by Solveig Yrsa
She groaned as she hopped up onto the barstool at his countertop before resting her hands in her wild hair. “If I am still alive, it won’t be for long,” she grumbled.
Spencer laughed and sat an iced coffee in front of her. “Well, your ninety-pound ass drank an entire bottle of champagne last night, so I’d say you’re feeling pretty shitty.”
Layla groaned again as she weakly reached for her coffee and took a sip. “Yeah, it tasted great, and then I don’t remember anything.”
He sighed, almost relieved. You got to love the black outs. “Yeah, you were having a grand ole time when I got in here, then you passed out shortly after I got here, which was followed by you waking up about 6 times to vomit.” Layla curled her lip in disgust. “Sorry. And sorry I drank your stuff.”
Spencer shrugged. “It’s fine, I mean, why you went for my four-hundred-dollar bottle of champagne versus my fifteen dollar pack of beer I don’t know.”
“Guess I have expensive taste,” Layla muffled while she laid her head in her arms. Spencer chuckled and handed her the fast-food bag. The smell hit Layla’s nostrils and she felt her stomach churn. “Whatever that is, it needs to get far away from me, now.”
Spencer took the food out of the bag and placed it in front of her. “It’s a plain toasted bagel. Just eat it, you need to eat something.” She groaned as she picked a small piece of the bagel and popped it in her mouth.
“Alright,” Spencer smiled while sipping his hot coffee. “Once you’re done eating, we will get you dressed and head home.”
She winced as she looked at him. “What are you talking about?” she whispered.
“I’m taking you back home after we eat, what are you not understanding?”
“Spencer, I’m not going back to your parents’ house, I was kicked out.”
He set his coffee down. “Last night when I went and got your clothes, my father was there, he said he wants you to come back and live there.”
Layla raised a brow. “That seems unlikely.”
He chuckled. “My mother can be persuasive.”
She shook her head. “I’m not going back there. I know I can’t stay here forever, just drop me off at a shelter and I’ll be fine.”
He looked at her. “Layla, do you honestly think I would do that?”
She shrugged. “I don’t want to be a bother to anyone. I’m not going back to that house, and I’m not staying here.”
Spencer sighed. “You have to go back to the house, Layla, my mom is devastated right now. My father missed his flight back to China because she is so angry with him. You can feel however you want about him, it’s completely justified, but you know my mom loves you and it would destroy her if you left her like this.” Layla sighed and looked down. “And then there’s Sammy,” he continued. “You can’t leave them, they love you and need you.”
Nothing about him wanting me there I see, well what did I expect? Layla gave him a small smile and nodded, “Is your dad still there?”
He shrugged. “I haven’t spoken with Mom yet today, hang on, I’ll text her.” He pulled out his phone and Layla watched as he tapped on the screen a few times before looking back at her. “Oh, that reminds me.” He walked over to the backpack by the front door and reached inside the pocket, pulling out a phone. “Here, I already set it up for you.”
Layla took the phone and smiled. “Thank you, but you didn’t have to do that, I’m still pretty dumb with reading so it’ll be wasted on me.”
Spencer frowned. “Never refer to yourself like that. You are very smart. Now, all the contacts have a photo by them to help you, and when you get a text, it will read the text for you, at least until you’re further along with your reading and writing. Though I think you’re doing great so far, so you won’t need this feature for long, I’m sure.”
She looked at him. “How do you know how I’m doing? I haven’t talked about it to you in two weeks.”
He went silent, he had forgotten that she was drunk when he got the card. “Well, you were doing so well when we talked back then, I just figured you must’ve been even further along.”
Layla nodded and took another drink of her coffee. “Did you bring me clothes?” she asked, looking at the backpack.
Spencer nodded, grabbing the bag and handing it to her before his phone dinged. “Looks like Matthew left earlier.”
