From the Other Side of My Bed

7. Layla

Her name was Layla.
She was a girl I met in line for the bathroom at cloud9 club in phoenix.
She was the second girl i found myself sexually attracted to.
She reminded me a lot of the girl I have a crush on, with her thick black curly hair and pale skin. Layla was more toward the thicker side than my crush, and was much taller.
That night, I had confused Layla's bright black eyes with the soft, light brown eyes of my crush. More than black, those eyes looked like orbs that followed my every move as I danced to Ozuna while in line. She said:
"Hey stranger."
"Hey, what's up."
"I really like your eye makeup."
"Oh really? Thank you!"
"You think you can make my eyes look as pretty as yours?"
"Sure,"
Last thing i know, i was riding in the backseat of an uber back to my apartment with her.
She looked so cool with her little black dress on and dramatic cat eyeliner. She had her window rolled down and god, the way her hair danced in the air radiated a sweet smell of roses and dove soap and was intoxicating. Her hair shone as we passed by the streetlights in our ride home which seduced me and her legs, which were an obvious lure from her, moved closer to me as she spoke about her favorite tv show.
She was drunk but not as faded as I was.
Being with her jolted me alive.
My mind right away told me to kiss her, but I held back.
Women get more interested in you when you are distant, and it showed.
She would grab my hand and squeeze it as she tilted back her head and laughed at my bad jokes.
She was game.

-
I turned the key to open my apartment's door, and we bolted inside laughing, her hands at the sides of my waist. I try to hush her but she can't help herself, she's too glorious.
"Shh! You'll wake up the hammies."
"Wake up who?" she snores when she laughs and that makes me laugh, too.
I turn around, and put a finger on her lips.
She keeps laughing, and I'm laughing, too. Our foreheads united and our eyes looked into each other and I struggled to find with my hand the light switch. I finally find it and my pretty lights turn on, which makes her look away in awe at them.
She looks around, starstruck at the photo clip string lights, at the childish memorabilia in the shelves, she walks over to the kitchen and her finger traces the the corners of my table, she stops and opens the refrigerator and sees nothing but alcohol in it and she grabs a smirnoff and turns to look at me with a devilish smile.
"Will you open it for me, please?"
"Sure."
I walk over to her and grab the bottle from her.
I look for my bottle opener in the drawers and finally find it, but when I look up, she's not there, she's behind me, wrapping her arms on my waist and digging her face in my hair.
I open the smirnoff, stay still for a second as i feel her sniffing hard on my neck, and say:
"Here you go,"
"Mmh." she squeezes me and i feel out of breath.
She's stronger than she looks. "What?"
"You smell so good, madeline."
I frown. "How do you know my name?"
"The uber said your name. What's my name, huh?"
"I never asked for your name, love."
She unwraps her arms off of my waist and walks in front of me.
She grabs the drink and smiles. "Layla."
But I was lying, I knew her name because she said it to another girl in the line for the bathroom. "That's just as beautiful as you."
She turns red as a tomato and I laugh, walking away as I tell her I have my makeup in the bathroom. I hear behind me as she throws herself in my bed and I smile.
This means that she's used to going home with strangers.
I grab my makeup bag from the sink and turn to look at her head hanging off the edge of the bed, smiling. She opens her arms for me to come to her, but I sit down next to her instead, reviewing what I have inside the bag.
I'm being distant on purpose because I know how much she wants me.
I want her to want me more.

