LEILANI ***Under Editing***

⚫Chapter 5⚫

I smiled for a brief second until it hit me. Did he just say Eli? Looking at Jasper intently, I tried to make him out. Wait a second—I had seen him before.

I assessed his face, looking at his hair, eyes, nose, and chin. Oh my... I had seen him at the mall. He was one of the guys who was with Elias. I looked at Julian and Raphael noticing that they were the other two boys with Elias. My eyes widened in realization—they were friends with him.

Closing my eyes, I suddenly wanted to disappear—fly away to another planet and never return. I had no desire whatsoever to see him again and now we were going to the same school. And if that wasn't enough, now our friends were going to have a meal together. I began to tremble, feeling quite anxious. Why was this happening to me? Why?

"You good tiger?" Nathan asked me. I opened my eyes slowly and nodded. "Yeah," I breathed out. Looking at the table, I grabbed the paper napkin that was situated on my plate and began to rip it up, piece by piece. "Stop shaking your leg like that," Blaike barked next to me. I hadn't even realized I was shaking my leg.

"There he is," Jasper said.

As I continued to rip up my napkin, I knew everyone at the table had looked over at the entrance. Looking up would not do me good, but I knew I had to eventually.

"Sorry for being late, I had some stuff to take care of," he apologized with his deep voice. My heart melted within me hearing his voice. As much as I didn't want to be near him or interact with him, he had an undeniable effect on me.

My friends began to introduce themselves to Elias. Sighing, I slowly looked up seeing that he was already staring at me. My heart skipped a beat as I looked into his grey, cloudy orbs. I knew he was as shocked as I was, but again, his face was stone cold. Even though I didn't want to see him, I couldn't look away —he was breathtaking. I looked to his left and right to see twin girls.

"This is Lucian, Saphira, Leilani, and Blaike," Nathan introduced us. My friends greeted Elias and the twins, whereas I just put on a smile. "Elias, Indigo, and Violet," Jasper said.

"It's very nice to meet you," Violet said.

"So, you're the girl everyone has been talking about," Indigo said as they took their seats. "Yup," I replied, looking at her to avoiding eye contact with Elias, who sat across from me and was still staring at me.

"Well, at least she has the coolest hair in the world," Julian said.

I smiled after hearing his compliment. "Thanks," I chuckled. The last time I had heard a statement like that was when I met a five-year-old at the carnival two years ago. I remember her beaming with admiration, which had made me smile.

We continued to chat, moving the attention to how our first day at university went. I kept my mouth shut, speaking every now and again. I sat there listening to everyone speak. They were loud and outgoing like us, which was probably why we were all getting along so well. For a brief moment, I completely forgot about Elias as I sat there listening to everyone talk. He had remained quiet, like I imagined.

I wanted to look at him so badly, but I was forcing myself not to, but after around five minutes, I gave in, stealing a quick glance. Turns out, he was already staring at me again. I could tell that he was bothered by my presence, but knew there was nothing he could do about it. After he seemed to notice that I was staring back at him, he moved his eyes to look somewhere else.

My stomach churned with anxiety— I wanted to leave. Maybe I should text my mom and ask her if she needed me to run some errands. Suddenly, a blonde girl approached our tables. Immediately Jasper rolled his eyes and by looking at the others' reactions, they weren't happy to see her either.