Layne's POV
Even without a destination, I find myself at Ray's. I knock on the door, and hear a shuffling from within the thin walls. She answers in nothing but a sports bra and boxers, "What?"
"Aren't you going to invite me in? Hit on me? Get me drunk and take advantage of me?" I question. It's strange of her not to appear elated to see me.
"Nah, I'm good," she dismisses me with a shake of her head, "What do you need?"
"A place to stay?" I suggest.
"Look kid," She pulls the door shut and motions for me to sit down, "We've had fun the last couple of days, yeah? But you can't stay here, though. I've got my girl coming and---"
"Your girl?"
"Yeah," she nods, "My fiancee."
"You're engaged and you were still fucking me?" I resist the urge to hit her, "That's disgusting."
"You're lecturing me about cheating?" she laughs, "You knew who I was, Sinclair."
The door opens behind us and a pretty, tall, woman opens up. I can tell just from looks she's about ten years older than us. "Who's this baby?"
"Hey," Ray immediately stands, kissing her, "This is Layne. Layne, this is my fiancee, Reece."
"Nice to meet you hon," she shakes my hand.
"She was just leaving," Ray states.
"Right," I stand as well, "I'll leave y'all alone. Congratulations."
I get back into my car and drive to where I should've gone in the first place.
***
KJ opens the door with a bowl in one hand and a lighter in the other. She realizes this about the same time I do, and smirks, "Hey."
"Hey," I glance behind her, "Can I-- um-- Can I come in?"
She nods and steps out of the way. With the door closed, she lights her piece and takes a hit, clearly not caring that I'm present.
"You're gonna smoke that in front of me?" I ask, incredulous.
"You're gonna ask me to stop?" she takes a seat in the living room, and I follow her. We end up in the same spots as the other night, "What's up?"
"I need a place to stay for a couple of nights," I can't keep the desperateness out of my tone, "Please."
She nods and takes a hit off her pipe. "Wanna hit?" she ignores me and passes me the pipe.
"Seriously?"
"You seem stressed," she takes another hit than holds it out to me again, "C'mon. You want to. I can see it in your eyes."
"Fine," I accept the piece and let the smoke fill my lungs, holding it in, and then blowing it out my nostrils.
"Happy?" I start to hand it back but she declines. "This is a puff puff pass household," she smirks.
I roll my eyes and take another, deeper, drag from it before handing it back.
We finish that bowl and then smoke another. And another. Pretty soon, we're both so high we're about to touch the clouds.
"Hey Layne?" KJ dumps out the ashes from that bowl and puts everything away.
"Yeah?"
"Are you hungry?"
We head out to her truck and she drives us into town. The entire time I find myself staring at her dash, feeling as if we're going one hundred miles instead of the actual sixty.
"You can drive high?" I ask.
"Can I drive high?" She laughs, "I went to college in Colorado. I spent just about every day of my BA and MA programs stoned like Grand Canyon."
I chuckle and she flashes another smile at me. God, I love that smile.
"Are you in the mood for anything?" she asks me. Definitely in the mood for something...
"I'm thinking burgers," she whips into a Sonic and parks, "Know what you want?"
"You don't have to---"
"I'm paying," she interrupts me, "So what do you want?"
I tell her and she orders everything, then we wait for our food. She clicks on the radio as we wait, her playlist making its way out of the speakers. For a moment I think it's English, but I soon realize that it's something Asian.
"It's Korean," she says, obviously noticing my confusion. I nod and lay back, enjoying the beat booming out of the speaker.
"Weed really shuts you up huh?" she teases. I do nothing but laugh in response, not able to formulate a clear witty thought in this state. She laughs at my non-response as well and I laugh simply because she's laughing. Her laughter is something to get lost in. Robust and loud, it's a sound that plays in your mind long after the joke is over.
Our car hop arrives and hands her the food, which she hands over to me. I pull the paper bag of deliciousness to my chest, absorbing the warmth. Kaylie Jane glances over at me, but opts not to say anything. Instead she just chuckles to herself and drives us home.
Back at the house we set up in the kitchen with our food. As I eat, my high starts to wear down and I miss it almost immediately.
She steals one of my cheese sticks, "Hey! You literally have your own!"
She smirks at me, "Consider it revenge."
I roll my eyes, "That's just petty."
"You know what else is petty?" she asks, before snatching another one.
"You're just a piece of shit," I laugh, "I take back what I said the other night."
"Wait which thing?" a bit of panic sparks in her eyes. She doesn't remember.
"That I have fun with you," I don't miss a beat, "You're actually the worse, now that I think about it."
"Oh am I?" She laughs and takes one more cheese stick, before laughing manically again.
I shake my head in mock disappointment, "Not only are you the worse, you don't even care."
We finish our food and move into the living room to watch TV. I notice that while KJ and Vin had updated some things, like the TV and PlayStation were both new, they'd left everything else the same. The couch. The love seat. They were both the same staged furniture we left when we moved out, in case we ever rented it. But I'd always figured we never would.
The only room that was untouched was mine, and nobody ever asked me to clean it out.
KJ's POV
I wake up and take a minute to get my barrings. Layne's on top of me, snoring softly, her obnoxiously long hair covering us like a blanket. The TV is still running on one of the movie networks, telling me that we must've fell asleep watching it last night. My phone lies dead on the table, having not been charged the night before.
