You're Mine, Cowboy

Chapter 2

~ Layla ~

"I am so ready for this class to be over with," Anna groaned from next to me, dramatically plopping her head onto her crossed arms on her desk.

"I couldn't agree more," a voice on the other side of me said. I turned to look as our friend Bryan sat down in the seat on my left. Anna's head perked up.

"You guys do realize that class hasn't even started yet, right?" I pointed out, laughing. They promptly ignored me.

"Hey, Sugar Kane; what's up?" she joked, grinning. Bryan shook his head at Anna, but grinned back all the same. Sugar Kane was Anna's nickname for Bryan, since they first met and became friends by bonding over their mutual love of sweets; that, and Bryan's last name was Kane.

"Things are lovely, Anna Bear. What about life on your end?" he asked, placing his books on the desk. She grinned and opened her mouth, but I beat her to it.

"Anna has a boyfriend." Bryan's eyes lit up with excitement as he leaned forward, eager for details.

"Oh, do tell!" he encouraged. Bryan was our very handsome, very gay friend. He was definitely the 'gossip girl' of the group, to put it lightly, but we loved him. Anna laughed and launched into the same story she told me in the car about her newfound boyfriend.

~ Derek ~

"Yo, Derek!" I heard my name being called from down the hall and turned to look in the direction it came from, already knowing who it was. I raised an eyebrow at Damon as he ran down the hall at me, coming to a skidding halt a foot away.

"Hey, bro," he greeted. "What's up?" I shrugged. Life had been pretty boring and basic lately – for me, anyway.

"Not much, honestly; been feeling a bit unlike myself recently; everything has just been so boring. I think I need to spice things up a bit again," I told him, smirking as a plan formulated in my head. Damon turned to me and smirked as he, too, began creating a plan.

"Party?" he asked, grinning. I nodded. "Great. Let's do it this Saturday; my house. The parents will be out at a business convention all weekend. I'll text the gang and let them know. They'll spread the word. Selective or everyone?" he asked me, already typing away on his phone. I thought for a moment.

"Screw it; everyone," I decided. "Better that way, since things have been so closed off lately," I murmured. Damon made a grunting noise in acceptance before sending his message out to the football, soccer, and baseball teams, letting them know to spread the word.

He put his phone away and looked at me with a mischievous grin on his face; I smirked back.

"This is going to be good."

~ Layla ~

"Alright, class; remember that your five-page research paper is due on Monday," Mr. Branfield's voice rang out through the classroom. A low groan echoed through the room at the reminder of the research paper. It sucked that it was due on a Monday. Mr. Branfield shook his head as he packed up some papers on his desk. "No, no, class. No arguing on this one. You've known about it for a week."

"But Mr. B," a random girl towards the front of the class piped up, "Monday is the worst day of the week! Couldn't you make it due Tuesday? Please, Mr. B.?" Almost the entire class raised their voices in agreement with the girl, asking for the date to be moved to Tuesday. I snickered under my breath. Even from the back of the classroom, I could see Mr. Branfield cracking as the indecision flickered in his eyes. Next to me, Anna and Bryan were also covering their mouths as they giggled softly. This was inevitable; it happened every time Mr. B. assigned something big, like the research paper; the class ended up talking him into giving us another day or two. It was still amusing to watch, though.

"Well..." he began, looking anywhere but at the class. "Alright, fine," he sighed heavily, giving in. The class cheered and whooped happily, even though we all knew what would happen. Mr. Branfield shook his head at us, but smiled nonetheless. "But no longer than Tuesday!" he exclaimed, pointing for emphasis at the calendar on the wall.

"Thank you, Mr. B.!" that girl from earlier called out as the bell rang and we slowly filtered out of the room. Anna and Bryan caught up to me as we walked towards the cafeteria together.

"Hey, did you hear about the party this Saturday?" Anna piped up, glancing at Bryan and I. I shook my head. Bryan nodded.

"Yeah," he told us, "I heard some guys in Lab talking about it. It's supposed to be this Saturday at Damon Crawford's house." Anna nodded.

"Yeah, and everyone is invited," she told us. I blinked at her in shock. Usually the parties – the big ones like this one was sure to be – were exclusive to only the jocks and their friends. I briefly wondered why they were inviting everyone this time; I could recall only two other times everyone was invited, and I didn't go to either. I wasn't much of a party animal.

"Can we go together? Please?" Anna begged us. Bryan looked unsure.

"I don't know, Anna Bear," he said. "These parties have been known to get out of hand, and I don't want to get busted by the cops and have my chances at Brown ruined." Bryan was the smartest out of the three of us, and had applied to Brown. He hadn't heard back yet, and was incredibly nervous about whether or not he would be accepted, even though Anna and I knew he would; his record was stellar and clean. What college wouldn't accept him?

"Oh, come on, Bryan. We're seniors. Let's have a little fun! Worst comes to worst, we only stay for one hour – two, tops. Please guys?" she asked, shooting us that pleading puppy dog face. I groaned; she was too good at that for it to be legal. My resolve was breaking and I could tell that Bryan's was, too.

"I'll go if Layla goes," Bryan finally told Anna, smirking because he knew I was more than likely not going to go. Anna's eyes widened before narrowing.

"That's not fair. You know she never goes to parties!" she exclaimed, exasperated. Bryan grinned.

"I know. That's why I said it." He chuckled and Anna huffed and crossed her arms. I debated internally. Anna made a good point; it was our senior year and we hadn't really done anything that exciting during high school. A few hours wouldn't be too bad, would it? What could happen in two hours? Before I could talk myself out of my decision, I piped up.

"I'll go," I told them quietly. Both Anna and Bryan froze, completely halting in their steps while turning to look at me with gawking expressions.

"What?" Bryan squeaked. "No! No, no, Layla! You were supposed to say no. I was banking on that!" A slow grin spread across Anna's face as her eyes lit up with excitement.

"Really?" she asked. "Are you really saying yes?" She seemed hesitant that I would turn and say, 'Nope! April Fools!' but I nodded at her instead.

"Why not, right? What could happen in two hours?" Anna squealed in delight and clapped her hands before hugging me tight enough to make it difficult to breathe. Bryan frowned before sighing.

"Fine, fine," he said exasperatedly, but I could tell he wanted to smile. "Whatever." We continued to walk towards the cafeteria as Anna blabbered on about how excited she was about the party this weekend. I just smiled, but sighed internally. What was I in for?