The Stone Sisters: Lyssa (The Stones Sisters Book 1) (19 page)

“What do your parents do?”

“I don’t know, work for Phaedon.
 
I’m not sure what and I’m embarrassed to say I really don’t care about their jobs.”

“Anna said you have a sister?”

What was this, the third degree?
 
“Yes, Lyssa.
 
She’s older than me by about two years.
 
She’s nearly eighteen.”

Mary looked at David, who stared at Lexa for a long hard moment.
 
A trickle of sweat ran down her spine and she wondered how someone could make her so nervous.
 

“Um, is there something I’ve done?”

Mary shoved her husband softly and smiled up at Lexa.
 
When she replied her voice was even and had softened a bit, “No, we should get going.
 
The three of you were going to watch a movie and we were going to leave you alone.”

With that, the two of them left the room.
 
Lexa was left wondering if they were normal for parents.
 
Missy’s parents had been curious about her, but Anna’s parents had had an edge to them that she simply had not understood.
 
After they had left, it took her a short while to relax and get into the spirit of their afternoon.

However, even in that spirit, she found she couldn’t quite focus on the movie or conversation.
 
She smiled, made noncommittal comments and pretended to be absorbed in the movie.
 
All she could think of was how Anna’s family’s fear of the unknown reminded her of Lyssa when they had first arrived on Earth.
 
So worried that each person they met was a Hunter in disguise.
 
Even though the few times they had encountered Hunters, they had stood out to the girls.
 
They had just been far too interested in the sisters.

Of course, they had Lyssa’s sight to guide them.
 
If Lyssa had not had flashes of insight, the one in Chicago would have gotten the sisters for sure.
 
Perhaps their family was in the witness protection program or something and so they suspected everyone of trying to discover their identity.

After all, Smith was such a generic name they may as well had been name John and Jane Doe.
 
That would’ve been kinda funny.
 
The Smiths were scared of the Stone sisters, thinking that they would break their cover in the witness protection program.
 
Meanwhile the sisters feared the idea that they were Hunters.
 
Miscommunication all around.

It was possible.

Ben came to pick up Missy and Lexa.
 
Anna blushed the whole time, but said far less than she ever did in front of Melissa’s brother.
 
Maybe her parents didn’t know she liked him.
 
It made Lexa wonder if she would hide her love life from her own parents if they were still alive.

Chapter 15

Kyle
sat behind the counter at work, Lyssa having already made her morning visit.
 
He was looking at a photo he had taken of her on the sly and guessed he had a goofy smile on his face.
 
He couldn’t help it.
 
He really liked looking at her.
 
Getting the photo was hard; she had this crazy thing about taking photos with a phone.
 
But, it wasn’t as if he was going to post it online or anything.
 
The bell rang for the door and he shoved his phone away into his pocket and looked up.
 
Tori.
 
Great.

She didn’t even make a pretense of shopping, she came up to the counter and grinned up at him, “Hi Kyle.
 
I was wondering if you wanted to go out after work.”

He frowned, was she seriously asking, “I’m dating Lyssa, Tori.
 
I won’t be going out with you.”

Her lip curled, “Why are you dating that bitch?
 
There’s nothing good about her.”

Kyle let out a sigh, “Nothing good about her?
 
Tori, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
 
Are you here as a customer?
 
If not, I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

She scrunched up her face, “Like I’d buy anything here.
 
I don’t even know why you work here.
 
It isn’t like your family’s broke.”

“Tori, if you don’t get it, you never will,” he said.
 
At that moment, an actual customer came in so he ignored her.
 
For a while, she stayed there.
 
But eventually, as he continued to ignore her, she left.

He was trying to be nice, which was no easy task.
 
He didn’t know why, she just wasn’t a nice girl.
 
He did feel a little bad that she couldn’t let go, but even if Lyssa wasn’t in the picture, Tori was too mean of a person for him to want to date.
 
She was a real…

Damn, it was hard trying to temper his thoughts.
  
He had moved on to tempering them because he was trying to keep from swearing.
 
If he thought them, he’d say them and Lyssa would be disappointed.
 
He didn’t think Lyssa would leave him for swearing, but he also didn’t want to see her frown when he swore.

He pulled out his photo of Lyssa and started to stare at it again.
 
She really was lovely with her long blond hair and blue-gray eyes.
 
It was more than that for him though.
 
She was kind and sincere.
 
Sure, there were things he didn’t understand about her, but he enjoyed learning a little more every day.

His phone rang and he nearly dropped it from surprise.
 
He grinned, “Hey, Steven. What up?”

“Kyle, what time do you get off today?”

“About five.”

“Meet us at the gym.
 
We’ll play a few hoops.” Steven said.

He frowned.
 
He had planned on surprising Lyssa at the house and seeing if she wanted to go to a movie.
 
Unfortunately, he delayed in his answer a little too long.

“Man, you’ve been MIA!
 
You never hang with us anymore!
 
Come on.
 
Do you have plans?
 
Again?”
 
Steven’s agitation was clear through the phone.
 
He was right; he had been neglecting his friends.
 
He couldn’t help it.
 
All he wanted was to spend time with her.

“Ok.
 
I’ll go,” Kyle said.
 
He wasn’t particularly happy, because he really wanted to see his girl.
 
