Iris is getting ready in my room for the engagement party tonight. My grandparents have apparently invited half the town and since it's still raining out, we have been forced to improvise and make it an indoor party. I honestly don't know how everyone is going to fit inside this house. It's big, but my grandparents also know a lot of people.
"I saw you talking to Grayson outside last night from my window. What were you guys talking about?" She asks, rubbing an eyeshadow brush in her crease.
"Stalker much?"
"Curiosity will actually kill me, Layla."
"I was helping him choose his next victim. Cassidy Briggs? I thought she'd make a hot corpse."
Iris snorts, setting her brush down. "Never serious, are you?"
I laugh and slump down onto my bed. My makeup is already done, and my hair is fine as it is, so all I have left to do is to wait for people to start showing up. "Do you know if anyone ever found out why Noah Anderson got arrested?"
"Why?" Iris looks at me suspiciously. "Are you into him?"
"Ew. No. I'm just curious. And I want to know the hot gossip. Curiosity will actually kill me, Iris."
Iris rolls her big eyes, looking at me through the mirror. "Brett heard that he apparently roofied a bunch of girls. But he's out now. His good old daddy worked his lawyer magic."
Nausea rolls through me. "Seriously? That's so fucked up." Bad people get away with bad stuff all the time, that's why the world is so unfair. My Grandpa used to tell me that all the time. I never realized how right he was, I was just too young to understand the truth behind those words.
If Noah Anderson got arrested he probably did something bad enough to deserve it.
"Tell me about it," Iris sighs, turning her attention back to painting her face. My mind is running through a thousand thoughts right now. Grayson won't tell me what he's up to, but I know he's not here in this town for nothing and I'm determined to find out the truth.
He can push me away all he wants, that's not going to stop me.
"Layla," my mom huffs, entering the room. "I called you five times." She looks absolutely gorgeous in her long, white, A-line dress.
"Sorry, my phone's dead, and Iris won't give up the charger. What's up? You look drop-dead gorgeous, by the way."
A small smile slides over her face. "Come downstairs. We have a surprise for you."
One thing about me is that I absolutely love surprises. I leap up with joy and follow behind my mom.
"Did Grandpa finally give in and buy me a Mercedes?" I beam with a little pep in my step.
"No," my mom chuckles. "I think you'll like this even better."
"What could be better than a Mercedes?" I ask, confused. But the confusion washes away the moment I see my brother standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Nate!" I practically scream and then I'm running down the stairs and flying into his arms with so much force he stumbles back.
He manages to keep us upright and holds onto me tightly. It's the best feeling in the world. "My sweet sister, how I've missed you." Nate sets me down and takes me in, I do the same. He's so tan and his hair is buzzed short. Physically he doesn't look that much different but there's so much happiness in his eyes now, lighting him up. "Look at you." A tear runs down his cheek and my eyes fill up at the sight of it. "You're all grown up."
"Yeah," I smile, wiping my tears. He picks me up again and spins me around.
"Christ, Nate, put her down before she flashes us," Brett laughs. Once I'm on the ground again Nate runs towards Brett and they hug like brothers. I can't help but smile from ear to ear at the sight of it. This is exactly what I needed after the week I've had.
Hale and Grayson walk in from outside, side by side with a couple bouquets of flowers in their hands. They hand them off to one of the workers my grandparents hired tonight that happened to be scurrying by around us.
"Hale, this is my son, Nate. Nate this is my fiancé, Hale, and his nephew, Grayson."
Nate brings Hale in for a hug because that's just who he is. "It's nice to finally meet you, I've heard so many great things about you."
"Likewise," Hale grins as they break away from their hug. Nate turns his attention to Grayson and he reaches a hand out in his direction. "I hope you're enjoying it here with the Langleys. They are a lot of fun."
Grayson shakes my brother's hand but I can sense that he's a little stiff. "They've been the most welcoming."
My brother smiles and my mom mentions something about getting some food in Nate's belly after his long flight so they all head off towards the kitchen. Grayson lingers, and so do I.
We haven't talked since last night. Since he told me to fuck off.
"What are the flowers for?"
"For the vases in the kitchen. Hale said there wasn't much color and that he had to do something about it," Grayson explains, hands in the pockets of his loose, black slacks. He's not that dressed up, wearing just a black polo shirt on top.
I cross my arms over my chest. His hair is slightly wet because it's still raining outside and I'm hit with the sudden urge to run my fingers through it. "Sounds like something Hale would say."
He leans onto the banister at the bottom of the stairs, the muscles in his arms flexing. He looks me over, my dress, my legs, my shoes. Then his eyes meet mine again and I don't know why my heart is beating so fast.
