Who Is She? | Jaz Anderson

• one •

Ayden stiffened as Carter welcomed her back with a hug.

She wrestled him off her, dusting his touch off her. "Please don't touch me."

"Oh." Her older brother stepped back, his brown cheeks darkening. "Sorry. But... um, welcome back. I — we — really missed you."

"It's okay. You don't have to pretend Sadie cares about me. We both know it's a lie. Since she was born, both our parents shoved us aside."

"Ayden..." Carter trailed off. He cleared his throat and tried a different approach to connect with her. "You grew your hair out too?"

She touched her new braids. "Not really. I mean, yes, but I have extensions too."

Carter sighed. "Can we talk? Privately?"

"Is this not private enough?" Ayden scoffed, gesturing around the empty Great Room.

"Jaz cleared everyone out... but no. She's going to come back in at any second now."

"Last I remember, we had an audience for our family spats."

"Ayden, please! Work with me here."

"Everyone has always been on Sadie's side," Ayden accused, jabbing her long index finger into Carter's chest. "Even you and she's always — and I mean always — shoved you aside!"

"Ayden!" Carter snapped loudly.

She took a step back, flinching.

His face fell. "I... I'm sorry. But I almost died pretty recently and we tried to contact you a bunch of times."

She shook her head. "You've always shoved me away, Carter. I don't know why, though. Was it just you choosing her over me?"

Carter reached for her hands. "'Den, please. You're my favorite sister, even Sadie knows that."

"Yeah well... it wasn't enough. Can I just go to my room now?"

"Yeah. We... um, well, more like I was clinging onto you, so your room is exactly how you left it and right where you left it." He scratched the back of his neck. "Can I just say... I'm really, really sorry, 'Den."

She sighed, lips tight. "So am I. But that's not getting you completely off the hook."

He nodded. "I know."

He stepped aside and let Ayden head up the stairs.

She cast him one last look before she disappeared from his sight. She heard his shout and hit the wall at the same time as him.

"Dammit," she hissed. Why did she always mess things up?

"Oh... hi," a new voice said behind her.

Ayden jumped and whirled around. She straightened, pushing her braids away from her face automatically as she stared into the face of a pretty blonde in a pink dress with a loose denim coat over it.

"... Hi..." Ayden mumbled.

"I'm Jaz," the pretty girl said. "Are you new here?"

"In a sense," Ayden admitted. "But I'm really... um..." She cursed herself in her head. "I... uh... I'm Ayden... Kane... I left almost seven months ago."

"Oh!" The pretty girl clapped her hands together enthusiastically. "I remember now. That was when I first came. You were in a terracotta turtleneck and a blazer and black pants."

Ayden blinked. "How did you remember what I was wearing?"

She blushed when the pretty girl responded flirtatiously. "You were the prettiest and most handsome girl I'd ever seen... how could I forget?"

Ayden prayed that her cheeks were not as red as they felt. Sometimes, she wished that she had her brother's dark skin and not the pale white of her mother. This was one of those times.

"I..." she covered her face.

"I'm sorry," the pretty girl said, flushing. "Are... are you straight?"

Ayden shook her head. "No," she squeaked. "I — um — uh — gah! I'm sorry! I can't... I'm really bad at talking to pretty people." She clapped a hand over her mouth. "I can't believe I just said that."

The pretty girl laughed as Ayden bolted away to her room.

"It's okay!" she called after her. "You're very pretty too!"

Ayden closed the door behind her. That was the most embarrassing thing she'd ever said... and she'd said a lot of embarrassing things in her lifetime. She closed her eyes, trying not to panic internally.

Jaz, she thought. A pretty name for a pretty girl.

And she'd better not say that aloud.

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Writing this genuinely made me laugh. I've made Ayden so awkward and for what, lmao.