Page 32 of Autumn Secrets

We sat there in silence, deep in thought. It was Lexi who broke the silence first. “Can I tell you something? Don’t laugh, but I feel like something happened last night. I just don’t know what. I wasn’t drunk, it’s… I don’t know how to explain it.”

I looked at her. “Lexi, you don’t have to explain anything. I feel the same. I had the worst night.”

“You did?” she whispered.

I nodded. “I have no idea what’s going on, but…”

I was just about to tell her about my night, when a voice interrupted us from downstairs.

“Lexi, are you here?”

I didn’t recognise who the voice belonged to. It didn’t sound like her dad. Lexi’s eyes lit up, and I knew who it was. She put her hand on mine and bounced off the bed.

“We’ll talk about this later, okay? Come on, let me introduce you to someone.”

“What happened to just being friends?” I whispered as we reached the first floor.

She shrugged her shoulders. “I changed my mind. You’ll see why.”

And I did. A gorgeous guy was standing in the middle of the kitchen. He pushed his blond hair away from his emerald green eyes, which were shining like gemstones. He was tall, with a flawless body to accompany his good looks. I could see why Lexi was so enchanted with him. He was pure perfection, just like the others.

“Hi there, I didn’t realise you had company. I would have grabbed us another pizza.” He smiled and looked at me with gleaming eyes. “I’m Luca.”

“Aurora.”

He took a step forward. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Aurora. It’s nice to finally meet you.” He extended his hand.

When I placed my hand in his, a sharp pain hit my stomach. It was so hard that I had to catch my breath and I tugged my hand away quickly. I caught Luca’s eye, but he just kept smiling at me.What was that?I stared at him, but he seemed to be oblivious to what had just happened. Once again, I started to question my own sanity. I mean, what did I believe? That Lexi’s boyfriend was using some kind of supernatural powers to hurt me or something? That was absurd. I needed to stop being so suspicious about everyone; I was taking things too far.

Lexi didn’t seem to notice anything weird either. She was too caught up in his emerald eyes. I saw Luca frame her face with his hands, lean over and kiss her softly before whispering something in her ear. She giggled and put her arms around his neck and kissed him back. It was so intimate, I had to look away. I hardly registered Lexi’s voice.

“You want to share?”

I snapped my head back to the beautiful couple in front of me.

“What?” I asked in horror.

“The pizza?”

I wanted to be swallowed by the ground. Where was my imagination taking me?

I heard Luca chuckle. “Aurora, is everything all right?”

My cheeks started to burn. “Um, yes…absolutely.”

“Do you want to stay for pizza then?”

“Sure,” I replied even though I wasn’t hungry at all.I still wanted to make sure Lexi was all right with Luca, just to be safe.

I studied him across the table, sitting next to Lexi as we ate our pizza. She seemed so enchanted by him. But maybe that was what love was all about? Getting so wrapped up in each other that you can’t see or hear anything else. Come to think of it, that was probably how they saw me whenever I was around Adrian.

I felt Luca watching me, and I looked up and met his gaze. He gave me a sly smile, as if he knew what I was thinking. I turned my gaze back to Lexi, who was happily munching on her pizza. Maybe I was being too protective? She seemed fine, and I was quite sure she wanted to have some time alone with Luca before her parents came home.

“When are your parents due back?” I asked.

“I’m not too sure. They’re away, but they’ll be back later tonight, I think.”

I stayed for another hour, watching Luca’s every move. Now and then he grinned back at me, but I didn’t get any more bad vibes from him. I decided to give him a chance. Maybe I was just bitter because of what happened, or didn’t happen, with Adrian.