Claiming Serenity(44)
Layla saw the visible release of Sayo’s tension as her shoulders relaxed against the bench and she twisted around, pulling her feet underneath her small body. “What was that about?”
“Nothing that makes any sense at all.” Layla and her friends shared body language, stares and glances that clued each other into warnings, suspicions and completely eradicated any hint of bullshit they may try to slip over each other. Sayo used those clues just then, staring at Layla, her eyes tight until Layla was unable to take the scrutiny and she leaned her head back, staring up at the stars, not bothering to keep the frustration from her tone. “Things have gone stupid with him. It’s all complicated and messy and really not worth talking about.” She grabbed Sayo’s hands, sitting up straight. Talking about Donovan and yet another one of their stupid pranks wasn’t why she’d brought Sayo out that night. She had to focus if she wanted to make this apology count. “I’m a stupid, selfish bitch and most of the time I forget how very tiny I am.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, sweetie,” she said, sitting up to set her cup on the ground at her feet and pinch the bridge of her nose. “I’m twenty-four. I’m immature and greedy and most days I think I’m in my own sort of vapid orbit. I forget that there are people wishing for the things in life I forget with very little effort.” Layla glanced at Sayo, feeling more relaxed when her friend’s face softened. “I forget that I am very small, that my problems are, compared to all the shit that rises and sets in everyone’s day. I’m sorry.” Sayo let her take her hand and squeezed back when Layla grabbed her fingers. “I’m sorry that this utter bullshit is happening to Rhea. It should be skinheads or pedophiles or greedy corporate jackasses who get rich off their minimum wage workers that get sick. Not smart little girls full of life. This shouldn’t touch her, it shouldn’t touch you, and I forget sometimes that what I think is suffering, is fucking chocolate rainbows compared to others.”
Layla thought she’d said too much, that reminding Sayo of her cousin’s illness, of the hardships her entire family had been facing, had crossed a line she wasn’t supposed to notice existed. It was an unspoken awkwardness that people generally tried not to broach anytime someone was dying. Don’t mention THE sickness. Don’t mention THE finality or the inevitable death that loomed in the distance. Layla hadn’t simply stepped over that line, she’d pirouetted across it like the loud, obnoxious brat she knew she was.
But as Layla watched Sayo, she noticed her friend flirting toward something she hadn’t done in months. Sayo smiled. “Chocolate rainbows?”
“What?” Layla blinked, smiling at Sayo like that grin of her was contagious. She wanted to keep her friend smiling. She wanted to make her forget, just for a few minutes, that her life, her loss, wasn’t the only thing on her mind. Layla did what she was good at. She tried for humor. “Like you wouldn’t step on my head to get to one. Chocolate and rainbows, Sayo. That shit would be awesome.” That smile only grew wider and Layla thought she might have heard a small laugh. It certainly sounded like Sayo’s long withheld giggle.
“Strawberries,” Sayo said, behind a sip of coffee.
“Huh?”
She shrugged, but that grin did not fall. “Strawberry rainbows. I’d cut you for a strawberry rainbow.”
“But chocolate…”
That honest, shocked tone in Layla’s voice struck Sayo as funny and finally, she surrendered to the joke, laughing loud and long and beautifully. “I don’t really like chocolate.” Layla stared at her like she was insane. “We don’t have to like the same things. Besides, you remember that Easter I made myself sick on dark chocolate after the church passion play? Father O’Bryant still takes two step backs from me when he sees me at mass. I haven’t had much taste for it since.”
Layla blinked at her friend, astounded by this shocking revelation. “It’s like you’re not human.”
“Shut up.” Sayo nudged her with her elbow but kept that wide smile on her face.
“What’s going on with Quinn?” Stupid, dumb asshole, Layla called herself when that perfect smile fell from Sayo’s lips.
“What do you mean?”
“Autumn told us that Declan makes him volunteer at the hospital?”
Sayo only nodded, seemed distracted by the question, by the mention of the hospital and the jackass Irishman who had been dumped right into their laps. Layla had seen the way Quinn looked at Sayo. Hell, Autumn had told her about the threat that Declan and Donovan gave him to stay clear of all of them. But something in Sayo’s features told Layla there were details she was missing.