Shooting Stars | Lo'ak¹

Chapter 27: Overwhelming Anxiety

Italicize - someone's thoughts or a story from the past

Bold - sign language

Ja'lia burst into laughter as Kiri had been cracking jokes since she came over to hang out with them. It felt nice to hang out with someone besides Lo'ak, no matter how much she loved spending time with him.

Because that's practically all she'd done since those two started going out on dates, especially after Jake left their already horrible relationship hanging by a thread.

She could only hope that everything was going well between the two Sully men because she desperately needed some girl time, and if Jake did something to upset Lo'ak, then her time to hang out with Kiri and Tsireya would come to an end.

The girl would always be there to comfort Lo'ak, even if it meant sacrificing every last drop of time she had to herself.

Her laughter soon piped down when Kiri asked the question Ja'lia knew was bound to come up at some time, "So, how did you get away from my brother for the day?" Kiri asked with a smirk on her face, and Tsireya also held the same look. Ja'lia playfully rolled her eyes, "I convinced Lo'ak to finally talk to your dad," She admitted, and the other two teens looked at her with wide eyes.

"Lo'ak is going to talk with Jake?" Tsireya questioned in shock, and Ja'lia nodded in confirmation.

All three teens sat in silence as Kiri and Tsireya let their thoughts race through their minds. How in the world did Ja'lia convince Lo'ak to speak to Jake? The boy had been hellbent on not talking to the man until he apologized, and all it took was Ja'lia doing some minor convincing.

Ja'lia essentially did the impossible by getting Lo'ak to speak to Jake. "And he hasn't come back yet?" Kiri asked.

"Nope," Ja'lia said, popping the 'p'.

In all honesty, Ja'lia thought that it was a good thing that Lo'ak hadn't yet returned because maybe that meant that they were finally talking things out. She thought that if it had gone badly that Lo'ak would immediately come to her, right?

Although, Lo'ak had always been one to want to be alone when he was hurting, suddenly Ja'lia's self-doubt came crashing into her like a ton of bricks.

What if it hadn't gone well? What if she was sitting here, having fun, while Lo'ak was off somewhere crying his eyes out? What if he hadn't come to her because he didn't want to feel like a burden?

While Lo'ak had never explicitly expressed his emotions to his family, it was ten times different with Ja'lia because she was his safe space. He could cry, scream, yell, or get angry with little to no judgment from her. And Ja'lia would do the same for the most part, however, she never really did it as much as Lo'ak did, which is why he felt like such a burden to her.

His worries were always refuted by Ja'lia, though because she had never thought of him as such. In fact, she felt a sense of relief that he trusted her so much that he would express his deepest, darkest emotions with her.

Ja'lia pulled away from her thoughts at the sound of Kiri's voice, "You're overthinking, aren't you?" She questioned, and Ja'lia sheepishly nodded her head.

"I'm sure they're fine," Tsireya tried to reassure. Both Omatikaya girls gave her unsure looks as they both knew Lo'ak and Jake. If there was one thing Sully men were notorious for, it was being stubborn, and that included Neteyam although the boy would deny it until the day he died.

Neteyam liked to deny his stubbornness, but a well-known example Ja'lia liked to throw in his face, often, was when he ignored his father's orders after Jake told him to stay behind when they were rescuing the rest of their children. The boy claimed that he was a warrior, and he was supposed to fight, so that's why he disobeyed his father, but Ja'lia knew that he was too bullheaded and stubborn to do anything other than what he thought was right.