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Give Me Love

Meanwhile, in Bradenton...

Dinah sits on a comforter, laid out over the sand, while Layne lays on his back with his hand rubbing her calf. She's asked him hundreds of times if he ever gets tired of the beach and his answer is always the same - certain things in life he'll never get tired of: music, her, and the water, and not necessarily in that order. It's only been 4 months since they met, but the girl already feels like she knows him better than she knows Lauren and maybe even Normani. Much like Y/n, he's charming. He's so funny and charismatic - a real people person. He's assertive but in a very kind way - he could tell you to 'fuck off and die' and almost make you look forward to the trip. But just like his sister, he has a very tender side to him. He doesn't show it to most people, choosing to sport a smart-ass exterior, but with Dinah he oozes just the right mix of snark, smolder, and sap.

After the accident, Layne didn't treat her differently. He didn't make her feel like she was any less 'able' than she was before. Yes, he helped her do things but it wasn't because he thought she couldn't do it. He always made her feel like it was just because he wanted them to do things together and that was truly something she admired about him. He never judged her - no matter how angry she got about not being able to get around the way she used to, no matter how hateful she could be when she was in pain. He took his time with her, bringing her food and her pain medicine and trying anything he could to ease her hurt.

And then, there were the nightmares. She would wake up screaming - hollering her heartache with everything her lungs could muster - and he was always there to comfort her. She'd wake in the middle of the night, burning up and crying out apologies. Those nights they spent seated on the shower floor with her in his lap - ice cold water pouring down over them - as he spoke to her in sonnets. Layne was always so patient with her.

Sitting here, taking in their view of the beach at midnight, she remembers the first time he'd told her he loved her. In the hospital, after the crash, he had been so present and so protective of her. He asked questions about everything, always wanting to know what was being done and why. He didn't understand it all but Dinah had watched him listen attentively as Andrea would explain it more clearly. Layne had told her before that he wasn't as smart as she was. He confessed to her that he wasn't 'book smart' but he knew people and that was enough for him, mostly, yet he still felt like he didn't know what she saw in him. To Dinah, the more easily answered question would have been 'What didn't she see?'

She thinks about him sitting there, leaning closer to her with his left arm resting over her head and his right hand holding hers, and about his hunter green eyes staring into hers as she watched the tears slide down his cheeks. 'It'll be okay,' he'd said, 'You're alive. You are alive and I love you.' She remembers him kissing her hand and telling her 'That's all that matters - we're all still here...'

For 3 days after Y/n woke up, Dinah had tried to shut him out. She blamed herself for the accident - she took the weight of Y/n's memory loss on her own shoulders - and it killed her to look at Normani and especially Layne. The way he'd broken down in tears when they realized that the girl had no clue who they all were - the moment that Layne questioned the connection that he and his twin had and whether it would stand the test of this trauma - that was when Dinah hated herself most.

He'd tried to tell her bye when he and his family left, but she'd stayed quiet and avoided eye contact. He'd tried to call and he'd texted so many times she'd shut the new phone that Andrea gotten her off. He turned to calling Andrea's house phone and sending her Facebook messages. The only thing he didn't try was calling Normani. And Dinah thanked him for following that unwritten rule. He had, however, called Camila - the two having become closer, bonding over both their relationships with the girls and their mutual love of all things outdoorsy. Camila had in turn called Lauren who knew where the spare key to Andrea's was hidden and she busted up into the elder Hamilton's home without even so much as a knock on the front door or tap on Dinah's window.