Braiden POV

I watch her fly away.

"Is that a girl thing?" I ask Gi and Sade. They just laugh at me.

Sure, I've been around these girls all my life. Laila has always had this problem about being leader and all. She just doesn't seem to get that we work together. She's not all alone.

Lately, this seems to be bothering her more and more. And now it's starting to bother ME!

"Well, come on guys. I'm sure she'll meet us a the park."

That was a dumb thing to do, I think to myself. Jumping out in broad daylight.

After checking to make sure there was no one on the street, the girls and I fly down.

Sade flew next to me coming in close. Once we landed she took my hand. "Is she ok? She has never done that before."

"Ahh, she does this all the time," I say, glancing around. "Just not while you're watching. Heh heh."

Sade frowned. She didn't say anything just let go of my hand and walked over to Gi leaving me to walk alone.

What is with the girls? I think.

We reach the park, and I buy a bag of breadcrumbs for the girls. They eat half, and through the rest of the bag (bag included) at a duck they have named Wally.

I kept on glancing around looking for Laila. We were here for at least an hour and she still didn't show. Sade ran up to me and grabbed my hand again. "Gi and I are hungry."

"I'll get you food," I say impatiently. Why would Laila totally ditch us like this?

I reach into my pocket and pull out a twenty.

"You guys want a hotdog?" I ask, heading over to the vendor.

Sade looked up sweetly at the man behind the stand. "Can I please have napkins? My brother right here is very messy." She leaned in. "He has OCD."

"Of course sweetheart. There ya go." The man handed her the napkins, smiling back.

I glared at Sade, knowing she just did that because she was mad at me. Gi and Sade started cracking up as soon as we sat at a park table.

"Don't spazz," Sade said between giggles.

"Don't worry about it," I say through clenched teeth.

Laila appeared at Sade's side. "So how is your day going?" she asked. Laila had a black eye and a bloody lip.

Laila sat down next to Sade and smiled at us. "So what have you done today?"

"Oh, nothing much. We've been making fun of Brai!" answered Gi.

Laila smiled. "Oh yeah. How?" She asked.

I looked down at Laila's arms. There were beginings of bruses on the part of her arm that I could see. She saw me looking at her and pulled her longsleeved shirt over her arms and hands.

"What happen? You get in a fight?" I ask.

Laila looked away from Sade and at me. "No I didn't. What would cause you to think that?"

"Um, was that sarcastic? Dude, you've got a black eye, bruises, scrapes...Don't just tell me you fell or something."

"Would you believe me if I did?"

"Fall? No. What really happened?" I just wanted to get to the bottom of this and make sure Laila was okay.

Laila started to get defensive. "Why would you care. You just started showing interest in me today. What about all the other days I came home with a black eye? Did you notice thoes days? I don't think so."

"What? You've not had a black eye in yer life."

I really, honestly had no idea what she was talking about.

"Exactly. You haven't noticed. Do you wonder why Sade and Gi haven't asked me about it allready? It is because I have come home like this before. They came and asked me what was happened the first few times that I came home. They are used to it by now."

"Well, then tell me." I was frustrated. I know this was a ploy of the girl's. It's a trick. Laila had never come home with the crap kicked out of her before!

"I," Laila looked around trying to think of what to say. "I was mugged."

"Mugged." I look at her. Is she lying? How could she get mugged? She knew jitjitzu for Pete's sake.

"I bet you picked a fight." I finally say. Laila would do something like that.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you the truth." Laila stood up.

"And why not? It has to be the truth if you've been hiding it like this." I take a breath. "Plus, you told the little girls."

I could hear a curse come from Laila. "I told you the truth!" she said lieing again. "I was mugged."

"And you've been mugged many times since then?" I raise my eyebrows. She hates when I do that.

I could see Laila's hands struggling to stay at her side. I bet she wants to strangle me right now. "You want to hear the truth? Well then I will tell you. I was upset and went over to my boyfriends house. He beats me sometimes. OK? That is why I have a black eye." I glacked at Sade. "That is one I have never heard before," she whispered to Gi. Laila glanced over at Sade as well and took off running in the park.