"She can stay here!" I blurt out.

Kayla's head whips to face me.

"Right, Mom?" I plead with my eyes.

"Yes, sweetheart, of course, you can stay here until things settle a bit and more permanent housing has been organized." She smiles rea.s.suringly at me.

"I can't stay here-"

"What?" I face her.

"You can, and you will." My mom states with a tone that means the end'.

Lisa ends up staying for dinner, Julie is spending the night at a friends house. Dad apologizes to Kayla again and has a.s.sured her that he's explained the situation to Julie. It might be a little hard for an eight year old to comprehend but he did the best he could. I know Kayla appreciates it.

Lisa and Mom make plans to catch up again the next day to organize some more things. I think Lisa is glad someone is there to help both her and Kayla, and I know Mom doesn't mind, especially now that she's found out she knew Kayla's parents.

After dinner, Lucy and Heidi arrive. I rang them earlier and told them about her clothing situation, the fact the she doesn't have any, aside from underwear.

I get them to wait in the family room while I run upstairs to get Kayla, she's been holed up in my room since dinner. She didn't eat.

I don't know how she'll feel about me telling them, and them being here.

I knock on the door and wait for her response.

She opens the door and peeks out. I can tell she's been crying from the puffiness of her eyes.

"Hey," I say.

She fails her attempt at a smile.

"Umm, I really don't want you to get mad, but uh," I rub the back of my head, nervous habit, "Lucy and Heidi are downstairs..."

"Jake, I don't-"

"It's my fault, I rang them earlier. I just, you need clothes, and probably other girl things, and I didn't know what else to do..."

Her eyes are cast downwards, but when she hears my explanation she looks up at me and a small smile breaks through.

She opens the door wider and steps out of the room, grabbing my hand as we climb down the stairs.

We stand at the door of the family room and Lucy and Heidi both turn to us. At first they see our hands locked, then they look up at us and smile.

Lucy speaks first, "We're really sorry about what happened Mikayla. If you need anything at all... just let us know, okay?" She's standing in front of Kayla looking straight into her eyes.

Kayla nods.

Heidi stands up and positions herself next to Lucy, "We just bought some stuff over that you might need, Jake mentioned you can't get back into your house. So... we just bought the essential stuff. I know it's not much Mikayla-"

"It's more than enough," Kayla interrupts. "And my friends call me Micky."

I smile at her, let go of her hand and use it to bring her head to my lips, I kiss her on her temple. I love doing it and she doesn't seem to mind, so I'll keep doing it until she tells me to stop.

"I'll get some drinks," I tell them, as I walk out of the room.

Chapter 11.

*Mikayla*

Heidi and Lucy have come by to let me borrow some things while I'm here, seeings as I can't get into my house, crime scene and all that.

"I just got you some stuff you might need, girl things. Jake didn't really know what you needed. It was kinda adorbs when he rang, all awkward and s.h.i.t," Heidi pauses. "Micky..." she waits until I'm looking at her. "Jake... he's good people y'know. I'm glad it was him you ended up with last night."

I nod slowly, "Me too."

"Anyway," Heidi continues perking up, "I just bought some toiletries, body wash, shavers, toothbrush, lotions. I didn't know what you liked so I just packed whatever I had. I bought some clothes too. I mean, we didn't know how long you'd be staying so we really didn't know what to pack. We figured we're all about the same size though."

"You guys, whatever you've got will be perfect, I'm sure." I smile, it's a genuine one, because these girls, they don't even know me, and they're doing what they can to help.

I still haven't heard from Megan. Nothing.

Lucy pipes up. "I packed some clothes too, obviously Heidi and I don't dress the same, so at least you'll have a choice of what to wear," she chuckles to herself. "Umm, I also bought my spare e-reader for you. I don't really know..." She looks to the ground, her voice getting softer. "I don't know if you'll want to read, or if you can concentrate on reading... I just... it's there if you want it."

"Thanks, book best friend." I tell her, and she beams back at me.

Theres a few moments of silence.

I can't even imagine how awkward this must be for them, trying to console a girl they don't even know.

"So..." I start, "Justin Bieber's your jam, Heidi?"

They both laugh, and the awkwardness leaves the room for the moment.

"It's kind of an inside joke," Heidi says through giggles.

"Not really," Lucy smirks at Heidi. "Heids here had a wee little obsession with the Biebs when he first blew up. She went a little too stalkerish when he was in town once, his security had to detain her and her parents had to pick her up."

"No way!" I say, eyes big in disbelief.

"Yes, way." Jake interrupts, as he walks in with drinks for all of us. He places the tray on the coffee table between us.

