Hopelessly Falling [book 2]

Chapter Thirty-Eight

XXXVIII
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Layla's POV ***

        Remember when I said I would be open to the idea of tying Eli and Ashton to chairs to force them to talk things through?

Yeah, well, apparently Kevin was open to this idea as well. And Crystal. And Savanah and Scarlett. They didn't even hesitate to support the idea when I texted them about it.

And thus began our master plan. *evil laugh*.

The last thing I wanted was a repeat of having just me there to mediate, so I was relieved when everyone wanted to partake in the fun little excursion.

Crystal apparently had convinced Ashton to talk to Eli last week. She wouldn't tell me how she convinced him, but whatever it was, she was a miracle worker.

However, a very unfortunate turn of events presented itself when Ashton drove back to our house one morning to find Eli still in bed with me. I'm sure you can imagine how that turned out. Spoiler alert- not well. But at least no one got beat to a pulp this time, so that was a plus.

So now the two of them were back to square one, with Ashton hating both Eli and the idea of the two of us together now that he had actually seen us lying in the same bed, and Eli feeling too damn sad for his own good to start the conversation with Ashton.

Ugh, I wish they'd both just woman up.

Part of me always expected that it would come to this plan, though, so as me and Kevin drove to the store to pick up all the supplies, we were in a pretty good mood. The One Direction songs we were screaming along to the entire way certainly helped with that, too.

It was now break, and everyone was back at their homes- well, besides Eli. He had been staying with me and Jake for a few days before Ashton's school got out, but after me and his run in with Ashton two weeks ago, he didn't want to risk Ashton finding out he had been staying there. Or worse for a repeat to happen.

He had been staying with Kevin for a few days now, but was trying to find somewhere else to stay. Everyone had offered their places, but he didn't want to feel like a burden to anyone. Most of his scabs were gone, but a few bruises still remained on his tanned skin.

Thanksgiving was coming up, and so far he had no plans to spend it with anyone. And I'd be damned if I didn't force Ashton to get his head out of his ass before then so that Eli could spend thanksgiving with his real family- us. He'd probably be spending the holidays with us, too, if nothing changed by then.. which it really didn't seem like it would.

Eli was for some reason really adamant about not wanting to tell Ashton about his dad. He said it was because his father had been there for Ashton when he really needed it, and he didn't want that to be taken away from him... but I was pretty sure it was just because he was scared to open up to anyone about it. And I understood that feeling thoroughly.

So, here we all were, back together the day after Crystal came back from her college (because she got out a little later than everyone else for some reason), and executing our brilliant plan to bring the two peas back into their pod. Forcefully doing so, but that was beside the point.

"I think you're a worse driver than me," Kevin commented after I finished parking- still barely getting into the spot correctly after my fifth time readjusting the car.