Johnny Baby

💙10💙

Johnny

    “I thought you didn’t like going to high school house parties, Johnny.” Layla states, plopping onto my bed. Her long hair practically works like a blanket as it lays over her back and ends at her thighs.
    “Careful not to catch my flag with your shoes.” I tell her with a laugh as she swings her feet in the air before I look back into the mirror and put my contacts in.
    “Anyways,” I continue. “I usually don’t but the rest of the band is going and Markus’ soccer buddies or going. And we both know wherever Markus goes, he somehow convinces Joey to go with him. So, yeah.” I explain, squeezing my eyes shut and letting them adjust to the momentary sting of the contact solution before looking into the mirror again.
    I wasn’t really dressed up fancy. There was no need to be. I just put on some nice jeans and tossed a blue flannel over a dark shirt and called it done.
    “You should let me do your eyeliner again.” Layla says with a chuckle.
    “I’d rather not. I’m trying to have fun tonight, not get hate crimed.” I tell her, letting out a laugh. She doesn’t seem too fond of my terrible joke but it made me laugh at least.
    “Fine.” I tell her.
    She smiles, happily hopping out of my bed and grabbing my pencil liner from my drawer.
    She stands in front of me, making sure she doesn’t lean into the light and starts to gently rub the black liner onto my eyes.
    “Why don’t you ever wear your glasses out? They make your eyes look so pretty.” She says, rubbing off a small part she messed up on before correcting it. “Well, when you clean them that is.”
    “Thanks but again, I’m trying to have fun tonight. And if things go wrong like they love to do, I'd rather get hit without my glasses.” I explain, smiling as she pouts and puts the cap on the liner and puts back in its place.
    “You’re so negative, John.” She sighs, grabbing my sleeves and making sure they are rolled up evenly. She pulls away and digs into one of the small drawers on my dresser and grabs some black bracelets and puts them on me.
    “It could be worse. I could be staying home instead.” I tell her, smiling as she raises an eyebrow at me before tightening the leather bracelet around my wrist.
    I notice the way she pauses and traces her long purple nails over the scars on my arm. I pull away and chuckle.
    “Don’t get all sappy on my right now, Layla. I’m trying to get ready, you know?” I chuckle.
    “Yeah, yeah, I know.” She chuckles. “I’m just, glad you’re going out and doing things more. No offence to Markus and Joey but it’s nice to see you get out and make more friends.” She smiles at me, lightly ruffling my hair and brushing it to the side with her fingers.
    “I guess.” I hum, watching her through the mirror.
    “By the way, mom was talking about how you didn’t come home last night. What was that about?” She asked, wrapping her arms around my neck and leaning against my back.
    “Oh, well. I did come home but I spent the entire night up on the roof.” I admit.
    I never had a reason to hide anything from Layla really. She was super chill with everything. Well, kinda. She would sometimes flip out over things I did or things that happened but if I didn’t want her to, she never told anyone else.
    “The roof? Why? I mean, I know you like it up there, but what was the special occasion? You usually hate going up there in the cold.” She chuckles.
    “Well, Nico wanted to hang out and I decided why not hang out up there? I thought maybe he’d have fun.” I tell her, feeling myself get a little shy. I toy with the small silver beads on my leather bands as I wait for her to say something.
    “Nico?” She asks, an intrigued tone filling her tone. Oh no. “Who’s he?” She asks, a couple happy giggles coming from her as she asks.
    “No one, just the other guy in my band.” I tell her before going to pull away from her grasp.
    “Wait, wait wait!” She exclaims, grabbing my arms and pulling me back and plopping me onto my bed.
    “You never mentioned him before. You talked about Megan and you talked about Danny but I haven’t heard this name before.” She says, hopping onto my bed and sitting criss-cross in front of me, holding the front of her skirt down.
    “Well, I never saw a reason, I guess.” I said.
    That wasn’t true. I had tons of reasons I could talk about him. But, just like I suspected, she was getting overly excited about a boy that I barely befriended.
    “But, Johnny, it’s a boy! You haven’t made friends with any boys in forever!” She explains.
    “Yeah! Cause all the boys at school like to beat me up, thank you.” I tell her, slightly pulling away. She was getting a little too excited for me to handle.
    “Well, obviously that’s not true if you brought him here! Why didn’t you tell me?” She squeals, bouncing on my bed.
