CHAOS

LAYLA

I heard the doorbell ring. Once, Twice, Thrice. I huffed getting out of bed. Who is dying at-

"4:30 in the morning," I muttered. Another hell-spawned bell echoed through my peaceful house.
"STOP DYING AT 4:30 IN THE MORNING!" I yelled making my way out of my room. I heard Joseph snort. 

Things were weirdly comfortable between us, translation: he was tolerating me in my own house.

I opened the door,
"Still not a morning person I see?" Timothy in his deep, British voice said I opened my eyes wide. He looked different, better. More buff, more British. His blonde hair was brown now but the blonde accents were still visible. I threw my hands around him.

"Timothy! I am so happy you came!" I exclaimed.

He chuckled, and broke from the hug, looking at Joseph. Who was rigid with hate. Staring at him like a predator at his prey. 

I had to say. Timothy was still nothing like Joseph, in his morning glory.
With his tousled hair, white shirt and black joggers, and his face-

I caught his eyes trailing up my body and settling onto my eyes.
"You really called him, Layla?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Actually I called her," Timothy interwined. Joseph looked at him and then back at me, with a slightly betrayed look in his eyes.

"So what now huh? Is this like a reunion?Emily on her way? Are we gonna go to the movies? get popcorn? take photos in a fucking photo booth? That's what you expected?!" He asked, taking slow steps towards me. 

"I thought you'd feel better if we were all together-" Timothy was cut off.
"Of course. I was just gonna hug you, ask you about your life. After you fuc-" Joseph was cut off
"That is enough! Both of you," I said.
Things were getting too heated up just in the first 2 minutes of Tim's arrival.

"This is my house. I will decide who comes and goes in it, if anyone has a problem with it, they can walk out the door" I blurted out, frustrated. And we all fell into weird, awkward silence.

Until Timothy clapped his hands,
"wheres my room?" he said excitedly. I rolled my eyes and Joseph disappeared in his room slamming his door. 

~

What I didn't expect was another knock at my door that day.

I slipped into my slippers and opened my bedroom door. 
The baseball bat in my hand had collected dust and was slipping from my fingers. 

To see, the door already was opened. And someone was standing there. 
I squinted,

And my heart dropped.
Emma. Emma King. I looked at Timothy to see him frozen, literally. The same as Emma.

He slowly turned to Joseph and, they conversed by eyes. 

Soon, Timothy moved forward and took her bags in, which were a lot. She finally walked in looking nervous. 

Timothy took her hands in his and said something to her. We couldn't hear. They both nodded at each other. 

"Umm. Layla" He said, looking at me.
"Can we talk tomorrow morning?" I asked breaking the awkwardness in the room, which surrounded it twice this night. 
"Yeah, I'll take the couch," She said in a small voice, nodding.
"No, no. Take my room. It's just for the night we'll talk about that tomorrow too," 

And just like that I ended up on the bathroom floor.

~

It had been an hour and a half. And I was blaming myself for the core problem of water wastage in our building. The bathtub was full and I wasn't in it, I was far back sitting in the shower area where it was dry and weirdly warm. 

My eyes were closing up and my vision had somehow convinced me that the tap of the water outlet was way far than it actually seemed. I huffed. closing my eyes and looking up at the bathroom ceiling.

I heard a knock and before I could respond the handle twisted and the door opened. Revealing a wide-awake Joseph. I looked at him with wide eyes and said.

"I could've been naked you know," 
"Nothing I haven't seen before," he replied, not even bothering looking at me and closing the tap.
That shut me The Fuck up. And I just sat there trying to predict his next move.

He put his hands to his side, looking at the filled bathtub and then at me, shrunk in the corner of the shower.
He huffed, pushing the door, till it closed but didn't shut. He walked over to my side and slid down.

His presence made a shift in the aura of the small cubicle. The warm surface of the floor turned colder, and instead, his skin started radiating heat, till I could feel it on my shoulder.

I didn't dare look at his face. Because if I did I wouldn't be able to look away. A different kind of air surrounded us. A silence. Neither comfortable nor awkward.
The silence could be so loud that It would ring your ears.
The kind I didn't ever wanna experience again.

"I didn't invite her," I said, breaking the silence.
"I know," his reply was quick.
"And Timothy-"
"Don't even," he warned, fidgeting with his fingers. Shutting me up. I clicked my tongue closing my eyes and keeping a hand on them. I didn't quite know what to do, I was so confused. Which didn't happen quite often. I was planned, and organised when did I lose all that?

"Joseph, we are trying our best you know,"
He tried to cut me off but I went on
"We all are new to each other. I haven't seen Emily and Timothy in 10 years," I paused, looking at him. And surprisingly he was looking at me too.
"Joseph, I am not good at this. I need you to help me make it easy," I whispered.

He looked away and offered me no reply. 
Which made my stomach churn.
Because the worst thing was the fact that I hadn't seen Joseph in 12 years. 

And maybe after so many years, maybe had made the mistake of expecting a little more, from the one and only man I had ever loved.

Maybe I had made a mistake and held onto hope that was an illusion. A hallucination to make me feel better at the time.
And maybe Joseph was gone.

As I was spiralling into my own thoughts. He slowly took my arm in his and pulled me closer.

Our shoulders touched first and then my waist touched his stomach. The heat of his body slowly gave into me, and the parts of my body that couldn't reach it shivered. 

Weirdly, I felt at peace. The feeling was foreign but homely, slowly, my body involuntarily leaned into him more and more, till I was completely against him, And my eyes started to close up on me. 

"Lay?" he called, 
"hm?" I said,

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," he whispered, I looked up his briefly,
"It's okay," I said, a smile slowly made its way to my lips.