Page 70 of Broken Souls

“Here are you drinks.” Ryleigh sets our drinks down in front of us. “Have you decided on meals?”

“Umm.” Amelia opens the menu and looks at it intently.

“I'll have the burger and chips, please.”

“Got it.” She writes it on her notepad. “You're Elora right, Dash's friend?” Ryleigh asks, and Amelia drops her menu and turns her attention to me.

“Yeah... how are things?” I decide to pry a bit.

“He's very charming.” Ryleigh smiles. “Has he said anything about me?”

“Nothing specific but I think he's quite smitten with you,” I say.

“Really?” Ryleigh bites her lip to prevent her smile.

“Yeah.” I smile.

“So he's not just a playboy? I mean he comes in to get a coffee every morning and we even had breakfast together when he came in this morning. I know as his friend, I shouldn't grill you for information, but I just want to know if there's a reason I shouldn't get attached,” Ryleigh says strongly, clearly wanting to know what she's in for.

“He's not a playboy,” I assure her. “He likes you and I'll leave it at that.”

I don't think Dash will mind me telling her he likes her. I mean he probably even loves her already and just wants to fly her away to a place where it's just the two of them. I'm going to talk to him about it, though. He even said this morning he hates how slow it's going.

“That's good to know.” Ryleigh takes Amelia's order and leaves. Amelia stares at me and I try to think of what I can tell her about what just happened.

“Who's Dash?” Amelia asks.

“Well, umm, I'm kind of seeing someone and Dash is the guy's friend,” I say quietly.

“That's great. Why didn't you tell me?”

“It's new so I was keeping it private.” I lie because I can't tell her I'm in a serious supernatural relationship.

“Well it can't be that new if you're already meeting the boyfriend's friends.” Amelia raises her eyebrows.

“School's coming to an end so I'm just meeting new people and stuff, you know,” I say.

“I get you.” She nods. “Have you got your graduation dress yet?”

“Nope, didn't think I'd make it to graduation,” I mutter.

“I know, I was considering leaving the first month of senior year. But anyway, we should really get our dresses. Everyone got their dresses months ago.”

“We can go shopping after this.”

“What colour are you thinking?” Amelia asks.

“Haven't given it much thought but I'm just going to get something simple. No princess type dress bullshit,” I say, not needing to spend money on a dress I'll only wear once.

“I don't know. I kind of just want a 'slap in the face' type dress where I walk into the graduation and everyone knows nothing can bring me down,” Amelia says.

“Then let's make it a graduation to remember.”

Chapter Forty-Nine

We are in the fancy dress shop for two hours, trying on dresses. Amelia has great fun with it, even trying on dresses she doesn't want. I try on a few simple dresses but settle on a black skin-tight floor-length dress with a risky neckline. Amelia gets a dress that starts red at the bottom and fades into black at the top. It has one strap covered in diamonds with a diamond design on the side near the waist. When I get in my car, I check my phone and see multiple texts from Axe. I head home and carry the bag with my dress in and hang it up in my closet. Axe walks into my room and I walk out of the closet.

“Where were you?” he asks.