Family Styles - Sequel to the Baby Styles series

8

Layla's point of view

At lunch time that day, I avoided looking at Ben. Everyone already knew there was awkwardness between us, but now there were even more.

"Is that new?" Jack asked, pointing at my necklace. I didn't even notice it was now hanging outside of my hoodie.

"Um, yeah." I said and quickly put it back under my hoodie. I took a quick look over at Ben, who was already looking at me.

"It's pretty." Jack said.

"Thanks."

"Do you wanna get out of here?" Erica whispered. I nodded and me, her and Sarah left the cafeteria. We headed out of the building and sat down on the soccer field.

"I wanna forgive him, but I can't. I can't be weak." I told them.

"No one's gonna call you weak if you take him back. It's obvious that you both miss each other." Sarah said. I just looked down.

"Look, there's Jack." Erica said. We turned around and saw Jack walking towards us.

"Do you mind if I take over?" He asked Sarah and Erica when he approached us.

"Not at all." Erica said. She and Sarah both gave me a hug before they left.

Jack sat down next to me and threw an arm around my shoulder. I rested my head on his shoulder and sighed.

"I have an idea for you, but you don't have to do it." Jack said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It will sound crazy and I can't believe I'm doing this to one of my best friends, but I think you should try and kiss another guy. The reason I'm saying that is because maybe it could help you getting over him. You might realize that there are other guys out there, if you're completely done with him. Noah's throwing a party on Friday, so if you want to do it, we could find you a guy then." He explained.

I thought about for a second before I answered.

"I wasn't actually gonna go to Noah's party, but I'll do anything to get over Ben." I said.

"I'll pick both you and Ed up at Friday then." He said and I nodded. "And you're sure you wanna do this?" He asked. I nodded. "Okay. You wanna go back inside?"

"Yeah." I replied. We got up from the ground and headed back into the school. We went to the cafeteria and sat down at the table. Sarah, Ed and Noah weren't there anymore. It was just me, Jack, Erica, Jacob and Ben.

"I need to go and get my books. I'll be back soon." Jack said, almost right after he had sat down. Now we were even fewer, and it was so awkward. Ben knew I was wearing the necklace, so I was afraid to look at him. Erica and Jacob were the only ones having a conversation.

"Layla, do you wanna go with me to get my book?" Jacob suddenly asked me. I nodded and got up from my seat. "We need to talk." He whispered as we were walking away.

"About what?" I asked.

"Jack and Ben." He said. "You have free period now, right?" He asked as the bell rang. I nodded.

"Come on, let's go to the football field." He said.

"But I was just there minutes ago!" I said.

"Well then you're gonna have to go there again." He said. I sighed and followed him outside. There were other people there too now, so we sat down on the benches.

"What's up with Jack and Ben?" I asked.

"Don't believe what Jack told you earlier. He and Ben has a plan to make you take Ben back, and I don't want you to take him back because you feel like you need to." He said. "You see, the thing Jack told you about his plan so you can get over Ben is just a trick to make sure you go to the party."

"What? How do you know this? And why do they want me to go to the party?" I asked.

"They actually asked me if I wanted to help them, but I said no. I couldn't do that to you. I'm suprised Ben actually agreed to this." He said.

"Agreed to what?"

"Ben's gonna be kissing another girl on Friday, and Jack is gonna make sure you're watching... He said something about that making you realize he's not going to wait for you, which apparently will make you take him back, and they're gonna do it before you get a chance to kiss that boy Jack talked about."

"Ben actually agreed to that?!" I almost yelled. Jacob nodded. "Well, I'm not going to the party then."

"No you have to! Two can play their game." He said. "If you show him you don't care, the roles will be switched. Even if it truly hurts you, pretend you don't care."

"Can I still yell at him afterwards?" I asked.

"If you want to, then yes. But don't tell him I'm the one who told you. I don't wanna get in the middle of this." He said.

"Okay, I'll just say I overheard Jack or something." I said and he nodded. "Jack is picking me up on Friday though, so if I'm right, this plan of theirs will be put to action quite early?"

"You're right, so be prepared when you get there." He said. I nodded and sighed. I was really not looking forward to Friday.

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hope you like this!:))

- m i a h xx