Forbidden Love

13

Jaxon

"I can hold something." Luna insists holding her hand out to me an hour later.

Already irritated, I roll my eyes. "Just do what I asked." I continue to look around, and Luna starts to dial Paxton's number for the hundredth time. One minute he was in front of us, and the next he's nowhere to be found. We've wasted an entire hour looking for Paxton and on top of that, I have to hold all the beach stuff Paxton brought.

Now, I look like the tourist. He owes me bigtime.

Luna sighs as she takes the phone away from her ear. "He didn't answer again."

"I'm gonna kill him." I mutter. My bad mood lasts the entire walk back to the truck.

"Maybe he'll show up, right?" Luna asks hopefully, and she helps toss all Paxton's stuff in his trunk.

"Luna?"

We immediately turn around and see Olivia, Juliana Stone, and Kalani Keialoha walking toward us. They all have a skateboard in hand and Liv has a flannel shirt over her bathing suit—one of the ones I gave Paxton last week. One of Connor's. I notice it because of the stain on the bottom left. The stain that was my fault when I spit my spaghetti on him one day.

"JJ?" Luna looks guilty, like she got caught selling drugs by a cop. I don't miss the way Luna scoots a foot away from me.

The girls walk closer to us and when Juliana notices me, she eyes me suspiciously. Her gaze flicks to Luna. "What are you doing here?"

Luna shifts awkwardly next to me. "I was with Paxton. What are you doing here?"

"I told you I was going out. I was just down the street." She points in the general direction behind her and places her skateboard on the floor. "Where's Paxton?"

"We can't find him." I twist my lips, irritated by him again.

"He just disappeared." Luna shrugs.

Liv groans. "You honestly can't take him anywhere." She pulls out her phone, clicks something, and puts it on speaker.

Juliana and Kalani start looking around. "I don't see him around here." Kalani offers.

"Gee, thanks, Sherlock." I fold my arms and scoff—my bad mood overtaking me. "Obviously he's not here, we just said that."

Kalani rolls her eyes just as Paxton's voice from Liv's phone gets all of our attention. "Hey, Liv? I'm kind of busy right now."

Tension falls off my shoulders realizing he's okay.

"Everyone's looking for you, dummy. Answer Jaxon's calls next time," Liv scolds him.

"Jax is with you?"

"Yeah, so is Luna."

"Oh," Paxton says through the phone. "Sorry guys. I didn't hear the phone. I was at a party."

"A party?" Liv rubs her forehead. "It's literally like eleven-fifteen. Did you even eat lunch yet?"

"I did eat lunch. Some girls invited me." He says. "I'll meet you back at the truck though."

A party. "Have you been drinking?" I ask suddenly.

We hear Paxton make a noise. "Only a couple sips and that was like an hour ago. Don't get too worked up."

"I'm taking Luna home and then I'll meet you at your house." I tell him. I want him to run me through a few things they've been doing at practice before I show up at school on Monday to talk to Coach. I want to be prepared. "Make sure you're there."