Of Love And Hate, You Were My Greatest Mistake

Of Love And Hate, You Were My Greatest Mistake ~10~

“Hello?” Her mom’s voice was peppy, as usual.

“Hi mom, can you pick me up?” Laila pulled her hair from the ponytail and twirled a lock around her finger as she stared across the field, only half paying attention to what the soccer team was doing. 

“What happened to Caleb?” Her mom asked.

“His brother broke his arm so he has to take him to the hospital. All the other girls left already. Can you please come get me?”

“Can’t you get a ride?” 

“I just said all the girls already left,” She absentmindedly waved to the last of the girls as they passed; two girls she barely knew and would feel uncomfortable asking for a ride. “And Mandy went home early so it’s not like her mom or Nathan would come get me. Please?”

“Why don’t you ask James?” She suggested, sounding way too eager about the whole thing.

“Ew! What? No! Why would I do that?” Laila was horrifited at the mere idea of it. “Mom, that’s like telling a drowning person to hop on a shark for a ride back to shore--!”

“Laila, you’re being ridiculous. That didn’t even make sense.” Alyson cut her daughter off, though her voice was a bit too hopeful to sound the least bit stern. “Go ask him.”

“I can’t. They’re not done yet.” 

And right then, almost as if to spite her, the coach blew his whistle. Fuck, Laila scrunched her nose, knowing her mom must have heard with how loud the damn whistle was.

“I think I just heard the end of practice.” Her mom sang. Laila groaned. “Ask him or I will.”

“You don’t even have his number.” Laila pointed out. She frowned as her mom started to laugh.

“No, but Rosie does. I’ll tell her to call him.”

“Mom, don’t! How are you even gonna do that, aren’t you guys both at work?”

“You’re on speaker, and she’s right here. We both got off work early.”

“Hi Laila!” Rose’s voice chimed in. 

“I swear you guys are just like teenagers.” Laila rolled her eyes as both women giggled.

“Well there’s no point in either of us going to get you if James is already right there,” Her mom reasoned. “You guys need to get to know each other, anyways. And he’s really cute--”

“Fine, I’ll ask him.” Laila cut her mom off, standing up to smooth her skirt down. 

“Oh, that’s okay. Rose is already on the phone with him.”

Laila looked up to see Jace standing near his things, holding the phone to his ear and looking just as annoyed as she felt.

“Mom!” She hissed. “Tell Rose to get off the phone! I’d rather just walk home--”

“He said he’ll take you!” Rose’s voice cut her off, sounding way more excited than was necessary for the current situation. “We’ll see you at home. Bye.” And then the line went dead. 

Laila stared at it for a second before growling in frustration and throwing it in her bag. She kicked at the stand she had just been sitting on and was about to kick it again when a familiar voice cut her off.

“Having fun?”

She turned to see Jace coming toward her, keys in hand. She gave the stand one last kick before turning to him.