Layla got dressed, and they headed out. The car ride was silent, mostly because Layla had passed out shortly after getting into the car. Spencer thought back to the previous night and what he had said to her while she slumbered. He had never said those words to another woman except his mother, though could he really count it since she has been asleep? He sighed, expressing his feelings was not something he was good at. He glanced over at the unconscious brunette and chuckled; she wore his sunglasses and had one of his ball caps over her face; she laid sprawled out across the seat and center console, and if you listened closely you could hear her snoring. He couldn’t stop thinking about how cute she was.
Once they pulled up to the house, Spencer shook Layla gently to wake her. She groaned in protest but sat up and looked at the house. Even though she had told Spencer the night before that she didn’t have a home, she knew she had been lying. This place was where she felt the most comfortable, and it had destroyed her thinking that she would not be there anymore. She got out of the car, following Spencer into the large house, and was instantly greeted by Catherine. The black-haired woman threw her arms around Layla and pulled her into a big hug. “Layla, I am so sorry for what happened. My darling, this is your home, don’t let anyone tell you any different, that includes my asshole husband. This is where you belong.”
Layla smiled at the woman and hugged her again. “Thank you, Catherine,” she whispered.
“Now, you look terrible,” Catherine stated, looking at the paler than usual girl. “What on earth happened?”
“She bypassed my beer for my expensive bottle of champagne.” Spencer chuckled.
Catherine nodded and led her upstairs. “Well, I can’t blame her, no one wants that disgusting swill you call beer.” Spencer rolled his eyes as he watched Catherine take Layla to her bedroom.
Catherine stood in the doorway as Layla sat down on her bed and smiled. “Rest my dear, I will check on you in a while.” Layla nodded, and once Catherine left and closed the door, she laid her head on her pillow and stared at the ceiling. Thoughts of her past came into her head. How did this happen? She was a filthy, sick, homeless girl on the streets, getting harassed and tormented. Now she lived in the biggest home she’d ever seen, with the richest people, and she was best friends with her biggest tormenter.
She chuckled, best friends. She wondered how long she was going to lie to herself about that. She knew she wanted to be more than friends with Spencer, but she also knew she was not good enough for him. She could barely read, she had nothing to offer him. She rolled over and looked at the bare wall. Maybe someday she would be good enough for him.
***
3.5 Months Later
Late September
Sweat ran down Layla’s entire body and she shook. “I’m going to collapse,” she panted.
Samantha rolled her eyes. “You’re being dramatic, ten more seconds.” Samantha looked down at her trembling friend who was currently on the ground in the plank position. “Okay, relax.” Samantha laughed as Layla collapsed on the ground.
“I hate you,” she wheezed.
“Uh huh… I have spent the last three months transforming your ass, you love me.”
Layla stood up and looked at her friend. “Okay, maybe, but I still hate this.” She looked at herself in the mirror of the home gym. If you put her next to the girl she was when she came to the Williams’ house, there was no comparison. The sickly, skinny girl had put on about fifteen pounds and bulked up with her daily workouts, thanks to Samantha.
Layla hopped on the treadmill while Samantha started doing lunges. “So,” Samantha started while looking at her friend as sh
e began running. “Are you excited for your date tonight?”
Layla laughed nervously as she continued to run. “I don’t think excited is the right word. I mean, I’m excited to see him it’s been months, but… I just feel like it’s going to be weird. He hasn’t seen me, I don’t know why he’s still even interested.”
“Because you’re gorgeous, and you were gorgeous then. Enjoy it, make him take you somewhere expensive.”
Layla laughed. “You know that high end stuff is wasted on me. Most of it I cannot even pronounce still.”
Samantha shrugged. “Don’t feel bad, I can’t either. Oh look who it is.” Layla looked behind her as Spencer and Jensen walked into the gym.
“Jesus, do you two ever do anything else?” Spencer rolled his eyes at his cousin as he threw his towel on the weight bench, before looking at Layla who was sprinting in her black tights and bright blue sports bra. He still couldn’t get over how much she had changed. She was absolutely beautiful, though she always had been, it’s just now, she looked healthy and confident.
