Heir of Aphrodite - 1 Heroes of Us

11 - AARON

After Taylor went back into her room, Chase went completely wild on Luke. "What did you do!" he yelled, causing Luke to turn from sad to angry.

    "I didn't mean anything! I just said she needed to choose a side!" Luke came back with.

    That struck me. "Why would she have had to choose a side? What were her options?" I must've sounded angry without meaning to, because Luke gulped. Kayla stood next to me, staring at Taylor's door. She hadn't said anything since Taylor left, but my sentence brought her attention back to the conversation.

    Luke gulped again, his eyes moving from me to Kayla, back and forth. That made me look at her to see her eyebrows scrunched and a scowl on her lips. It surprised me, she never frowned. "I just asked her if she knew she would need to make a choice."

    "Between what?" Kayla asked, her voice steely.

    Luke rubbed the back of his neck which told me he was nervous. "Between them and us."

    "Whose them and us?" this time Chase asked, he was still calming over before.

    Luke's shoulders slumped, and I'm not surprised at that. The Strike twins were dead serious about this, their voices not showing mercy. Their expression showing the same thing. "Between the Greeks, where her dad is, or us, the Egyptians, the ones who raised her."

    Chase looked taken aback by that, but Kayla stood taller. "So, you were asking her to make the choice of family vs family? What if you were put into that position, Luke? What would your answer be?"

    Luke was almost paralyzed, but managed an answer, "I would choose the people who raised me over actual family. They didn't care before so why would they care now?"

    She grabbed Luke by his collar and held him against the wall. Luke stood still, processing what had just happened. "Well Luke, what if Aaron was Greek and you knew him before you found out. Would you kill him? Or would you not? He would be Greek after all."

    I stiffened, not speaking. What would he choose? I never thought about that before, I just always thought he would always try to save me, no matter what. Now Taylor's in that position. Kayla's question left me in the dust. I was waiting Luke's answer just as everyone else was.

    He hesitated. "I wouldn't kill Aaron," was his final answer.

    Kayla's grip loosened on him but she asked another question. "Why did it take you so long, Luke? Were you debating it?"

    His eyes landed on mine, so many emotions in them but fear wasn't one. "Yea, I was debating it. Follow the code and betray my family or save my family and betray the code."

    Luke's words pierced through me like a knife. My eyes started watering, and I stumbled backwards. Kayla let him go in surprise, and he ran for it. She was about to follow but something brought her back towards me.

    I started heaving heavy breaths. The world spinning like a ferris wheel. Kayla knelt down, coming to my eye level. But I was standing, wasn't I? My hand went to the ground and found it right under me.

    "Aaron? Aaron are you okay?" she asked.

    Chase eyed him. "Panic attack? You know if he has those? Something like that?"

    Her eyes grew wide. "You might be right, it could be a panic attack. Luke did just, you know, did that to him. But, uh, how do you stop one?"

    Chase shrugged, but I could tell he was worried too. "I can ask someone." He ran off before his sister could reply.

    Kayla turned back towards me, gazing into my eyes. They showed something like a debate going on, and it seemed they came up with an answer. Her hand slowly cupped my cheek, bringing us closer. She placed her lips on mine, making my breath hitch. With every second my breathing inched back to normal. When we separated it was almost back to how it was supposed to.

    I stared at her. "H-how did you? How did you do that?"

    Kayla bit her red lips, and answered, "I remembered something from my health class that one way to stop a panic attack was to hold your breath. So, when I kissed you, you held your breath."

    "That was," I paused, catching a small breath, "really smart." Kayla pursed her lips together, holding in a smile. "You know, the more you hide your smiles the more I want to make you." She still kept her smile inside. "Fine, be that way." That made her smile again, which in the end made me smile too. Gods, she can be so annoying sometimes.