Chapter Eleven

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XI
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*Layla's POV*

"Zooooeeemama! Who is that?" I asked Eli, zooming in on a pretty boy that was in a picture I found on his phone.

"What- how the hell did you get my phone?" He snapped his attention over to me and quickly grabbed his phone back. I grinned proudly at my amazing pick-pocketing skills.

"Eli Parker! Are you afraid I would have seen some inappropriate pictures in there?" I replied in a shocked-mom voice. He sarcastically laughed.

"That's Alex, my cousin," he told me in a monotone voice, utterly uninterested.

Dinner had been, as one could say, absolutely fan-fucking-tastic. I hadn't had a good home cooked meal since, well, I don't even know. I mean, Ashton had always tried to cook for us but it was always pretty shitty.

Once we finished, Eli's parents suggested for us to go in the living room while we were waiting for dessert, since apparently dessert was a thing. For as down-to-earth as Eli was, his family was totally your typical modest rich family. I swear I saw his mom shudder when I put my elbows on the table.

"How old is he?" I asked about Cousin-Parker with a mischievous smile.

"Nope," he answered with a stubborn smile in my direction. "Not happening."

"That's not an age, young fellow," I said. "Oh well, if you don't want to give me that number than I guess his phone number will just have to do," I added with an even more stubborn smile. He rolled his eyes again.

"Not happening."

"But whyyyyyy," I whined, standing up and shaking his shoulders. He pushed me away from him.

"You know, you act like the lovechild of a stubborn baby and a hyperactive spider monkey," he mumbled as he re-straightened his shirt.

"Thank you, that's all I've ever wanted to hear from someone," I replied, my hand on my heart and a touched expression on my face. "Seriously though, why can't you just be my wing-man on this one?"

"Because your brother would singlehandedly kill me if I set you up with someone, let alone my cousin.." he answered as if it was obvious. I grunted.

"Well, who cares?? Didn't he like, take your girl or something? That wasn't very bro-code of him," I referred to Crystal and he let out a loud 'pffft'.

"She was never mine," he corrected with a laugh.

"Gotcha- hence the Scarlett rebound," I filled in the blank, and he shot me a glare.

"You're the worst," he said and looked away again with a slight smile.

"But like, why would he care about it being your cousin? Wouldn't he rather me be with someone that he sort of knows?" I continued, confused about how boys' brains worked.

"They're pretty close, when Ashton lived here Alex would always hang out with us," he gave me a little backstory.

"I still don't get it.. I mean what if I was dating you or Kevin? I get that he'd be uncomfy thinking about the fact that one of his best friends and his little sister are sharing crazy-hot-sex and lobster rolls at 3 am from that really good place up the street.. but at least he'd know I was safe, right?" I tried to explain what his thought process should have been. I wasn't sure why I had my heart so set on Cousin-Parker, but I was rolling with it.

Eli looked a little taken aback for a brief moment at something I said- probably the crazy-hot-sex thing.. I often forgot about that whole 'think before you speak' thing- it was pretty overrated in my opinion.

"You can't be serious- Ashton would legitimately murder me with his bare hands.. or Kevin for that matter," he laughed, "he knows us well enough to know we're not good enough for you." When he said this I let out a laugh.

"Ten-year-old me is sobbing somewhere," I joked and he gave me a confused look. Realizing he had no idea what I was talking about, I continued, "back in the day- you know, before I was disowned for existing at an inconvenient time for mother dearest- I actually thought you were really cute." His eyes essentially popped out of his head at this.

"Me??" He pointed to his chest, and I laughed.

"No I'm talking to the ghost in front of you," I replied sarcastically. He laughed and then looked into my eyes with a slight smile, as if I had told him that I currently liked him. "But then you got ugly, so there's no need to worry about Ashton killing you with his bare hands anymore," I added. He let out another small laugh and shook his head.

"It's still kind of weird to see you, you know. Like for so long I had heard Layla and thought of twelve-year-old you, but now you're like.. well you're not twelve anymore," he told me.

"Yes, yes. This is true," I agreed in an insightful tone. "Very well, young grasshopper," I referenced 'Karate Kid'.

One of my foster families had that movie running 24/7 on a little tv in their living room.. they claimed it taught valuable lessons or some shit. Really all it taught me were random quotes and references that most people wouldn't understand or give a damn about. They were fun to whip out and confuse people with, though.

