-Beckham-

I stared at the ceiling all night, thinking. Once she was informed that I had nowhere to stay, Laelyn insisted that I stay the night. Her mother let me sleep on the couch. I kissed her. Why did I kiss her? She had a boyfriend in this dimension! But... She kissed me back. Were we... No, that's ridiculous. Stop dreaming, Beckham.

"You still awake?" I jumped at the sound of her voice.

"Laelyn!" I whispered back, "What are you doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep," She shrugged, walking from the base of the stairs into the living room. "And by the looks of it, you couldn't either." I shrugged back.

"So... Why couldn't you sleep?" I asked.

"Just thinking," She said quietly. I moved over so she could sit next to me on the couch.

"Me too," I whispered back.

"What about?" She asked innocently. I rolled my eyes.

"What do you think?" I wondered aloud.

"The... Moment?" She guessed, not wanting to say what happened out loud.

"Yeah, the moment."

"Can we... Umm..." She paused for a second and bit her lip. "Can we talk about that?"

"What's there to talk about?" I asked. I suddenly grew very nervous.

"Well... I do have a boyfriend in this dimension," She explained quietly.

"Yeah, I know," I answered, "And I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened, it just kind of happened and I-"

"You don't have to apologize. I was just thinking we need to talk about it,"

"Why?"

"Because I have to make Chanson think I'm his girlfriend when I'm not."

"You don't like him?" I asked, incredulously.

"Well, I did," She explained, "But it's just not... Him, you know? This is Soryx-Chanson. And plus, I'm starting to like someone else."

"...Who?" I wondered tentatively. I was pretty sure she was talking about me, but I wanted to be positive. Why couldn't girls just say exactly what they mean?

"You've got to be kidding me." She rolled her eyes and poked me in the chest. "It's you, idiot." I nodded pathetically.

"Right." Was I even allowed to like her? I was supposed to be protecting her, at least that's why I thought Father sent me to her. Oh what the hell, I thought, no one's around to be mad at me for it.

"So..." She started out awkwardly. "How am I supposed to tell Chanse? Or shouldn't I? Ugh, this is so confusing..." She sighed.

"Well... What exactly are you going to tell him?" I prodded. That you like someone else, or that you're not Soryx-Laelyn?

"I don't know," She shrugged, "Should I start off with, 'I'm not your girlfriend," or 'I don't want to be your girlfriend," first?" I shrugged back.

"Sounds like a you problem," I joked. She pushed me.

"Hey!"

"Well, I can't help much, seeing as I've never been in a relationship," I admitted, "Not even a friendship, really."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Well... This is going to be difficult, then." She whispered to herself. I was all she had at the moment, and the weight was hard to carry. I could barely take care of myself! And we had to assemble some sort of team to defeat Daeva- Wait! That's it!

"I have an idea!" I exclaimed, louder than expected. Laelyn slapped her hand over my mouth and looked around quickly to see if her mother had woken up. When about a minute had gone by with no disturbance, she dropped her hand again. "Sorry," I whispered.

"Well, let's hear it then."

"Right. Well, you said we need help defeating Daeva."

"I don't see the relevance to this conversation, but yes. A lot of help."

"How about we start... I don't know, recruiting people?" I explained, "Then when we've decided who we want with us, we can have some sort of meeting and tell everyone at once? Or is that a terrible idea?"

"No, I think that might work..."

"Okay," I agreed. "Wait, what? You like the idea?"

"Yes. It's smart, and then everyone figures out at the same time and we don't run as much of a risk of others finding out from anyone other than us," She shrugged, "But we'd better start figuring this team out soon."

"Seeing as we're both awake at two in the morning, would now be a good time to start?" I asked with a laugh.

"Sure!" Laelyn smiled. "One second," She left the room and came back shortly with a notebook and a sparkly pink pen. "Here." She handed them to me. I looked at the pen and raised an eyebrow questioningly. She rolled her eyes. "It's the first one I found, okay?"

"Okay," I laughed, "Now who do we want on our team?"

"Are we really calling it a team?"

"Hey! What's wrong with that?"

"It just sounds too... I don't know, fun?" She explained. "We're fighting a demon, Beckham. Shouldn't we have some other word for it?"

"Oh. Um... I can't think of a better word for it."

"I guess we don't call it anything, then," She decided. Alrighty then...

"I guess..."

"Well, we should probably choose people with the strongest powers, or the greatest advantages," She reasoned. "I think we're definitely going to want Tayvis on our side, as long as he can learn to control his temper-"

"You want Tayvis?" I exclaimed sarcastically, "He almost killed Cowyn in front of you, and you want him to go with us to defeat Daeva."

