Just A Little Insane

Date

     When I get home that night, I go right to bed without even changing. Me and Lincoln stayed later to help clean up and I didn't get home until around one thirty. I sleep in until nearly noon and when I wake up, Layla is standing at my doorway with her arms crossed.

     "Good morning sunshine. Time for lunch." She says. I sit up and pull the blankets off me. I sit there for a minute, trying to wake up a little.

     "Come on. You've already wasted half the day." Layla says and walks back down the hall. I groan and get up.

     I decide not to get dressed because of the situation last night with Layla having my old clothes and head right out to the kitchen.

     Bailey is sitting in a high chair playing either food while Layla is at the stove cooking. She pulls something out of the oven and looks over at me.

      She looks at my clothes then back at my face again. "We'll talk when she's asleep." She says simply. "Come eat. You must be starving."

     I sit down next to Bailey and wait for Layla to bring over a plate with homemade pizza on it. "Thanks." I say and start eating it. She nods and walks back over to make herself a plate.

     We eat and then Layla puts Bailey down for a nap. When she's down with that, she comes and sits by me on the couch. "How did you get those?" I asks her.

     The question had been bothering me ever since I saw the clothes. I almost couldn't enjoy the party because of it.

     "When you were first put in prison, Mr. Lynch didn't want your stuff so he gave it all to me to get rid of. I couldn't do it though. It was your stuff. I kept it all. The clothes, I put in the closet. I'm not sure why, but it seemed right." She says. I nod vaguely and we sit in silence.

"I should've given them to you sooner I'm sorry." She says. "It's alright." I mumble under my breath.

The room is quiet again but then, she starts talking again.

"So what happened last night? With you and Lincoln? You seemed shaken up when I saw you." She says. "Oh um, he asked me out." I say and bite my lip.

Her eyes widen and she smiles big. "Really? Did you say yes?" I nod. "What else could I say?"

-----

      It takes all day to get ready for my date with Lincoln. Layla has to make sure that everything is perfect.

     "Alright. What do you want to wear?" She asks as she opens the box containing all my old clothes.

     "I'm not sure I can wear these, Layla." I say. She looks up at me. "Why not?"

      I look at my feet. "Those clothes belong to the old me." I say. "I'm am not that person anymore."

Layla looks at me with sad eyes. "Zoe, what does it matter? You wore them to the party." She says. I shake my head.

"No Layla. I can't." I protest. She nods. "Okay. Let's go shopping for new clothes then."

We find a couple outfits to wear and take them back to Layla's house to decide which one to wear.

Layla chooses purple jeans and a white blouse with pretty little flowers one it. I just agree to it and go shower.

When I'm dressed, Layla starts on my hair. She drys it and then bobby pins some of it back. When she finishes with that, she puts a little makeup on me and does my nails.

We spend at least half an hour trying to pick a color that matches. I really just sit there while Layla rants about how her only shade of purple doesn't match my pants.

By the time that's done, it's almost time for my date and we haven't picked out shoes yet.

"Zoe!" Layla snaps her fingers in my face. "Come on! Focus! We need to find shoes." She says. I come out of my daze and try to pay more attention. Before, this was fun for me. Now, this just bores me.

Finally, Layla picks some white flats right as the door bell rings. "Alright. You look great. Let's go!" Layla says and I follow her to the living room.

     I answer the door and Lincoln is standing there with a small bouquet of flowers in casual dress.

      "You look very nice for someone going bowling." He says. I laugh. "Well you can blame that on Layla." I say. "She wanted me to wear a prom dress but I had to remind her multiple times that I was just going bowling."

      I take the flowers and his arm and we walk to his car. He opens the door for me and I climb in. He shuts the door and walks to the other side and get in.

     He starts the car and we start to the bowling place. "Have you ever been bowling before?" He asks me. I nod. "Yeah but it's been years." I say. "Have you?"

     "Yeah. I use to love it as a kid." He says glancing at me before returning his eyes to the road. "Really? You don't seem like someone who would go bowling all the time." I say.

      "Well, I said I liked it, not that did it a lot. I couldn't ever really find time for it." He replies. I nod.

The rest of the date goes well. We bowl and eat and have a great time. Nothing goes wrong.

At the end, as we are finishing up our meal, he asks, "So, the other night, you said that you had a foster dad. I don't mean to go into anything really personal but, why do you call him by his last name? Why don't you just call him dad?"

I look down at my shake and twist the straw. "I was about six when he first took me in. I never really knew him as a dad. He really just had me work on the farm." I explain.

"It's really a long story but basically, he was more of a boss than a dad." I add. Lincoln nods and stands up.

"Well it's pretty late and I bet Layla will be expecting you home soon." He says. We walk out and to the car. We have a pleasant ride back to Layla's house.

When he pulls into the driveway, I start to get out of the car but he stops me.

"Wait a minute. Let me get that. In a a minute." He says. I stop and listen.

"Thank you for coming tonight." He says. I smile. "It was my pleasure." I say.

"Would you like to join me again some other time?" He asks. I think for a minute then nod. "Yeah. Is like that."

He gets out of the car and gets my door. "Thank you for joining me." He says as I climb out. "Thank you for having me."

He closes the door as I start down the walk. "Good night." He says from the car. I wave to him as I open the door and watch him drive away.