"You know what I mean," he told me.

"You think that's weird- try coming home for the first time in years to see your older brother and all his friends post-puberty and 2 feet taller, and your baby brother now in elementary school knowing more profanities than you did when you were twelve," I extended the list on, "that last part's Ashton's doing.. and this is all on top of the fact that while you were gone, your family- what was left of it- actually lost your house because your mother-" I cut myself off, the memory of Ashton telling me what she did catching me a little off-guard. When I stopped talking, I looked up to see Eli staring at me with sad eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely. I didn't know about which part, but it honestly didn't matter. I gave him a small smile and shrugged it off.

"Hey- I don't take anything seriously, remember? I'm good," I told him, and I wondered if he picked up on the fact that I was saying it more to myself than to him. There was a little pause.

"Aren't you supposed to be like super emotional when you're on your period?" He asked, and for a moment I was confused before I remembered how I ranted about my period to him for 5 straight minutes just to make him uncomfortable. What?? It was funny and I'm not a bad person if it was for comedic purposes.

"You know what, you're right. I'm very sad.. do you know what would make me feel better?" I asked and sent him an innocent smile.

"Ugh, what?" He knew I was going to say something like...

"Cousin-Parker's number," I responded with a smile. He rolled his eyes again.

"Give it up, Lay."

"I mean- you have to admit that 'Layla Parker' has a nice ring to it," I continued to try and convince him. "Do it in the name of love, Eli."

"He's a year older than I am."

"So what? A 3 year age gap is nothing compared to the age gap my relationship will have when I'm forced to marry an old rich white guy for money because I never found true love.. which will be your fault," I drew on.

"Right. And then he'll die and you'll get a shit ton of money," he gave me a smug smile, "so you're welcome."

"Guess what!" We turned to look at Jake as we heard his little feet running into the room excitedly.

"What?" Eli asked in an equally excited tone. When he did this, I realized how comfortable he was with Jake, and it was because of how much time they had spent together over the years. I suddenly felt jealous of all those years and first-times that Eli experienced with Jake that I, just, didn't. I quickly pushed my thoughts aside and turned my attention back to them two.

"I got a baseball! Mr. and Mrs. Parker said I could have it," he pulled it from behind his back and showed us excitedly.

"That's so cool! We could vandalize so many things with that!" I (half) joked. Eli gave me a glare, and Jake looked back at me not knowing what the word 'vandalize' meant.

"Huh?" He asked, and I waved it off.

"This was my favorite baseball when I was younger," Eli told us when Jake handed it to him to look at. A nostalgic look made its way into his face. "Me, Ashton, Kevin, and Richie signed it right there," he pointed to a few scribbled names on the ball.

"Hmm, Richie.. Is he cute?" I joked, not knowing who he was.

"He's paralyzed," he corrected and I almost choked on air. "Car crash- they moved to Hawaii or something afterwards when we were in middle school.. I wonder what he's up to these days," he gave the ball back to Jake, who took it and ran off again.

"I feel like I probably shouldn't make a joke right now," I held it back, and he looked at me with a hint of amusement in his judgmental eyes.

"Probably not, no," he replied and I nodded, really struggling to hold back the slew of ironically insensitive comments I wanted to make.

"I mean, a plus is that he wouldn't run away from me-"

"I knew you couldn't help it," Eli cut me off, letting out a chuckle. I felt myself laugh with him.

"IM SORRY okay, I try to be serious but it just doesn't work! I get uncomfortable about sad shit and make jokes, but I don't actually mean any of the shit I say," I shrugged off my bad habit. "I'd never actually want to hurt someone's feelings or make fun of them or anything.."

"Yeah, I've caught onto that by now. The whole taking-life-lightly is definitely a new trait of yours," he told me.

"Yeah, I mean it's basically the opposite of how my brother deals with life.. he's all 'I'm edgy I don't care about shit but ima punch you right now cuz I have teenage angst and a hard past I'm just ~misunderstood~'," I imitated Ashton, my terrible impression making Eli chuckle.

"That's, uh, actually pretty spot on," he gave me kudos, and I thanked him.

"I'm bored," I told him bluntly. "Entertain me or something," I waved my hands around at him. "I'm the guest here."

"You're so needy.. you know all these years I always thought your mom was a bitch for sending you away but I'm beginning to understand it," he joked, and I chuckled.

