"Lydia, come on you're going to be late! It's almost finals, you know you can't miss so close to the exams."
"Ugh."
"I heard that."
I threw my pillow at my incessant brother trying to wake me up from my peaceful wallowing slumber and balked when I checked the time on my phone. I was totally going to be late.
I balked once more when I turned to my 'closet' and only found a torn and soiled wedding dress still lying on the ground before me and my dirty workout clothes on the ground right along with it.
All I had to wear was the silk pajama shorts and lounge shirt I was currently wearing and the street clothes I'd brought with me in my overnight bag from my old apartment.
I knew I needed to bite the bullet and go to Nate's to get the rest of my stuff, but the cut was still so deep and new, the raw blistering of what he'd done to me still festering in that hollow space underneath my ribcage.
Nevertheless, I was still late and didn't have time to gather my things from the old apartment and my street clothes were still dirty from the day before and also in a pile-
Wait. No, they were nowhere to be found in my room.
I didn't pay any regard to my current state of clothing as I stormed into the kitchen to find all three guys where they always were- sitting at the breakfast bar eating and messing around.
"Have you seen my clothes?"
Emmett's eyes raked up and down my body causing a flush to run through me and I raised an eyebrow at him in a questioning fashion, but it was only when Lucas cleared his throat then hit him on the arm that he finally tore his eyes away from mine.
"They're sitting on top of the dryer, folded."
That came from Reed.
"Thank God. You are a lifesaver," I announced to him, crossing the threshold of the kitchen to give him the biggest hug I could muster.
"Damn, what's a guy gotta do around here to get one of those?"
Reed laughed while Lucas hit Emmett once again, but I didn't have time to dilly dally. This was my first day back since what happened with Nate and Layla and I didn't-
Layla.
How had I let that one major detail slip my mind?
We had socioeconomics together...how was I supposed to face her after what she'd done to me?
She hadn't called or texted to even attempt an apology, and she was over at my- Nate's apartment the day after they were caught so it wasn't like they were trying to be discreet about their betrayal.
I stopped dead in my tracks and plopped myself down at the kitchen table with my head in my hands.
"What are you doing? I thought you said you were going to be late?"
"I can't go, Luc. Layla's going to be there."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Uh, Who's Layla?"
I groaned and dropped my head down onto my arms, the glass top of the dining room table doing little to cool the raging anger coursing through my veins at my once so-called best friend.
"My ex best friend."
The venom in my voice was palpable and it was clear to everyone in the room why, given I had heard Lucas' explanation as to why I was living with them in the first place. It wasn't hard to connect the dots.
"Oh shit. With your best friend? That's just sick."
"Yeah."
My voice was devoid of emotion but it wasn't hard to admit that Emmett knowing these details about my life was utterly humiliating.
What did it say about me as a woman that my fiancé had cheated on me with someone so close to me? What was worse was the fact that I didn't know if it was just the one time, or if it had been an ongoing affair.
So many questions that I both wanted the answers to yet didn't at the same time.
Too much information would kill me with the pain of knowing, but in the same breath, the not knowing would tear me to shreds.
"Well, you have to go to school. If you're going to show them that you're strong and won't let them get you down, then you have to go."
That was Reed who supplied that gem of advice, but I still wasn't really in the mood to see her face, wether it be one of gloat or impossible guilt, I still couldn't face her if there was even a tiny chance that she felt no regret for her actions and our entire relationship was a lie.
Emmett crouched down beside me so that we were eye level, and the amount of heat mirrored back to me in them was enough to light mine on fire.
"Here, go get dressed and show them that they can't break you."
I cast my eyes down and saw the clothes he held in his hands. We locked eyes once more and I had to break it almost immediately as the emotions rising in me were getting harder and harder to ignore, as well as the memories from the day before when he'd been just as close to me.
Close enough to see the white ring around the blue in his eyes and the small dark freckles on his sweeping cheekbones-
I had to snap out of it, otherwise I would look so desperate staring at him like I was.
