North Star

25 | hawaiian brian's

2019

It had been so long since I had this kind of night out that I had no idea what to wear.

As she always did, Leimomi came to the rescue along with Micah's help. Neither was going to the bar with us tonight, but they were all too happy to offer up their services before tucking themselves in for a night of popcorn, a brand new box of Capri Sun, and the entire extended version collection of Lord of the Rings they had no chance of getting through in one night. ("Do you think Nik can take us to where they shot all the movies?") ("No.") ("Why not? Stop hogging him, Hoku.") ("Leave your sister alone, Leimomi.") ("Why do you even have that many Capri Sun boxes?") ("They were on sale!") After ripping through my closet like a tornado, they settled on something from Kanani's closet, which no one was surprised about.

This time, Kanani sat at the foot of her bed, watching as I twirled around in the thin, slinky dress the girls had picked out for me.

While my closet was mostly full of muted tones like stormy blue or sandy beige, Kanani gravitated toward brighter shades that always brought that extra bit of warmth to any room even on the cloudiest of days. I had always believed that if I wore any of the louder colors that she did, I would somehow look fake or as if I was trying too hard to be someone I'm not. Considering I was quite literally wearing someone else's wardrobe, it wasn't a far cry to assume that was what people thought. People that knew me, anyway.

It wasn't prom night or anything, but Kanani gave as enthusiastic a reaction as if it was. Heat rose to my cheeks as I tucked my long bangs behind my ears, swatting her hands away when she tried to playfully poke at me as I sat down next to her.

"You look beautiful, babe," she said.

"Thanks." We had about half an hour before Keali'i was going to pick us up, while Anthony was set to meet us at the venue. Nikau was likely either getting ready or already on his way to get everything set up. An unread text message from him blinked at me every time I accidentally tapped on my phone screen. "If I say I need to leave, can you promise you'll let us?"

The corners of her mouth slipped. "But—"

"Promise. Please."

"Promise." She held out her pinky, which I accepted with a sigh of relief. "But I don't think you'll need it."

"You don't know that—"

"I don't." She stood up and placed one hand on each of my shoulders, gently coaxing me to look into her eyes. They were soft and familiar, and I sank into them willingly, knowing that I was always safe when they were around. "Consider this a friendly observation but you look good around him. Not good but good, you know?" I hated it to admit it, but I knew what she meant. "I think you'll be fine. But either way, we'll be there. I'll be there."

I nodded. "Okay. Thank you."

"It's okay if you like him, you know."

"No, it's not."

"Why not?"

Because he was only here for a year, and almost four of those months had already passed. I wasn't about to get attached to a relationship that had a time limit.

"If anyone touches you," I said, "I'm going to pummel them."

Kanani accepted the deviation with a smile as soft as her eyes. "Watch out, world. Here comes Hokulani."