Lilo and Stitch: The Way Things Fall

Chapter 20: Caught in the Rain

"You're clearly not the kind of girl I thought you were."

His voice was like a dagger. His words cut deep into her and she had nothing to defend herself with. Not once had Keoni ever raised his voice at Lilo until now. It echoed towards her with the sound of the rolling thunder from the sky above. Stitch did all he could not to lash out at the boy for his insults. Although, he stood between the two, just in case something happened. All the while, Lilo didn't say anything, couldn't say anything, in retaliation.

"You just left me there! What kind of date does that?" Keoni continued on, not caring about the scene he was making. Thankfully, not a lot of people were around. A few onlookers kept an eye on him, making sure he didn't attack the young girl. However most knew of Lilo and Stitch, and knew full well that Stitch would be capable of protecting her if need be. "And on Valentine's Day no less. Then you don't call, and I don't see you in days? How could you just leave me there like that?"

"Keoni-"She tried to interrupt him to no avail.

"Don't bother, Lilo." He waived off her attempt at an explanation, taking a deep breath before continuing. "Right after you just left me, we got announced for the best couple."

"We did?" She thought that that was rather odd, considering that she left part way through the dance before flat out leaving in total.

"Yeah. Do you know how embarrassing it was? All those people turning to look at us...me." His eyes were filled with an anger she had never seen in him before. It made her wonder if he was angrier that she said no to being his girlfriend, or that she had embarrassed him. "Why did you leave? Am I not good enough for you? Is that it?"

"Of course not!" She pleaded, wanting it all to stop. "I just didn't feel for you what I thought I did. I couldn't stay with you when I loved someone else."

"There's someone else?" Keoni didn't know what was more shocking. That he had been dumped, or that it was because there was someone else in Lilo's life. "And you thought that Valentine's Day would be the best day to leave me? Who is it?"

For a split second, Lilo's eyes flashed towards Stitch, a barrage of questions flooding her mind. Do I tell him? What will he do? What will he think? She didn't have long to wonder. Keoni saw her look towards Stitch and instantly understood.

"Your dog?!" He spat with disappointment. "You chose your dog over me? Me? Keoni Jameson. Any girl would die to have me ask her out, and you pick your dog instead?" Keoni stepped forward, making Stitch think he was going after Lilo. Instead, when Stitch moved to protect her, he suddenly felt himself get lifted up. "What do you have that I don't?!"

"Hey!" Lilo shouted. "Let him go! Stitch didn't do anything wrong." She tried to wrestle Stitch out of the boys grasp. However, he was much stronger than her. Getting shoved off, she fell to the hard ground. Feeling her head hit the sidewalk, she didn't know if the flash of light she saw was lightning or the sharp pain that slowly moved through her body.

All Stitch saw was Lilo fall, he couldn't tell if she was hurt or not. While Keoni was too preoccupied with the experiment in his hands to noticed.

"Boojiboo!" Stitch shouted, not thinking that Keoni didn't know he wasn't an animal.

"You can talk?" Before Keoni even had a chance to finish his question, Stitch wrestled out of his grasp and pushed him away, quickly rushing to Lilo's side.

"Lilo?" He asked, picking her up. "Are yuuga oketaka, boojiboo?"

"Yeah." She managed to say weakly. She shook her head, trying to get things back into focus. "I'm okay. Just a little dizzy."