Being Sixteen

LEIVON

She had knocked my ass to the ground again. This was becoming ridiculous. My muscle strength was building, I’m agile and flexible—how does that puny squirt keep besting me?

“Again,” Blain barks.

“What is wrong with you today?” I sneered. “It’s like you’re out for my blood. We’re meant to be friends, Kiya.”

That one sentence made her furious. She ran directly for me, kicked off the ground, and her right foot landed a deadly blow to my chest.

I flew backward, landing so hard into the dirt the wind was knocked out of my lungs, and I yelped as I rolled. She stood a few feet away, nostrils flaring as she shook ferociously.

“You are an idiot, Leivon Marcelo,” she growled.

“Kiya…calm down, you’ll force a shift,” her father Blain warned.

“What is going on? You’ve been getting angrier and angrier at me. Just tell me what I’ve done wrong? Friends don’t treat each other like this. Where has my best friend gone?”

I watched as her face fell. I knew that emotion. Hell, she had been my best friend since I was eight. Why was she acting this way?

“Levi, you ready?” My girlfriend Jaylie calls out, gaining our attention. Shit, when did she arrive?

Tears escaped Kiya’s beautiful emerald eyes as she looked away. “Run along, your girlfriend wants you,” she spat through gritted teeth.

I once again pathetically hauled myself off the ground and walked straight to Kiya. “~Ku’uipo~,” (Sweetheart) I collected her hand; it always felt nice to touch her, tingles would run across my palm and up my arm. “Tell me, what is wrong?”

“Levi,” Jaylie growled. I knew she hated how close Kiya and I were.

A sob tore from her throat as Kiya pulled her hand back. “Just go, you have a date remember.”

As I watched her run away from me, a stabbing pain ripped through my chest. I began to rub it to try to ease the throbbing discomfort, walking soberly over to Jaylie.

She reached up and brushed the dirt from my body before placing her lips against mine. “God, I don’t know why you pity her, she’s such a freak, Levi.”

I knocked Jaylie’s hand away from my arm. “She’s my best friend, Jay, you don’t get to say anything bad about her ever.”

She pouted, “I’m sorry babe, it’s just…she’s holding you back. You’re the most popular guy in our school, yet, you are friends with her. You and I make sense, she doesn’t, everyone notices. They talk about how much she holds you back.”

I couldn’t believe it. In fact, why the hell was I with Jaylie in the first place?

Every time I saw her she annoyed me more and more. Yes, she was stunning, but her personality was horrible. “Wow; Jay, you just hit a new low. You know what? I’m busy today, go home.”

“What?” she screeched. “Do you have any idea how many guys want me, Levi? Yet, I chose you, you should be thankful—especially when the loser is holding you back.”

“You take that back or I want nothing to do with you.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Actually, you know what? You’re dumped, go out with all those other guys that want you.”

I strode over to Blain, leaving behind a howling, screaming mess. Her shrill outburst ground against my eardrums.

“You okay? Kiya knocked you pretty hard.”

“Blain, what’s wrong with her? It’s like she wants to hurt me and it’s been getting worse lately.”

Kiya’s father paled at me, then suddenly burst into howling laughter. “Jesus Christ, boy, are you really that clueless? This is why it’s taken you so long? Holy shit.” He turned on his heels and walked off, leaving me more confused than before.

Hopefully, Kiya will come to her senses, maybe it’s that time of the month for her— or the year.

“That was Blain, he knows what’s happened, apparently Levi has no clue…”

“Levi has no clue about what?” I asked as I stepped into the lounge room, interrupting their conversation.

Their eyes bulged and Mom’s hand flew out, whacking Dad across the arm as I threw my training bag down. They scowled at each other.

“Okay, I’m going to ask again and let’s try not to make this weird or like you’re hiding something.”

“What, Lennox?” Mom hollered, “coming… Sorry, Knox needs me.”

Lennox strolls in behind me, covered in mud, “Mommy?”

“He didn’t say a thing, don’t you—” Dad tried to grab her arm but she was quick, collected Knox and slipped out of the room in mere seconds.

I squared in on Dad. “No clue about what?” I folded my arms in front of my chest impatiently.

“W-why Kiya is so angry and keeps crying.” I didn’t believe him but he was right, I have no idea why she is angry or why she was teary, all I know is that it hurt to see her that way.

“So does Blain know why? Or how I can fix it?” Again Dad paled at me.

“Cowboy, come and sit down,” I did as he requested and slumped into Mom’s now-vacant chair.

“How do you feel when Kiya isn’t around?” I thought his question was odd but rolled with it.

