Salvia High School

Chapter 13: Secret

As the final bell of the day rang Kaila grabbed her belongings and threw them into her backpack before heading out. The halls were always the loudest at the end of the day. Some people were even bouncing off the walls.

Moving through the crowd Kaila instinctively made her way towards her bus. She would have gotten on if it wasn't for the person who grabbed the handle of her backpack pulling her close to the wall as she was spun around in one quick motion. "Hey!" She shouted mainly from being startled.

When she turned around seeing Nina was the who had stopped her, she had a defensive look. "Sorry about that Kay. I was trying to call for you but you didn't stop."

"No I'm sorry, you're okay. I was just scared when you did that." She admitted looking down playing with the tips of her fingertips.

Nina couldn't help but feel guilty for how she startled the small girl. "Well I was just trying to tell you that you're going the wrong way."

"The wrong way?"

"Yeah. The parking lots this way." She pointed behind her.

Kaila face palmed forgetting she was getting a ride home. "I completely forgot about that. Thanks."

"It's alright. Come on I'll take you there." Nina locked arms with Kaila. The small girl couldn't help but blush as she was escorted through the loud halls and out another set of double doors.

"Word of warning be extremely careful in the parking lot. I know you're suppose to be careful anyways, but be extremely careful here. I trust M to drive us, but I swear some of these kids shouldn't even have their license. Just yesterday some jerk nearly hit us and another guy was trying to do donuts around the principals car."

Kaila's hold on Nina tightened as she nodded. She didn't want to be left alone to wander through the large open space tightly filled with hundreds of different vehicles.

As they walked over to a car, Nina opened the back door pushing Kaila inside first. When she did so, Kaila slid all the way to the other side making space for Nina. "There you are. I was starting to get worried you got on that pesky bus again." Lain turned around from the passengers seat.

"She would have if I wasn't going to check on her." Nina shut the door before buckling.

Lain looked back at Kaila with a raised eyebrow. "I forgot." Kaila shrugged making Lain nod silently.

"Alright let's get you home Kay." Mallix checked his surroundings carefully as he pulled out of the school grounds. Once she felt the car moving she gripped on tightly to the strap around her body making sure she would be ready for an impact in the event one occurred.

Staring out her window she watched as the world around her flew by. The school got smaller with every second that went by and soon Lain found herself connecting her music to the car.

Just as Nina had warned the couple were indeed playing slow music. When she heard a strange noise to the side of her, Kaila glanced over seeing Nina trying to suppress her laughter. As Kaila curiously observed, Nina noticed and was barely able to say, "I told you so," gesturing towards the music. Midway into her sentence she bursted out laughing.

Lain had turned around once again looking at Nina with a death glare. "Come on. Can't you admit that it's soothing after a long day?"

"No L. Not at all. Put something good on before the poor thing gets tired of us already. I don't want her pulling out of the plans because of your terrible music choice."

Lain shifted her attention to Kaila. "Do you want me to change it?"

"Uh...no it's okay." She didn't want to bother. And to her defense Kaila had been to caught up watching the world outside to even notice the music.

"Are you sure?" Mallix looked through the rear view mirror.

Kaila nodded but Nina scoffed. "Well then I object. I vote yes to changing the music."

"Yeah, whatever. Fine you child." Lain laughed as she put on a new playlist. One that had a variety of genres. Instantly Nina lit up with relief as her body swayed to the rhythms.

Kaila just smiled to herself. She couldn't get enough of the people around her. Even when she felt like things would escalate between the group, they never did. They were all so close to one another. The feeling of butterflies in her stomach hadn't gone away. If anything it had only intensified. She was extremely happy to be around this group, and her excitement shined brighter than her fear.

"This is it." Kaila said as Mallix drove down her street.

"This is where you live?" Lain asked seeing the house looking like an ancient ruin that shouldn't have been opened.

Kaila nodded grabbing her backpack. "Thanks for the ride." She opened the door and got out.

Before she shut it Nina leaned over looking one last time at Kaila. "Don't forget I'm coming to pick you up later for dinner."

"I won't." The shy girl laughed as Nina waved when she shut the door. The three friends stayed sitting until Kaila had walked into her home shutting the rusting door behind her.

"Ok has anyone else noticed what street this is?" Lain was relieved to finally be able to ask as Mallix began to pull away.

Both him and Nina began searching for a street sign shaking their heads. "No I don't mean literally. I mean this is Lauren's street too. Doesn't she live further up?"

When Mallix remembered he tensed up still feeling left over rage from this morning. "Of all streets. Why this one?!" He said while grinding his teeth.

"Don't know. But at least we know now. I just want her to be safe."

"We all do babe." Mallix reached over grabbing Lain's clammy hands.

"That's right. Nothings going to happen to her L. She's safe." Nina comforted.

As the mood settled and they got closer to Nina's house, the girl sat alone in the back of the car was sparked with curiosity about something. "Are you guys going to talk to her about the...you know...thing?"

Lain turned around smiling. "Yeah. We are. Tonight when we're all at home."

"Don't you guys think it's a little soon? I mean she is still new and all. What if she gets overwhelmed? We already see how she deals with stressful situations."

"That's why were going to tell her she doesn't have to rush into anything. We can take it slow. And besides we're going to ask her in private so she doesn't feel pressured by anyone" Mallix gave her a knowing look through the rear view mirror.

"Plus I'm too excited to hold back any longer. She's just perfect. I knew it from day one when I first saw her in the cafeteria. When I saw Lauren about to hit her it did something to me. Ever since then I've wanted to do nothing but protect her. I want to wrap her up in a warm blanket and cuddle her to death already."

"Excessive much?" Nina smirked.

"Whatever. Just you wait until you find someone you can't take off your mind and just want to protect." Lain said back.

Nina forced a convincible smile and laugh, "yeah...haven't met them yet...". When Lain turned around, Nina slouched back in her seat looking longingly out the window.

Finally getting to her home the couple shouted, "we'll see you later N!" as Nina walked down her long drive way. As soon as she got inside Mallix began to drive home.

With their newfound privacy Mallix glanced over to his lover, "are you sure you're ready for this babe?"

"Of course I am. I wouldn't want to do this with anyone else."

"Then it's official. Tonight we'll ask Kaila to be our little."
——————————————————————————
Let me know what you think. Thanks Lexx signing off