Something to Dream About {Slow Updates}

Ten

♪ Malachi ♪

Layla followed me up to my apartment door.

I was off the shift again so we were having a lesson in my house again. The only problem was that it was directly after school.

"Um, my sisters are gonna be cranky," I told her. "They'll probably beg me for food and stuff, but they can wait if they want me to cook since they're old enough to get their own food."

Layla looked up at me, almost expressionless. It was like she didn't even know the effect she had on me. "No," she said. "You should take care of them. If you want, of course. Like you don't have to. It's not your responsibility, but, um, yeah..."

I looked down at her with a grin. "Well, it kind of is," I replied. "But yeah, it's probably better to get it out of the way so they don't bother us."

She nodded and I unlocked the door to the apartment before pushing it open.

We walked into the familiar sight of Kiki on the couch, playing Grand Theft Auto as music sounded from her phone.

"Turn it down," I told her.

She huffed and reached for her phone. "Can you make me a sandwich?"

I nodded. "Yeah, just give me a second."

I led Layla to my room where I gestured for her to sit on my bed as I dropped my backpack to the floor and kicked off my shoes. "Just wait in here a second," I told her. "Do you want a sandwich?"

She sat on the edge of my bed, looking up at me with a soft gleam, and the sight stirred something within me. "What kind?"

"Uh, probably just a simple ham and cheese. It's not much."

"I mean, if you eat then I will too," she said. "But I don't want to be the only one eating."

I nodded before leaving the room, heading for my sisters'.

Lani looked up at me from the bottom bunk, the music in her room actually a good volume for once.

"Sandwich?" I asked.

She nodded.

With that, I left the room and went to the kitchen, where I made four sandwiches.

‧₊˚♪𝄞࿐₊˚⊹

Layla played the strumming pattern I'd just taught her perfectly—a huge improvement from our lesson last week when she could hardly get through the chord switches.

"Wow," I said. "You... Wow."

She looked up at me with a sheepish shrug. "I've heard you play. You don't have to act impressed."

"I am impressed," I told her with furrowed eyebrows. "You could hardly do it slowly last week, now you're playing it without flaw."

"Oh, I just practiced a lot."

"It's a big improvement."

A small smile tugged at her lips as she looked down at her guitar. "Thanks," she said, positioning her fingers over the chord G. "I learned this other song. It's the same chords and the strumming pattern is a little different, but I can..."

I nodded. "Yeah. I'd like to hear it."

And so she started strumming. "Uh, just excuse my voice when you hear it," she said with a self deprecating laugh. "And it's a little out of key, I think. Something about a capo? I don't know..."

I nodded in response.

My eyes zeroed in on her hands, which caused my mind to jump around quickly. What would her skin feel like beneath mine?