But, he had to admit, he was becoming so focused on being with Lyssa that he was neglecting his friends.
 

“Good, we’ll meet at five thirty.”

He pulled into the gym a little late and made his way inside.
 
Brad, Steven and Doug were already playing.
 
Shedding his winter coat, he sat to change into his sneakers.

“Hey, you’re late,” Brad said.

“Sorry, the guy who takes over after my shift was late.”

He rose and headed out to join the guys.
 
They exchanged glances.
 
Tension was thick in the air and Kyle had no idea what was going on.
 
Steven hurled the ball at him, just a little harder than necessary.
 
Kyle dribbled the ball, dodged Brad and shot it.
 
Swish, it fell through the hoop and he let out a little cry.
 
No one said anything.

Brad had the ball.
 
He was running down the court, when Kyle stole it and dibbled away.
 
He shot the ball and once again scored.
 
And once again, silence.
 
Kyle wasn’t sure how to handle it, his friends had never acted so strangely with him before.
 
But, on this went until finally he couldn’t take it anymore.
 
Holding the ball, he stood up and held it to his side with one arm.
 
The guys exchanged looks and then turned to him.

“What’s going on?”
 
He asked, and looked from guy to guy.

“Nothin’, let’s play.” Brad said, avoiding his gaze.

“Bullshit.”
 
At that moment, he didn’t care what he said.
 
Something was going on and the guys weren’t talking.

“Kyle, it’s nothing big deal,” Steven said.

“Nothing big deal.
 
And yet, you’ve been acting like jackasses since I got here.
 
Did I do something?
 
I mean, you guys invited me.
 
I can go.”

“No, don’t go,” Doug said and he looked at the other two.
 
Doug wasn’t someone they hung out with regularly, but he was a good guy.
 
Fun.

“Then what the hell is going on?”
 
Kyle was fuming.
 
They were acting ridiculous.

“Talked to Tori earlier,” Brad said.

Kyle rolled his eyes, “I don’t know what she said, but it’s not true.
 
And I can’t believe we’re having trouble with her again.”

“She said you’ve been avoiding us because Lyssa doesn’t like us,” Steven said as he looked aside.

Kyle growled, “That bitch.
 
Why would you listen to anything that came out of her mouth?”

“Now you sound like yourself.
 
Do you know you’ve sounded like someone else for a while now?”
 
Brad griped.

Kyle rolled his eyes, “My lack of swearing suddenly makes me a different person?”

“That and you spend almost all your time with her,” Steven said.

“That’s because I love her!”
 
Kyle stopped and his eyes went wide as he dropped the ball.
 
Suddenly, his skin flushed as embarrassment set it.

Brad’s eyes went wide, “Did you just say you love her?”

“I…yeah, I did.
 
I…”

The guys laughed and Kyle felt his face go hot.
 
He hadn’t admitted it to himself, or Lyssa, but here he was telling the guys he was in love with her.
 
Great, he’d never live this down.

“So this isn’t about hooking up with her,” Brad said.

Kyle rolled his eyes, “It’s never been just about hooking up with her.
 
I said so from the beginning.”

His friends settled down and eyed him, “So what has been going on?
 
You barely see us.”

“I’m sorry, I haven’t been balanced.
 
I’ll try to make sure I don’t give all my time to Lyssa.
 
It’s hard though, I just want to spend all the time I can with her.”

He picked up the ball and passed it to Doug, “Come on, let’s just play.
 
And forget about anything Tori said, she doesn’t know anything.”

That night when he got home, he took a shower, ate, and then went to his room.
 
For a while, he stared at the picture of Lyssa he took.
 
She really was beautiful.
 
She had a thoughtful expression in her eyes and she looked just about to smile.
 
He had a printer in his room, so he printed it out and then pinned it to the wall above his desk.
 

Scrolling through his contacts, he called her.
 
He wanted nothing more than to hear her voice.

“Hey,” she said sleepily.

“Hey, sorry it’s so late.
 
Did I wake you?”

“No,” he could hear her yawn, “I was just getting ready for bed.”

“I won’t keep you.”

“No,” she said earnestly, “you aren’t keeping me.
 
I’d like to talk.”

“You doing anything Saturday?”

“No, unless, you know, some hot guy asks me out.
 
Then I might do something,” she laughed and then immediately yawned.
 
He loved when she thought she was funny.

Grinning, he said, “Speaking of a hot guy asking you out, wanna go boarding on Saturday?”

“Um, boarding?”

“You’ve never been before, have you?” he asked with a grin.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.
 
What’s boarding?”

“Snowboarding.
 
If you don’t know how, I’ll teach you.”

“Oh,” she said, sounding confused and sleepy still, “we talked about that before right?
 
We were gonna go during winter break.
 
I don’t board or ski.
  
But, don’t we need snow for that?”

He grinned, for someone so smart, she could be so unaware of things, “They make snow.
 
And I know it isn’t winter break, but I want to go with you.
 
We’ll go to Nashoba Valley, it’s not too far and we can eat there, after.
 
It’ll be fun.
 
Just you and me.”

“Well,” she sounded like she was thinking about it, “What am I gonna do about Lexa?”

“Are you stalling?”

“Maybe?”

He laughed, “Why?”

“Because I don’t know how to snowboard and this is going to be embarrassing.”