"Checking in..on you," it felt weird to say aloud. "Also the fact that half of your friends would totally take the chance to drown me if they could. Not to mention all of the poeple i didn't even know existed trying to get in on a full out war." Kai was having a bit of a hard time keeping his eyes on her face instead of her pajamas.
Lily facepalmed, groaning in frustration. "This is why I didn't want to be out for so long. People get aggressive and no one wants to be a peacekeeper." She ran her fingers through her slightly messy hair, thinking. "What am I gonna do…"
Kai looked behind himself to make sure no one who knew either of them saw him. "Can I come in?" If they'd been caught at the beach it would have been bad, but if he was caught at her house, he wasn't to sure it'd help any situation.
"Yeah, sure, why not." She motioned for him to come in. "Ethan, go do your homework." "But I don't wanna!" "Finish your homework before Dad gets home and I'll get you ice cream." "Deal!" The younger boy ran upstairs and she couldn't help but smile. "Don't mind him, he won't be bothering us."
"I'm pretty sure my brother Ash would have tried to jump me if i ever tried to make an ice cream deal with him." Kai muttered as he stepped in her house and shut the door behind him.
"Listen I'm not here to try and get you to come back already. Especially if that call is up to your folks, i just need a solution that doesn't get anyone expelled."
"Well I can't guarantee that. Especially not after yesterday. My friends were already pissed from that morning and now JC blames you for me being out of commission so everyone else is going to be on edge so this is going to be tricky." She sighed, slowly walking in circles around the open living room. "I didn't come to this school to stop a turf war."
"I didn't come to start one." Kai sat on the couch and watched her pace. He should have stopped this whole gang thing back when he inherited it. But now if he backed down someone, probably Eithan, would take over. It'd be even worse. Atleast now he had some control over his gang. If he told them to back down they wiuld reluctantly. Sooner or kater they'd think him weak and dethrone him. Kai wasn't looking forward to it.
"Well now what do we do? It's not like we can suddenly have some sort of peace treaty, they'll never respect it. Plus if we do, I'll have Lauren even more on my back than I usually do. She already hates my guts, I don't need to give her more reasons to."
Kai groaned. "Lauren is enjoying being at everyones back right now." He tried not to thibk of how she'd been backing Eithan up. She was on his friends side more than she was on his. "Eithan's just waiting for something big to go down." And just like that an idea popped into his head. "So we let something big go down. But not on school property. This weekend at the beach, can you be there?" So much tension was already building up, so why not let it completely explode. "We'll call it a bonfire, a party, whatever. We can let a fight brake out there and when its all said and done we get everyone to talk it over."
"Kai are you insane?! They'll kill each other!" She grabbed him by the shoulders, shocked he would even suggest such a thing. "What happens when it's all over, huh? Someone ends up in the hospital, parents are getting sued and guess who's gonna be at the center of it all. Us."
"We can pull the strings. We won't let anything get out of hand. Hell, I'll call the police before anything can even start." Maybe Kai was a bit insane for suggesting it. But he genuinely believed an actual war would end it all.
"But what about you?" She couldn't believe the words coming out of her mouth. "My friends don't like Lauren or the others but right now, they especially hate you. And if something happens that you end up seriously hurt I…" She trailed off her a second, swallowing her pride. "I don't know if I could take it. It feels almost wrong to say it but it's true."
Kai was shocked. He was still sure she hated him and was only trying to help for her friends sake. He quickly composed himself. "You really think any of your friends could land me in a hospital?" He shook his head. "But your right. Things could get out of hand to quickly." Maybe they did need to get expelled. "How long untill you think you'll be able to come back?" If it was to long, Kai didn't know what he'd do. Something was going to go down much sooner than later.
"Maybe a couple more days? I'll be in by the end of the week, I know that much." She leaned back, chewing on her lip. "I'm worried, Kai. I'm really worried."
