The Paper Hearts

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 5: ᴘʟᴀʏᴅᴀᴛᴇ

xᴀɴᴅᴇʀ

"Hey Sunshine, how do you feel about hanging out with your classmate, Leslie, today?" I ask as I make her pancakes.

"I wouldn't mind but how'd you convince her?" She questions sliding into a chair on the kitchen bar.

"Well her sister asked me to ask you if you'd want to."

"Yeah, let's do it! What time are we leaving?" 

"I thought maybe 2pm would be good and then I'll come back to pick you up at 8."

"Cool." She smiles as she continues eating.

"I'm going to work on my motorcycle in the garage. Call me if you need anything." I yell over my shoulder as I head out.

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At 1:50, Diane runs into my room, urging me to get up so we can go. I groan as I get up. It's not until that I forget to mention they have a dog.

"Diane!" I call after her.

"Yeah?" She turns to face me while walking backwards.

"I forgot to tell you that they have a dog."

Immediately she stops walking. "Is it vicious?"

"No, of course not. It's a really cute small dog."

"Have you seen it before?"

"Yeah I have. His name is Mister Ruffles."

"Then I guess it's fine. Thanks for letting me know before we got there." She smiles then turns and gets into the car.

I laugh, shaking my head. 

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Once we've parked in Adalyn's driveway, Diane runs out of the car and knocks on the door. I quickly get out and jog over to her side. We hear Mr. Ruffles bark excitedly at the door and his leash jingles as he moves around, scratching the door as he tries to open it.

"I'll get it!" I hear Adalyn shout from inside the house. However instead of Adalyn, I see her mom at the door. Mr. Ruffles is at her feet trying to find an opening so he can run out but Adalyn's mom keeps him trapped behind her feet.

"Hi Mrs. Diaz." We greet as she ushers us inside. 

"Xander it's been so long!" She gushes and pulls me into a hug. Their dog ignores me and heads over to Diane trying to jump on her and she giggles kneeling to play with him for a while.

"Mom, I was going to get the door." Adalyn says as she rounds the corner.

"Well I can't just let our guests stand outside. Is this Diane?" Her mom asks.

"Yeah I am. How did you know?" Diane asks, looking up.

"Your mother and I became best friends when these two became friends in preschool. Those were good times." Mrs. Diaz sighs, reminiscing.

"Okay well Mom I'm gonna take her to Leslie's room before you start telling embarrassing baby stories." Adalyn chides in as she helps Diane get up then proceeds to guide us out of the foyer and into the hall with Mr. Ruffles trailing behind.

"It was nice meeting you Mrs. Diaz!" Leslie shouts over her shoulder.

"Call me Kaliyah!" She shouts back. Adalyn leads us to the door at the end of the right side.

"Leslie!" Adalyn calls out as she knocks on Leslie's door.

"Yeah?" A voice calls back from inside.

"Diane is here." Just as she finishes her sentence, the door swings open and Leslie, I'm guessing, steps out with a huge smile on her face.

"Hi Diane! I love your bracelet, come in. Sorry I was getting my room ready. I'm wasn't exactly sure what you liked so I got sweet and sour candy, spicy and non spicy chips and a couple sodas. Mom will make or bring anything we want whether we asked or not so I just grabbed a few things." Leslie rambles nervously and she steps aside to let Diane in. 

Diane looks around and I can tell she's bursting with excitement. Mr. Ruffles darts in behind her and immediately heads over to a pile of blankets.

"Omg this is so cool! I basically eat anything but you really didn't have to go through all this trouble." Diane keeps looking around in awe.

"I don't mind. I don't usually like hanging out with the other girls because they're kind of bitc-bullies but you seem cool."

"Thank you. I thought you were cool too." They both stare at each other and smile awkwardly before facing us. We continue staring at each other before Adalyn and I realize they want us to go.

"Okay Diane, I'll see you later okay?" I walk over and engulf her in a hug, kissing the top of her head. She hugs me back and nods into my chest. Adalyn and I leave closing the door behind us. Immediately I hear them laugh and start talking in whispered tones and I laugh, relief floods my chest know that I know she finally has someone.

Adalyn stares at me in silence as if trying to figure me out. "You're a good brother." She says finally after a few moments of silence.

"Thank you. You're not a bad sister yourself." I smile nudging her shoulder with mine.

"So are you going to stay or do you have somewhere to be?" She asks rocking on her heels.

"Sadly I do have to go to work but I'll be back in time to pick her up at 8. Unless she decides she wants to sleepover." 

"She'll probably want to stay, I might be kind of biased to say so but Leslie is awesome ad I think they'll get along well."

"I have no doubt they'll get along well. I'll head home and pack a sleepover bag just incase and bring it when I come to pick her up."

"Okay then I'll walk you to the door."

"Wow such a gentlewoman." I laugh as we turn the corner into the foyer.

"Thank you for bringing her over. Mom was getting worried since she didn't hang out with anyone from school."

"Thank you for offering. Honestly I was getting worried since she didn't hang out with anyone so you offering was a blessing."

She blushes and smiles. "Well I won't hold you up any longer."

I unlock the door and open it. Adalyn holds the door as she watches me walk over to my car. Once I'm inside the car, she waves and closes the door. I smirk and back out heading to the house.

ʟᴇꜱʟɪᴇ

Diane and I decided to watch a movie while waiting for Adalyn to go to her room so we can start planning. We decided that we're going to find a way to get Adalyn and Xander together. Five minutes later, we hear Adalyn in the hallway and her door clicks shut. Diane immediately pauses the movie. I grab a random empty notebook from my drawer and sit back down.

"Okay so what are we going to do?" I ask.

"Well they seem to have some history together so I think we should find ways to get them together. Like if we decide to go to a carnival or something then we can make them tag along." Diane suggests.

"That's a good idea but I don't think we're going to have any carnivals until November or something but we could go to an arcade." I say as I write down these notes.

"Okay so how about we start this next week. Xander has things to do this weekend."

"Yeah of course. Ugh they are so lucky they have us."

"Honestly. If it wasn't for us, they wouldn't try to get together." She agrees giggling.

I laugh too and once we're done planning things, we go back to watching our movie.  I can't wait for school on Monday now that I have someone to hang out with.