“Freak, why are you still here, haven’t you had enough already?” She felt a knife-like feeling in her back; the girls were taunting her. That familiar feeling of her tears stinging returned; it wasn’t even supposed to be an insult anymore, right? She felt as if she had heard the same thing over and over again on a daily basis; Layla should be immune to it by now. But, in reality, it hurts even more than the first time.
It was a routine after being publicly humiliated over and over again, Layla would come back to her tiny apartment, hyperventilate from all the crying, throw anything in sight, and just hate herself. One mistake made her lose everything and everyone. After calming down Layla prayed. Not that she even really knew who she was praying too, or if anyone could hear her. She thought, “If he could, why hasn’t he done anything to help me?” For the last year of her life has been a downward spiral and she just needs someone...someone to help her.
“Really, you again? You’re SERIOUSLY showing your face around here?” It took every ounce of courage in Layla to not just fight back, but she always needed to remind herself that she was the one that made the mistake and did it to herself. She turned around, walked to the opposite side of where they were going, and slumped against a brick wall, hugged her knees tightly to her chest and buried her face into her hands.
“You okay there?” A deep voice and a dark figure appeared out of nowhere. She looked up; a tall, handsome, blue eyed, dirty blond hair flashed his smile at her. He was holding a hot chocolate from the local Starbucks and handing it to her. She just stared at him and didn’t say a word. He simply sat down right next to her, where they sat in awkward silence for what felt like an eternity. Finally he slowly got up and placed the hot chocolate next to her, smiled a genuine smile and left, looking back at her. Layla refused to make eye contact.
Layla, appalled by what had just happened, began thinking of what he possibly might want from her. It was always a trade; if she does this, they will do that. Layla, being the naive girl she was, pondered if he was actually being nice. She almost forgot what it was like to have someone be nice to her. From everything that she had experienced, her first reaction was to have her guard up. Nobody is every nice to just be nice these days, everyone has some intentions. The next day, he returned.
“Not to sound rude or anything but like... do you talk?” he said, almost smirking.
“Yes.” A simple answer; Layla refused to let herself give into this boy. She knew absolutely nothing about him, but something about him made her so drawn to him.
For the next few months, Layla and mysterious blonde boy would sit at the same spot everyday. Layla would drink her hot chocolate and blonde boy would drink his coffee. They had begun talking and making small jokes here and there. She learned his name, Chad, and where he was from. Layla held back, but she loved his smile and blue-ish, green-ish eyes. They captivated her, and they almost gave her a hope that she could be a better person.
Layla lay in her bed and thought to herself. Maybe this was a sign, maybe God finally heard her and sent her someone she needed. She had been hurt and abused all her life, trusting wasn’t an ideal idea to her, but trusting Chad was almost an instant reaction. He loved making her smile and wondered if there was anyone as beautiful and sweet as Layla. The two just clicked, and neither one of them knew why.
All it took was one bad day, one hot chocolate, and one boy to change her life forever. Layla had been waiting, praying, anticipating for that day, and she finally got it. She needed to be saved and pulled away from her destructive lifestyle; he did that, and much more.
“Let me fix your hair, Layla! The wedding is in 5 minutes, let’s go let’s go!” Chad’s little sister, her bridesmaid said.
“I just need to know one thing before we begin.” She stormed past, screaming Chad’s name.
“What?” He looked frightened.
“I just need to know, why did you come up to me that day?”
He looked up at her, releasing the air he kept bottled in his lungs and simply smiled. “You looked like you needed someone, and I wanted to be that someone.”