying to get herself killed. She keeps getting herself in these crazy situations. I just don't know."
"Maybe you should just talk to her?"
"You know if that's such a good idea." I turned to her. "I want to, so badly, but she's already into deep in this, I don't want to make matters worse."
Ember offered me a weak smile. "I wish I had some life-altering advice, but I don't."
"It's okay, it's not your fault." I tried to smile. "So, where's Kayn?'
"The last time I saw him, he went to have breakfast in the cafeteria." Ember reached for her locker and pulled it open. "Belinda's trying way too hard to hit on him."
My cheeks heated as anger flushed through me. "Oh, really?"
"Yeah," Ember snorted, watching me shove in everything into my locker and slamming it shut. "You need my help to kick her ass?'
"Nah." I gave her a sweet smile. "I've got this covered."
"This, I've got to see," I heard Ember say behind me as I headed in the direction of the cafeteria. I found them sitting at the usual table, but to my dismay, Belinda's sitting right next to him and literally throwing herself at him.
She kept pawing at him, fluttering her lashes as if she was trying to take off into the sky. I gnawed my teeth as I stomped in their direction, ready to grab a fistful of her hair and drag her away from him. In Kayn's defense, he was at least trying to push her away.
"Go away, Belinda," he muttered. "My food is turning bad in your presence."
She huffed. "That's not nice."
"Hi," I forced out in a too-chipper tone. "Is there a problem?"
"Yes. You're here," her face soured.
I was about to give her a piece of my mind when Kayn grabbed my wrist and pulled me down onto my lap. "Look, my favorite person is here. Breakfast definitely just got better."
Belinda made a snorting sound. "Whatever. Are you going—oh for the ever-loving of!" She got up as Kayn grabbed each of my cheeks into his hands and pulled my face toward him and kissed me. "I'm going. Watching you two eat each other's faces is going to make me throw up."
Kayn laughed against my lips as Belinda stalked away from our table, muttering a slew of curses.
"Good morning, gorgeous," he said when we broke apart. "I missed you on the trip over on the raft."
"Yeah. I was late this morning."
"Oh." His brows furrowed. "If I knew that, I'd have waited. You need to turn your cell on in the mornings so I can actually reach you."
"I turn it off so I can get some sleep," I countered. "It's hard to stay asleep when I keep getting random notifications."
"You can silence them, you know?"
"Oh?" I frowned.
"Yes," he slowly nodded. "Kind of surprised you didn't know that."
"Okay," I sighed. "Nevermind about that. So, are you going to tell me why the whole school is under the impression that I'm going with you to a dance that I have no idea what it's even about?"
"Pirates and mermaids," he grinned way too wide. "How perfect is that?'
I groaned. "Seriously?"
"You don't want to go with me?" his smile slipped and he frowned. "I thought you would have wanted to."
"It's not the going with you part I have a problem with," I said. "It's the dance part. Stuff that happens at dances. It's just always trouble, you know?"
"You only went to one," he said pointedly.
"Yeah, then you and Derek went at it, I lost two of my friends, and we almost died. Remember Graves?"
"That guy? Yeah." He pulled me closer, an intent look on his face as he gazed up at me. A small flutter exploded inside my belly. It was hard to even think I hated him a short while ago. "But you can't let one bad dance ruin the others. That, and I promise this time I will behave." He held up a pinky and I snorted a laugh. "Pinky swear."
"You're ridiculous." I shook my head, unable to contain a smile. "Fine. I'll go,"
