Bella & Layla

Chapter Three

I struggle to finger-comb my hair in an attempt to mask Layla's long waves. My arms are straining as I keep failing to look like her. I can't, for the life of me, look like or anything remotely similar to how she is. I groan, "I can't look anything like you!"

Layla laughs at this as she smoothes down my hoodie over my sweater. Since we're changing identities, we apparently also had to change clothes. She seems to be having fun and making the most out of being me while I'm struggling to squeeze myself into her clothes. I can hardly breathe in this bodysuit and skin tight jeans, for crying out loud! At least her knee high boots fit me just fine, which is the only part of her clothing that I like. Well, my boobs look bigger and more defined in this bodysuit so I guess there's a plus.

"Relax, okay? Remember, nobody knows us here so you don't really have to copy my appearance. The change of clothes only serves to make us feel more into the role, you know what I mean?" She assures me, looking at me through the mirror. "Besides, I kind of like your clothes, it's so, well, it's a breather from what I normally wear."

I raise my brow high enough and cross my arms, lifting my boobs a little higher and I admire how it actually looks quite beautiful, through the mirror, "yes, they're definitely a breather from this breath-sucking garments! How can you survive wearing clothes this tight without your lungs collapsing?!"

"Stop whining now and let's get a move on," she finishes tying her hair, attempting to remake my messy bun, which is a lot better than mine. Hers is a perfectly curated messy bun. She thrusts me her jacket and we pile out of the diner's comfort room and out the diner we go. We get in her car and drive around town, looking for places we could hang. "What exactly do you have in mind for today?" I ask her, as we pass by coffee shops and bookshops; I take a mental note of dropping by before heading home.

"We're meeting people. I'm Bella now and you're Layla. Might as well introduce our new selves to new friends, right?" She squeals.

"And just how are you going to do that? Are we supposed to get off the car and meet strangers on the sidewalk, so we can introduce ourselves?"

She turns to me, a sweet smile on her face, "no, silly. We're going to a party."

My mouth hangs open in shock. "A party? A party? Seriously? Who's inviting us? No one knows us here, I don't think they'd be enthusiastic enough to invite two strangers!" This is an insane adventure. I take this time to look around for any bus stop signs, and when I see one, I'm hopping off and taking the next bus out of this town, going home. I don't care about Layla's plans anymore. This is starting to seriously freak me out.

Let's say she successfully gets us into a party with a bunch of strangers in a town we barely know, a lot of things can happen! They can slip drugs on our drinks that'll knock us out and take us to the woods where they'll rape us, torture us, kills us, and then chop off our body parts, place them in different bags, and throw it all into the garbage!

Layla doesn't even answer me, she just abruptly turns into the parking lot of another diner. "You know what? You really aren't giving yourself much credit. You're rockin' that bodysuit and leather jacket, way savagely than I could ever do." She scans my body, attraction glinting in her eyes, which makes me want to gag. I squirm and cover myself tightly with her jacket.

"And you look better in my clothes than I ever did," I offer in return. It's true anyway. She definitely looks better in a hoodie more than I ever will. "Anyway, we can't just crash a party. We have to earn an invitation. How are we supposed to do that?"

Layla makes an exasperated sigh, "have you not been listening? We're going to introduce ourselves," at this, she points towards the diner. In a booth by the glass window, sits three guys in a blue and white varsity jackets, and one girl in a red plaid shirt—all laughing.