Bad Meets Worse

36 | so I lied..

Arin's POV
"I wasn't really at the spa yesterday.." I said carefully.

"What do you mean? Where were you?" Layton raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't wanna lie to everyone, but a friend of ours caught us at the beach the other day and he's been getting higher up in photography for fashion and offered us a test run. We didn't think it would go anywhere, just for fun and all, but apparently they're publishing the test shots tomorrow," I bit my bottom lip waiting for his reaction.

"Why'd you think you had to hide it from me?" He asked in confusion.

"We didn't think it was gonna go anywhere, that's why we didn't feel the need to tell everyone and keep it to ourselves for a while," I explained. "And I thought you were gonna be mad.." I said quieter.

"You shouldn't ever feel like you need to hide anything from me, I don't care what it is, you should be able to tell me anything."

"I know, I just wasn't sure how you would react.." I explained.

"Did you like the test run?" He asked.

"Yeah, I mean it was fun and I felt like it came naturally," I bit the inside of my cheek and looked out over the cliff.

"Then I already support you," he smiled.

"Thanks, but I don't know if everyone else will feel that way.."

"What do you mean?" Concern raising in his voice.

"Everyone at school, once they see Alia and I in those issues then who knows how they'll react towards it, what would they even think?!" I started panicking, and my breathing began to pick up.

"Arin calm down," Layton wrapped an arm around me and I began to relax a little more, "who cares what everyone thinks? If they have something to say about you or Alia they'll have to say it straight to me and the guys, you don't have anything to worry about," he kissed the top of my head and I let my breath out heavily. "You wanna get home? It's gonna get dark soon," he offered.

"Let it get dark, the Stars need to be seen tonight," I leaned back all the way down against the tree trunk, to where I was lying down and staring straight up at the darkening sky.

"Whatever you want," he chuckled and joined my side, lying down next to me. "Won't Alia flip shit when you don't respond to her 'code red?'" He air quoted.

"She'll figure it out," I sighed, putting my phone on vibrate and tossing it back into my shoulder bag.

"Have you given any thought to the soccer tryout?" He asked after a while of silence.

"It's not for me," I replied simply.

"What do you mean, 'not for you?'" He asked in disbelief.

"I'm not interested," I retaliated.

"You know that's not true, that's the farthest thing from the truth, now tell me what's up, really," he looked straight into my eyes, making it especially hard for me to lie to him.

"I just don't wanna go through the same thing again, even if you say that it won't happen because you'll be there, it's just a bad situation waiting to happen," I sighed, leaning my head back against the rough, jagged surface of the tree trunk.

"But--"

"You're not changing my mind," I stopped him before having to hear a potentially exhausting lecture.

I get that he cares about me and what makes me happy, and no doubt that being on a team would make me happy, but I know how this would end, exactly the way it did last time.