Free Beautiful Souls by Sarah Mullanix

we were walking out into the hall and she was about to turn the opposite way from where I was headed. I couldn’t let her escape down the hallway and out of sight just yet; so before we split ways, I wanted to leave her with an opening that would give me a reason to talk to her at another point in time.
                       “You’re more than welcome to come with all of us, if you’d like.” I threw the invitation out there not knowing how she’d respond. But there it was, nevertheless. “I’m sure they’d all be really happy to meet you,” I added with a hesitant grin. My invitation sounded so fake, contrived, as the sound of my own voice which I didn’t recognize rang through my ears. Who was I right now?
                       “I might just take you up on that,” she smiled, and I was pleasantly surprised by her answer.
                       “You have a brother too, right? Luke?”
                       “Yes, that’s right.”
                       “He can come too, if he’d like.” I added, “And dates, of course, if either of you have a date to bring along. We’ll make it a whole group thing.”
                       “I’ll have to talk to Luke and see what his plans are, but thanks for the invite. That’s really, um, nice of you.”
                        Her hesitation seemed strange, and it confused me. I thought the conversation had been going rather well now that I’d relaxed a bit.                   “Oh, sure. Just let me know what you guys decide.”
                       “Sure, Becca. Thanks again.” With those final words, she walked off down the hall.
                       Every single boy in sight stared, even though they all tried to play it cool and pretend they didn’t notice her stunning beauty at all. She glided through the junior hall with her wispy fire-red layers blowing in the breeze that was created by the simple act of her walking down a hallway.
                       I stopped at my locker where Emmy was already waiting for me. I also observed that Leo had been watching from a distance, and he was rapidly making his way through the busy hallway in my direction.
                       Emmy’s knees bounced with anticipation and excitement. She looked as if she were going to pounce on me the second I was within arm’s length.
                       “So, like, what’s she like?” Emmy implored.
                       “She’s strange,” Leo interjected rudely, as he approached the two of us. He shook his head with disapproval as he lowered his eyebrows and looked off in Zoey’s direction.
                       “What are you talking about? She was perfectly nice just now,” I defended. I was baffled by Leo’s immediate dislike of Zoey. He’d never written someone off so quickly like that before. It just wasn’t his personality to actually dislike somebody, at least not anyone that I’d ever known about.
                       “She didn’t speak to a single person yesterday while you were gone, Becca. There’s something not right about her, or her brother for that matter. I think you’d be better off keeping your distance,” Leo continued with his new-found, disapproving manner.
                       “Yeah, none of us have gotten the chance to talk to, like, either one of them yet. They kinda kept to themselves yesterday, and we still don’t know anything about them. Well, other than what we’ve heard from everyone in town.” Emmy and I both laughed at her last remark. “So, what’d you find out?” Emmy asked, her anticipation unchanging.                   “I didn’t find out anything. I just thought it would be nice if they could start meeting people around here, so I