Good luck. This is… weird.
Warren's POV
It was lunch time when Layla pointed out the clouds.
And the fact that Megan was not here.
"Who the hell is Megan?"
She looked at me and rolled her eyes. "She controls the weather, stupid. She went to Iowa to help with that drought for her senior project. She is the only one who can help if the school gets caught in a storm. I just really hope those clouds don't get any worse."
I looked at her little lip pout and gave a quick check out of my peripheral vision before kissing it away. She looked at me with a half surprised- half amused expression, but gave a quick kiss back.
Her plan was becoming more insubstantial than Ethan's biceps.
And that's exactly how I wanted it.
I was just so angry that I lost control yesterday. Here I was, trying to keep my cool and collected and mysterious façade, and she has to go and wear that skirt. I'm going to kill her for that one day. I really am. I'm trying very hard to be composed and a gentleman, but still brooding and withdrawn enough to keep her interested.
It's exhausting.
Not to mention that she made these little whimpering sounds when she slept, so I only got two hours of sleep and had to double my coffee intake. Damn this woman, she will be the death of me.
And now I have to go and spend an hour after school with her in an enclosed white room.
Fantastic.
I took another look out the window. Those clouds looked pretty pissed. And they were green. That was just fucked up. I thought I had seen them before somewhere, but the bell rang, and I left for my class after a quick kiss with Layla.
She looked absolutely stunning today, and I took a moment to appreciate her ass swinging back and forth under my shirt.
That should probably be illegal.
I shook my head and headed to my next class. The day passed in an agonizingly slow daze.
Finally, the bell rang, and I let myself indulge in a brief breath of freedom, before the cruel realizations of reality his me like a tidal wave of freezing water.
Shit. Detention.
With Layla.
And if the rumors were true, Will and Gillian.
And Lash and Speed.
Sounds like a ton of fun.
The halls had already cleared out, and I took a peek out the window. The last bus was leaving into a boom of thunder behind the green-tinted clouds.
I walked over to Layla where she was trying to hold her locker door open, keep her bag from falling, and fit all her books in there. I smirked and leaned on the door, grabbing the bag with both hands, and held it open. She looked up and wiped a stray lock of hair from her face, a genuine smile playing over her features.
"Hey hippie."
"Thank you Warren. I just don't seem to have enough arms today." She packed in the last notebook and pulled on the strap, settling it on her shoulder. She stepped away and I slammed her locker door.
And she didn't even yell at me for not respecting school property.
She was changing faster than I had originally thought.
"So where is the detention room anyway? Seeing as you've probably been there plenty of times, and I used to be a perfectly normal girl before meeting you." She smiled a little too sweetly and winked.
I rolled my eyes and started walking down the hall, but inside, I was still trying to wrap my head around the changes. I had been doing that since she asked to stay at my apartment.
I just couldn't believe that sweet, innocent, flower child, Layla turned into this leather obsessed, sexy, amazing woman.
I really need to stop calling her hippie.
We passed Mr. Boy's room, and she brought his dying daisy she gave him for Teacher Appreciation week back to life.
On second thought… She will always be my hippie.
We made it to the detention room, and as I was about to usher her in, a crack of lightning lit up outside the windows, and the school shuddered slightly. A roaring filled the school, and Layla glanced at me with her eyes wide.
Principal Powers came running down the hall, heels in her hands, with Coach Boomer on her tail.
"Warren, get the kids out of there and follow me!"
Will, Gillian, Speed, and Lash heard her yelling and scrambled out of the detention room after I pulled Layla out of the way. She kept sprinting down the hall, sliding on her pantyhose, and I would have laughed if it didn't seem like such a serious situation.
We raced down the hall, made a hard left, and busted through the teachers' lounge door. She ripped a key from her neck, her hair and eyes frazzled, and opened a door on the back wall.
The door swung out and a bunch of cement steps led into the belly of the school.
Coach Boomer went down first, then Lash, Gillian, Speed, Will, Layla, me, with Powers in the rear.
She slammed the door shut behind us, and we went down about twelve steps before making a right and entering a dark, dank, cold, completely cement room.
We all rushed in and it was pretty spacious, for being underground, but the chill went straight to the bone. There were a few desks in there, and another door that looked like it went to a bathroom. There were hurricane, tornado, and monsoon survival posters on the back wall.
"Okay kids, settle down." She looked at me and gestured her head to Layla, who was on the verge of a panic attack. I gathered her in my arms and remembered that she told me last night at the park that she was immensely claustrophobic. She started crying against my shoulder, and I just kept her hair out of her face, trying to get her to calm down.
"Okay, okay, right, well, this is the tornado shelter. You will be serving detention in here, as The Commander and Jetstream try to take down Whirlwind. She's a relatively new supervillain, so you shouldn't be here for too long.
