Smoke Screen

Chapter 32

    The next day Layla woke up feeling like crap, and looking like it too. She had bruises all over her arms and stomach and a big red mark on her face from where Shashi hit her. To not draw attention to herself, she decided to stay home from school.
She wanted to skip school for a couple more days until the redness went down, but after her dad came home and kicked her up a bit for playing hooky, she was forced to go back the next day.
Her alarm clock woke her up nice and early in the morning, giving her a headache and making her just want to go back to bed. With a groan, she slowly got up and got ready. After collecting her things, she took out her vape as she began her walk to school.
Though she tried to cover up her injuries with concealer, the red mark on her face was still fairly noticeable. As she walked through the hall at school, she got several weird stares and snickers.
"Get into a fight, Layla?" Mitch snickered as Layla walked past him. She just ignored him and everyone else as she made her way to her first class.
She got to the classroom early and sat down in her seat. Five minutes before class started she heard the door open and looked up as Tony walked inside. "Layla!" He said, surprised yet happy to see her.
    "Hey Toretto." She mumbled as she turned her head to look out the window. He stepped closer to her and took a seat at the desk in front of hers.
    "What happened to your face?" He asked.
    Layla chuckled dryly. "You could've worded that better." She sarcastically remarked.
    "Who did this to you?" He asked, his face and voice completely dead-serious.
    "It's nothing, Toretto. Leave it alone." She told him. But that was not enough to get him to drop it.
    "Layla, I want to know so I can help you. Whatever is going on, I can help." He earnestly said.
    Before she could respond, the bell rang and a bunch of students stormed into the classroom followed by Mr. Gary. "This isn't finished." Tony told Layla as class began.
The day dragged by slowly as Layla fought to stay awake in class and avoid Tony the rest of the time. She was doing well until lunchtime when he found her hiding out behind the building.
"Aw, you found me." She said as he approached her.
"You're gonna have to find a better hiding spot." He said, sitting down at her side.
"You'll probably find that one too." She rolled her eyes but couldn't help from smiling slightly.
"Yup. You can't hide from me." He said. He looked over at her but she kept her gaze straight ahead. "This doesn't look good." He said as he brushed his fingers over her cheek.
What little trace of a smile she had fell. "There goes my self confidence." She remarked sarcastically.
"I didn't mean it like that." He said. "These red marks, you need to put some ice on them." His fingers touched one of the red marks on her face. Layla cringed at the slight sting of pain that shot through her. "Sorry." He quickly withdrew his hand.
"I'll ice it later." She said.
"Good." He said. They were silent for several minutes. Tony did not remove his eyes from her, but she did not look at him once.
Tony let out a sigh. "Look, I only want to help you." He said. "If you don't want to talk about it then that's fine. But just know you can always come to me if you need anything."
"Thanks, Toretto."
Tony stood up to leave but stopped. "Layla," He spoke her name softly. That finally got her to look up at him.
"What?" She asked, slightly confused at his change in demeanor.
He smiled. "There's your pretty face."
Her face flushed and she quickly looked away to hide it. "Whatever Toretto."
His smile grew at her reaction. "See ya later, Layla." He said before walking away.
Even after he walked away, Layla found that her heart was still pounding fast. It took several minutes for her face to go back to normal but even after that she still felt a warm feeling in her chest.
    She gazed off in the direction he went. What was this feeling?