layla clarkson.

Freya didn’t even really know what she was doing out here. Though she supposed it was so she wouldn’t be entirely alone. She wished she could be with her family or something but honestly connecting with her brother and sister again was proving difficult - she supposed she couldn’t blame them. Like she had told that Jake guy the other day - she fucked things up. Freya threw back some more whiskey, making a face at the burn, and then she turned her head in the direction of the sound of the voice with a laugh. “Nope - welcome to the club! Pull up a chair.” She joked, still chuckling.

~

Layla’s attention shifted when someone responded to her- she hadn’t expected that. Laughing a little, then sighing, she dropped into the chair beside the girl. “God, is it just us? Did you not put up the flyers?” She joked, taking another drink from her bottle of wine. “I’m Layla.” She smiled, leaning over so she could hear her over the noise of the party. “You’re not from here, right?” She defintely hadn’t seen her before. She was... pretty. Layla shook off the thought as quickly as it had popped into her head. “Did you not read any newspapers before coming here?”

Cecilia smiled lightly. She felt like such a burden, she shouldn’t be worrying her daughter like this, not after everything. She just didn’t know what was wrong with her sometimes, everything was so… dark and confusing. “Yeah… yeah, that sounds nice, love.. Thank you.” Ceci smiled again, trying to act like she hadn’t just been sleepwalking out into the middle of the freaking street. Should she go to a doctor? Her gaze drifted towards the corner of the room, feeling like Hannah was standing there. She turned her eyes away again, back to her youngest. “What are you doing up anyway?”

~

Layla smiled softly, moving to the kitchen to boil the kettle. She remained quiet as she prepared tea for the both of them, watching as her mother’s gaze drifted. She often wondered what she was seeing when her eyes shifted like that, but she was long past questioning her on it. It never got her anywhere and Layla had given up trying to get her to get help. She loved her mother, but it was exhausting. “Couldn’t sleep.” She shrugged as she stirred the tea. It was sort of true... Mostly, she had heard her mother getting up, but with it coming up to the four year anniversary of them finding Hannah, not to mention hearing about Austin knocking someone up... It was a lot. She missed Hannah. She missed her dad. And she missed having someone. “This town is just crazy, you know? Hard to sleep sometimes.” She slid the cup over to her mum.

Cecilia suddenly realised that she was cold. Freezing in fact. Glancing down at the road as she started towards her daughter, she realised she didn’t have any shoes on. This was starting to get out of hand but what could she do? “I’m alright, it’s alright…” She muttered, folding her arms around herself. What she really wanted to say was darling, I’m so sorry but the words stuck in her throat until they were there too long for them to mean anything. What a wreck Layla had ended up with as a mother. “Let’s get you back inside before you freeze, come on…”

~

Layla released a short breath, scoffing at the idea that any of this was ‘alright’. She shook her head as she turned back into the house, satisfied that her mother was following her. She didn’t want to be mad at her- to some degree she understood that losing Hannah had affected her terribly and she needed help with that, but Layla lost Hannah too. And then her father. And perhaps soon her mother. Layla waited for her mum to be back inside the house before she closed and locked the door, sighing in a further attempt to let go of how she felt. “Do you want a cup of tea?” Her tone was softer as she grabbed her mum’s slippers and handed them to her.

“Right, duh…” She chuckled, feeling stupid. God, she was just so awkward and useless at everything, even worse now too after being freaking locked up and practically tortured. “Got it, do you want anything specific or do I get free reign?” She smiled over at her, before she moved to sit down next to her.

~

“We’re clearly not a society that can call for a delivery anymore.” She laughed as she dropped on to her bed again, starting to flick through Netflix to find The Good Place. “Free reign.” Layla nodded, but quickly added, “No olives though. Or anything that looks like an olive.”

Molly sighed, glancing back over to Layla. She nodded. “Guess we’re a right sorry pair, eh?”

She nodded because that sounded good to her, though she didn’t want to put Layla to any trouble for some juice. “Um…” Sarah took the phone and sort of looked at it blankly, feeling ridiculous that a panic was beginning to rush up inside of her just at the mere thought. “Um, o-okay, what… what do I… what’s the number, what do I say?”

“Oh, shit. Sorry.” Layla released a small laugh before moving to stand beside Sarah. “Okay, so this here is the Dominos app.” She let Sarah keep holding the phone as she pressed the app. “So you just scroll and you can see all of the pizzas and what they have on them. If there’s something you don’t like, we can swap ingredients or just invent our own pizza.” She hoped she explained that okay, but she didn’t want to do it for her. Better to show her, right?

“Over there.” She gestured, sighing heavily as she turned her eyes away immediately. She didn’t even want to think about it. Sure, he’d died a hero’s death but it was still death.

Sarah wondered if Layla’s mother would show up at any point. She found herself hoping not. She’d heard some things by now and she didn’t really feel too comfortable. “Sure, yeah. Pizza sounds good… um. Do you have any dr pepper?”

“I don’t...” She admitted, “But we can order a bottle with the pizza? Never been a fan of the stuff, but I have plenty of other drinks here so I’m good with getting Dr Pepper in one of the deals.” Layla guided Sarah to her room and dropped on to the bed as she loaded up Netflix. “Do you want to pick the pizza?” She asked, handing her her phone.

Molly nodded. “Yeah, sure.” Honestly? She wasn’t so sure that she wanted to be by herself anyway. She didn’t know if this fog would ever lift and she wasn’t sure it mattered either way. “Come on then.” She moved to stand up, sighing a little. “Let’s go.”