“So back to your date.”
Spencer was ripped from his thoughts when he heard Samantha speak. “Date?” He raised a brow as he got on the treadmill next to hers. “Who are you going out with?”
“Landon gets back from London today, he asked me to go out with him since I kind of blew him off the last time he asked.”
Spencer clenched his jaw but kept his mouth shut. How could he say anything? He had his chance to be with her and he blew it.
Layla hopped off the treadmill and looked at Samantha. “I’m going to shower before my tutor gets here, are you still helping me get ready tonight?” Samantha gave her the thumbs up and watched her leave.
“Fucking Landon,” Spencer growled, as he got off the treadmill and walked over to the punching bag and hit it with all he had. Samantha seemed unaffected by his rage.
“Your fault,” she said between squats. Spencer looked at his cousin and glared.
“You think I don’t know that? You think I don’t beat myself up every second of every day because of it?”
“I still don’t know why you did that,” Jensen muttered while grabbing the pull-up bar.
“Because I’m an idiot, there, are you happy?” Spencer turned back to the bag and hit it again as he thought back to the beginning of summer. Shortly after bringing Layla back to the house, she had asked him to have dinner with her to talk. He had a feeling that it was about the kiss and had decided he was going to lay his feelings out there. As he was getting ready, he walked by Layla’s room and saw her in an embrace with Landon, and then Landon bent down and kissed her. It filled him with such rage that he stormed out of the house and wasn’t seen for three days. When he returned, he was in a relationship with Rachel again. Once Layla heard, she was so devastated that she stopped talking to Spencer for an entire month. It wasn’t until after Rachel cheated, again, and Spencer dumped her, that Samantha had told him Landon had been hugging Layla to say goodbye because he was going back to London, and when he kissed her, Layla had actually shoved him off, but none of that mattered now because he had already ruined it.
“Where is he taking her?” he mumbled while looking at Sam.
She shrugged. “Layla doesn’t know yet, he just told her to dress fancy.”
Spencer slumped his shoulders. “I hate that she hates me.” He sat down on the mat and rested his head in his hands.
Samantha sighed. “She doesn’t hate you, she’s too good of a person to actually hate you, so I hate you for her.”
“She stopped talking to me for a month, and since then, I think we may’ve had four conversations that lasted longer than two minutes. I just, I miss her, she is right next door to me and I feel like she might as well be across the world.”
Samantha sat down next to her cousin and patted his back. “Look, her birthday is next week, do something thoughtful and maybe it’ll put you back in her good graces.”
Spencer looked at her and raised a brow. “Has she… mentioned anything that may help win her back?”
Samantha chuckled and stood up. “She is my best friend, I’m not saying anything.”
“Oh come on! I was your cousin long before she was your friend!”
Samantha shrugged. “Yes, but, she never forced me to hang around a person who called me pork chop.” Samantha waved as she walked out of the gym.
“Rachel is gone and still I am haunted by her.”
Jensen laughed at his friend. “It’s alright, you aren’t the only one haunted by their mistakes.”
Spencer looked at the dark expression on his friend's face. “You know, I bet if you talked to Liam, you could probably figure things out.”
Jensen raised a brow. “That’s your advice? Okay, and I’m sure that if you were to do the same thing with Layla, things would work out too.”
Spencer rolled his eyes at the sarcastic tone. “Fine, I get it, let’s just work out.”
***
Layla looked at herself in the mirror. The fitted black dress she wore that stopped just above her knees clung to her newly developed curves. She spun around and looked at the deep V opened back. “I feel like this is too much for me.” She looked at Samantha and shifted uncomfortably.
Samantha shook her head. “Lay, you look stunning, stop over-thinking it.” Samantha came behind her and fluffed the brunette’s soft curls before spinning her around to look at her face. “Your make up looks perfect.” She smiled as she looked at the dark smoky eyes and dark nude lips.
Layla smiled. “Of course it does, you did it.”
