Keeper of the Lost Cities Story; The Lost Secret

Chapter 18

"Kai you're here again!?" Someone shouts from the Healing Center doorway. 

Kai looks over to see Gracelyn and Amaria standing there. 

"What happened?" Gracelyn asks rushing to examine the cut in her head. 

Amaria grabs her hand and Kai sees how worried she is. 

"I'm okay," Kai says quickly shoving her foot under the blanket. 

"How did this happen?" Gracelyn asks again. 

Kai's mind races for a lie. She should've thought of an excuse for her friends. 

"Kai had a little fall getting out of the Healing Center yesterday so I kept her another day," Elwin says coming out of the back. 

Kai quickly catches on, "Oh yeah I hit my head on the corner of a cot," 

Amaria and Gracelyn wince. 

"That sounds bad," Amaira says looking at the cut. "But I have good news," 

Kai looks at Amaria to finish, but she doesn't continue. 

"What?" Kai asks looking at Amaria, who is tilting her head towards Gracelyn. Kai interpreted that it isn't something that Gracelyn knows. 

"About you know who," Amaria says with knowing eyes. 

"Ohh," Kai says realizing what she is talking about. 

"It's okay Gracelyn can know," Kai says.

"Know what?" She asks confused. 

Amaria explains the whole situation in deep detail, with some add-ins from Kai. 

"Oh sorry that you two fought, but I knew it!" Gracelyn giggles. 

"Knew what?" Kai asks, she had kind of spaced out when Amaria gave the breakdown of the fight. 

"That you and Asher liked each other," 

Amaria giggles, which makes Kai blush. 

"Is it obvious?" Kai asks, which earns her a bunch of giggles from Amaria. 

"Yes!" Amaria says between laughs. "You couldn't stop looking at him,"

Kai groans, she doesn't want her crush on Asher to be obvious. 

"Well at the hangout, it was a little bit obvious," Gracelyn says softly. "Especially since you picked him first for the game," 

Kai groans and covers her face, which she's sure is on fire.

Amaria giggles more, "To be fair Zayne picked you first too," 

This makes Gracelyn blush. "Oh yeah..." She says dragging out the word. 

"You also were fighting each other with batter," Kai says. 

"And you two basically were inseparable yesterday," Amaria says. Kai doesn't know about that last one. 

"Oooo what happened yesterday," Kai says. 

Gracelyn rolls her eyes, "We were not inseparable!"

"Yeah right, you were practically holding hands!" 

"What happened?" Kai asks confused. 

Gracelyn sighed, "We went and hung out at Kasi's house, just me, Zayne, Amaria, and Asher," 

"Oh," Kai says. They hadn't even invited her. 

"Kasi thought that you wouldn't want to come over after being in here," Amaria says. 

Kai scrunches her eyebrows in confusion, Kasi didn't even come to see her yesterday. Only Asher saw me. 

"No it's all good," Kai says, but it isn't all good. Kasi is making drama in the group. 

"Anyways, back to the good news," Amaria says, "I talked to Asher, he feels really bad about reporting you, he was just worried for you," 

"Did he say he'd talk to me?" Kai asks. She really wants to see him. 

"Yeah, he told me that he needed to see you," 

"Aww," Gracelyn says. "That's so sweet," 

"What's so sweet," Someone asks from the doorway making Kai flinch. 

"Nothing!" She quickly shouts before she even sees who it is. 

"Yeah, that sounds like nothing," 

"Zayne hey," Gracelyn says. 

Kai sighed a breath of relief, she didn't want another Blackswan member to walk in. 

"Hi," Zayne says in an unlike Zayne manner. He looks concerned as he comes up to Kai's cot. 

"Hey, Zayne I'm okay... I promise," Kai says watching his eyes. 

His face is grim as he touches Kai's head and he swallows hard when she flinches. 

"If she did this to you, I will kill her myself," He whispers. His eyes shone with anger, not at Kai but for her. 

Kai grabs his hand, "She didn't, I promise," 

He visibly relaxes, sinks down to Kai's level, and still grips her hand tightly. 

"Are you okay Kai?" He asks softly. The question is simple, yet it has so much depth to it. 

"Honestly or pretend?" Kai jokes. 

Zayne chuckles, but his eyes aren't in the laugh, "I'd like honesty," 

Kai's smile fades. "I'm going to be fine... I promise," 

The three of her friends did not look convinced at all. 

"I swear," 

Amaria snorts, "That's what you always say,"

Kai laughs, "Well that's because it's true," 

"Well, one day it won't be," A familiar voice says from the backroom. Kai cringes knowing it's Elwin. "So I'll need you three to help keep Kai alive," 

Kai rolls her eyes, "I can keep myself alive, thank you very much," 

"Yeah right," Zayne says, "You can barely even keep yourself alive for a couple of days," 

Amaria and Gracelyn laugh, which makes Kai shake her head in defeat. 

"Okay whatever," Kai jokes. 

"Well the bells going to ring soon," Elwin says glancing at the clock, "Would you three come back here after school, I want you to make sure Kai makes it home alive," 

Kai's jaw drops, "You don't trust me so much that you want my best friends to escort me to my house!" 

The three burst out laughing and Elwin gives her a sly smile. 

"That sounds about right Kai," Amaria says. 

"Oh my god, just go to class!" Kai shouts at them. 

They all hug her goodbye and head out to class. 

"I'm not kidding though, I want them to make sure you get to class," Elwin says. 

Kai just scoffs and rolls her eyes.