"Okay, I guess I get to study for my finals and confront my backstabbing bff all in the same day."
I gingerly accepted my clothes from Emmett, not failing to notice the smirk in his eyes as I shivered when his fingers brushed mine.
I hated that he knew the effect he had over me, but that was a battle for another day.
***
"Thanks for driving me," I told Lucas as he pulled up to the front parking lot of our school.
"Its not a problem, I know you still need to go back and get your car pretty soon..."
I averted his worried gaze and reassured him that I would be ready to go and collect my things sooner rather than later and then I was out of the car and walking up the front steps of my college that I'd attended for two years.
Just a few final exams and I'd be on my way to being a junior.
Seeing Layla's car parked out front, however, made me question if I wanted to continue at Bates College or apply at a technical school to get away from her and Nate.
The first hours of school went by without any event. I kept to myself so no one really knew me all that well there, except for Layla of course.
I flew through my history and business classes with ease, accepting the study materials for the upcoming exams with desperation. I'd sustained a four point grade average and I wasn't about to let Nate and Layla ruin that.
One look at her red bouncing curls as she strutted down the hallway like a runway, however, made me want to rethink everything and dash back to Lucas' house, escape under the covers and eat my weight in chocolate truffles.
I squared my shoulders and focused on the best blank faced expression that I could muster and finally her eyes fell upon mine.
Her facial features faltered, crumpled, then rebuilt themselves again when she noticed the resolve etched onto my own face.
Confusion flitted throughout her demeanor and I new she wasn't expecting me to show my face so early, and I was glad that the guys had pressured me into coming back so soon to confront her, even if confrontation was so not my thing.
"Layla," I said in passing, making my way to the front of the classroom to our usual seats. If she knew any better she'd wait to speak one word to me until after the class was over, but she never had much common sense in the first place.
She fell into the chair beside me and tapped her long red acrylic nails against the plastic tabletop.
"Alright everyone, we have a ton of material to cover before your finals next week, so we can't waste any time. Take out your notes and..."
I spaced out after pulling out my writing utensils and mindlessly wrote everything on the board without absorbing any information, Layla's presence unnerving me and distracting the hell out of me.
I took what felt like the first breath in years once the class ended and was prepared to walk all the way back to my new home than face Layla, but luck wasn't on my side.
Her hand pulled on my arm once we reached the hallway and I spun to face her, the devil dancing behind my eyes.
She noticed the crazed angry look in my eyes and was smart to back away a bit before wiping the half scared look off of her face and replacing it with placid boredom.
"What are you doing here? I heard you ran away."
I scoffed and folded my arms across my chest.
"What, after I found you giving my ex fiancé a blowjob at his work? No, I didn't run away, I just left him. Where's your shame, blowing him at his job like a common whore?"
The fake smile started slipping at my insult as more and more people took notice of our conversation. She straightened her white blouse, more of her cleavage spilling out.
I rolled my eyes.
My heartbeat was pounding behind my ears in a pattern to the tune of my favorite song- revenge.
"Or did you not know that sucking the dick of your best friend's fiancé was frowned upon?"
The guys near us let out immature 'oooh's' at us walking by and erupted into childish laughter but I didn't have time for them. It was reckoning time, and I was going to get Layla back for what she'd done to me.
"You think that was just a one time thing? We've been together for a year and a half, almost half the time you were a couple. He was going to leave you for me. I was the one he really loved, not you. You were just too stupid and naive to realize that no one will ever love you the way-"
She was interrupted. By a hand. My hand, across her face.
Her head whipped back from the force of my strike against her and soon there were chants all around us urging us to fight like we were back in high school.
I turned on my heel and left, letting my palm do the talking to finish the conversation for me.
I walked away feeling slightly vindicated, yet even more angry than I was before. The next strike would be against Nate, and it wasn't going to be pretty.