Another Lifetime

Chapter 15

DeAnna Kastell

"You okay?" Jessie asked me as we walked into the café for lunch.

"Thinking about to how break up with Brian," I admitted and looked down at the doodle on my English language notebook.

"Brutally or gently?" She asked me and Griffin fell into step with us.

"Gently," I told her.

"What are you doing gently?" He asked us.

"Ending BriAnna for Kingstello," She said and that wasn't a half bad ship name.

"I like the name better than Kastley," I told her and sighed.

"Just tell him the truth, you don't feel the same way anymore and you don't want to lie to him about it," Jessie suggested, "but don't mention the fact there's a new old muchacio in the picture," she added and Jessie attempting Spanish made my heart hurt.

"First, he's not a boy, he's a man, second, that's not a terrible idea," I told her and I moved slightly closer to Griffin so our arms were just touching. He had his Kingstello, embracing the ship name, tattoo on show today. The styles were slightly different because we used different artists, mainly because I went to Bang Bang NYC to get mine done by an artist who specialises in single needle work, and Griffin when to the guy who does all the Kings' tattoos.

"You're the only person for me, DeAnna Martina Castello de Rosa-Iglesias," Griffin said quietly and his fingers briefly touched mine.

"If you got married, what happens with your surname?" Jessie asked randomly.

"DeAnna Martina Castello de Rosa-Iglesias de Kingsley," I told her, "if we're going by the Spanish naming traditions but it has no legal standing," I said and we walked into the café.

"Would you Americanise?" Jessie asked me.

"Nope," I said and she looked at X.

"I wouldn't expect her to, she's perfect just the way she is, marrying her would be enough," X told her and that was sweet.

"Like how I didn't mind when he wore those stupid neon green socks in bed," I said and Jessie just snickered.

"I get cold feet at night," he defended and that was true. They were so cold at night, like once he put hot water bottles on them when we were watching TV on the couch in his apartment.

"Why are you guys discussing cold feet?" Sarah asked us.

"We were talking about weird stuff we do in our sleep then Griffin dropped in," Jessie lied and she was getting good at lying, which I would be proud of if it wasn't wrong to lie; I know that's hypocritical but I know that my lies are wrong but a lot of them hide truths that I'm not ready to process or could ruin things if people found out.

"Like how Kastell apparently speaks some bizarre mix of Spanish and Italian in her sleep," X offered and I lightly slapped him on the arm.

"I just thought it was nonsense," Jessie said, confirming the story.

"I once climbed into the fridge," Harry said, musing on the memory, "my mom opened the door and went to completely freak before deciding a photo for blackmail purposes was a better way to go," he added and I held back my laugh but the others didn't.

"I used to constantly fall out of bed," Sarah said, "I would roll around so much because I thought I was a shark so I had to keep swimming to survive," she said and that was just cute.

"Yeah but that's adorable," Jessie said as we all sat down.

"So did your parole officer give you clearance for the dance?" Harry asked Griffin, leaning back in his chair.