Allea

forty-two

"Did you force him to invite his friends?"

"When have I forced him for anything, Kai called them on his own."

"Really, Allea."

"Okay, I may be just encouraged him a little."

"Yeah, right."

"Well, it's not like he does anything he doesn't actually want."

"Except if it's told by you."

Seeing his hand again reaching for food on the dining table, I pushed the salad near him, and dismissed his allegation, "That's an exaggeration."

Giving a dead face, that was saying the-truth-is-truth and shrugged, "No, it's not."

Mimicking Elijha's look I repeated his words, not pulling this conversation further.

After a few seconds, as if he remembring something, he looked around to search that while asking, "Where's Jackson? I'm yet to meet him."

A little laugh escaped my lips as my mind drifted back to Jackson's behavior since he arrived yesterday morning. Not once he left his room because he was exceedingly jet-lagged and has the whole mansion's servants running here and there to serve him, "Ah, he has been attached to his bed since he came. Though, I woke him up some time ago, must be getting ready."

"Hm, what about Namibia, everything settled there?"

"Yeah, all thanks to Jackson."

At my response, he subtly nodded and turned his face away. For a moment I felt like Elijah was trying to say something but a moment of silence fell between us and before we could proceed to our further random-discussion, he abruptly started smiling like a halfwit that soon turned into full bloom laughter with a face full of unfamiliar glow, his hazel eyes shining in an utter hilarity. On the other hand, startled and clueless me, continued to stare at him stupidly.

Waking out of my stupor, my hand habitually pushed his moving shoulder and inquired, "What, why are you suddenly laughing like a fool?"

Avoiding looking at my eyes, he tried to stuff his laughter inside, "I-I have something I want to tell you."

If Elijah said this in some other tone, or not after laughing like this, I would have been worried about him. His tone was also full of hesitation, not the bad one, but the one that makes it seem like he's...blushing. My brows lowered, and I know I may look entirely confused with the strange expressions on my face, not quite understanding what happened to my friend, who not a week ago had the face as his pet died because of all the drama of his so-called parents.

Well, his father was happy with what he got and left Elijah alone, and they did share a moment because as Elijah told me, they later talked and he'll remain in touch with him. See, for him, it's this easy to forgive others but not always, just like that woman, his biological mother. She's proceeding with the legal accusations and creating a drama to get the money she thinks she deserves. It's not like her efforts are going well because Elijah not once bothered himself with her again and is letting her do whatever she can.

So, what happened during all of this, that's making him laugh like this? Looking forward to the reason, I urged, "What is it?"

He gave me a side-way glance, still avoided looking straight in my eyes, like he was doing not just moments ago. Before I could hear the much-awaited answer from him, Kai's voice resonated.

"Elijah!"

Along with Elijah, I too turned to face Kai, a few steps behind him were his friends, David and Mike. They came about an hour ago, to prevent them from getting bored, I advised Kai to take them to his room to show his superheroes and antique-toy car collections -displayed on one full wall of his room. Not to disturb them, I didn't inform him when Elijah arrived just about ten minutes ago, and we sat on dining table chairs because he was hungry and could not wait to eat the delicious food servants were putting on the table.