THIS COULD BE US, anna shumate

car rides

it's been three days since layla has started talking to someone else, someone who she connected with so week due to them both in the modelling industry.

layla couldn't be away from eva or karina for that long so she decided to come down to los angeles to see her best friend along with karina who was going to la to see anna, due to them both having separation anxiety without the other person.

she comes out of lax airport taking her mask from her face along with karina, seeing eva and dev, layla squeals dropping her suitcase handle coming towards her best friends hugging them both in her arms.

dev and eva chuckle in layla's embrace, "hey beb," eva said into her best friend's shoulder, layla told eva and dev about who she was starting to talk to when hollywood fix created a video about layla talking to a new person from tiktokroom and tiktokinsiders instagram posts.

dev comes and takes layla's suitcase handle into her hand, coming to anna's car putting layla's duffel bag and suitcase into the trunk along with karina's suitcase and bagpack.

layla sits in between karina and eva in the middle whilst dev sits next to anna in the passenger seat, dev having aux as she plays mamacita by jason derulo, layla looked up from her iphone where she was messaging the mysterious person she was talking to.

karina wanted to know how her best friend was talking to along with gabby and jordan but layla didn't have the perosn's name on her contact instead she just has a red love heart as their contact name.

she makes eye contact with anna through the rearview mirror where anna wears her sunglasses with an red unxpectd hoodie, layla gently bites onto her lip looking away from anna back down to her iphone making a tiktok for her spam account.

the unxpectd boys sent layla some of their products from the last few releases wanting layla to wear them in her tiktoks and youtube videos wanting to promote the unxpectd boys making more people buy their merch seeing their favourite creators wearing their merch.

—————

layla lays back on eva's bed watching anime with eva and dev, when layla sees karina post a tiktok with anna about how well they know each other. layla slides down after liking the video licking her lips seeing christian and zack texting her in their groupchat.

SkaterBoy 🛹:
when are you next coming around?

SuperModel 🧍‍♀️:
maybe tomorrow. why?

BallBoy 🏀:
cause zack wants to hang out
with you, and so do i. pick
you up around 5 tomorrow?

SuperModel🧍‍♀️:
yeah connor is coming
around tomorrow and i don't
wanna be here to see that 🤮

SkaterBoy 🛹:
do you like physical touch?

SuperModel 🧍‍♀️:
my love language is literally
physical touch

BallBoy 🏀:
same.

SkaterBoy 🛹:
literally same.

layla looks up from her iphone seeing karina come into the girl's embrace as anna comes beside eva, "hey," layla smiles down at karina wrapping her arms around karina's shoulders.

"ooh, who you messaging? is it your lover?"

layla playfully flicks karina's forehead, "oww, layla!" layla chuckles hugging karina closer to her, "no, i was actually messaging zack and christian, they wanted to know when i'm going around their apartment,"

karina looks up at layla, "so when are you?" she asked her best friend, who looks back to the anime playing on eva's tomorrow, "hmm, probably tomorrow, i'll go around maybe go to the skatepark with them or play basketball,"

she said down to karina looking back to the anime smiling, dev comes close to layla laying her head on her best friend's shoulder, loving layla's embrace, "quick question guys, what's your guy's love language?"

she asked seeing eva pause her anime, "mine's physical touch," layla said to them, "same, literally," dev said to layla making the girl smile, "physical touch,"

"literally.."

—————

layla comes outside to the basketball court picking up the basketball into her hands jumping up shooting the ball into the hoop, the ball bouncing off of the rim of the hoop.

"that was close,"

layla turns her head seeing anna stand near the gate that leads to the basketball court, "h-hey," layla said nervously, the girl mentally slapping herself as she shouldn't be still nervous around anna due to talking to someone who makes her happy.

anna comes to layla, "are we gonna talk about—" layla stops anna, "no anna, we don't get to talk about anything cause you didn't even say goodbye to me when me and karina left,"

anna opens and closed her mouth, "layla," the girl shakes her head, "i try so hard to get you to open up to me, and i don't know if you're never gonna trust me," layla said to anna, "i know you have commitment issues, i have them too, but at some point, you're gonna take to start trusting someone,"

layla gets the basketball into her hands, "even if it's not me, trust karina or anyone else but i just can't keep chasing after you for you to ignore me or push me away," she sighs, "i can't do it anymore anna,"

she looks down to the basketball, "i'm happy now, and if you want me to be happy, you'd just stop whatever you're doing," she said to anna handing the ball to anna walking away from the basketball court.

layla liked anna, she did but layla just can't always be the one chasing the other people all the time, it was like that in her last relationship and she wasn't going back into that dark place again ever.

layla opens the sliding door making a dancing tiktok with karina, who smiles at her best friend whilst dancing. karina knew layla wasn't the best dancer, but she did make up for it with her thirst traps and her other videos.

—————

everyone was around just a house either in the living room or in the kitchen talking about the layla situation with anna and the mysterious person no one knows.

however whilst that was happening, layla was outside on the phone talking to the mysterious person laughing at something she said making layla smile wide, "when am i gonna see you, huh?" she waits for a response.

"soon, i promise—"

layla runs her fingers through her brunette hair, "okay, cause everyone keeps thinking it's zack or christian," she said to the girl on the other side of the phone, "eva knows and so does dev, but everyone else is clueless,"

layla looks out to the view from the back yard, "well, she is one of my best friends so she should know," emma mcallister said to layla who was in the studio doing a photoshoot.

"and because i kinda already told her—"

layla chuckles, "of course you did, simp," emma from the other side of the phone looked at her manager who motions for her to come back, "i'm not a simp for eva, i'll happily simp for you though,"

layla feels her cheeks redden from emma's response, "oh, really?" she hears emma reapond before she tells layla that she needs to go, "okay, i'll facetime you later, bye,"

layla ends the phone call leaning against the banister loving the los angeles view from the girl's house, taking in everything at once.