"You and me both," Kai sighed and gently removered her hands from his shoulders. "Things have been building up since last year. It's definitely gonna explode soon."
Part of him wished he could make everyone chill out by just the wave of his hand. Another part of him wanted to forget all of this and just hang out here with Lily. And of course the voice of reason told him that he shouldn't even be in her house and should help the build up. He'd hated the surfers for so long without reason. And now it felt like he was friends with the one he was meant to dislike the most.
She moved to sit on the floor, resting her elbows on her knees to hold her head up. "Don't you wish we could just stay here? Forget the world and just relax?"
"Yeah sometimes," Kai sat across from her. He knew he should leave soon, just incase, but he didn't what to. Atleast not yet. "But wheres the fun in that?"
She couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, I guess you're right." She combed her fingers through her hair. "Oh, I meant to ask, have you talked to Lauren recently? According to the others she's been more annoying than usual and seems pretty pissed. Did you finally break up with her or is she just in one of her moods?"
"Lauren? Yeah, we're still together." Though he couldn't deny the fact that she was pretty pissed. The night he'd spent at her house she'd been acting all weird, and if her parents hadn't been so thrilled to see him, she probably would have sent him away. "She's just in a mood." It suddenly felt wrong to be at another girl's house. Especially the one he'd been enemies with for so long. Especially when that girl was in her pajamas and he was having trouble focusing on their conversation. "I think she's just taking an opportunity to take anger out on you guys."
"What else is new." Lily rolled her eyes. "Though I suppose JC hasn't been going easy on you guys either. She was there when the first stone was thrown so she's probably been out for blood." She dropped her head into her hands. "And that's another thing I don't like about this whole let everyone go crazy thing. Things are tense enough that if someone decides that they're not going to take any chances and someone says or does something that crosses any kind of line, who's to say they don't get trigger happy and all of a sudden there's shots fired, someone's in the hospital or possibly even dead. I don't want that kind of blood on my hands because of some stupid rivalry."
Kai nodded his head in agreement. Lily brought up a good point. Things wouldn't be as easy as just letting everyone fight it out, and even if they did there would always be someone unsatisfied. "I'm open to other suggestions. Really anything that has even the smallest chance to work."
A lightbulb went off in Lily's head. "Okay, you're going to think I'm absolutely insane for this but hear me out. A fake friendship. I know, it sounds crazy but think about it. Our respective groups treat us as leaders and our word as absolute. Therefore, if we're getting along in a more friendly way, then they'll have to get along, at least until we can figure something out that's more long lasting. And hey, it's crazy enough that it just might work."
Lily sighed, contemplating. "The problem is Lauren. I know she's going to hate it and if her temper flares up, which it will, then everything could go wrong. But you're her boyfriend. She'll listen to you. Probably. If you can keep her under control until we can come up with something, we'll be golden."
A fake friendship. Kai wasn't completely sure how he felt about it. He was here sitting in her house, and it almost felt like they where friends already. "That might work." He'd have to tell Lauren the whole plan just so she wouldn't go out and do anything crazy. "Lauren will understand if I tell her." Atleast he hopped she would.
"Although I guess it feels kind of weird to say fake when it feels like we already are." She giggled softly. Lily thought for a minute before she spoke again.
"Liliana. Everyone always calls me Lily but I don't think they ever realize it's just a nickname. So now you know. My full name is Liliana."
"Awe man, and here I thought we where still enemies." Kai wished they where. Maybe that would make everything so much easier.
He was taken back by the sudden confession. All this time he'd thought Lily was her real name. Not just a nickname. "Liliana is a pretty name." He couldn't stop himself from saying it aloud.
Part of him wished he'd had something he could share back. But there really was nothing. His birth certificate was only Kai Ormr. It could of Changed to Kai Six, but he'd kept his last name. Ormr, the last name that would forever connect him to a mother that didn't want him.
Kai snapped himself out of his own thoughts with a shake of his head.