This is all in Layton's point of view

Chapter 13

"I hate her," I grumble. Currently, because of Levi's insistent pleas, we're hiding under the cover of the trees while watching three girls hanging around near the park. The park here is close to some cafes and boutiques so I'm assuming that's why they're here in the first place. I was wondering why they were walking in the grass with heels.

"You don't have to like her. Now shut up and listen to see if they mention her," he says, ducking down when one of them turned her head in our direction. With my advanced eyesight, I see her look away so I take that as my chance to stretch my back.

"All they're talking about is makeup! To get them to talk about Nebraska, we have to discreetly bring her up somehow," I plan.

"We?" he questions, giving me a look of disbelief. "I never said I would help you-"

"But how?" I ask, looking around and hoping that an idea would come.

"Why don't you go up there and ask them," Levi replies, in a joking tone. Instead of laughing alone with him, I give him a huge smile. Seeing my expression, he slowly sobers up. "Dude...I was kidding!"

***

"Hey, ladies. You all look absolutely stunning," Levi says, wrapping his arm around the tall blonde. She gives him a smile showing off her pearly teeth before turning towards me and giving me a flirty glance. If I hadn't met Nebraska and if I didn't know this girl right here somehow hurt her, then I'd probably be interested.

Probably.

"Hey Levi, I see you've finally ditched your nerd squad," Blonde says, flipping back some of her hair. She leans closer to Levi to where it looks like she isn't putting any weight on her feet while relying on Levi to keep her upright.

Because I'm faithful to Nebraska, I make sure not to touch any of the girls.

"Yeah, anyways this is my...uh..." he trails off, not sure what to refer to me as.

"Cousin," I finish for him. "I'm his cousin, Layton." They hold their hands out for me to shake and I make sure to keep each handshake as short as possible. As I'm shaking their hand, I'm giving each one a calculating look. One of them made my angel cry which means one of the hands I'm shaking will soon be connected to a dead body if I get my way.

"Your girlfriend must be lucky to have a girl like you," a girl with light brown hair says, twirling her hair between her fingers.

I know this trick. I've been alive long enough to know every single trick in the book. This is her subtle way of asking if I have a girlfriend or not. Although it's not straightforward, it still annoys me a little.

"Actually, I'm the lucky one with her," I admit, smiling when I remember the brief smile on Nebraska's lips and the way her eyes lit up when I gave her the smoothie. She must really love orange banana smoothies. That's one thing to keep tucked away for later use.

"Does she go to school here?" Brunette asks. I really have to learn their names. I ask Levi mentally for their names.

'Brunette is Justice, light hair is Raine, and blond is Zoey. Just say I told you earlier if they ask how you know,' he replies.

"Yeah," I answer, trying to keep my temper under control. Their questions are starting to annoy me and I'm barely holding on to my self control to not kill them.

'Dude, don't' Levi warns.

I, of course, ignore him.

"Nebraska," I reply, clenching my fists.

"What?!" they all exclaim, making me wince. Having an acute sense of hearing is a curse when it comes to girls like them. I take a deep breath as to stop myself from punching her. I hate how their faces immediately turned to disgust just at the mention of her name.

"Shay? Nebraska Shay? Ugh, why would you want her?" Zoey asks, referring to Nebraska as if she was a piece of dirt.

'Nebraska will never forgive you if you kill someone,' Levi reminds me.

Right now, that reminder is the only thing keeping me from draining these girls dry. But if I want to know what I want to know, then I'm going to have to pretend that I don't want to kill these girls. At least for now.

"Seems like you don't like her," I state. Levi already removed himself from Zoey and is now standing next to me. It's probably because he wants to make sure I wouldn't lash out at these girls. I wouldn't do that. At least, not until they tell me why they don't like my little angel. How could anyone not like her?

"Well duh, she's so pathetic," Raine says, rolling her eyes.

Deep breaths...deep breaths...

"Yeah, I mean have you ever heard what happened about her?" Justice adds, popping her gum.

"No, what happened?" Levi asks, sounding just as curious as I felt.

"She's a slut who tries to have her way with everyone," Zoey replies. Levi grabs my arm to keep me from lashing at her throat. As Zoey continues talking, Levi maintains his strong grip on my arm.

"In middle school, her friend Haley had a boyfriend right? Well, everyone knew Braska had a huge crush on the guy. But we all assumed that she wouldn't do anything, I mean because like, you know, Haley was her friend and all," Zoey continues.

"We were so wrong though. After two weeks of Haley and that guy going out, everyone said they saw Braska hitting on the guy. Everyone assumed she was just playing around because Braska wasn't the type of girl to do that, right?"

"But then that guy broke it off with Haley and when she demanded why, he said that he developed feelings for Braska, God knows why, and then Haley was just devastated. She didn't want to believe her best friend stole her boyfriend from her, but we all knew."

"And so around here, Braska is known as the boyfriend stealer. I mean, like come on! Haley was her best friend! You don't steal boyfriends from your best friend! That's against girl code," Justice adds, making everyone nod.

