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I cleared my throat and realized that I was nervous. I never realized that I would be nervous of introducing them –not that I ever thought they would meet, it wasn’t my plan from the start, but now I realized that I wanted the three of them to like each other. Weird.
“Jayden, this is Ariana and Kendal, my siblings. And guys, this is Jayden, my…” I got cut off by Jayden who placed his arm on my shoulder.
“Her childhood best friend who is now her boyfriend,” he said and I looked at him. He winked at me and I rolled my eyes, there was no point trying to disprove the claim.
“Say hello to him, guys.”
Kendal gave a small wave, while Ariana rolled her eyes and stood in between Jayden and I as if protecting me from him. She folded her arms to her chest. “Name?” She asked again in a stern voice, as if she didn’t hear me call him and I snickered.
Jayden glanced awkwardly at me and I shrugged, indirectly telling him to respond to her if he wanted to get on her good side. “Um Jayden?”
“Um Jayden,” she mocked. “He’s not even confident, Lexi,” she said and I burst into laughter when I couldn’t hold it anymore. What was wrong with this girl?
“Age?” She asked again and I could tell Jayden was uncomfortable as fuck. I couldn’t believe she intimidated everyone at her age. She was going to be a menace when she grew up.
“Twenty five,” he replied and she counted her fingers for a while, before nodding.
“Okay that’s fine, you are an adult and legal. Lexi, are you in love with him?” She suddenly asked, facing me and my smile fell as Jayden looked expectantly at me.
Was I ready to admit that I was in love with him? Wait, did I just admit that I was in love with him?
From the corner of my eyes, Jayden’s shoulders slumped and he pressed his lips to a thin line. “Lexi is confused for now, we can give her some time.”
“We? I don’t want her to fall in love with you.”
“Why not?” Jayden asked, pouting his lips and a smile came to my lips again as I resumed watching the both of them.
“Cuz… cuz you’ll marry her and I won’t get to see her again.” My heart swelled at her words. I would never leave her, and the fact that she didn’t know that made her so cute.
“Of course not, we can all live together after marriage.” He comforted her and I was shocked. Marriage? Wasn’t he getting ahead of himself?
“Really?” She faced me. “Can we really all live together after you both get married?” She begged with her hands joined, lips pouted and eyelashes flapping. I snickered.
What was this betrayal? I thought she didn’t want us to fall in love, but all because Jayden bribed her with ‘we can all live together,’ she suddenly wanted me to get married to him.
“We can talk about this later, Ari. Right now, let’s go home, you must be stressed.”
“Yes I am. I was sleeping when someone put a cloth over my head,” she revealed and I stopped. So that was how they got them. Dalinso’s guard was supposed to be lurking around the school, but they killed him and had the chance to get them.
It had already been a day and Mr Rey wasn’t calling me, were they not aware of their absence yet?
Kendal tapped me and I faced him. He had a deep frown on his face and I wondered what he wanted to say. ‘Your boyfriend is very rude, and when were you going to tell us you have a boyfriend?’ I exhaled. I couldn’t tell them that he wasn’t my boyfriend, I literally kissed him in their presence.
“I was going to tell you, I was going to tell you someday. And did you say my boyfriend is rude?” I said out loud so that Jayden could understand what he just signed. “What did he do?”
‘He talked only with Ariana and completely ignored me, I’m not going to like him,’ he replied and I smiled. Someone was getting jealous.
Jayden raised his eyebrows at me, telling me to translate.
“He said you only talked to Ariana and completely ignored him. He also said he’s not going to like you.” I translated for Jayden. He looked at Kendal who ignored him with a scoff and looked back at me for help. I shrugged and he groaned, throwing his head to the back.
“God, you trained these children to be exactly like you. I can’t believe I’ll deal with three of you at once after we get married. I hope I live long,” he said.
He mentioned marriage again, did he really want to marry me? Did I even want to marry him?
“Hey buddy,” he started, moving closer to Kendal. “I’m sorry, I um… I’m really sorry and I shouldn’t have ignored you. We are boys, we’re gonna be really good friends. I promise, okay?”
Kendal nodded after a while and signed again, ‘okay maybe he’s nice, maybe I will like him.’