7 Intuition (1/2)
”Hey.”
Lyra, who was dangling her legs from the balcony, jumped a little at the sudden greeting and almost lost balance at the ledge, but Kurtis was fast to grab onto her shoulder and keep her in place.
They exchanged eye contact for a brief moment before Lyra pulled away from his mesmerizing emerald eyes and he slowly removed his firm grip.
”Hey,” she replied with a smile before looking out at the ocean again. The sun was still out, not yet due to retire just yet.
To her surprise, Kurtis bent down and with some effort, swung his legs over the ledge and sat down beside her. The younger twin tried her best not to look at him, despite having been worried sick every minute that she had yet to see him for herself.
Now that she was looking at him, Lyra could feel her heart pounding against her chest like it was trying to escape its cage. Her mind was already flooded with thoughts, running wild even though the reason for Kurtis being here was still unknown. He didn't give her any hints either. Aside from being notably tired compared to usual, his gorgeous face was unreadable.
”Angela explained everything,” he cut straight to the point, affirming Lyra that she wasn't in trouble and absolutely allowed to breathe.
”She did?” Lyra asked, not sure how to feel about it.
'What exactly did she explain to you?' was what she really wanted to ask Kurtis because Angela sure didn't explain much to her.
”Yeah…” he said sighing, throwing his head back and leaning back with his straight arms as support. He didn't seem mad anymore, but there was still something off. Not knowing what position she stood now, Lyra didn't want to be the one to ask.
Kurtis sensed her quiet gaze on him and threw on a playful expression. ”Why so serious?”
Lyra let out a little laugh at the extra accent he added. Angela would've never laughed at such a silly attempt, but when Lyra did, Kurtis quite liked it.
”No matter the reason, I'm very sorry I deceived you.”
”Partially my fault for not seeing through that act,” Kurtis added, indirectly comforting the guilt-ridden girl.
From the beginning, Kurtis sensed something a little off about ”Angela.” To further confirm his suspicions, his staff were surprised and rather receptive of her sudden humbleness and manners this time around. ”Angela” would have seemed a little more like herself had she occasionally forgotten the ”pleases” and ”thank yous” in her sentences and dropped a few more demands here and there.
That is not to say that Angela was rude, but she just wasn't Lyra. Even Leonard who was customarily neutral, expressed a positive opinion of the younger Cades sister, something he never gave to any of his previous lovers whether on or off the island.
But even without the opinions of others, from the bottom of his heart, Kurtis knew that the way she talked, walked, dressed, played, and swayed his heart, she did it as Lyra.
Their afternoons at the beach and late night strolls felt so new, nothing like how they normally felt with Angela. She was so easy to talk to, always so thoughtful, and so careful with her words.
Around Angela, he felt the constant need to be strong. But around Lyra, he felt comfortable being truthful. Perhaps he played on that fact and secretly hoped that Lyra was actually Angela and that the crazy idea that there could be two of them was only a baseless thought conjured up by himself.
But denying it doesn't turn it into reality. He already found out the hard way.
”At times, I really felt like you did though,” Lyra confessed as she turned to look at him with her warm brown eyes that looked so beautiful under the sun. ”But I guess I must've improved from when I was in grade school.”
Kurtis raised an eyebrow, finding her hidden mischievous side quite adorable.
”Of course it was Angela's idea to switch places. She always did have a perfectly reasonable reason to convince me and only after we get found out, does that reasonable reason sound extremely absurd.”
”What reason did she give you for switching this time?” Kurtis suddenly asks in a slightly deeper and calmer voice.