Forever Luminescent

Chapter 10

"GIRL, WHAT ARE YOU hiding from us?" Aura asked, the biggest smile slipping into her face. Gwenn stopped short from eating her grilled chicken club sandwich. Her friends laughed all around the table, Scarlet took the liberty to squeeze her shoulder beside her.

"What?" she asked, the word sounding dumber once it left her mouth.

Aura raised a sculpted brow. "Is that a confirmation?"

The rest of the girls gasped around her. She could feel her cheeks burning, but she ignored it and proceeded to stuff her mouth with her sandwich. Milo came up to their table at the appropriate time, asking if they were okay. Gwenn held her thumb up, her other hand holding her food in place, and he laughed before scurrying away to tend to other tables at Red's Diner.

"Okay, but to add to Aura's point," Zilla started, shifting in her seat to face her. "You have been real busy lately."

Gwenn chewed her mouthful slowly, eyeing her friend from across the table. She swallowed, aware of everyone's keen stare. "You guys know I have a job now."

Zilla hummed in response, swirling her fry in ketchup. Scarlet turned to her, narrowing her eyes, and clicked her tongue. Aura brought her hands together like she was calling in a council. Sierra was the only one who stared like she was dazed. Gwenn noted to ask if she was okay later.

"No," Aura said decisively. "This is more than a job. I smell something cooking."

Gwenn pursed her lips. "Nothing is cooking."

Aura wasn't satisfied with her answer. "My bestie senses are tingling like never before. I think there's...a boy."

"A boy!" Scarlet gasped, then grasped her shoulders to force her to face her. "Gwenn Davidson, who is it?"

Her cheeks burned hotter than before. "No one," she squeaked out.

Images of her past adventures with Ronan flashed before her eyes. She gulped at the memory of being trapped inside that laboratory closet, security guards almost catching them in the act of a DNA test that shouldn't have been happening on the grounds.

Weeks had gone by and nothing had happened to them. They escaped unscathed just like Ronan promised.

Sierra took that moment to speak up, bringing her back to earth. "I don't know, Gwenn. Aura is always right about these things. It's like her superpower." Aura nodded at that, her smirk lacing her glossy lips.

Gwenn sat back on her seat, letting the wood force her spine to straighten. Her friends stared, waiting for the confession to spill out onto the table like a warm buffet ready to be devoured. She dabbed a napkin over her mouth, ignoring the many eyes, and then sighed.

"There is no one in my life, guys," she said.

Aura chuckled. "Don't go into the same denial Scarlet was going through when she met Jake back in high school."

Scarlet's mouth hung open for a second. "I was not that much in denial."

"Please, Scar," Sierra said. "You couldn't believe a Preppy was nice to begin with."

Not even Gwenn could stop from laughing. Her friend grumbled beside her, tearing a piece of her hamburger bun and popping it into her mouth.

"Don't laugh, G, you're next," Aura called out. Zilla laughed from her place next to her. "We're going to find out about someone soon enough."

Gwenn let out a shaky breath. "I truly don't know what you guys want from me." That didn't satisfy her friends. Not by a long shot. She tried to finish her meal, but every comment circled back to her.

Ronan was at the tip of her tongue, begging to slip out. One look at Aura, and she felt compelled to tell her everything. The sneaking around, the secret deal, his help in her quest to find her biological mother, his never-ending tattoos all over his skin. Everything that drove her mad.

But the deal's terms stopped her.

She couldn't risk news falling into her mother's ears. Meredith Davidson could not know of her involvement with Ronan King.

"Gwenn," Aura sang, a teasing smile spreading over her face again. "Are you ready to tell us about mystery boy yet?"

It thoroughly frustrated her how much she couldn't control the flush that spread over her cheeks. No words came out, but the table erupted in laughter.

Zilla gasped, drumming her fingers over the wooden table for anticipation. "I have a theory," she extended the last word until she ran out of air. "Gwenn has a bad boy wrapped around her little finger."

Flashes of ink across pale skin came back to her, but she shook her head. Tattoos didn't equal the stereotype perpetuated on almost all the romance books she found online. They were art and oftentimes significant. It didn't mean Ronan was a bad boy like Zilla predicted.

Though he took questionable and impulsive decisions around her.

Aura liked Zilla's theory, and started slapping the table, garnering the attention of customers around her. "I just know Gwenn has some dark, mysterious, brooding man hidden from all of us." She made a sound that was like a muffled squeal. "You got that innocent face, but I know...you secretly like the danger."

Chaos echoed around them as her friends got increasingly more excited.

Exasperation robbed her voice. There wasn't an amount of no's that could convince them otherwise. Gwenn looked down at her empty plate in resignation, allowing her blonde locks to tumble down over her vision.

"Gwenn," Scarlet started. "Who are you sneaking into your new apartment?"

"Oh my gosh." Gwenn opted to take a large gulp of cold water, anything to cool her down. That only fueled her friends' laughter.

As if the universe had enough of her suffering at the hands of her teasing friends, her phone rang from her purse. She grasped at the opportunity with sticky fingers, and pulled out her singing phone only to see Ronan's name pop up on her screen.

Her legs were moving before her brain could process anything. Aura asked what was going on, but she ignored it all and walked out into the bleak afternoon.

"Hello?" she breathed out.

Ronan cleared his throat on the other end. "Test results are in."