My brothers best friend

Chapter 2

(Kayla's POV)

I get out of my car and stand in front of the house I basically grew up in. When my parents were having fights or I wanted to escape from reality, I came here and spent my day and sometimes nights with Jayden and Lani.  I hear Jayden come up next to me and I look over at him with a soft smile, "This house hasn't changed a bit." Jayden smiles back at me, "Yeah, it's the same house you always loved."

My smile kinda fades as I come back to the reason why this house means so much to me right now and, hell why I'm even here.  Jayden puts his arm around me and lightly shakes me put of my thoughts, "Hey, don't think about what happened. You're here now and away from him, that's all that matters." Jayden says softly. I nod and let out a sigh before looking over at him, "Thanks for letting me stay here." "Of course, that's what friends are for." Jayden says and smiles.

I then hear the front door open and see Jayden's mom walk out happily. "Oh my gosh, Kayla! I haven't seen you since you were a child!" She says and hugs me tightly. I hug her back and giggle a bit, "I've missed you so much Ms.Miles, how have you been?" "I've been great honey, do you need any help with your stuff?" She asks and points over to my car. "No thanks, me and Jayden got it." I smile at her. She smiles back and walks back to the house, "Well alright, let me know if you need anything."

Me and Jayden go to the trunk and open it, sighing at the amount of stuff we need to carry. I pick up a few boxes and bring it up to the guest room, I know this house so well that I don't even need directions. I set down the boxes before going back downstairs to grab a couple more, and I keep doing that for about 30 minutes.

Now I'm in the room trying to put some of my stuff away before bringing up the rest of my things.  I'm about to put away some of my clothes when I hear a soft female voice behind me, "Hi aunt Carol" I'm a bit confused and turn over to look at the person, "Who?" When I turn around, I see the most beautiful girl I have seen in a while. She was pretty short and had shoulder length, curly brown hair. She had a couple piercings on her ears and a single stud on her nose. She looked like she had on no makeup and was wearing a gray jacket, a white tank top, and some black jeans. My thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of her voice, "Umm, who are you?"

Before I could respond, Jayden walked out of my closet and looked between the both of us. He looks at the girl and says, "Oh Lani, you're home." Once I hear the nickname, I instantly remember her. Leilani then speaks in a serious tone, "Yeah, i'm home Jayden. Now does mom know that you have your girlfriend over?" Jayden then chuckles and looks back at her, "Lani, this isn't my girlfriend. Remember Kayla back when we were younger? The girl we used to play with till she moved away when she was 13."

I look at her face and she seemed confused at first, then it was like a flip switched and she instantly remembered me. I decided to finally speak and I look her up and down, "Oh, so you're Leilani. You've really grown up shorty." I smile and lean back a bit against my dresser. She runs her hands through her curly hair and she looks up at me, "Yeah, you've grown up to Kayla." There's a little moment of silence before she speaks again, "Well while this little reunion was fun, I'm gonna go help my mom with dinner."

Before I could speak, she already left and headed for the stairs. I let out a little sigh and look over at Jayden, "So, that's your sister." Jayden nods and looks over at me, "Yeah, but she's kind've changed." I look at him in confusion and walk my hoodies over to my closet, "What do you mean she's changed?" Jayden opens another box and begins to pull out my shoes, "Well, I don't really wanna say what happened but, she's a lot more closed off than when we were younger." I nod in understanding before helping him with my shoes.

(Six hours later)

Me and Jayden finished moving my stuff in about an hour ago, now we're in his room relaxing. I'm on my phone scrolling through social media while Jayden is playing on his PC. As I'm laying on his bed, I hear the door open and look up to see Leilani walk in. She walks over to Jayden and taps his shoulder, making him take off his headphones. "Dinner's ready, mom said to come downstairs." She says and walks back over to his door. But before she walks out, she looks at me and I look back.  She then closes the door and I hear her footsteps going down the stairs.

Jayden logs out of his game and we go downstairs together. We sit down at the table and Leilani sits down right across from me. Ms.Miles brings out the rest of dinner and sets it on the table, sitting right next to Mr.Miles and Leilani. We all begin to eat and everyone speaks to the person next to them. I often look up at Leilani but then look away, afraid that someone might notice.

As I'm eating, I hear Lani start to speak to me, "So Kayla, what college do you go to?" I return the smile she gave me and answer her question, "I go to this college about an hour away from here, it's pretty nice.". She nods in understanding and asks another question, "So, how long will you be staying here?"  I look up at her and give her the same smile, "Just until I can move out." Leilani looks a bit confused but still gives me the same smile. "Wait, what do you mean till you can move out?"

Now everyone was looking at us, then Ms.Miles gently places her hand on Leilani's shoulder.  "Lani, pumpkin, Kayla is here because she needed a place to live." I watch as her eyes go wide and she looks between me and Ms.Miles. Ms.Miles then speaks to her again, "Lani, how about we go talk in the kitchen okay?" I watch as Leilani nods and stands up, walking to the kitchen with Ms.Miles following behind her.  I let out a sigh and lean back at my chair, looking over at Mr.Miles. "Did I do something wrong?" I ask and scratch the back of my neck.

Mr.Miles shakes his head no before wiping his mouth with his napkin, "No, you're fine Kayla. She's just been so closed off recently." That's the second time I've heard someone say that, and I know for a fact that she wasn't like that when we were kids.  I decide to just let it go as I see Leilani and Ms.Miles walking back to the table. We continue eating dinner but me and Leilani don't speak anymore, we just go back to looking at each other then quickly looking away.

We finish dinner and I go back up to Jayden's room. We go back to doing what we were earlier when I remember that I left something downstairs. "I'll be right back, I left my jacket downstairs." I say and walk over to Jayden's door. He nods and I walk out of his room. I walk downstairs and see my jacket in the living room , I grab it and look across the room. I'm able to see into the kitchen and I watch Leilani doing the dishes. I look at her for a moment before I snap out of it and go back up to Jayden's room.

I walk in and close the door behind me, sitting back on his bed to scroll through my phone.  I stay in his room for a couple more hours before looking over at his alarm clock, it's almost 2am. I  get up and walk back over to Jayden's door. "Hey, I'm gonna go to bed. I'll see you tomorrow morning." Jayden looks up at me and smiles, "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow." I give him the same smile before walking out and going over to my room.

I grab the door handle and look over at Leilani's door. A part of me wants to knock on her door and see if she's awake but I stop myself. 'She's probably asleep, I bet she has school tomorrow' I think to myself before walking into my room and closing the door behind me. I change into some pajamas before laying in bed and quickly falling asleep, exhausted from the day I just had.