Page 14 of Twisted Mates

“Lex?”

I look over at Kai as he’s kicking off his shoes. “Oh, hey.”

“What are you doing in here?” he asks, sitting on the edge of the bed, placing his arm over me and bracing himself on his palm. “Are you all right?”

I look up at him and don’t move a muscle, not wanting to scare him away since this is the closest he’s been to me since our first dance—well, with the exception of my starfish episode.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep good last night. Lots of thoughts, ya know?”

“I get it. It was a new feeling, having someone sleeping beside me. It took forever for me to fall asleep. But you look like someone pissed in your Cheerios.”

I snort a laugh at the analogy. “My Cheerios are piss-free. It’s just...” I bite my bottom lip and search for the right words. “Do you ever have thoughts that you know are irrational, yet the feeling you get from them is so hard to shake? I sometimes feel like I say the dumbest things, but it’s too late because my mouth moves at the speed of the thoughts that really should stay inside. And my head is so jumbled that I don’t even realize what I did until the person I’m speaking with corrects me. And it doesn’t matter how kindly they say it; it always feels like an insult, even though logically I know it isn’t.”

He gently pinches my chin and forces me to look at him. The compassion radiating from his gaze pierces straight through me. “Whose ass do I need to kick?”

“No one’s,” I whisper. The last thing I want to do is reopen the rift between him and Xander. They made a little progress in closing it today. “It’s just a bunch of irrational thoughts.”

Kai gives me a tight-lipped smile. “You’ve always had a tender heart. I’ve always found it to be one of your most likeable traits.”

My chest warms at the compliment. “Thank you, Kai.” It really does help to hear that he doesn’t see me as an idiot. That he likes what he sees when he looks at me.

He sits up straight and pats the side of my calf. “Of course. What can I do to help though, seriously?”

“You just did.”

He grins. “It was that easy?”

I laugh and poke him in the thigh with my toe. “It won’t always be that simple, but yeah. This time, it was that easy.”

“I’ll take that as a win.”

I yawn and cover my mouth with my palm. “Sorry about that, I really am tired. I guess that doesn’t help the situation.”

“Why don’t you take a nap and I’ll wake you in a few hours?” he asks, getting to his feet.

“That actually sounds perfect,” I admit, rolling over onto my side.

“Here, get under the covers,” he says, lifting the blankets and urging me underneath them.

“This feels like some special treatment,” I say as I snuggle into the soft mattress. “Is this what will happen every time I tell you I’m feeling down?”

He smiles and tucks the covers around me. “If that makes you happy, then yeah.”

And with that, he’s gone, and I fall asleep feeling a little more hopeful than before.

I open my eyes several times throughout the day. Sometimes it’s so difficult shaking off the feeling of rejection. The thoughts consume me—everything I could have done differently with Xander. If only I would have kept my mouth shut and not prodded into something so personal, then he would have never had a reason to shut down my question. I simmer in the feeling over and over until I’m so exhausted that sleep drags me down again. It’s my mind’s way of coping, disconnecting from all the uncontrollable emotions.

The next time I wake up, the sun has faded from the sky and my stomach is continuously growling. My body is no longer caring about my feelings. It demands to be fed. I pull my hair back into a ponytail and change from my sweats into a pair of leggings and a crop top. As I make my way down the hall, I can hear lively chatter before I even get to the staircase.

I pause and assess my mental state. The embarrassment I felt earlier has faded and I feel safe to face Xander again, so I follow the voices toward the back of the house. The double doors to the rec room are open and Kai, Carrington, and Xander are sprawled out on the huge sectional couch. I weave around the pool table and get a glimpse of the bowls and cups of junk food laid out on the coffee table in the center of the room. My stomach growls at the sight of chocolate candy bars and a miniature nacho bar. It’s when I notice the bottle of my preferred soda that I realize these are all my favorite snacks.

“What is this?” I ask, and three heads whip in my direction.

“There’s our girl,” Carrington says with a blinding smile. “Kai suggested that we watch your favorite movie tonight.”

I eye my mate, who flashes a boyish grin at me. I don’t need to ask why. He knew I wasn’t at my best and did this to cheer me up. For the first time, I understand why people always say friends make the best significant others.

I come to the sofa and flop down next to Kai. “You remembered my favorite movie?”

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