The doorbell rings and the Millers are here, all their grandkids in tow. Grayson wanders off and soon guests are arriving one by one and the house is starting to fill up. I'm getting tired of greeting people.
Apparently, everyone around my age has taken to staying in the family room upstairs and the kids are running around and causing commotion. A little boy I don't even know zooms right past me, almost hitting me.
I walk over to the front of the house where the majority of the adults are lingering and talking and my eyes land on a familiar face. My heart drops. "Liam?"
He looks over at me, surprised, a flute of champagne in his hand. "Hey, Layla," he says slowly, eyes traveling down my body and I hate that he's doing that.
I try to hide my dissatisfaction. "What are you doing here?" Although, even I can hear the bite in my voice.
He sets his glass down. "Your Grandma called me a few days ago and told me I should come. You know how hard it is to say no to Margaret."
"That's true," I say but don't smile. "Well, everyone's upstairs if you want to go. I was just about to head up."
"Sure," he nods with a little bit of a smile. I walk around my grandparent's house to the staircase, Liam follows behind me like a lost puppy even though he's been here before. It's part of his whole persona. Partly clueless and totally adorable.
Some have described him as a golden retriever boy. Sweet, caring, funny, the quarterback of the football team, basically everything a girl could want growing up. They forget the cheater part, though.
The family room isn't as packed as I was expecting it to be. Iris sits off in the corner in a full-out conversation with Nate. Brett talks to some of the younger guests on the couch and some kind of movie is playing on the flat-screen TV. Grayson is nowhere to be seen.
"Layla, before we go in do you think we could talk somewhere? Private? Isn't your room down that way?"
I really don't want to talk to Liam. What could we possibly have to talk about now? He already apologized fifty times before I left for my grandparents. Unless he wants to ask me for permission to start seeing Hayley Marshall. That would definitely be a fun conversation.
"I guess," I say, just wanting it to be over.
When we step inside my room he shuts the door behind him and then stands there, fiddling with his hands. Is he nervous? I never saw him nervous in our one-and-a-half-year relationship, like ever. He was always so sure of himself it was part of the reason why I liked him so much. Why I loved him.
"I'm just going to say it outright. I miss you. And I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. I was an idiot and I made a mistake."
I let out a sigh. He wants to get back together? I really was not expecting that. I genuinely believed he was happy and moved on.
Luckily I'm saved by a knock on my door so I don't have to respond right away. I let out a sigh of relief and open the door to see Grandma. She stares at me, then at Liam, then a grin breaks out across her face. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. The workers are busy with appetizers and drinks but we need another speaker from the shed out back, the music is still too quiet. Are you able to get it?"
"Of course," I nod.
At the same time, Liam says, "I'll go with you."
"No," I say, flashing a hand through the air. "You need to give me some time to process that bomb you just dropped on me."
As I walk past my Grandma I notice the excited look on her face. I don't know how excited she would be if she knew the truth. She never would have called Liam up in the first place and he never would have came and I never would have had to hear those stupid words come out of his mouth. I should have just told the truth.
I head back downstairs towards the back door trying to forget what Liam just said. Grandma is right, it's still a little bit quiet.
I head outside into the rain without even thinking about it and by the time I realize it's already too late. No point in going back for a jacket now.
I kick open the door of the shed and Grayson is sitting there on a makeshift couch made out of boxes.
"Grayson? What are you doing in here?"
"Avoiding the social interaction and the dozen annoying questions from strangers and the weird glances," he answers as I start sifting through the boxes. "What about you?"
"Looking for a speaker. Have you seen it?"
He shakes his head but gets up to help me look.
"Who was that dude you went upstairs with?"
I look at Grayson in the low light of the shed and for some reason, I want to tell him everything. "That was my ex. My grandma invited him."
Grayson makes a face that would equate to the word yikes. I nod in agreement at his reaction.
"Why'd you break the poor lad's heart?" Grayson is looking through some of the boxes higher up, his height giving him an advantage.
I laugh at that and Grayson smiles at me and I think this is the first time I've ever seen him genuinely smile. "I didn't break his heart. He cheated on me. Nobody knows that though, so don't tell anyone."
Grayson's eyes widen in surprise and when his smile slips away I wish I hadn't said that because his smile is actually really nice and I would have liked to look at it for a bit longer.
"I won't tell anyone," he says seriously. "What a piece of shit."
"He is," I agree. Where is this damn speaker?
"Is this it?" Grayson asks, holding the black tube. The small speaker doesn't look like it'll do much but I tell Grayson to run it inside to my grandma anyway while I look if there's another one.
"I wish I didn't have to go back inside," I sigh, sitting down on Grayson's makeshift couch.
He stops in the doorway. "Wait here. I'll run this inside and come back, we can chill out here for a while."
I don't know why I do it, but I sit down and wait.