"Make yourselves comfortable, and we'll get you out of here as soon as I hear word that she's contained. Mr. Peace, Mr. McLaughlin," She gestured to me and Lash. "Your super vehicles were moved to an underground holding facility, and I assure you that they are safe, sound, and without a scratch."
"As with the detention room, this shelter is under video surveillance, so Coach Boomer and I will be helping The Commander and Jetstream. This is still detention, so be good." With that she slipped her shoes back on, smoothed her hair, and followed Coach Boomer out, shutting the door behind her.
Lash stretched across the room and smirked to himself. "Okay, no neutralizers. Sweet." He and Speed took up shop in the back row, and Will and Gillian sat down at desks on the other side of us, one behind the other, and Gillian turned around. They began whispering, and glanced over at Layla and me every few seconds.
I however, had a hysterical hippie on my hands, so I favored the floor to a desk, and sat against the wall. She was still crying and crawled into my lap, her eyes shut tight, and breathing in short gasps and hiccups.
The school rocked slightly, and she let out a soft sob, bunching my shirt in her hands and permanently attaching her face to my shoulder. I took out her ponytail and started stroking her hair, hoping that she calmed down soon.
It was totally silent for about ten minutes, except for her near maniacal tears and sobs when the ground rumbled.
"Oh for the love of the powers, shut up!" I snapped my head up and saw Gillian glaring at the weeping girl in my arms.
"She has acute claustrophobia, bitch. So shut your mouth before I hurt you." I looked down at the redhead and let the flames awaken under my skin, raising my body temperature.
She was like an icicle.
But Gillian didn't know how to take a hint apparently.
She walked over, grabbed Layla's shoulder and tugged her back sharply, throwing her butt onto the ground.
"Shut. Up. No one wants to hear you incessantly whine." She started walking back to the desk, but I was up and standing behind her before she could blink.
"What is your problem? Are you always this much of a bitch?" She turned around and I saw her hand go up to slap me. I easily caught her weak wrist. "Oh please. I have no qualms about fighting girls. Especially when they're annoying. And especially when they start it."
She sneered at me and ripped her hand back. Will walked over with a nervous expression.
"Warren, cool it. We wouldn't be in this situation if you weren't here." I raised my eyebrow at him and Gillian smirked.
"Care to explain?"
He sighed angrily. "If you hadn't dated Layla, then she wouldn't be hanging out with you. If she wasn't hanging out with you, then she wouldn't be staying at your house. If she wasn't staying at your house then you guys wouldn't have… you know. And if you guys hadn't done it, then she wouldn't be wearing your shirt. And if she wasn't wearing your shirt, then she wouldn't have attracted unnecessary attention! And if you hadn't attracted unnecessary attention, then you would probably have been able to kiss without being caught! And if you weren't caught, then you wouldn't be in detention for PDA, resulting in this fight! It is all. Your. FAULT!"
I stared at him with my arms crossed and barely contained amusement on my face. He was raving mad, and kept pointing at me and Layla in turn.
She had stopped crying, but was still sitting on the floor, a similar expression of amusement dusting her features. I let a chuckle slip, and before I knew it, there was a Warren sized dent in the wall.
"You are a complete bastard. You know that? You completely changed her. She used to be a nice, kind, decent person. Ever since that night at the club, she's just been changing before our eyes. And you know what? I blame you. I want the old her back." He turned away from me and I pulled myself out of the hollow, dust choking the air.
Will turned to Layla, who had stood up and started over to me. "Layla, I want the old you back. What happened? Why did you become this person? Was it to make me jealous? Again? Was it because I left you? I just want the old you back."
She suddenly straightened up and threw back her shoulders, shrugging off the hand he placed on her arm. "Will, you no longer have the authority to make decisions for me. Once upon a time, yeah, I did kind of want to make you jealous. But that is over. And I guess it makes me stupid for not noticing it until now, but I actually like Warren. I like being his girlfriend. I like the way he makes me feel, and I like the way he's actually nice to me. He appreciates me.
"And I feel bad because ever since that first day, I've been trying to push people away. But I like my changes. I like wearing black and red. I like wearing Warren's shirts. I like talking to him and I like spending time with him. And I absolutely love how much he understands me. He understands me in a way that you never could. So go back to Gillian. Stop, for the love of all that is holy, just stop saying that you want the old me back. Because she is long gone."
She took a big breath, and stepped back, the realizations in her words hitting her like a ton of bricks.
Once she wrapped her head around the idea, a tranquil smile came to her lips, and for a split second, I saw a flash of hope flit across Will's eyes when she took a step forward.
The hope disappeared as she slid by him and came to wrap her arms around my waist.
I kissed her and leaned down to her ear.
"Mission fucking accomplished."
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That… was semi-anticlimactic. I don't know what to make of the ending, but I couldn't think of any other way to wrap it up. I'm not sure that I'm entirely happy with it. Thoughts?
P.S. Did you know that the codename for this in my computer is Layla's Helper?