"The next day at school everyone knew about it, people were calling her wannabeiber'. She didn't care though, she wore it proud, like a badge. I still see Dylan's eye twitch whenever he hears Justin Bieber."

Our laughter fills the room.

Talking about this reminds me of Emily, so I tell them about it.

About how my dad tried to dance The Dougie' to Emily's version of Baby'. About how they followed me around belting, p.e.n.i.s, p.e.n.i.s, p.e.n.i.s ohhhh'.

When the laughter fades, a sadness washes over me.

"I can't believe it was just last night," I say to no one in particular. "It feels like so long ago. This day has gone on forever." I look at Jake next to me. "Is this like, the longest day in history? What is with today?" I ask seriously.

He puts his arm around my shoulders and kisses the side of my head, I love when he does that.

"We'll let ourselves out," Lucy says, halfway out the door with Heidi.

"Let's get you to bed." He helps me to my feet.

I've been laying in bed for 2 hours and I can't seem to settle. I'm exhausted and restless, and devastated. I don't have words. I want to go home, and I don't. I guess I won't be able to tell how I feel until I'm faced with the opportunity.

An hour later I'm still wide awake. I need to get out of this bed, out of this room. I head downstairs. I can hear the murmurs of a TV running, but stop in my tracks at the bottom of the stairs when I hear my name, conversation's coming from the kitchen.

"Does Mikayla have nowhere else to stay?" Jake's dad, Nathan, asks.

I freeze, my stomach drops to the floor.

"Dad, Seriously?"

A moment of silence.

"I'm sorry, son. That came out all wrong." Nathan's voice is softer now, more sympathetic. He doesn't have an accent either, come to think of it, neither did Julie.

"Look," Nathan continues, "it's not that we don't want her here, you have to know that, but you need to understand that we're just worried about you-"

"Dad-"

"Hang on, Jake. Just let me finish... What you guys experienced, it's a lot to take in, even if you had known each other for years, it's still would have been... I don't know. It's just that, well, your mom told me that you guys met last night, and we're not blind Jake, I see the way you are with her, the way she is with you. I know that there's something there. But, I guess we just worry, and not just for her, for you too, Jake. This is a lot to take in for someone your age, for anyone, regardless. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we, your mother and I, are just afraid that she'll depend too much on you, and that you'll take it as more than what it is. She has no one else?"

"I don't know what you want me to say, Dad."

"I don't want you to say anything, I've said what I need to," Nathan sighs. "Now that that's out of the way, we also want you to know that we're so proud of you, Jake. You've changed and grown up a lot in the last year or so, you've turned out to be a good man, and we love you. Just remember that you've worked hard to get to where you are, all of us have. Just remember that, and your mom and I, well... we trust you to make the right decisions, not just with this girl, with everything."

"Thanks, Dad." his voice breaks.

I hear footsteps heading toward me and panic. I can't run back upstairs, I'll look like I've been listening in on their conversation. Idiot.

"Kayla?" Jake says.

I turn around to face them both, they have to know I've just heard everything they've said.

"Goodnight, Mikayla." Nathan brushes past me to the staircase and gives my shoulder a little pat.

I struggle to find my voice. "Goodnight, Sir."

"Can't sleep?" Jake asks.

I shake my head.

He's in sweatpants, and nothing else. His broad chest and shoulders are on display, his stomach muscles ripped and defined, down to the V that leads to his... I'm staring.

"Watch some TV with me?" He holds out his hand. "Nothing like infomercials to make me wanna crash."

I take his hand as he leads me to his bed on the sofa.

Once were seated, he turns to me, "You heard that, huh?"

"Yeah, I'll organize somewhere to stay as soon as possible, I'll make some calls in the morning."

"Kayla, that's not at all-"

"Let's just not talk about it tonight, okay?"

He nods, then looks away from me.

"It's Mom's birthday today," I say quietly.

"Christ, Kayla." He rubs the side of his face.

Silence fills the s.p.a.ce between us.

"Megan hasn't tried to contact me once," I tell him.

His arms wrap around my shoulders and adjusts us so I'm leaning into him, my head on his chest under the crook of his arm, the heat from his bare skin is overpowering. "I hate to state the obvious here, but Megan's kind of a s.h.i.tty person."

I let out a tiny laugh.

His hand is stroking my hair, from roots to tip, it's making me drowsy.

"You know who isn't a s.h.i.tty person?" I say through a yawn. "You, Jake Andrews, you're not a s.h.i.tty person. Not even a little bit."

"Thanks," he chuckles.

My eyelids are getting heavy. "Mmmm," I hum. "My mom used to do this when I was little, when I couldn't sleep, play with my hair I mean, it always helped."

"Go to sleep, baby." It's the last thing I remember before he kisses the side of my head and I give in to exhaustion.