with my laughter. “I get what you mean, loser.”
He relaxed. “Good.”
I glanced at my bedroom door and then back to him. “Are the lads okay with you staying?”
He snorted. “Please. Your brothers love me.”
Everyone in my house loved Kale; he was part of our family.
Kale never looked at me like anything other than a sister, and while I hated it, I respected his respect for me. He was completely fine with sleeping in my brothers’ room, and so were my brothers. I seemed to be the only person who wanted him to sleep in my room with me; I kept that to myself, though. I kept everything about how I really felt about Kale to myself – unless my Uncle Harry was around for me to vent to.
“So it’s cool to stay?” he asked.
I crossed my eyes at him, making him burst into laughter.
My lip twitched. “Like you even have to ask.”
He thought about this for a second, then said, “True.”
He ignored his phone when it rang again, and switched it off instead. “I’ll have your mum call my mum and let her know I won’t be home. Then I’ll be back, and we can totally talk lads and do each other’s nails.”
I fell sideways on my bed, laughing.
“You’re such a freak.”
Kale beamed at me. “If it’ll make you smile, I’ll be the biggest freak this world has ever seen.”
I continued to laugh. “That wouldn’t take much.”
He gripped his chest. “Your words, they wound me deeply.”
“Go call your mum already!” I howled in laughter.
Kale chuckled to himself as he left my room, and I beamed after him, not surprised that I felt so happy being in his presence after being so sad without him.
The next day Kale helped me convince my parents to let me have the day off school. He had the week off college and promised my parents he would take me out and help cheer me up. My father wanted to know what that entailed, and Kale had to explain my makeover plan to them.
My father didn’t like it, but my mother was completely on board. She gave Kale a bunch of money from her savings jar and told him to help me make good decisions.
“Come with us, Mrs Edwards – you know more about fashion and hairstyles than I ever will,” Kale said to my mother.
She patted his shoulder and said, “I think a boy’s opinion is what is needed here, not a mother’s, because I think Lane looks beautiful as she is.”
“Then it’s pointless for me to go too, because I wholeheartedly agree with you.”
“My God,” I grumbled as embarrassment heated my cheeks.
We eventually left my house, without my mother, and made our way into town, laughing and joking the entire bus ride in. When we got off the bus, we were in shopping heaven. There were clothing shops, nail bars and hair salons in every direction. I’d never come into this part of town before, and the overload of people made me nervous.
“I’ve got you.” Kale threaded his fingers through mine. “Don’t let go; you’re tiny and would get lost in the crowd.”
Oh, my God. I could have died. I could have died right there in the middle of the shopping district.
Kale was holding my hand and leaning protectively into me like a boyfriend would to his girlfriend. I knew we were just friends, and he was making sure I didn’t venture off, but I let myself pretend that it was real and he was really just hanging out with me as his girl.
“Okay, what do you want to get done first? Hair, nails or do you want to hit the clothes shops first?” Kale asked as he leaned his mouth down to my ear so I could hear him over all the voices around us.
I trembled as shivers ran up and down my spine.
“Hair,” I squeaked, and then I cleared my throat. “Hair first.”
“Hair first it is,” he said, weaving us through the crowd until we entered a Toni and Guy hair salon.
I stood staring at all the different hairstyle pictures in black and white on the walls for a long moment, and when Kale pulled on my hand, I almost jumped out of my skin. He laughed at me, and so did the woman behind the counter.
“Follow me,” the woman chirped after she smudged a little white gel behind my ear, a skin test for future appointments that involved hair dye. I didn’t want my hair dyed this time around; I just