Island.

Chapter 6

Six.


So, I was spending the night at Leia’s house. My parents practically threw me out. It went a little something like this:

“Can Ava stay over at my house tonight?”-Leia

“Sure, only if your parents don’t mind”-Dad

“They would love it if she came!”-Leia

“Well then, I don’t see any problem.”-Mom

Cliché if you asked me. But that’s what my parents were. The most cliché couple in the entire world.

 This was the first time I was meeting her family, and they were meeting my family for the first time too. I wonder what their first impressions would be. Would they be able to ignore the accent as easily as Leia? Would they like me? Would they accept me? Because I wasn’t exactly the most normal person here.

We walked up to her house, that was only a short distance from the beach. My parents were already at the door.

It was so unbearable walking with them. They wanted to stop and admire everything. The clouds, the flowers, and the trees. Even the fine grains of sand that were on the road.

I looked towards the beach. I was able to make out a few people laying in the sand, and a few surfing. I was going to turn back when I saw a slumped figure sitting alone, and holding something square shaped.

Weirdo.

From this distance, he looked like a tanned version of the hunchback. But he was sitting and leaning over his sketch book, that was partly hidden by his tall frame. He was always drawing, so focused. And he was always alone. A phantom ache started in my chest. This wasn’t right, to shun just one person. What did he do?

I didn’t realize I was staring until I felt something tug at my arm. Instead of looking up, like I’m sure any normal person would do, I looked at my arm. The one that was being tugged.

I saw a small dimpled hand, that was a natural tan complexion. It was Keoni, I realized. Leia was holding him and he was reaching out to me.

“Am I allowed?” I asked her, because I wasn’t really sure.  I never held a baby before.

“Of course.” I hesitated. 

“Don’t worry you’ll be fine.” she reassured me.

I took him from her and noticed how the curve of his little back molded to my forearm. He looked up at me and the biggest smile I had ever seen stretched across his little face. He was adorable, and he had the biggest brown eyes I had ever seen. He laughed and soon, Leia and I joined in. I ruffled his tousled hair.

“He’s so sweet.” I told her.

“How old is he?” I asked, while handing him to his sister. Suddenly, he pouted and curled his bottom lip, and whimpered. He wanted me to hold him.

“He really likes you, Ava.” she told me.

That made one person.

~

It was dark out now, and Leia was watching some movie. She had a balcony that faced the beach.

“I’m going to  be out here.” I gestured towards the balcony.

I sat down on the chair and gazed at the sky. It was breath taking. It was a myriad of stars, all twinkling in the midnight sky. In all the time that I’ve been here, I never went outside of my own balcony. I was always used to the buildings of New York, or Vegas blocking out the sky, and the sun. Making everything shaded and dull. But out here, on this island, everything was clear. The sky was reflected in the ocean, showing the huge full moon surrounded by bright stars.

“Having fun?” Leia asked, as she took a seat next to me and breaking me out of my trance.

“I thought I should come out here. To you know, talk.” She looked at me with a sheepish expression before saying what she wanted to.

“I know that you’re used to having practically no friends at all. And it doesn’t help that you choose to be alone.”

Did I really choose to be alone? Or was it just a habit?

“Well,” she continued, “I was hoping to go to the plaza tomorrow, to meet some friends. Do you want to go?” I thought about it for a while. I was always left behind, or ignored. Mostly because no one ever took the time to notice me. But what the hell --

“I’ll go.” I finished .

We headed back into her room and I collapsed on her bed. I watched as her face lit up with excitement.

“Lets play truth or dare”. she said.

“I’ll go first. Truth or dare?” she asked.

“Truth”. I decided to play it safe.

“Have you seen any guys worth five minutes of your time?”

This was hard. It was hard because I did. It was hard because it was him.

Weirdo.

“Explain what you mean by that last part.” I told her.

“Nope, sorry but that’s cheating.” she smirked.

This was going to be hard. So to avoid flushing a tomato red, I just told her the truth.

 “Weirdo” I blurted. She looked at me confused.

“Who?” Oh right. She didn’t know the nickname I had given him.

“Uh… that guy who told me to move.” I saw her face drain of color. All the playfulness was gone.

“Why?” she whispered, with wide eyes.

There was a knock at the door, interrupting what ever that was. I just kept the confused look on my face when Leia’s mom, Alana poked her head into the room.

“Just checking up on you guys.” she said.

“W-we’re fine.” I stammered, hoping my voice didn’t give anything away.

“Goodnight.” she said.

After she closed the door I decided to drop the subject completely.
What was his secret?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hey guys, I just wanted to say thank you to all the people who voted, commented, and added this story to their libraries. I wrote this over a year ago, and well, you can see how all over the place this story is. I am re-editing this story before posting it on here, so if some parts are different, well its because I just wanted to add to the story. And please continue to vote and comment. I'd love to hear what you guys think.-Jess