The Stone Sisters: Lyssa (The Stones Sisters Book 1) (26 page)

With that, she went upstairs and got into bed.
 
The next morning, she came down and started making breakfast.
 
As she was about to sit down and eat, Lyssa came downstairs, clean and dressed.
 
She smiled and the two of them started in on breakfast.
 
Together.

Chapter 21

It
was Sunday afternoon and Kyle was working again.
 
Lyssa hadn’t come to the shop last weekend and he had a feeling she wouldn’t come by this.
 
He didn’t understand what was going on, but there was an aching in his heart where she should be.

He pulled out the picture he took of her in secret and just stared at it.
 
There were no customers, so he just stared at her beauty.
 
He couldn’t understand.
 
At first, it made sense.
 
He had broken it off and it was for the best, but now… now, he didn’t understand.

The last four nights he’d had intense sex dreams about her.
 
No, not sex, it was more than sex even in the dream.
 
Regardless, the dreams were intense and they always ended with her telling him she loved him.
 
As long as they dated, she had never told him that.
 
Then again, he never told her how he felt either and then he broke up with her.
 
Why did he do it?

The door chimed and he put his phone in his pocket.
 
Looking up, he found Tori.
 
She gave him a grin and walked over.
 
She just couldn’t take a hint.

“Hey, Kyle, what are you doing after work?”

“I’m busy, Tori,” he said and folded his arms, “Are you here to buy anything?”

She jutted out her hip and smiled at him, tossing her hair, “Come on, Kyle, you always say you’re busy.
 
Now that you’ve ditched that bitch, come back to me.”

That was it, “Don’t you ever speak about Lyssa that way again.
 
In fact, I don’t want to see you ever again!
 
Go away, Tori, I have no interest in you.
 
At all.”

She scowled, “What the hell?
 
I thought you liked me.
 
We had a great time when we…”

“We went out once and then I had to go out with you a few times to try to break it off, I don’t like you.”

She let out a frustrated cry, “You don’t like me but you liked her?
 
What was so great about her?”

Without hesitation he said, “She was more than just beautiful.
 
She was smart, funny, caring and so many other things.
 
Every time I was with her, I learned something new about her and we… we just fit together.”

Tori stared at him, frowning, “Why the hell did you break up with her?”

“I don’t know!”

He was so frustrated.
 
He didn’t know.
 
He couldn’t understand what had happened that he’d leave her.
 
He had loved her so much and he never even gotten to tell her.
 
So why did he leave her?

He heard the door to the store close and he looked up to find Tori was gone.
 
It didn’t matter.
 
What mattered was that on Monday he had to talk to Lyssa, he had to get her back.
 
That was if she was there.
 
Lately, she hadn’t been in school.
 
Had he hurt her so much that she couldn’t come to school?
 
And why the hell did he promise they’d be friends?
 
That had to have hurt her.

Most of the rest of the day, he spent staring at his phone.
 
He thought about calling her, but if he did, would she answer?
 
He shook his head.
 
What had possessed him?
 
Every time he tried to think about, he came up against a blank wall.
 
It was as if that decision to leave her was wiped from his own memory.
 
That was something he didn’t understand either.

He was staring at her picture when his phone suddenly rang in his hand.
 
He almost dropped it and he juggled it a few times before he got a good grip on it and answered.
 
Brad’s voice was on the other end and he was talking to Steven.

“Hey, Brad.
 
I’m here.”

“Yeah, I know…I know.
 
I’m trying to get a hold of him.”

“Brad!”
 
He yelled, “I’m right here!”

“Oh hey!
 
You aren’t going to believe this.”

“What?” he asked.

“Doug just called me.
 
Tori came over to his house, crying about you.”

Kyle sighed and rolled his eyes, “I’m not going to date Tori.”

“Yeah, well I think Doug would be angry if you did,” Brad snickered.

Kyle paused, “Uh, what do you mean?”

“Doug asked Tori out.
 
They’re like an official couple.
 
I mean, why date Tori?”

Relief flooded through him and Kyle almost laughed, “Well.
 
Everybody’s gotta have somebody.”

“Yeah.
 
But seriously, Tori’s nuts.”

“Maybe he just likes crazy,” Kyle stared outside, watching some man pump his gas.
 
