The Wrong Side

Chapter 32

"Luna?" I knock on her door until she answers it.

"Yeah? Who is it?"

"It's Caden, your friend. Remember me?"

"Oh," and says and she opens the door. "Hey. What's going on?"

I shrug, "I honestly have no clue. Matthew just said to get you, and to meet him and Kadiya outside the main entrance."

"Oh. Okay."

She leaves the room and closes the door behind her. I've grown a bit more taller than her. I'm used to there only being less than an inch between us in terms of height. She's put a part of her hair into a braid with a few flyaway strands and the rest of it falls behind her back.

"Are we going?" She asks and I nod.

We walk together to the stairs. I look over at her a couple times, but she's always looking at the ground. She doesn't try to start up a conversation and neither do I. The silence makes me very uncomfortable. She opens the door to the staircase for me and I go ahead, in front of her. After two flights of stairs, I can't take the awkwardness anymore and I stop to face her, blocking her path.

"Caden?" she asks, "What's wrong?"

"This," I say, motioning to the two of us. "This thing that's been going on between us."

"What thing? There's nothing."

"Exactly my point," I say. "Two months ago on the morning of your birthday, you surprised me when you told me that you liked me and then afterwards, you avoided me for some reason."

She doesn't say anything. Instead, she rolls her eyes and looks at me from the side with an eyebrow arched, disappearing into her bangs.

"Why?" I ask.

"Why do you think?" she answers. "I was embarrassed! I mean, I had confided in my siblings about my feelings towards you and they both thought that you reciprocated those feelings."

"Why did they think that?" I ask and she shrugs with a shake of her head.

"But when I told you, I expected at least a reaction or for you to tell me how you felt about it. But what did you say? You stared blankly at me and said, 'What?' without any further response."

"I had a lot on my mind at the time and you caught me off guard," I say in defense.

"Regardless. I was pretty embarrassed and I felt emotionally vulnerable to you."

"You didn't give me a chance to talk," I say, "I wanted to say something, but you kept on avoiding me. I wanted to talk this out and get rid of any tension between us."

"Fine," Luna says and she crosses her arms. "We're talking right now. What do you want to say?"

I open my mouth to talk but then I realize I don't know what to say next. I hesitate and clam up. Luna sighs and pushes past me.

"I figured. Come on, Matthew's probably expecting us."

I freeze for a second, then I turn around to find her on the floor below me. I run down the steps as fast as I can until I catch up with her and then without thinking, grab her arm and pull her towards me. She looks angry and surprised at once but before she can say anything, I kiss her.

It isn't a long kiss or a very passionate one, but it's still a kiss nonetheless. When I pull away, her entire face is about fifteen shades redder and her eyes are filled with shock.

"I-I didn't know what to say," I say and I feel my face starting to turn red too.

She doesn't reply but instead touches her lips and I can see a hint of a smile on her face. She still isn't meeting my eyes and I probably turn even more red than I already am.