    “Because you get overly excited about it!” I tell her, trying not to be too snippy. Logically, I know she means well. Layla tends to be a little much sometimes. She’s very out there and speaks her mind very clearly. But not in the blunt, impulsive way like me. She speaks very professionally or very kindly but she’s still very honest. People love her for that.
    She seems to notice my discomfort because she pauses and pulls back a little.
    “Sorry. You’re right. I need to chill.” She chuckles, folding her hands together and resting them in her lap.
    That was another thing that was super cool about Layla. She was great at reading people and was very good at accommodating others. When she learned of how easily I tend to get overwhelmed, she started picking up on my little tics and fidgets that made it obvious and she’d almost always pull back so I didn’t freak out.
    I took a deep breath then slowly sighed.
    “You okay?” She asked, tilting her head.
    “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry.” I mutter, tugging at the leather bands again.
    “It’s alright! Sorry, I didn’t mean to freak you out or anything.” She hums, scooting forwards just a little. 
    “It’s fine..” I hum, scratching at the back of my neck.
    I can practically sense Layla wanting to make me stop since I tend to scratch too hard and leave marks but she knows better than to jump the gun like that when I’m still feeling all weird.
    It sucks sometimes when I realize how much it must suck dealing with me. But,  I appreciate it nonetheless.
    I take another deep breath and decide to break the silence in my room.
    “Nico is cool. I think you’d like him. He’s an artist like you.” I tell her, smiling at the way she perks up.
    “Oh my goodness, that’s so cool!” She squeals but she still holds back. “What else does he like?” She asks.
    “Well, he plays bass in our group. He likes Cherry slushies which I’ll never understand but okay.” I laugh.
    I ended up accidentally rambling about almost everything he said last night.
    I told her about the times he got himself into detention for saying dumb things in class or accidentally lighting his house on fire after accidentally tipping over fireworks on the 4th of July.
    I smile to myself as I remember us sitting up on the roof and watching the sunrise. His bright blue eyes looked so shimmery and bright in the sunlight. They seemed to take on the same pink tint that filled the sky as the sun rose. It looked even better when I turned to him and saw his face flush pink. I would be lying if I said I didn’t think it was cute. I wouldn’t imagine Nico to get embarrassed from close contact but, it probably didn’t mean much either way. Still, definitely cheesy sounding when I think about it now, but it doesn’t stop my face from warming up and my smile getting bigger.
    “Aww.” She hums. “He sounds very nice.” She giggles, trying to hide her smirk from me but failing miserably.
    “Hey. No. Stop.” I tell her.
    “What?!”
    “That! You’re giving me that smug look! It doesn’t mean anything. He’s just really funny. It was fun so it makes me happy, ya know? It doesn’t mean anything.” I ramble, watching as that look got even worse.
    “I never said it did.” She tells me, putting her hands up to seem innocent.
    “Well, you didn’t say it but I could sense it.” I tell her, trying to keep a straight face but feeling myself smile as she continues to stare at me with that expression.
    “You’re smiling~”She teases.
    “Shut up!” I exclaim, flapping my hands around in front of my chest.
    She giggles at me until I stop. I feel my phone buzz in my pocket so I quickly dig it out.
    “Joey and Markus are here. I better get going.” I chuckle, rolling off my bed and tugging on my boots.
    “Alright. Have fun, don’t drink to much I don’t wanna have to lie to mom for you and please tie those boots properly because I do not trust you to walk around in those without falling over.” She tells me, sliding her legs over so they’re hanging off the edge of the bed now.
    “Okay mom I will.” I tell her, laughing at the offended face she makes at me before I rush downstairs, grabbing the leather jacket I set out and slipping it on.
    “I’m heading out, ma!” I call out to my actual mom who is currently in the kitchen with the girls, looking through cookbooks together.
    “Alright Johnny, be safe!” She calls.
    “Will do! Love you!” I call before rushing outside as Joey honks his horn at me.
    I hop down the short flight of stairs and to his silver car and hop in.
    “Finally.” Joey jokes, laughing as he locks the doors and starts to pull out of the driveway.
    “You were waiting for like 30 seconds, calm your tits.” I laugh, sticking my tongue out at him as he looks at me in the rearview mirror.
    “Whatever. Let’s get going.” He chuckles before happily speeding down the empty road.