The Truth ✔

Chapter 23 ~

Kaleb's POV

Okay, Layla wasn't lying when she said we needed to get home before Whitney got upset. For the past thirty minutes I've been listening to Whitney complain because me and Layla where gone for too long. "Do you know how long it's going to take us to get ready for the banquet? I blame this all on you Kaleb."

"How can you blame it on me? She's the one who wanted to go on a walk."

Whitney glares at me. "So, what you're saying is that you want me to go in there and yell at Layla instead of you?"

"Damnit." I growl, "Whitney if you go in there and yell at her this will be the last time, I ever let you come over."

"You're so stupid Kaleb. I would never yell at her. It's just fun messing with you, but seriously now we need to get ready. It may only take y'all an hour or so to get ready, but for us girls it takes a lot longer. Beauty takes time and pain."

I roll my eyes. "Maybe for you, Winter and Summer, but Layla is beautiful the way she is and doesn't need to go through hours of torture."

Whitney glares at me. "What exactly are you saying, Kaleb?"

Connor comes up from behind me and starts laughing. "Well, Whitney it sounded like he was saying that you, Summer and Winter are ugly since y'all need to take time to torture yourselves."

"Wait. What?" I scream at Connor. "I. I. Fuck" I groan. "I didn't mean it like that. What I meant is that Layla is gorgeous the way she is, and I don't want her to be caked in makeup."

Whitney is fuming while Connor is on the ground laughing his ass off. Some best friend he is. "Kaleb Andrew Knightly, I may be your cousin but how dare you. Don't think I can't kick your ass because I can, and I will. Now if you will so kindly excuse me, I am going to go cake make up on myself." She glares at me. "I believe that's the way you put it." She huffs before turning on her heals and running upstairs to Layla's room.

"What the hell, Connor? I'm going to be in trouble all night by her and the girls now." I growl at him.

Connor stands up from the ground still laughing. "I know, but these banquets are so boring and I'm going to need some type of entertainment."

I walk into my room with Connor still laughing behind me. Come on it wasn't that funny. "What's so funny?" Jake asks.

"Kaleb. Is. Going. To. Be. In. Trouble. By. The. Girls. All. Night." Connor answers between laughter.

"It's not funny." I say as I shove him harshly. "I swear if Layla is mad at me you are going to be so dead. So very, very dead."

Daniel and Jake try to hide their laughter but fail miserably at it. "How about we play some video games until it's time for us to start getting ready for tonight?" We all agree and run downstairs to the game room.

We play for few hours before my dad tells us to get ready. I take a quick shower before getting dress in my suit, and my friends do the same. "Boys come downstairs and wait for the girls." My mom yells from the bottom of the steps.

We sit on the couch as we wait for the girls. My mom already has a camera in her hands so she can take pictures of us. You would think we were on our way to prom not a banquet for my dad's job. "I still don't understand why it takes them so long to get ready." I whisper to Daniel who is sitting beside me on the couch.

He chuckles. "Whitney seems to take longer and longer each time. I've tried to tell her she's beautiful just the way she is, but you know how girls are. They always want to look their best."

I'm nervous to see what they've done to Layla. She doesn't need makeup or any of that other junks that they are using to look beautiful. She's perfect the way she is.

"Look at how beautiful the four of you are." My mom screeches as the girls walk into the living room.

My mom isn't lying Whitney, Winter and Summer all look beautiful in their dresses that they have picked out. Then there's Layla standing behind them. She looks absolutely breath taking. Her dress looks even better on her today than it did at the mall. The girls did an amazing job on her hair and she barely has any makeup on which makes me happy because she doesn't need it.

"Kaleb go and stand next to Layla so I can take pictures. How many more times do I need to say it?" My mom hisses at me, as everyone else is already standing by their date.

"Okay, mom." I say as I feel my face heat up from embarrassment.

Layla keeps her head down, as I stand beside her. I hope she doesn't think that I didn't want to stand beside her because I took so long. I place one arm around her waist and lean into her ear, "You look absolutely breath taking, Layla."

I can feel her shiver as she turns her head to hide her blushing from me. "Kids look at the camera." My mom says to all of us.

After she snaps several pictures, Layla tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and looks at me. "You look good too, Kaleb." She says before biting her lower lip nervously.

"Abby, don't you think you have enough pictures already?" My dad chuckles. "Come on everyone, the limos are here."

I wrap my arm around Layla and lead her to the limo. Normally I hate going to these things, but for the first time I think I might have fun.

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A/N: I'm back... So, about this chapter. Yes, it's shorter and yes, it's crummy. I know I had said that this chapter would be better than the last, but over the holidays we had a tragic lost in my family and it has been hard getting back into this story because of it. With all of that said, I'm am really looking forwards to the next chapter and it should (fingers crossed) be much better. Next update will be Monday. Thank you to everyone who is still keeping up with this story. ~KarenJ128~