"Hey, I got out of there before shit really hit the fan," I defended myself lightheartedly. "Okay okay, ask me a really embarrassing-slash-awkward question, and then I'll ask you one. Go." I pointed at him, and he took the suggestion in, trying to think of a question on the spot.

"Okay, uh," he continued to think, but something hit him suddenly and a little smirk formed on his lips.

"This must be juicy," I raised an eyebrow and chuckled.

"Are you a virgin?" He asked me. If I had been drinking water I would have done a spit-take- just for the dramatic effect. I bursted out laughing, so hard that his parents probably wondered what wild animal had gotten in the house.

"Fucking freak," I finished laughing, making fun of him. "And uh, not technically, but like, ya not technically." He scrunched his face in confusion and my answer.

"Not technically?? What was he bad at it or something?" He asked for clarification. I tried to laugh it off but somewhat failed.

I didn't want to tell him what had happened to me. Not here, not now. I knew that it wasn't my fault what happened, like at all, and that I should have felt comfortable telling people.. but I honestly just felt guilty and embarrassed about it.

I really just wanted to move on as if nothing happened and I wanted people to see me as the same Layla I've always been. But then I'd feel guilty for not telling people and it's just this big cycle of mammoth shit..

"He was an asshole," I replied. It was true, just not the whole truth.

"I can find him and beat him up if you want," he offered, and I rolled my eyes.

"Now you sound like Ashton again," I told him. "Okay my turn," I sat up criss-cross-applesauce and smiled like an excited five-year-old. "How many girls have you slept with- people I mean, I'm excepting of whatever or whomever you like to do.." he grunted and put his hands on his face and leaned back on couch next to me, sighing.

"Nah.. I'll tell you when you're older, ask something else please," he tried to get out of it.

"You probably lost count around 30 or so.. don't worry I'll ask a different question," He rolled his eyes while I tried to think of a new one. "How many.. um.. OH- where was the weirdest place you've done it?" He thought for a minute.

"Probably that time in an ice cream truck," he answered and I scrunched my face in disgust, letting out a laugh.

"You're disgusting," I told him.

"Hey, you're the one that asked," he came back at me. "Don't tell Kevin that, by the way," he added, and my brows drew together.

"Why?" I asked.

"No reason," he shrugged it off, and I chuckled at his weirdness.

"I'll text him right now," I playfully threatened, but knowing that I was joking, he just rolled his eyes and smiled.

When I went to get up, I saw a spider dangling right in front of my face. I jumped at the unexpectedness and fell down onto Eli, letting out a scared yelp.

"KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT!" I yelled and leaned further into him to get away from the spider. He chuckled under me. I was legitimately pressed against him so hard I could almost feel his heart beating, which I hadn't realized until that moment. There were some butterflies doing their thing in my stomach.. but that would happen with literally any attractive boy close to my age.. so I disregarded it as my natural behavior.

I tried my hardest not to think about the hand he brought up to rest on my waist, or the other one that had almost as an instinct went to my thigh. As soon as I felt my face start to heat up, the spider dropped even lower, and snapped me out of it, causing me to press myself even further into Eli in efforts to escape its wrath.

"Why do you want to kill it? It's just doing its thing, living life," he said. I noticed that he wasn't making any effort to try and get me off of him, and I felt a little more butterflies. Before these butterflies could explode or become lethal, I pushed myself off of him and adjusted my clothes.

The spider was still dangling, so I reached up and cupped it with both hands. Once I had it, I jogged over to the front door and threw it outside. Once I got back into the living room, Eli's expression was both confused and amused at the same time

"I thought you were afraid of the spider?" He asked.

"I mean, I'm not afraid of spiders but I'm always a little thrown off when I first see them," I explained.

"I would've taken care of it for you," he chuckled again.

"I can take care of my own damn spiders, thank you.. now hurry up I want dessert," I held out my hands for him to take and pulled him off of the couch. "That shit was so big though," I referenced the spider.

"That's what the ice cream truck girl said," he commented and I let out a disgusted laugh.

"Ew.. you're gonna make me lose my appetite, weirdo," I looked up at him, and he chuckled.

"Oh well.. More for me."

• • •

Heyyy guys :)

Writing in Layla's POV is fun lol

QOTD: Who is your favorite ship in this book??

>>> I don't wanna say cuz I don't wanna spoil anything ;) I love em all tho

Be safe and wash yo hands!

Stay beautiful,
Briella<3

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