Stories by Rayen

(To read Part 1, click here .) (To read Part 2, click here .) (To read Part 3, click here .) (To read Part 4, click here .) They held each other for a long time, and then Kai drew back. Taking Marin's hand in his, he led her out of his room to a back door, which opened to a small covered deck with some mats. He sat down on one of them, and when she joined him, he put his arm around her. It felt good to be close to him while looking at his strangely beautiful garden. “I never want to cry when I’m around you.” “I’m not the reason you’re sad, Mari,” Kai said, and he rubbed his cheek against her hair. “That’s why I asked you to think about me.” He was right, she realized, because she had thought about him all day instead of Beau. “Did you think about me a little, too?” “You, and being with you like this, all day.” He rubbed his hand over the back of her neck. “It was hard to walk away in the hall. I wanted to keep holding you.” “I told my parents I wouldn’t be h

(To read Part 1, click here .) (To read Part 2, click here .) (to read Part 3, click here .) After dinner Marin retreated to her room to have a quiet cry, although it was more over her ruined dreams than losing Beau to Cherie. She only stopped when she thought of what she had done with Kai at his house. She should have felt confused and upset over getting her first kiss from him, and getting in bed with him and letting him touch her had been reckless. Yet she didn’t feel sorry that she had. He had comforted her, just as he’d said he would – and she felt pretty sure she had done the same for him. What was wrong about that? They’d both been hurt, and needed to feel better. When Marin woke up the next morning she had a headache and puffy eyes. Her mother fussed over her, checking her temperature and making her take a Tylenol. James kept watching her as they ate breakfast, but didn’t say anything until they walked together to the bus stop. “I guess you heard the news