Star-Crossed

Chapter Twenty-One: And the moonlight, baby, shows you what's real

WHEN I OPEN THE door to my home, Lari is standing there, tapping her foot impatiently and staring at her phone. She looks up as soon as she hears the door open and when she realizes it's me, I know immediately that I am in big trouble.

"Rania, where were you? I sent you a dozen texts and called you a million times, I thought something had happened to you!" She breaks off from her tirade, throwing her arms in the air.

Ty rounds the corner, then, a dishtowel is slung over his shoulders and he is wiping the water from his hands on his pants. I guess he was on dish duty tonight.

"She's not kidding," Ty says, sighing as he looks over at our sister. "She was calling and texting you like an obsessed stalker. You think my descriptions of worse case scenarios are bad, you should've heard Lari's."

I groan. "You didn't go around naming various ways I could have been murdered in front of Ava, did you?"

"No," Lari is quick to speak, her voice slightly indignant. "Ava is asleep. In bed. Where we all should be. Do you even realize what time it is?"

I glance over at the aged grandfather clock that is located in the living room which is visible from the foyer, it's pressed neatly in one of the corners of the room and by squinting my eyes, I gather that it's almost one in the morning. Getting up for work in the morning would be Hell.

"I didn't realize it was that late," I murmur.

Lari sputters and for a few seconds, she looks like she's about to rupture a lung or something. Ty looks over at me, his eyebrows knitting together in concern.

"Rania, you went jogging at nine-thirty," he says, pursing his lips as the worry he was trying to hide a moment ago slips through the cracks. "It typically doesn't take you any longer than an hour to jog, especially at night. We've been waiting up for you."

"Why in the world didn't you answer your phone?" Lari wonders, placing a hand on her chest as if she can steady her heartbeat with that gesture. "It's unlike you to not answer your phone. I thought something terrible had happened. If you hadn't come in when you did, I swear I was about to call the police."

Oh, my phone. I look down at my now empty hands and realize I must have lost it in all that confusion earlier. It must still be there. At the place where I was almost...

I shudder and try to put on a brave face for Ty and Lari. The two of them already hated me going jogging at night, they'd both blow a gasket if I told them what happened to me tonight. But, they were both staring at me expectantly, waiting for some kind of explanation as to why my typically one-hour night jog had stretched into almost four.

"While I was jogging I ended up meeting up with a... friend..." I mutter, Xerxion's face popping into my mind.

Lari's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "You don't have friends, Rania."

"Ouch," I laugh, shaking my head.

She rolls her eyes. "You know what I mean. You hate people, me, Ty, Noah, Jacob and Ava are literally the only people you hang out with. Except for Amanda. But she doesn't really count because she's a total bitch."

I frown at her language.

"Lari..." I say, warningly.

She shrugs, looking a tad sheepish.

"What? It's true." She looks at me mistrustfully. "So, who is this mystery friend you met while you were jogging?"

"His name is Xerxion and-"

"Wait, he?" Lari is quick to cut me off.

I know where her mind is immediately and I sigh and shake my head.