I hit the TV menu and realize that I'm definitely late for work. Fuck.
I consider how to move Layne without her waking up as well. Because if she wakes up, she's going to smile at the sight of me. And if she smiles at the sight of me, I'll realize I'm the reason she's smiling. And if I realize I am the reason she is smiling, I'll want to kiss her. And if I want to kiss her, she'll realize I want to kiss her and then she'll kiss me. And if she kisses me I'll let her do just about everything else to me. And that will probably include her fucking me on this sofa.
And I did not have time to be fucked on the sofa.
Suddenly, Layne jumps awake, as surprised as I am about our position. "Morning," she smiles. Fuck.
I shove her off of me and onto the floor, "I'm late for work," I mumble. I rush upstairs and hurry to change before running out. I choose to go with the truck today, mostly because I need to make a phone call.
"Hello?" her voice hits me with a blast of nostalgia and for a moment I can't speak. "Who is this?"
"Wren Davis?" I manage to croak out, "It's um--- This is Kaylie Jane Parker."
She laughs, "You know when I told you to call me, I didn't mean in five years."
"I, uh, I lost your number," I lie.
"Well how convenient of you to find it," she jokes.
"I moved back into the area and I was wondering if you wanted to meet for coffee?" I ask.
"Oh, Kaylie Jane," she laughs, "You know you've always been mine."
***
When I arrive at work, I find my door is already unlocked and Charlie and Ella are already inside.
"Look who decided to show up," Ella jokes. I pretend not to notice they're holding hands.
"How did you get in here?" I ask. Charlie shrugs and I turn to Ella for answer, "How does anyone get anywhere?"
"Today is not the day, kid," I repeat my question, "How did you get in here?"
"I have a confession," she pauses for dramatic effect, "I'm Houdini reincarnated."
"Ella!"
She shrugs, "I picked the lock."
"How criminal of you," I roll my eyes and motion towards the door, "Now if you don't mind."
"I don't get a thank you?" she questions, "I saved your ass with Ms. Lea."
"Ella," I repeat, "I'm not in the mood."
"Fine. I'll go," she kisses Charlie's hand and whispers something in her ear before departing. I close the door behind her and take a seat.
"She's something else, huh?" I face Charlie and she nods.
"Will I be graced with hearing your beautiful voice today?" I smile at her.
"No," she responds, then giggles. I laugh as well.
"I think I'm gonna let you take control today," I suggest, "I want to know what goes on in your head Ms. Charlie."
"My head?" she repeats. Her voice is softer than the first time I heard it, and I realize that it probably sounded that way from disuse.
"I mean, I love your art, but I think I'm starting to like your voice better," I reply, "You're not allowed to stop talking to me now. Can't let you."
She stares at me and I can see fear flicker behind her eyes. "It's okay, though, if you just wanna break my heart instead," I put my hands up in defense, "I guess."
"Paper." she says in a response to all of that, shutting down. Small steps, KJ.
After I finish with Charlie, Ella comes back to me, the gleam in her eye telling me she's not going to make my job easier.
"Good afternoon," she slides into a chair, "You don't look very happy to see me."
I force a smile, "You're standing directly between me and lunch. Anyway, what's going on, kid?"
"I think she's starting to want to talk to me," Ella leans in close, "I'm gonna break her, soon. I can feel it."
I pause a beat before responding. "Ella, you know that I talk to Charlie already? Your time is supposed to be about, ya know, you?"
"I'm boring," she shrugs me off, "Don't you have a nifty folder filled with every thing anyway?"
"I have your case file, yes. But I don't think that's really you. Is it?"
"I don't know. Is it?"
"Well," I pull it out, "Okay. Fine. Solely based on your name is Teresa Maria Mortiz. At thirteen you were picked up for running away. The following year you were arrested for petty theft. On your sixteenth birthday your parents turned you over to the state and you started going by 'Ella'. Your current rap sheet is about the length of my arm and you've bounced in and out of every foster home in the city. You're now seventeen years old. According to this your only to options at this point are prison or death. If you're lucky that is."
I put her file back up and take in a rather shook Ella in front of me. "Does that sound like you?"
"You forgot the part where I push away and isolate every person who tries to reach out to me," she pulls herself back into reality, "But yeah that's about right. Hopefully I can get prison. With prison comes prison bitches."
My head throbs and pinch my temple. "I don't believe that. Why are you here?"
"What?"
"Why haven't you gotten rid of me? This morning I was late and you opened up my office for me. You said it yourself- 'you covered for me'. Why not let Ms. Lea catch me? Why not let me get fired?"
"Did you want to get fired?" she combats me with, "Because if you did, why are you here? And if you didn't, why don't you take your job a little more serious?"
"Look---" My temper flares and I struggle to keep it down. I harden my voice. "My job is not to take shit from an arrogant teenager," I check my folder again, "You age out the system in five months. What are you gonna do? Be homeless? You're almost an adult. I'm just trying to make sure you're a functioning one. That's why I'm here. But I'll be damned if you sit here and waste an hour of my life every week."
"Are you done?" she asks, arms crossed.
"Yeah."
"Good," she stands up and leaves, slamming the door behind her.