Chapter 4: Stay With Us!

Mikayla had to admit to herself that Josh had changed immensely. His hair was different, and definitely suited him better. But his eyes never changed, the blue eyes that had conquered her heart and had left it to die.

"Are you guys staying in San Jose?" Taylor asked Chris.

"Yep. We're on vacation."

"Oh. Where are you guys staying?"

"Well, we were thinking about staying in this hotel…"

"Nonsense!" Taylor exclaimed. "You should stay with us!" Chris laughed.

"Why?"

"Well, for one thing, what can a hotel give you that we can't? Female companionship? You've got Mika and me! Homemade food? Uh, well that may be a problem but we can get by on my brother Noah's cooking. And tour guides? That's us!" Taylor's exaggerated eagerness made Mikayla laugh.

"Let's do it!" Justin exclaimed.

"Now hold on a minute," JC started, but both Taylor and Justin's eyes begged him to say yes. He glanced reluctantly at Mikayla. "as long as Mikayla says it's alright."

"PLEASE MIKA!" Justin and Taylor both said, bouncing around and grabbing her arms.

"Okay! Okay!" She said, laughing. "But Taylor's in charge of begging Noah to do the cooking, not me."

* * * * *

"Here we are!" Taylor said happily as Mikayla pulled up her large suburban into the driveway of the home they shared. Actually it was Mikayla's home, but she let Taylor and Noah live with her since they wanted to finish college in the bay area.

"Wow. Nice house." Joey commented.

"Well, yeah," Mikayla said, looking at it proudly. Her father had left it to her in his will when he had died. They all went inside.

JC studied the house. It was pretty big. He looked back at Mikayla, who was laughing at something that Chris said to her. He remembered that laugh, how they had always had a secret joke between them. He should have never followed Allison out that door, he thought shaking his head as he followed Mikayla and Taylor inside the house with the rest of the guys.

* * * * *

"Mika! Please pick up," Josh pleaded into his phone. His mother had been surprised at his haggard appearance as he fell inside the house and bounded upstairs.

Mike sat crying on her bed, wondering how Josh could have hurt her so badly. And Allison, her betrayal hurt almost as badly as Josh's did. She heard her answering machine pick up and Josh's denials and pleads for her to pick up, but she couldn't do that.

"I can't stay here," She whispered aloud, getting up. She began to pile her clothes into suitcases slowly, then sped up, throwing her clothes into the suitcase furiously. As she packed, she could feel the weight of the pendant banging on her chest. She carefully took off the necklace and packed it along with the rest of her clothes, for she couldn't bear to throw it away.

"Josh?" Josh's mother called up the stairs. "Are you okay? Did you and Mikayla have a fight?" A minute later Josh came bounding down the stairs and out the door.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Mikayla's older brother, Dan, asked her worriedly. She stood outside on her family's front porch. Her parents had already gone inside after saying goodbye, but Dan knew something was wrong.

"I'm fine, Danny, really I am. I'm just going to go and visit Tay and Noah for a bit." She said, glad for the dark sunglasses that covered her swollen eyes.

"Something happened with Josh, huh?" Dan answered, studying her.

"Yes." She said softly, the tears threatened to come up again, "I have to go, bye Dan." She said quickly, giving him one final hug. "I'll be back in a couple of weeks." She got into her car and drove away, not knowing that those 'couple of weeks' would turn out to be two years.

She's got to believe me, Josh thought as he ran down the sidewalk. He noticed a black car pass by him, but paid no heed to it as he jumped through someone's front lawn. He could see Mikayla's brother standing at the front porch.

"Dan? Is Mika there?" He asked, stopping at the bottom of the porch. He was panting heavily.

Dan's eyes narrowed at the sight of him, "No." He answered shortly. Josh knew from the look in his eye that something happened.

"Oh," Josh said quietly, swallowing painfully. He turned around, and started to walk away from the house.

The Lion Pendant Contents | Chapter 3 | Chapter 5