~Layla~
The loud crash that had come from outside, interrupted…whatever it was that was just happening.
Thank you.
“What the hell was that?” I exclaimed as I turned away from Nick.
I walked to the front door with nick following behind me. Opening the door, we had not expected to see what we did.
The giant oak tree that had once stood tall in the front yard of the house across the street was now laying across the road and in Brian and Leighanne’s driveway. It had missed Nick’s car by only a few feet.
“Oh shit!” Nick exclaimed. He shut the door and grabbed his cell off the table in the foyer.
Nick wandered around with his phone for a couple minutes. I turned to look out the window at the tree. Then I realized something. The tree was blocking Nick’s car.
I felt him next to me.
“Any luck?”
“No, hopefully one of the neighbors has better luck getting a hold of someone” Nick turned and set his phone back down.
We looked out the window for another minute.
“Well you know what this means” Nick stated. I looked at him knowing what he was going to say.
“I’m going to be here for a while”
And there we have it. I am going to be stuck with Nick till workers came out to remove the tree. Which probably wouldn’t be till tomorrow afternoon.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about this. Yea we had been getting along. He wasn’t really the jerk that I thought he was the first time I met him. And I was having a hard time trying to deny that he was extremely good looking. But what had just happened in the kitchen, I didn’t know what that was.
Sure I had rationalized this in my head before, how he proclaimed that he wasn’t dating for a while. But some of the things he did and things others had said, was making me think otherwise.
“Hey, you ok?”
I looked over to Nick who was standing a couple feet away from me. I had got lost in my thoughts. Had he been watching me the whole time?
“Yea just getting tired I guess, what time is it anyways?” I lied. I wasn’t tired. In fact I was the opposite. I was lucky if I was going to get any sleep.
Nick looked at his phone “11:45”
“It’s that late already?”
“I know… I’ll let you go to bed if you’re tired”
He looked almost nervous at the moment.
I contemplated on what to do. Do I go up and go to bed to avoid any more awkward moments? I would feel kind of rude just leaving him down here by himself.
“I think I’m gonna have one more glass of wine” I told him and walked into the kitchen.
I filled my glass half way. Nick came over and set his glass next to mine, I filled his too.
I watched him walk into the living room and sit down on the couch we were sitting on just a little while ago together.
All the sudden I felt nervous. Slowly I made my way over. Sitting back down in my spot. I covered up the blanket.
We had reached a comfortable place before when we were talking, but now it was back to the awkwardness.
The two if us sat in silence listening to the rain that was still going strong.
I could feel his eyes on me.
“Can I ask you something? And I want you to be completely honest with me” Nick has a serious look on his face.
Oh crap. What was he going to ask? A million things started running through my mind.
“Ok” I replied apprehensively.
He looked like he was contemplating what he was going to say.
“Was blue my color?” Nick asked with a serious look.
What? I didn’t understand. I’m sure he saw the confused look on my face.
“The dress, there was this black one that I really wanted to wear but Brian kept telling me that blue was my color” Nick explained, still with a serious face.
I realized what he was talking about.
“Are you serious right now?” I replied. He tilted his head, now he had the confused look.
I couldn’t help but start laughing. After I got my laughter under control I saw the smile on his face.
That must have been his plan, to get me to laugh.
I was sort of grateful that he did that. It broke some of the tension between us.
~Nick~
There was that sweet smile. I thought I had royally screwed things up in the kitchen before. I knew I should have just backed off but I couldn’t. Then my car was nearly crushed by a tree. I couldn’t help but think of what might have happened if that tree hadn’t fell.
We had reverted back to the awkward silence. I had to do something to break that, so I did the only thing I could think of, make her laugh.
Remembering the other day after dinner when we were watching tv and eating ice cream. I had told her that I liked seeing her laugh. I wonder if she remembers I had said that.
Her laughing had settled down. She put her elbow on the back of the couch and propped her head up with her hand.
“Well?” I asked seriously again. Layla smiled.
“Yes Nick, you looked ravishing in blue, it made your eyes sparkle” Layla replied dramatically, playing along. She shook her head laughing again.
Layla picked up her wine and took a sip. I couldn’t help but watch her every move at the moment.
I had annoyed the crap out of Angel the other day begging her to tell me what she all knew about Layla. She told me a couple things. One of them being that her ex she had recently broke up with had cheated on her.
How someone could cheat on a girl like her, I had no idea.
“So you and my sister are getting along pretty well” I commented.
“Yea, she is great, I really like her” Layla smiled and curled up in her blanket a little more.
“She is great, her and I are the closest out of my whole family” I informed her.
Layla yawned. I decided to not to ask her too many questions right now. Not wanting to scare her off.
She seemed guarded right now. I mean I don’t blame her with everything that she has been through the past couple months.
After taking the last sip of her drink, she laid her head on the pillow that was next to her. When I finished mine I got up and took both our glasses to the kitchen. I went around and blew out all the candles except the one that was in front of Layla on the coffee table. I could tell she was asleep by her breathing.
Finding myself a blanket I laid down on the other couch. I sighed.
I was getting more and more confused every time I saw Layla. I had decided to stop dating all together last week after Alex’s party. Leighanne’s talk had finally gotten to me and I admitted to myself that dating those girls just wasn’t working for me anymore.
My ex broke up with me a little over a year ago, telling me that she wasn’t as invested in the relationship as I was. We had been together for almost 2 years and I thought things were going great for us. Not long after pictures surfaced of her with James Franco and I understood. They had met at a cast party we were invited to for the Backstreet Boy’s cameo in the movie ‘This is the end’.
After that I made the decision I wasn’t going to get seriously involved with anyone, that way I couldn’t get hurt.
The more I saw Layla and the more I learned about her made me start to reconsider that decision. But none of that mattered a whole lot though. Brian and Angel both told me that she was nowhere near ready to get involved with anyone. I completely understood but it’s not like that could stop me from the feeling the way I did. Right now I was trying to be a friend, at least I hope she saw that. But after the idiot move I pulled earlier I’m sure she thought otherwise.
I was just confusing myself more thinking about all this and getting frustrated. Trying my best to clear my head, I closed my eyes. Hoping sleep would come soon.
Chapter End Notes:
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