In Her Sleep

Girl Talk

Layla scans her surrounding one more time. Everything is perfect except for one glaring thing. She can feel her heart begin to ache a little too because of it. They were fine before, but she has no idea what has happened all of a sudden. She looks his way again, but just like the last couple of times before, Caleb holds her gaze for just a little over a second or two and he averts them altogether.
If she didn't know better she would think he is avoiding her. And he is not even being subtle about it. 

Over lunch he chose to sit between Emma and Emily and truth be told, she was jealous of the two girls at that moment. Hell, she is jealous even now. 
Seeing them walk away happily is surprisingly leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. She heard them say something about getting the camping site ready for tonight. She didn't even get an invite to go along, meanwhile he gladly took the girls along with Darren.
She had even considered inviting herself along, but stopped at the last minute. She feared he might just tell her no outrightly which would even be more embarrassing.

"Stop over thinking everything Layla." 
She slides into her beach seat to get comfortable and keep herself from staring at the path Caleb took before disappearing into the woods. All this thinking is beginning to give her a headache. She instead decides to cover her face with the sun hat and get her mind to pick a less energy draining topic to ponder on. After all this trip is meant for just that. 

"Why the long face?"

Layla looks up and finds Janice looking at her with concern. She wonders how Janice is able to see her face, when she thought she hid herself perfectly with the huge sun hat. She appreciates having her beside the lake too as she enjoys the less harsh rays of the afternoon sun, even though her mind is too distracted to enjoy it fully.

"Nothing…" Layla replies quickly almost as if taking longer would give Janice an opportunity to get into her head, which would definitely be embarrassing. How is she supposed to tell her that she is jealous of her two little girls and husband for being with Caleb right now. Even she feels weird about it. 

"It doesn't look like nothing to me." Janice says a thought later.

"It's stupid. Forget it." Layla says after a moment.

"If something stupid is giving you such a long face, I highly doubt it's nothing. Out with it." Janice says, while she sits on the seat next to Layla.

"Is…. is everything okay with Caleb?" Layla finally asks, deciding to put herself out of her misery.

"What do you mean?" Janice turns to her, a frown on her face.

"I don't know." Layla shrugs her shoulders. 

"Why, did something happen?" Janice sits up and looks at her seriously this time.

"I don't know. I just think he is acting weird all of a sudden, or maybe I'm being paranoid." She replies.

"Weird how?"

"I...I don't know. I just think he is avoiding me that's all." Layla feels a familiar lump in her throat. For whatever reason, the thought that Caleb may be avoiding her stings more than it should.
"Don't you find it weird that he is there and I'm here or that he didn't ask me to go with the gang?" She looks at Janice who is looking at her thoughtfully. She averts her eyes afraid Janice might think she is being clingy.

"Well, now that you mention it. It's definitely weird, so unlike him. Did you guys have a fight or something."

"No." Layla answers quickly. "Everything was fine until he suggested we go for a swim, which he ended up having without me. I didn't even want to swim in the first place."

"Invited you? Was that before or after you suited up?" Janice suddenly sits up in excitement. 

"Before." Layla replies, wondering what that has got to do with anything.