FATHER ALWAYS SMILING

Chapter 56 ~~~~~

And by the time they finished, it was early evening.

"Man packing suuuucks!" Layla moaned while lying sprawled out on the couch as Gina handed her a glass of water.

They hadn't packed up everything since it'd be at least another day until the move, while her larger furniture would be donated or sold. Since she had no real reason to bring all that with her when moving.

"But it's pretty much done now," Gina said while Layla gulped back the water. "Thanks for helping me with this."

"Eh, don't thank me, given how I ghosted you I felt like I at least owed you something."

Gina eyed her friend. "You never did tell me why you left." Layla didn't respond. "Why did you leave Layla?"

She was silent, arms propped on top of her knees. "It was some stupid shit," she says after a long bout of silence. "I was in a real bad place. Real bad. I... I didn't want to drag you into it. You were dealing with your own nonsense, like with your family, and a prick you call a brother. I just, felt like it'd make things worse."

"But things are good for you now?" Gina asked.

"Yeah, pretty much. I mean not everything is great, but that's life. Not everything can go your way, and there's nothing wrong with it..." She trailed off when she felt Gina shift and was now sitting on the floor next to her and resting her head on Layla's shoulder.

"I'm glad you're here."

Layla smiled. "I'm glad you're here too." After a moment, Layla stood up. "You know what we should do? We need to celebrate. Moving is a pretty huge milestone. Especially when you're moving from one province to another. That doesn't just happen every day."

Gina laughed. "Okay, but where are we going for this?"

Layla gave a rather sly grin. "The only thing I know how to do best!" she then wrapped her arm around Gina's shoulder and pointed to the sky. "And that's taking you out on a night on the town! I'm going to make sure you have one hell of a night and go out with a bang!"

* * *

Layla kept to her word, taking Gina out to several clubs and even a bar or three, though Gina didn't drink, since she'd be out on the road in the following days, she noticed that Layla, who could normally be described as a fish with the amount that she drank. Today, she didn't even touch a drop.

Now that Gina thought about it since she had met up with Layla again, her friend hadn't touched a drop of alcohol. Layla could have very well lost interest in it, it had been over two years since they had seen each other, and it was almost as if she was averse to even touching the stuff.

What could have happened in those two years to have such a drastic change?

Nothing else seemed different, she would encourage Gina to go dance while she would watch from the bar, which wasn't uncommon for Layla, while she would dress like a punk goth rocker, dancing was never one of her strong suits. Yet something was just nagging at her in the back of Gina's mind.

"Hey, are you doing alright?" Gina asked as Layla was walking her home. Layla paused and turned to look at her friend.

"Yeah, nothin's wrong, what?" she leaned forward with that same sly grin of hers. "You think I'm going to keel over, do ya?"

"Wha—no!" Gina snapped as Layla rightened herself. "It's just, you seem kind of... off today. So, I just wanted to check. There are times you don't seem like yourself."

Layla's smile faded, but instead of responding right away, she turned around and kept walking forward. Gina silently followed, not sure if she should push or just keep her mouth shut. But to her surprise, Layla spoke.