“I don’t know, I miss her. I like having her around.”

“Just miss? Nothing else?”

“Dad where are you going with this?”

He sighed, “your future is your own, cowboy, I can’t interfere as much as I want to. Just search your heart, what makes yours and Kiya’s friendship so unique? How would you feel if you never saw her again? How would you feel if she got a boyfriend?”

I snarled, “does she have a boyfriend? She better not, no one’s good enough for her.”

Dad chuckled and slapped me on the shoulder. “Lord, son, it's right in front of your face and you don’t even see.”

“See what?” He squeezes my shoulder and walks out. “See what?”

“Barbies?” Lexie holds up one of her favorite Barbie dolls for me.

Her sapphire blue eyes sparkling away with the hope that I might play, her black wavy hair was tied back into a plait and she was wearing a pretty pink and white lace dress—she looked very cute.

“No thanks, Lex, but I’ll take a hug.” Lexie smiled and opened her arms for me. I don’t know what it was about her, but she always seemed to help, even if it was something as small as a hug.

I know I’m not like others my age. I like spending time with my family—it’s all I ever wanted growing up.

I like that I study hard, yet I’m good at sports, I don’t get picked on because Jaylie was right—I’m popular—but I don’t care about it.

I also love my ~Ku’uipo~ Kiya, she’s been my best friend forever. What I don’t like is when she’s upset, how can I help her if I don’t understand?

We had a dream—train, become great warriors, enter Lexie’s protection trial selectors, and win to become Lexie’s security.

I thought that’s what we are doing? But today she seemed to really hate me.

Almost every night since her first shift, Kiya has come in her wolf form and slept next to me.

We’ll have to talk about it tonight when she comes because the heaviness on my chest is heartbreaking—I miss her.

I opened the window and climbed into bed, waiting for her… and waited… and waited—but she never came.

The following morning as I got ready for school I collected my phone and dialed, the ringing in my ear was torturous, I’d had no sleep and I’d waited all night for her.

“Hello? Hello? Hello?”

“~Ku’uipo~, it’s me…”

“Haha, fooled ya. Leave a message after the beep and I’ll get back to ya.”

I rolled my eyes, “Kiya, you didn’t come last night? We need to talk, I’ll see you at school.”

But Kiya never made it to school. I tried her phone again but it was switched off. I went over to her house but Cleo said she has gone to her aunt’s for a few days.

Surely she wouldn’t have just left without telling me? I am her best friend.

The following days were crippling. She still had her phone off. Cleo and Blain wouldn’t tell me where she’d gone and I was going insane.

Jaylie, the stupid bitch, had told everyone how she broke up with me.

I was not in a nice mood and when Triet told me what he’d heard, I confronted her in the hall in front of everyone and set the record straight—there was nothing I loathed more than a liar.

Again and again, I would show up at Kiya’s house and beg them to tell me the truth, but they wouldn’t.

Dad and Grandpa Fitz were called to remove me from the house after I began kicking in their front door.

I had taken up her allocated seat in our classes together, snuck out at night to see if I could spot her wolf, gone to every hang out we had been—just to feel close to her, try to find her.

But she wasn’t anywhere to be found.

I couldn’t train, couldn’t eat, smile or find happiness—I needed Kiya but no one would help me find her.

Begging my Grandpa Fitz into using the sheriff channels to find her was the last active thing I could think of.

I knew Dad wouldn’t help me because when I brought up the subject, he would always just say, “maybe she’s just enjoying her holiday” but I knew he was lying—they were all lying.

I had filled up her message bank, so there was no more room left. Every text remained unseen.

I even cornered her little sister Paija but she refused to speak to me. I don’t blame her; I was pretty aggressive in my approach.

The amount of suffocating silence that I was greeted with at every turn made me realize this was not a simple trip to her aunt’s house.

Something terrible was happening here—what the hell had I done?

It had been fourteen days and nights since she disappeared. This agony in my chest was pure torment; it just wouldn’t leave me alone. I was angry.

After another shitty day at school, I stomped into my room and slammed the door.

Everywhere in my bedroom were pictures of Kiya and I, laughing, eating, taking stupid selfies—it made me furious.

I picked up the end of my bed and threw it against the wall; next was the TV that went straight through the window, smashing on the ground outside.

I ripped the posters from my walls, flipped the computer desk over, and drove my foot straight through the monitor; my soccer trophies snapped in half and plunged into the now bare walls of my room.

I had destroyed everything in sight but none of it could take away even the slightest bit of hurt.

I collapsed into a heap on the floor and buried myself below the shambles.

~Where is she?~