I felt a lump form in my throat as I walked into his embrace. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my head against his chest. His arms tightly closed around me; he even rubbed his right hand up and down my back to soothe me like he usually did when I was sad.
Damn him.
Why does he make it so hard to stay mad at him? I angrily thought.
I didn’t know how long we stood there holding onto one another, but when I calmed down enough to speak, I pulled back and looked up at him. He smiled down at me, his beautiful barely there dimples creasing his cheeks.
“Hey, Laney Baby,” he whispered.
I burst into tears and rewrapped my arms around his body. He lightly vibrated as he chuckled and put his arms back around me.
I pulled back once more. “I’m sad, Kale.”
He looked at me, his eyes heavy with anguish. “If I have to convince you that Anna O’Leary and Ally Day are just jealous of you, then you aren’t the smart girl I know you are.”
I grunted and moved away from him, and walked over to my mirror, where I glared at my appearance.
“They were right, though,” I said as I gazed at the hideous flaws Anna had evilly pointed out. “Look at me. I’m disgusting.”
Kale came up behind me and looked me in the eye; he was over a head taller than me, so he did this easily.
“Tell me what you see when you look into the mirror and see your reflection,” he urged.
I felt heat stain my cheeks. “A fat, ugly cow.”
He shook his head. “Do you want to know what I see?”
“No, not really,” I replied.
He ignored me and said, “I see a beautiful girl whose smile brightens up a room. I see a beautiful girl whose eyes are so warm and welcoming, they make people feel at ease with one glance. I see a beautiful girl who cares for others and loves so hard it’s impossible not to love her back just as hard. I see a beautiful girl who is so stunningly gorgeous, she will break her father’s and brothers’ hearts when she realises just how incredible she is and decides to give her heart to another. I see a beautiful girl who just doesn’t see how beautiful she really is.”
That was it; I was once again a blubbering mess.
“Damn you, Kale Hunt,” I cried, and turned to him once more, wrapping myself around him.
He held me to him and kissed the crown of my head. “There isn’t a hair on your head that isn’t beautiful, Laney Baby. Everything about you is beautiful; I’ve known that since the first day I saw you.”
I surprisingly laughed through my blubbering. “You first met me when I was two hours old. I probably looked like a shrivelled-up prune.”
“You did,” Kale agreed, “but a beautiful shrivelled-up prune.”
I shoved him, and he laughed, so I laughed with him. I pulled back from him and walked over to my bed.
“How can you remember back so far? You were only three when I was born.” I climbed onto my bed and turned to face Kale, who took a seat on the chair in front of my desk.
“I remember everything about the day I first saw you, Lane. It was the first time I ever saw an angel in the flesh.”
I covered my face as it burned up.
“Shut up. You’re so full of it!” I screeched.
He laughed. “Give over – you know you’re my angel.”
On the inside I purred with delight; on the outside I played it off with a roll of my eyes.
“Yeah, well, this angel is getting a makeover,” I said and pushed my long, dull brown hair over my shoulder.
Kale raised his eyebrows. “A makeover? What does that mean exactly?”
I shrugged. “I’m going to get a haircut and buy make-up and clothes that don’t come from the kids’ sections in shops.”
He blinked. “Lane, you don’t need to change your appearance to seek approval from people who don’t matter.”
I shook my head. “I’m not doing this for Anna and Ally; I’m doing it for me. I want to be the one that boys notice. I’m so done with being everyone’s ‘friend’.”
The latter was directed at Kale, but he didn’t need to know that.
He stared at me for a long moment, and then he licked his lips and dug his phone out of his pocket when it rang. He answered it and had a brief conversation, then shook his head and looked up to me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Just Drew being Drew. Nothing to worry about.”
Drew Summers was his current girlfriend.
I didn’t like her. I never had.
I didn’t like any of Kale’s girlfriends, but Drew was different because she kept reappearing. She and Kale would be together, then break up for a while and then get back together. They were on and off like a light switch. It bugged the hell out of me that she wouldn’t just go away and stay away.
“Are you sure?” I asked, hoping to be a shoulder to cry on if he needed one.
He nodded. “Yep, she’ll get over whatever is up her arse eventually.”
I chuckled. “Always the charmer.”
Kale gestured to himself. “But of course.”
I smiled and looked down to my fingers, picking out the dirt from under my nails.
“Can I stay tonight?” he asked.
I looked up and raised an eyebrow. “It’s a Thursday, though. When you stay over, it’s usually on the weekends.”
“I know, but your mum said it was okay for me to crash since you weren’t feeling so hot – uh, I mean good. Shit. I didn’t mean that as in appearances—”
I cut Kale’s brain fart off with my laughter. “I get what you mean, loser.”
He relaxed. “Good.”
I glanced at my bedroom door and then back to him. “Are the lads okay with you staying?”
He snorted. “Please. Your brothers love me.”
Everyone in my house loved Kale; he was part of our family.
Kale never looked at me like anything other than a sister, and while I hated it, I respected his respect for me. He was completely fine with sleeping in my brothers’ room, and so were my brothers. I seemed to be the only person who wanted him to sleep in my room with me; I kept that to myself, though. I kept everything about how I really felt about Kale to myself – unless my Uncle Harry was around for me to vent to.
“So it’s cool to stay?” he asked.
I crossed my eyes at him, making him burst into laughter.
My lip twitched. “Like you even have to ask.”
He thought about this for a second, then said, “True.”
He ignored his phone when it rang again, and switched it off instead. “I’ll have your mum call my mum and let her know I won’t be home. Then I’ll be back, and we can totally talk lads and do each other’s nails.”
I fell sideways on my bed, laughing.
“You’re such a freak.”
Kale beamed at me. “If it’ll make you smile, I’ll be the biggest freak this world has ever seen.”
I continued to laugh. “That wouldn’t take much.”
He gripped his chest. “Your words, they wound me deeply.”
“Go call your mum already!” I howled in laughter.
Kale chuckled to himself as he left my room, and I beamed after him, not surprised that I felt so happy being in his presence after being so sad without him.
The next day Kale helped me convince my parents to let me have the day off school. He had the week off college and promised my parents he would take me out and help cheer me up. My father wanted to know what that entailed, and Kale had to explain my makeover plan to them.
My father didn’t like it, but my mother was completely on board. She gave Kale a bunch of money from her savings jar and told him to help me make good decisions.
“Come with us, Mrs Edwards – you know more about fashion and hairstyles than I ever will,” Kale said to my mother.
She patted his shoulder and said, “I think a boy’s opinion is what is needed here, not a mother’s, because I think Lane looks beaut
iful as she is.”
“Then it’s pointless for me to go too, because I wholeheartedly agree with you.”
“My God,” I grumbled as embarrassment heated my cheeks.
We eventually left my house, without my mother, and made our way into town, laughing and joking the entire bus ride in. When we got off the bus, we were in shopping heaven. There were clothing shops, nail bars and hair salons in every direction. I’d never come into this part of town before, and the overload of people made me nervous.
“I’ve got you.” Kale threaded his fingers through mine. “Don’t let go; you’re tiny and would get lost in the crowd.”