limerence | COMPLETED

04

LAYLA ISN'T SURPRISED TO NOTICE THE LACK OF SNOW AS SHE MAKES HER WAY TO SCHOOL.

She pauses mid-step when she notices a lonely pile of icy snow tucked away at the side of the path, the only leftover traces she's seen that haven't yet melted, and she tucks her reddening hands into the pockets of her longline coat. There's only a month left until the true winter season will hit their town now and then they'll be buried beneath piles of it.

She slowly continues her walk to school and although she's pretty much missed homeroom, there's no hint of a hurry in her footsteps. Mercy texts her just as she nears the school steps to inform her their homeroom teacher has marked her as absent. Unbothered, Layla sends back a quick okay and calmly trails through the school doors.

Opening her locker, Layla sighs at the messy pile of textbooks and novels that she didn't care to organise properly the day before. Why does she do this to herself? She places her bag down onto the floor and starts tidying them into a neater pile.

The sound of another locker creaking open followed by books toppling onto the floor distracts Layla from her organising, and she tenses the moment she glances down the hall to see a familiar face standing at the other end.

Apparently she's not the only one who's late.

Kai stares down at his fallen books and then glances up at the ceiling, appearing to let out a sigh before he crouches down to quickly shove the books into his bag, his brows pulling into a frustrated frown. He's completely oblivious to Layla standing frozen in her place and staring at him, shocked and breathless once again by how much he looks like him.

She startles however when he loudly shuts his locker door and paces down the hallway in her direction. Whipping around, she hides her face behind her own locker door and prays that he won't notice her. She doesn't even breathe.

Fortunately, he seems to be in too much of a hurry because he strides right past her without a single glance her way. She exhales a breath of relief. Thank God. Now she just has to keep this up for the next nine months until they graduate. How hard can that be?

"Sleeping beauty made it!" Mercy jokingly cheers once Layla finally takes her seat in English.

Layla shoots her a glare of protest and tries not to glance over at where Kai is sitting on the other side of the room, who is now listening to something James and Kyle are talking about and looking much more composed.

"It's unlike you to be late," Savannah comments, glancing up from her book, and Layla's thankful for the disruption.

"I fell asleep after my run."

Savannah frowns suspiciously. "How long were you out running for?"

"Not long," Layla easily lies.

Was running for over an hour straight classed as long? It's not like she did it on purpose. She even dreamt of him again last night - one of those beautiful dreams that haven't completely faded away yet. A dream where they'd lay side-by-side, pointing up at the stars lining the night sky and giggling at whatever silly things they were saying. It really was such a lovely dream and she'd felt so incredibly safe and warm and happy.

But then she'd awoken to her blaring alarm and reality had crashed back down onto her, along with the overwhelming crushing feeling that comes with it. So can she really be blamed for running until she can't breathe? Until she can't even focus on anything else but breathing? Until all she can feel is the familiar emptiness that is always resting on her chest? Can she really be blamed?

"Sure," Savannah says dubiously. Thankfully, the girl doesn't question her further and instead returns her attention back to her book.

Layla lets out a quiet breath as she reaches down to grab her English notebook out of her bag. When she places it open on the table, Mercy nosily glances over and widens her eyes in unnecessary and exaggerated concern.