I can hear Raine's heartbeat increase from that comment making me frown. Does she have something to confess?

"That's why I recommend just dumping Braska and going back to your old girlfriend. Or new one if you want," Zoey says, winking at me.

No thanks I'll pass.

Levi nudges me in the rib before mentally speaking to me. 'Hey, check out what Zoey has on her wrist.'

I look down on Zoey's wrist and my eyes widen seeing a familiar, aqua-colored bracelet. That's why I hadn't been able to sense any of Nebraska's emotions!

"Hey, where did you get that?" I ask, pointing at the bracelet.

Zoey looks nervous and tucks some of her hair behind her ear. "Oh well I bought it." Lies.

"Where?"

"This jewelry store." More lies.

"Well, it looks really pretty. Mind if I keep it?" I ask, hoping that she takes the easy way and hands it to me. I really will rip it from her dead body if I have to. I'll take her two friends down too I don't care. Nebraska is one number one priority and I will kill for her.

She looks down on it before bringing the bracelet closer to her boobs. "Maybe...what would you do for it," she asks, batting her eyelashes at me. From the corner of my eye, I see Levi leading the other two girls away. He probably wants to get more out of them without Zoey around.

She's still batting her eyelashes at me, making it known that she's not about to give up the bracelet without getting something what she wants.

This is going to hurt me way more than it's going to hurt Nebraska.

I swallow my hesitation and step closer to her, trying to keep as much distance between us as possible but it's close enough to where it seems like I'm attempting to make a move on her. The overwhelming smell of her perfume makes me want to gag but I just breathe through my mouth.

Placing both my hands on the wall beside her head on the wall, I lean closer to her ear. "Can I please have it now?" I ask, using the tone that made Nebraska shiver in my arms before.

It feels painful doing this to a girl that isn't Nebraska but I keep telling myself that I'm doing this for her. I need that bracelet back on Nebraska. She'll be much more safer if I can feel what she does even when we're far apart.

"You're gonna have to do better than that," she whispers, grabbing my neck and bringing her mouth to meet mine. I'm frozen in shock at the action. Who the hell does she think she is?

After hearing her moan, which is weird because I wasn't even kissing her back, I push her away and fight the urge to wipe my mouth. "Can I have it now?" I say through gritted teeth. I'm done playing games with this girl.

She smiles and drops the bracelet on my hand while using her other one to feel my stomach. "All yours," she whispers, before walking away. I know she doesn't mean the bracelet when she said that.

***

"At least you got the bracelet," Levi says, sitting on the couch. We're currently back at home and I made sure to take a shower to wash the girl's essence off me. I brush my wet hair from my face and toy around with my bracelet in my hand. He's right, at least I got it back.

"Yeah but at a cost," I angrily mumble.

"Which is what?" he asks. I murmur something too low for even him to hear. He furrows his eyebrows and scoots closer to me. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I kissed her!" I say a little louder, feeling disgusted as the words left my mouth.

"You what?" he asks, looking confused.

"I know okay! It wasn't even my fault, she kissed me first! I didn't kiss her back but it still feels wrong," I tell him, shaking my head.

"Why would you? She's the one who kissed you first," he points out.

"But I didn't do anything for a while. I should've pushed her back the second her filthy lips touched mine but I didn't. I can't believe I lost my first kiss-"

"Wait hold on!" Levi interrupts, sitting up straighter. "You've been alive for two hundred years, and you're telling me you've never kissed a girl. Ever? Are you serious? I've only been alive for a hundred and thirty and I've kissed more girls than my age!" he exclaims, making me shake my head at him.

"My mom was a sucker for true love," I explain. "Every night when I was younger she always used to tell me about one day meeting someone special and knowing your life was going to change forever, for the best. She used to tell me stories about how beautiful true love was."

Now that I think about it, I guess that's why I waited. If what my mom says is true, then I wanted to lose my first kiss to that girl.

"Aww! You're a Momma's boy!" Levi teases, ruffling my hair.

I never should have shared that with Levi.

"It doesn't matter anyways now," I say, pushing his hand away.

He thinks about something deeply for a moment. "You said you didn't kiss her back, right?"

"Hell no! I was thinking about killing her for that before pushing her away!"

"Then it doesn't count," he says. "As long as you didn't kiss her back, then it'll be like she only kissed your cheek. So technically, you didn't lose it to her."

I stay silent for a moment. It isn't much, but it's enough to make me believe that I wasn't unfaithful to Nebraska.

"Thanks Levi," I say, standing up.

"Where are you going?" he asks, turning the TV on.

"To give this to her," I say, before leaving the house. With the way she reacted the last time we were together, giving her this bracelet might help her forgive me.

_________________________

Okay so I originally planned to just have the first part in his point of view, but then I have no idea what happened suddenly the entire chapter is from his point of view. At least you guys got to know more about him?

So...any thoughts? Comment and vote if you like it!

Sorry about the mistakes, I didn't get a chance to edit this. My teachers are throwing so many last minute projects and exams and it's making my brain hurt