Not a lot of people came into the store, so for the most part it was boring.
 
Lyssa’s visits used to make the day bearable.
 
What the hell was wrong with him?

“So are you coming?” Brad asked.

“Huh?”

“What’d you space out?
 
Are you coming over after your shift, we’re going to watch a slasher flick.”

“Yeah, sure.
 
I’ll be there right after my shift.”

“Ok, see you then.”

Kyle hung up and put it back to Lyssa’s picture.
 
Damn, she was beautiful.
 
She always said the most interesting things.
 
He wondered if she’d read Lord of the Rings.
 

He blinked.
 
Something about that brought back a vague memory.
 
He started to think about it, when a woman came in.
 

A couple more people came in, he got distracted, and before he knew it, his shift was over.
 
He headed to Brad’s, bringing some chips and soda he bought at work.
 
Brad put in the movie and he tried to get into it, but he just wasn’t interested.
 

“You haven’t been the same since you broke up with Lyssa.
 
Why’d you break up with her anyway?”

“It was for the best,” he said before he could think about it.
 
What the hell did that mean?

“The best for who?
 
She’s skipped school for a whole week.
 
Flu, my ass.
 
And you look chronically depressed,” Steven said from his spot on the armchair.

He looked at his friends and sighed, “You’re right.
 
This is good for no one.”

Brad punched him in the arm, “Then on Monday, do something about it.
 
I’m sick of seeing you like this.
 
You’re not fun at all.”

“Oh so this is all about me not being fun?”

Steven said, “Here we are, watching an awesome slasher flick and you’re making it suck.
 
Make up with your girlfriend.
 
Then come back and watch a movie.”

After the movie, he headed home.
 
When he got in, he carefully avoided his parents.
 
Or at least that had been the plan.
 
He failed.

“Kyle, that you?”

He sighed.
 
Great.
 
Walking over to the living room and waved.

“Yeah, I’m tired.
 
I’m just going to head up,” he said, hoping that they’d drop it and let him go.

“Listen, we know you’ve been down about Lyssa.
 
We understand that things happen and you break up, but lately you haven’t been yourself.
 
Kyle…”

“Dad, I know.
 
Look, I’m just going through some stuff, but I’ll work it out, ok?”

“Kyle, we just want you to know that we’re here for you,” his dad said.

“I’m really tired.
 
I’ll talk to you later,” he hurried up the stairs.
 
He took a shower and grabbed his favorite book off the shelf.
 
Lord of the Rings.

Suddenly, he remembered something.
 
Something he should have remembered before.
 
He had gone shopping with Lexa to buy a gift for Lyssa.
 
The two of them had fun.
 
He had bought Lyssa a couple of books.
 
What had happened next?

They had gone for pizza.
 
He got the chance to know Lexa a little better.
 
They left.
 
Then, something happened.
 
Were they… attacked?
 
Was that what he was remembering?

Why couldn’t he remember?
 
He crawled into bed and stretched out.
 
He kept running through things in his mind.
 
Why did he break up with Lyssa?
 
There was no reason why he should break up with her.
 
He loved her, he still did.

When he fell asleep, his dreams were fitful.
 
He kept remembering Lyssa touching his cheek and saying, “I love you.” He dreamt of making love with her.
 
Then he dreamt of her killing some guy.

He woke in a cold sweat.
 
It was five in the morning and he sighed.
 
There was no point in trying to go back to sleep.
 
He showered and got to school early.
 
As he sat in Physics, she walked in.

As he examined her, he could tell she was a little worse for wear.
 
Her arms seemed thinner and there were dark circles under her eyes.
 
She really could have been sick.
 
But, like Brad, he wasn’t buying it.

She nodded at him and took her seat.
 
He turned to his head just enough to look at her.
 
He still loved her.
 
But the question was how was he going to get her back.

She looked up at him, her eyes filled with pain and he had a flash to his dream.
 
Lexa was protecting him with some sort of force field and Lyssa ran up and skewered the assailant with one of her wakizashi.
 
She looked at him with eyes filled with shame and pain.

He shook his head.
 
It was pounding and the image wouldn’t leave him.
 
When he opened his eyes, Lyssa was looking at him confused.