No Time For Love

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"You fancy him, Mira," Kaylie says as she observes her nails drying. We're in eighth period band, and Kaylie tends to paint her nails whenever, wherever, usually in the middle of class, actually.

I roll my eyes at her. "You begged, I told. I do not fancy him. He's just an old friend of mine, and we're...renewing our friendship."

Kaylie bursts out laughing. "Oh Mira, you manage to sound like such a mom sometimes, do you know that?" If only she knew. "Anyway, you said you would meet him at the coffeshop. For non-school purposes. You haven't agreed to meet ME outside of school since about two years ago!" That's a fair point. After my father's death, I stopped meeting Kaylie outside of school. I just never had time.

"Kaylie, it's only for ten minutes, I really can't do more than that anyway. Me and Liam won't have much to talk about, so ten minutes is alright, but meeting with you would need more than ten minutes. We talk in school anyway." Kaylie continues painting her nails, a small smile playing on her lips. "What?"

"You fancy him, at least a bit, even if you don't accept it. Believe me, I know." Kaylie's tone takes on an edge of sadness, and for the first time in all the time I've known her, I wonder whether she's hiding as much from me as I am from her. Damn, I'm selfish.

"Is everything okay, Kaylie?" I ask tentatively.

"Yeah, everything's fine," Kaylie says a bit too quickly, giving me a smile that I know isn't real. I decide to change the topic, because she doesn't seem to want to talk about whatever happened at the moment, but she beats me to it.

"Anyway, you two were talking in the halls for ten minutes. Who knows what you two were up to?" She wiggles her eyebrows at me, and I push her lightly.

"Ugh, why do I talk to you," I ask her jokingly. She puts the finishing touches on her nails, and looks back at me, smirking. "Because I'm the only one who will. Besides your boyfriend, I mean."

"That's very true. And he's not my boyfriend." I reply.

"I never even mentioned a name, Mira, who are you talking about?" Kaylie says innocently, still grinning as the bell rings for school to let out for the day. Kaylie and I pack our stuff and head outside to leave.

Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I give Kaylie a quick hug. "See ya tomorrow."

"If you need any help setting up a clandestine date, let me know, okay? I can cover for you. Bye!"

I laugh, then turn and head towards the direction of the science facility I intern at. This day has definitely been better than I'd expected. Maybe things were looking up in my life, like all the signs I'd seen today seemed to be telling me. I mean, Mum seemed to be better, I'd actually enjoyed math class for once, and it's a cloudless Thursday. Thinking of math class brings Liam back into my head, making me smile. Doing something fun for a change will be fun, won't it? Especially with Liam, who's just as sweet and funny as he always was. I'm actually looking forward to this weekend, for once.

************************************************************

When I get home, Arial is nowhere to be seen. Normally, she would be sitting in front of the TV, watching whatever might have happened to be coming on the local channels (we haven't had cable in a while), but today the TV was off, and there was only silence.

"Arial?" I call. There is no response. Now slightly worried, I drop my bag and walk into Mum's room and find Arial frantically rifling through drawers.

"Um, Arial?" I ask carefully. She jerks up at my voice.

"Hi Mira! How was your day?" she says brightly, standing with her arms by her side. "I didn't think you'd be back so early."

"Arial," I ask in a controlled tone of voice. "What did you do?"

"Nothing, I swear," she says, and I can see her gulping nervously.

"Ari, please, I need to get to work-"

Arial purses her lips. "I lost Mum's engagement ring."

Shit.