Salvia High School

Chapter 69: Love and Betrayal

"What?!" Nina and Alex shouted loudly.

"What do you mean you'll have to work with your parents?!" Alex asked with wide eyes.

"You don't mean you'll be an escort too, do you?!" Nina prayed that her assumption was wrong.

But when Kaila nodded and confirmed her suspicion both friends couldn't hold back their revolting faces.

"You're still seventeen!" Alex pointed out as if Kaila wasn't already aware of that situation.

"For now." Was all the small girl had to say to that. After all, that was her fathers excuse for convincing her mother of the idea.

"Kaila you can't do that! You know you can't!" Nina insisted.

"I have no choice! If my parents agree to the deal then I'm stuck in it too."

"When are they making their decision?" Alex asked.

"At dinner tonight."

"Tonight!" They both shared the same expression of annoyance. "That isn't any time to talk them out of it."

"Why didn't you tell us about this sooner Kay?!" Nina demanded feeling hurt that the small girl would keep something to this extreme from the group. "You have to tell Mallix and Lain."

Suddenly Kaila looked at them with a frightened look. "No! You can't tell them!" She shouted back.

"Kaila we have to! This isn't something you should keep from them."

"No! I don't want you to tell them!"

"Why not?!"

"They'll freak out if you do!"

"And for good reason." Alex butted in. Grabbing onto Kaila's trebling hands he squeezed them securely. "Kaila listen to us," he tried to reason with her, "this is serious stuff. We're telling them whether you like it or not." The small girl started to pout and whine as she tried to pry her hands away from him but Alex only looked at her sternly. "Whining will do you no good. Now have you told you're parents about how you feel about this?"

"They won't listen to me." She looked down shaking her head.

Feeling helpless and out of control, an idea popped into Nina's head. "Then why don't you just come back with us."

Alex looked to Nina as if she were a genius. "Yeah well take you back home, to Lain and Mallix, where you belong. And you can forget this place ever existed."

"I...I..." the small girl looked into her lap. "I can't."

"Why not? Kaila think about it, if we take you away now they'll never know where to find you. You can live in peace." Nina pointed out.

"They'll find me still."

"How? If they don't know who took you, then they can't find you." Alex explained further.

'Could that work?' She asked herself. 'I mean their right. If I leave now, they can't track me.'

"So..." Nina looked at Kaila with hopeful eyes as the girl sat quietly continuing to think about it to herself.

Without a word, Kaila jumped off Nina's lap running off into the distance. The friends looked at one another confused before Kaila came sprinting back, only this time with an intact Elie in her hands.

"Home!" She squealed holding her hands up towards Nina.

"Home it is." Nina felt relived as she lifted the girl off the floor and onto her hip. "Glad to see you kept Elie safe." She giggled at the girl as the three friends began to leave the shambled house.