"Well hey, he's got a lot of power!" She explained.

"I think you need more sleep, Laelyn."

"Shush. We're going to need him with us if we want to win."

"Fine, I'll write his name down," I grumbled. He scared me!

"Right, now you pick one." She demanded.

"I don't even know anyone else's power yet, Laelyn."

"Oh... Maybe instead of doing this now, we should wait until after school tomorrow?" She reasoned. "We can do some detective work."

"You are way too into this." I laughed.

"Way too into survival?" She asked seriously. I stopped talking. "That's what I thought." She ripped the piece of paper out of the notebook and handed it to me.

"You want me to keep this?" I asked. Did she somehow think I was more responsible than her?

"Yeah, I have to change clothes in the morning. I figured since you probably don't have a change of clothes there's less of a chance that we'll lose it." She claimed. I shrugged. I guess that made sense. "Wait, you don't have a change of clothes."

"Correct."

"We should probably fix that soon." She thought aloud. I shrugged again. "I mean, we are hopefully going to be fighting Daeva soon."

"Right, we need to talk about that, too."

"What about it? We assemble a team, and then we just fight her, right?" She mused, "What's more to talk about?"

"Well... How are we planning on finding her?" I asked Laelyn. "She wasn't at school today, and I'm sure she knows what we're up to anyways. She might be farther away than we'd planned."

"Why didn't you say that sooner?" She asked, throwing her hands in the air in defeat. "Now we have to figure out where she is first! How on Earth- um, I mean, Soryx- are we going to do that?"

"Who knows? Maybe when we figure out everyone's powers, someone can help us with that."

"That's a good point," She said quietly, "We need to figure that out before we do anything." I nodded thoughtfully.

"We should probably sleep on it," I muttered, "And some sleep will do us good anyways. Hopefully we can get at least three hours of sleep?"

"Maybe." She shrugged. "Can I sleep down here with you?" I blinked twice before nodding. She left to get a blanket from her room. We still needed to figure things out between us- we never really finished that conversation. She came back downstairs and curled up on the opposite end of the couch. "Are you tired?" I whispered.

"...No."

"Me neither."

"Why?"

"Well, can we talk about something else?" I asked. What if she isn't even thinking about us at all? What if I'm overthinking it? What if bringing it up was an awful idea?

"Alright, what do you want to talk about then?" She wondered innocently. I should just come out and say it before I rethink all my life choices.

"Us," I blurted.

"What about us?"

"Well, we kissed." I pointed out.

"Yeah? And?" Laelyn asked. This was a bad idea, I thought, but there's no backing down now, I suppose.

"Did it mean anything?" I inquired. She sat up straight and stared at me.

"...Did it?" She whispered.

"Did you want it to?" I asked, scared to hear her reply.

We both fell quiet, and after awhile she moved closer to me and layed her head on my shoulder. "I don't know," She answered quietly. I rested my head on top of hers and sighed. I did, I thought. She looked up at me and all I could think about was kissing her. I wish she could just say how she feels. She stared me in the eyes for a few seconds before blinking hard.

"Beck," She whispered questioningly.

"...What?"

"Did you do that?" She asked.

"Do what?"

"I thought you sent me a vis- oh, nevermind." She waved it off. Did I send her my thoughts?

"I think maybe I did..." I murmured, a little louder than I intended.

"You sent me that?"

"I think so, but I didn't exactly mean to, and I'm sorry if-"

"Beck, do you realize you just successfully used your powers?" She said excitedly, "I didn't pass out, either." I smiled.

"I did, didn't I?" Maybe I would master my powers before eighteen. Laelyn smiled back.

"We can do this," She exclaimed, "We can defeat Daeva. It might take some time, but we can do it."

"You really think so?"

"I know so." She whispered, leaning towards me. I took the chance and closed the distance between us, kissing her for the second time that night. 

Author's Note!

Hey guys, so I kinda lost track of when I updated last so... Sorry if this is late, and BONUS if this is early! Lol but hey, how did you feel about this particular chapter? I mean, there was a lot of dialogue in this one too, and JUST SO YOU KNOW there will be a lot of dialogue next chapter too! And some new characters... Hint hint, wink wink. ;)  AND OH MY GOODNESS OVER 350 READS! I'm actually screaming on the inside. This is crazy!!!

XD Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter, I certainly enjoyed writing it! Love you guys!

Savy Pearson