Mystery Boy

"Does he have a Facebook?" Kelley asked as we rounded the stairs and headed into her room.

"Does who have a Facebook?" I questioned as I followed her and plopped down on her bed next to her.

Kelley rolled her eyes and slammed my knee. "Your boyfriend!" she said, "Obviously!"

"Oh," I replied, "No. They don't go on the internet all the much. Actually, I've kind of been thinking about deleting mine. I don't have internet anymore." I leaned against the pale purple walls and watched Kelley's expression turn to one of almost blatant horror.

"Delete it?" she asked quickly, already shaking her head, "You can't! Everyone misses you so much! They'd be devastated if you dropped off the planet completely!"

I chuckled and shrugged my shoulders. "I still have my phone, Kell," I replied, "It's not like my close friends wouldn't be able to get ahold of me or anything." I tucked my hair behind my ear as she pulled her laptop onto her lap and opened it up.

"Still," she said with a disapproving shake of her head, "You just can't. I won't allow it." She thrust the large silver laptop onto my lap and motioned towards the screen. "Sign in. You haven't checked it since you left! You must be dying!"

I glanced to her expression once more before I sighed and logged in using the email that I'd made when I was barely a middle-schooler. I was surprised the by the number of notifications and even requests that I had.

"Check your friend requests first!" Kelley demanded, although she reached over and used the trackpad to do it for me.

My eyes grew wide when two very familiar and slightly unwelcome names appeared as friend requests at the very top.

"He's cute," Kelley said slowly, her eyes raking over the image of a teenage boy in front of her. "Do you know him?" She pushed her naturally dark red hair away from her eyes like she was getting a better look at him.

I stared at the profile of the boy before I shook my head. "Well, kind of," I added when I saw the crestfallen look on her face, "He's friends with those other two people that are trying to add me."

Kelley grinned and bumped her shoulder with mine. "Well," she said, "Even if you don't know Carson, you definitely should get to know him."

I shook my head but chuckled anyways.

"Why not?" Kelley demanded, "He's hot, Airea!"

I rolled my eyes at her which caused her to slap my leg. "Ouch!" I exclaimed, slapping her hand away from me. "I'm dating Jacky, end of story."

"Is he as cute as this guy?" Kelley asked, pointing at Carson's picture.

"Yeah," I said softly, wondering what she would really think about Jacky and the guys. They weren't the style of people that she was picturing in her mind.

Kelley rifled through my Facebook for awhile longer as I sat back and watched, thinking about how if I would be sleeping over then Kelley would around when Jacky called me from London.

"Airea," Kelley called, drawing out my name, "Why so serious? You're back in New York! You should be throwing a party!" She clapped her hands together like the idea of having a party was actually a good one.

"No," I said right away, "No parties. I don't want to see anyone from Westlake."

Kelley whined for about fifteen minutes before she stopped trying to fight me on it. The only reason for the break in the nagging was because her house keeper appeared in the doorway, claiming that her parents wanted her down for dinner.

"You guys still do family dinners?" I asked softly as we traipsed down the stairs and headed across the living room towards the kitchen.

Kelley nodded. "Fridays, still," she said, glancing at me over her shoulder, "You should've come yesterday. Preston was here, like always. He's such a bum." She rolled her eyes at her older brother and pulled me throw the swinging door and into the dinning room on the other side of the room. "Tada!" she shouted loudly, causing both her parents to look over at us.

Naomi Aims jumped up from her chair and grinned widely. "Airea!" she shouted, "What are you doing here?" She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pulled me into a tight hug. When we pulled back she turned to her daughter and slapped her arm. "Why didn't you tell me she was here?"

Kelley shrugged. "You were busy. Did you want me to page you or something?"

Naomi glared at Kelley's sarcasm before she turned back to me and pulled me into another hug. "What are you doing here?" she asked again, "Are you staying in the city for awhile?"

I waved at Hal, Kelley's dad, before I replied, "No," I said with a sigh, "I'm only staying until Monday."

Naomi frowned. "That's no good," she murmured, pushing her dark auburn hair back behind her shoulders, "That leaves us barely any time to spend with you. I'm sure Heather is just holding you captive!"

"She wants to," I nodded with a smile, "But she's actually being pretty lenient with my time spent away from her."

"Don't stay away too long," Naomi replied as she led us over to their glass dining table, "She's missed you a lot."

"I know," I murmured, "I've missed her, too." I sat down in one of the sleek looking chairs and rested my elbows in the table. Like everyone else I'd talked to since I entered the city, she asked me about life with my dad and brought up boys.

"He sounds like a nice boy," Naomi replied after I told her about meeting Jacky, "How's he holding up without you?"

I smiled at the thought of him falling to pieces without me then I shook it off and looked up to meet her gaze. "He's actually on a ten hour flight to London," I told her, watching as both hers and Kelley's expressions changes to surprise.

"What? Why?" Kelley questioned quickly.

"He's visiting his mom, too," I told them, "He's originally from West London."

Kelley's excited scream was the only thing that I heard. She almost jumped out of her chair as she screeched and asked, "So he has an accent and everything?"

When I nodded, she grinned.

"Oh my gosh, Airea," she said loudly, "You've hit the jack-pot!"

Naomi grinned and mock-punched my shoulder. "The Jacky-pot!"

I couldn't stop the laughter from bubbling out of my lips. The Aims women were certainty an exciting duo and I was just glad to be around them for the night.