Samantha laughed as she walked to Layla’s closet and grabbed a pair of black pumps with an infamous red bottom. “Louboutin’s are the only way to go tonight.” She grinned as she handed Layla the shoes. “Now, the only thing left to do is take off the necklace.”
Layla blinked, and her hand instinctively went to her neck. “W…why?”
Samantha shook her head. “Lay, first off, it doesn’t look right with that dress, and second, you are going on a date, you don’t want to wear a necklace that was given to you by another man while going on a date.”
Layla ran her fingers over the star. “But, I always wear it… Spencer gave it to me.”
“And you are going on a date with his cousin, who, like Spencer, has a tendency to get jealous. So maybe you shouldn’t have a necklace on that he knows Spencer got you on your first date.” Layla lowered her eyes but nodded. She reached behind her and undid the clasp before putting the necklace on her nightstand. She instantly put her hand up to her neck, she felt naked without it.
“Okay it’s almost eight, Landon should be pulling up any minute.” Samantha grinned while ushering the girl out of the room.
Spencer rolled his eyes as his mother went on to Jensen about how excited she was that Layla was going on a date. He wanted to go somewhere and vomit. He put his water bottle up to his lips and turned to look at who was coming down the stairs. His bottle instantly fell. He couldn’t believe that was Layla. He watched as she walked down the stairs. Her shapely, porcelain legs looked perfect in her high heels and short black dress. His eyes followed the curves of her body, her small waist, her breasts that looked much more pronounced than he had ever seen them before, not that he was ever intentionally looking; he watched as she moved her long hair behind her shoulder, showing the thin strap that held the dress up. His eyes landed on her neck and he frowned. Her necklace was missing. Even though they weren’t talking much anymore, she always had that necklace on and it made him feel like they were still connected. Seeing her naked neck, it hurt him more than he was willing to admit.
Layla smiled nervously as she reached the bottom of the steps. She watched as Spencer used his gym towel to clean up his spilled water. She wondered what he thought of how she looked. Would you stop! You’re going to go on a date with Landon, stop it.
Catherine squealed with delight as she spun Layla around. “You are stunning! Look at your glow! Simply radiant! Spencer
, isn’t she radiant?”
Spencer blushed and looked away. “Yes Mom, she’s radiant.”
Layla turned her head as the door opened and in came Landon, wearing a fitted black suit. He smiled at everyone and then did a double take. “No way, Layla!? My god, you look so different!” She blushed and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
“Now you two have fun! Keep John and the limo as long as you want!” Catherine waved as she, Sam, and Jensen headed to the kitchen.
Layla walked out of the house when Spencer spoke up. “Be careful, Layla.”
She turned around and gave him a soft smile. “Goodnight, Spencer,” she said before heading outside.
Landon gave his cousin a huge smirk. “Holy hell… can you believe that I’m taking that little slice out tonight? Man, if I were you, I would be kicking myself.”
Spencer glared at him, he felt his blood beginning to boil. “Landon, just… behave with her. You won alright, but please, treat her right.” It killed him to say that. He wanted to beat his cousin’s smug face in, but he knew that would get him nowhere with Layla.
“Oh don’t you worry, Spencie, I will treat her right.” Landon licked his lips and winked.
Spencer, in one swift motion, grabbed Landon and shoved him up against the door. “Listen here, you piece of shit, if she has so much as one hair out of place when she gets back, I will end you.” Spencer dropped his cousin and shoved him out the door before slamming it shut.
Landon straightened out his suit before heading down to the limo where he saw Layla waiting. He hopped in next to her and they took off. They spent the car ride catching up, Landon told her about his job, and she filled him in on her schoolings and what everyone had been up to since he left. Once they got to the restaurant and were seated, Layla shifted uncomfortably. This place looked way too fancy for her. She looked down at the menu, she couldn’t read most of it, Shit, something on here has to say chicken, right?
The server came up to the couple and Layla was about to just point at something, but Landon took it upon himself to order them both the Wagyu Steak along with a bottle of some wine that Layla could not pronounce.