Lovely

2. She had a beauty that could be as powerful as a weapon

"Wow, Aurora, you have grown a great deal. I haven't seen you since you were a little baby!" Oh how much I hate that sentence. I tried not to show any annoyance as the petite lady with blue eyes and wavy blonde hair hugged me tight. Her scent caused me to lean into her grasp as soon as she came near me but her hugs were nothing like my mother's. Delilah, she said her name was. Best friends with my mum. Had moved away shortly after I was born. It was so great to have her best friend finally living in the same country as her, she said. I couldn't talk any bad about her truthfully, she was genuine and kindhearted, the sort that became your mother the moment you stepped into the same room as her. Her husband was much the same. They were perfect.

What wasn't so perfect was the fact that they had five children. The age ranged from 6 months to 18 years old. Whilst meeting them I put on the most polite smile I could muster. My mother raised her eyebrows at me but nobody else seemed to notice, so it was probably one of those things only a mother could see in her daughter. I was being fake. In my defence, I was an only child. I was used to spending 5 weeks with my mum in solitude. The youngest, Theo, was very cute. He was to sleep in a room with his parents due to his young age. The second youngest was a 4 year old named Lacie. She also was very cute. Next were the twins made up of Isaac and Isiah. They were 7 so they were..... a handful. Even more so since they were twins. But their parents seemed patient and understanding, and the twins themselves were well behaved. The second oldest was Callista, a very smart 14 year old. She looked exceedingly like her beautiful mother and she had a beauty that could be as powerful as a weapon.

Then there was Kahlo.

Everyone else may have been difficult to remember, but Kahlo, he would be easy to keep track of. The curls, the light sprinkle of freckles, the spellbinding eyes. Most importantly, the crooked smile. How sweet, how handsome. How charming. I shook his hand and I think some of my heart stained his palm. A stranger, maybe, but a stranger who felt like home. Someone who had a protective atmosphere, manly in every sense of the word, Kahlo was. And I fell instantly. The feeling of familiarity cracked the walls around my heart. I felt them weaken and break away. I felt like I could spill my soul to this boy and he would make it better just by caressing my skin with his thumb. To have him swipe away my tears hurriedly with his thumb would be to have a glimpse into heaven.

A tapping stole me from my thoughts and I looked down to see an excited 4 year old. Her smile triggered my own and soon I was bouncing her on my hip as I made my way up to my new room.