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“I’m just kidding, doll.” He laughed aloud, showing off those giant, white veneers as his sandy-slicked hair glinted under the overhead lights. “But I do have a proposition for you.”
Justin rested his arm around Kai’s shoulders, and she flinched just enough for me to see it. I looked at her, pondering her reactions. I’d never seen her so uncomfortable in my life, never seen her so closed off. And I didn’t think it entirely due to the fact that she needed to get used to being around people again, as she’d put it.
“Okay,” she said, maintaining the smile she’d been wearing since we arrived.
Justin winked at me. “Let’s let the guys get into it and we’ll chat, okay?”
“Okay,” she repeated.
He finally turned away to tend to something I didn’t care about, and the door to the studio opened, revealing our bassist and his girlfriend.
Chapter 15
Kai
“Well, well, well. Look who it is!” Noah said as if we were old friends who hadn’t seen each other in years. His long, golden hair and gleaming smile were unmistakable. Positive energy radiated from him in literal rays as he held his arms out to the side in welcome.
So, that’s why Jonah didn’t take to him at first. It all made sense now.
“There she is!” Tiff added from behind him. She had flaxen hair, much like her counterpart, and a pair of quirky glasses that sat on her nose. Unlike Noah, whose visible skin was bare, Tiff had black vines and flowers crawling up one rosy arm, disappearing beneath the sleeve of her sage T-shirt dress.
“Hi,” I said, taking a step closer to Jonah and hugging his elbow tightly to keep myself from bouncing. My smile felt wider than the cheeks it sat across. There were bundles of energy floating about, and I could’ve run a mile just from the sheer nerves of meeting these two. I’d been hearing about them for years, and my video chats with Jonah never quite lined up right for me to meet them virtually. Sure, they’d waved from across the room while Jonah held up his phone once or twice, but these were the first words we’d ever truly shared.
“Now that I’m here,” Tiff said, putting her hands on her hips and glancing at Jonah, “you can let go of her.” She then looked at me and took a step forward. “And you let him know you’ll be spending much more time with the girls from now on, so he’ll need to leave you be, because we’re going to talk about…things.” She gave Jonah a grin I wasn’t entirely sure how to read. Something about the way she spoke made it immediately known that she was much smarter than all of us. There was a power in her voice, but not an intimidating one. It was more of a stability, a calm strength that could only come from someone who was content and confident in their own life.
“Oooooh,” Noah said from behind her to build ominous tension, wiggling his arms like an octopus. “Things.”
I looked up at Jonah, whose jaw was tightening as he stared at a fixated spot on the wall.
Ah, there he was. His cockiness in the last twenty-four hours had me worried I’d lost my nervous, twitchy friend forever, but it seemed all I had to do if I wanted to see him again was get him in public and around other people.
“Joooonah, Jonah, Jonah, Jonaaaah!” Noah sang in a beautiful, classical voice as he danced around to Jonah’s other side and pulled him into a smiley hug. “Don’t worry, my gloomy friend. She’s still yours, but we do want to take her on some killer hiking trails.”
“Noah has a lot of energy,” Jonah said flatly as two tan arms squished his shoulders.
“You don’t say,” I answered, admiring the way Noah didn’t hide his happy bouncing. He just looked so utterly giddy to be here, so giddy to be alive, and it didn’t seem like he was faking it at all. I instantly looked up to him for that, and I hoped I’d one day find that authenticity too. He retracted his enthusiastic embrace, and I introduced myself properly to both him and Tiff before the two boys spun off to whatever business they had to attend to with Oli and Justin.
June appeared to my left, and I found myself glancing between her and Tiff.
“He’s so pretty, I usually just let it slide,” Tiff said, rolling her eyes playfully. I had to assume that was in reference to Noah’s admirable energy.
I crossed my arms and nodded. “You know he is very pretty, and I mean that so respectfully. He looks like…”
“Cheryl Tiegs,” June said.
“Cheryl Tiegs!” I agreed, immediately settling into the interaction. It had been some time since I’d been part of a girl group, and something about June and Tiff really excited me. I loved Ana and Rachel with all my heart, and I’d always be connected to them no matter the distance or time that passed between us. But I already loved June like family, and Tiff was obviously important to my friends, so something about being here, the three of us, was just so fulfilling. I didn’t even need to be worried about making a good impression, because I was just sure. The future flashed before my eyes and filled me with eagerness, a feeling which had been lost on me for some years now.
Tiff tilted her head back with laughter and offered her knuckles to me. I bumped them with my own as she said, “I’m so glad to meet you, Kai.”
“Me too.”
“Let’s get out of here and grab a juice or something,” Tiff said, looping her arm through mine.
I glanced at her and then back at the guys. I’d wanted to stay and watch, but I also wanted to get to know Tiff. It was moments like these I wished I could split myself in two, or perhaps double the length of the day, so that there was time to do everything. Life was suddenly exciting again, and I was dying to experience it all.
“Don’t worry,” June said, looping my other elbow. “We’ll get a quick one and be back in time to hang for a little so you can watch him.”
I stared at Jonah, who was pulling his hair back into a bun. He locked eyes with me and gave me a little smile and a nod. “Have fun, Kai.”
