Dreams of America

The Cafe

I ended up staying the night at the Janoskians house as I fell asleep on Jai's chest and then we ended up agreeing to have a sleepover. We ordered pizza shared our music taste, turns out we both listen to the King, Elvis, he introduced me to Nirvana and I introduced him to The Clash. I made him watch Disney movies and I gave him my copy of The Outsiders and made him promise to read it. But really, my favourite part was the fact he gave me more of the Dirty Pig clothing to wear; another jumper to sleep in and a top to wear the next day, he also let me wear some of his grey tracksuit bottoms.

The next morning I got a cab back to my house and spent Sunday evening relaxing and doing homework.

The next couple of weeks passed by smoothly. Dance class was going well and I was keeping on top of my homework. Mine and Jai's friendship was getting more and more flirty and every time I saw him I would get nervous but excited at the same time. Alexa obviously was not happy about me and Jai but that was not going to stop me. I'd finally found a boy that made me want to love again, even after the things Jace did to me. But this is LA and that was London, that wasn't going to still haunt me here, I refused to let it.

Before I knew it, the weather had turned cold and there was a winter chill sweeping through LA. It was late October and nearly Halloween.

Apparently the Janoskians threw a fancy dress Halloween party last year and it was a hit so they were throwing it again this year.

"What shall we go as?" Ditsy squealed, "Because me, you, Kiana and Lucy have to go as something together!" It was just me and Ditsy in the changing rooms after dance.

"I don't know?" I exclaimed.

"Come on Leila! Be creative!" Ditsy begged.

"Well why don't we just go as fallen angels? Its a bit boring but we could look hot!" I suggested.

"Oh my gosh! Yes!" Ditsy danced around in a circle.

"We could wear a leather bralet, and a skater skirt, fishnets and black boots! Then we'd just have to find black wings but I'm sure that would be easy!" I said, speaking my thoughts out loud.

"Yes it's perfect, we should so go shopping later!".

"With the rest of the girls?".

"Yep." Ditsy said popping the 'p' and smiling sweetly.

"What about Alexa?". I asked, even though I disliked her, I did feel bad about leaving her out.

"Oh yeah, and her." Ditsy shrugged as if it was an after thought, then swung her bag over her shoulder and skipped out of the changing room and to our lunch table. I followed her out but with much less enthusiasm. Today was a down day, Halloween meant a lot more to me then anybody knew, I didn't know how I could keep up this charade of being okay without talking to anyone. I could talk to Lucy, we'd got so close but I was scared she'd judge me, even if she tried her hardest not to. Jai was the only other person, but he was so happy I didn't want to ruin it for him.

I'd been so lost in thought I didn't realise I'd managed to sit down at the table with all the others. I was only snapped out of thought when a voice whispered in my ear, "Let's get out of here." His voice sent shivers down my body, it was Jai.

I turned round and took his outstretched hand and we walked to his car. The others didn't even seem to notice we had left.

Jai drove us to a little tea shop I hadn't noticed before. When we walked inside it took my breath away. It reminded me of the tea party from Alice in Wonderland. There was chairs and tables of all different sizes in different colours, and there were mugs and plates in variety like the tables and chairs. There was a counter full of every single type of cake and cupcakes and pastries you could think of. There was also a milkshake counter that had different types of chocolates in jars laced at the back, like M&M's or Crunchies or Rolo's. It was like I was in heaven!

"Jai this place is amazing!" I squealed excitedly.

"I thought you'd like it," he smiled. The waitress came over to us and smiled. She was wearing a pink pinafore with a white shirt underneath and little frilly socks with black loafers.

She had curly brown hair and beautiful eyes, her smile was captivating as well. She kind of reminded me of a really good friend I had back in London who lived next door to me. We were really good friends until she moved to America because of her Dad's job being up rooted and planted in the hub for media, LA.

"Hi I'm Annabel and I'm your waitress for today." She smiled warmly at us.
No scrap that she didn't just look identical, she was the girl who lived next door to me.

"Annabell?!". I exclaimned, for a moment she just looked at me like I was mad, but then a wave of realisation washed over her and she threw me into a constricting hug.

"Oh my God! Leila! Oh my, this is crazy! Oh I've missed you so so so much!" Her London accent was still strong.

"I've missed you too! This is amazing, I can't believe this."

"How have you been?" Annabell gushed.

"I've been good, what about you?". I smiled in return.

"Yeah I'm fab," she smiled, but then her face twisted into one of disgust, "glad you're not with Jace anymore. He was a dick head. You're not still in contact with him are you?" She said sternly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jai's face scrunch in confusion and I realised that I'd have to tell him sooner or later.

"No, no not anymore." I smiled lightly.

"Good, well I'll give you my number later because we defo have to catch up!".

"Sure." I smiled.

"Sorry, i've been so rude! What's your name?", Annabel turned to Jai.

"I'm Jai.", he smiled simply, "Nice to meet you."

"You too." She led us to a table at the back by the window which looked out on a terrace. "Here's your table, when your ready, go up the counter and order."

"Thank you." Jai nodded politely. He pulled out a chair and gestures for me to sit down. "Well that was nice."

"Yeah it was, we were such good friends before she moved here."

"Who's Jace?". Jai asked.

"Just my ex-boyfriend." I said, putting emphasis on the 'ex'.

"He sounds like a bit more than that?". Jai said.

"He did horrible things and it took me a while to realise I was worth more then how he treated me." I said dying to change the topic.

"What do you mean horrible things?".

"I don't want to talk about it right now."

Apart from that brief conversation we got on really well. I couldn't help but stop myself falling for him even more. I was starting to think I was in love with him.

After the cafe, Jai drove me to the main shopping mall so I could meet the girls. We spent a could three hours there trying to find the perfect outfits and eventually we did. I settled for a leather bustier courser and a black leather skater skirt. I also brought over the knee socks and decided I could rtam this with my black leather jacket and the sparkly black heels I have.

The party was going to be epic.