"What do you have there?" She moves my hair from my face and tugs it behind my ear.
"I'm looking for the sparkles for the eyes that you wanted."
"Mmh."
"Mmhmm what?"
"I want you to do my makeup while I lay down."
"But-"
"But nothing."
"Fine."
"Yes!"
Then I turned and looked at her.
She's childish and drunk, maybe kissing her is wrong.
I shake my head and pull the lash glue and rhinestones from the bag and put them in the bed as I lean over to her and start applying them in her eyelids. It's hard, to say the least, to look at her beauty and not want to kiss her, to hug her, to tell her she's so beautiful and I want her, but I stay quiet. I know she's plumping her lips so it prompts me to kiss her but I ignore her.
I know it's frustrating for her because of the way she moves her body, how she crosses her legs and crosses her arms while I get closer and closer to her face.
To tease her more, I purposely drop some of the rhinestones in her cheek, and I gently, slowly, swipe them off her face and I can feel her skin tensing up with my touch.
I smile and move away once I'm done.
She opens her eyes abruptly, confused at why I stopped.
"Here." I hand her the mirror but she pushes it away, wrapping her arms on my neck and pulling me toward her. We roll around in bed until she is on top of me.
She sits up and looks at me, caressing my cheek.
She's not good at expressing herself.
"I-" she starts, but stops once we hear a scream outside.
I try sitting up but she pushes me back in bed.
"Maybe it's nothing."
We hear another scream and this time I sit up.
She gets up reluctantly. "That's weird, isn't it?" I move toward the edge of the bed, get up and walk toward the door. When I get outside, I hear the screams and cheers coming from the pool area. Layla comes behind me and asks:
"What's going on?"
"Oh, it's a complex pool party, wanna go?"
"Fuck yeah!"
"I'll borrow you shorts-"
"I'll go in my underwear."
I bit my lips, trying not to laugh but she looks like she's serious, so I nod and we close the door and climb down the stairs.
When we walk toward the pool area, she grabs my hand and leads the way as if she knows where it's at. Every Friday night, the pool closes until midnight and that's when all the people in the complex decide to make a big ol' party for everyone to come join in and they make bbq's or bring pizzas and you just drink by the pool or wrestle in the water with other opponents.
Maud is a participant in these parties, that's where she makes the most profit.
And without disappointing, Maud is there with one of her roommates.
She looks surprised when she sees Layla holding my hand protectively and she nods at me once we get close. "What's up, baby."
"Hey, you!" We tried to hug but it's awkward with Layla still holding my hand. "This is Layla,"
"What's up kid, I'm Maud."
"Hey."
"There's a few drinks on the table to the right, if you guys want some. Now for party favors.."
"Maud."
"Just saying." and she throws her hands in the air, walking away as she laughs and i pull layla toward me. "Who is that?"
"She just told you-"
"Who is she?" ah, shit. She's jealous.
"She's a friend of mine, she lives here in the complex. Let's go to the pool."
"But-"
"But nothing." I smirk, taking my shirt off as her eyes land on my breasts.
That shuts her up.
I continued to take off my jeans and I'm left in my black bra and underwear.
I tilt my brow to let her know that clothes need to be off already.
And she obeys.
Proceeds to unzip her dress which falls gracefully off of her and into the ground, exposing a curvy body with well proportioned breasts and a small waist, her legs are the best part, seeing all of these makes me want to dance. And she's wearing white matching underwear and a bra?
Even sexier.
She begins to make her hair into a bun and we walk over to the pool.
I jump first to the water.
Fuck, it's freezing cold but it feels so good. I swim to the surface and once I brush my hair off my face and look around, I notice she isn't in the pool, but still on dry land. Why?
"What are you doing?"
"Is it cold?"
"No, it's fabulous just like you, babe." I lied.
"I don't believe you!"
"If you want, we can go to the jacuzzi."
"Fine."
I swim to the edge. I raise my hand and say:
"Help me out." when she grabs my hand, I pull her in the pool with me. In clear water, with her black hair floating around her, she looks so beautiful. I swim toward her and my hand caresses her face as she looks surprised. For a minute, all the noise and commotion of the water is muffed and it's just her and I. Smiling, I grab her hand and swim up to the surface.
Clear water, red cups, the silver moonlight caressing my skin, I look around and everyone is laughing and playing in the water with others, a few are in dry land and drinking, Maud is sitting down in the lap of a guy I don't know and I turn to look at Layla. She's brushing away her flyaway hairs from her face and she is furious, splashing me as I laugh out loud.
"Ha, sucker!" I say. "I got you!"
"I'll show you what this sucker can do!" And she swims up to me, cupping my face in her small hands and draws me in for a kiss.
I'm obsessed, right away, with that sweet, tender kiss of hers. A bit sloppy because she's drunk but I don't mind. I pull away, just to look at her beautiful face. My face is half in the water, half on the surface, staring at her devilish as she smirks and wraps her arms around me as she pulls me and we make out.