Smoke Screen

Chapter 6

When they arrived at Tony's house, they immediately got to work researching the topic they decided on. They were mostly quiet at first, the silence only being interrupted when they would ask each other questions. Though the talk was mostly just Tony asking questions while Layla gave him short answers.
After a little over an hour, they had a good amount of research done. "Wanna take a break?" Tony asked.
"I was ready to take a break like two hours ago." She remarked.
"But we've only been studying for an hour."
"Exactly." She stretched as she stood up. "I'm gonna go outside for a bit."
"To get some fresh air?"
"Um, something like that." Quite literally the opposite of that.
    Realizing what she meant, he nodded. "Go ahead." Recalling the way he showed her the day before, Layla made her way through the house to the backyard. The sunlight hit her face as she stepped outside, the heat warming her skin. A soft breeze washed cool, fresh air over her.
She took in a deep breath. She felt pretty relaxed, but annoying, buzzing thoughts in the back of her mind kept her from fully being at ease. Though she could not get rid of them no matter how hard she tried, there was one thing that could at least help her take the pressure off a little.
    Pulling out her vape, she put it to her lips and breathed in. Though it felt nice to be able to breathe in a long breath of fresh air, breathing in smoke felt significantly better. She could feel her tense shoulders relax slightly as she watched a thin trail of smoke leave her lips.
After several minutes, Tony poked his head outside, ruining her quiet little moment. "Can I get you anything to drink?" He asked.
    "No, I'm good." Layla said. She had hoped that would get him to go away, but it did not. To her dismay, Tony stepped outside and stood next to her.
    They were quiet for several minutes before Tony decided to speak. "How long have you been doing that for?" He asked.
    She raised an eyebrow at him. "Why do you ask?"
    "No reason." He said.
    "I don't see any reason why you would need to know." She was reluctant to tell him anything. She still did not trust him and did not like him. It was not anything against him, she just did not know him long enough to form any opinion on him yet.
    "I was just curious." He said. "If it's some sort of secret, you don't have to tell me."
    She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "It's not a secret." She said.
    "Then what is it?"
    "It doesn't matter." She said. "You don't have to try to make small talk with me."
    "I just thought it'd be nice to get to know each other a little." He said.
She looked at him skeptically. "Why would we do that?"
Tony silently stared at her for a few seconds before chuckling slightly. "Not everyone's out to get you, Layla." He said. "Relax." Layla felt a strange flutter in her chest when he said her name. What the heck was that? She had no idea, so she decided to just ignore it.
"I know." She said. They were quiet for over a minute until Layla decided to break the silence. "I've been doing it for a few years."
Tony was surprised that she actually decided to tell him and smiled slightly. But his smile wavered as he thought about her answer. "Isn't it bad for your health though?"
Layla rolled her eyes. She had heard that before and was sick of hearing it. She clicked her tongue. "Who cares?"
    "I'm sure your family does." He said.
    She felt like laughing at what he said. "Yeah right." Realizing that she had probably said too much, she decided to change the topic before he could think about what she had said. "Should we continue working on the project?" He looked at her with surprise. "What?"
    "I just figured you weren't into doing the project. Or school." He said.
    "I'm not." She said and he smirked. Layla rolled her eyes. "I thought you wanted to work on the project. You're kinda obsessed with it."
    "Obsessed? I've only spent two days working on it! If you think spending two days on a project is obsessive, then how much do you study?"
    "Right before it's due." She said.
    "I should've figured." He smiled as he shook his head. "I got paired with the wrong partner." He joked.
    "Same here." She said.
"What? What's wrong with me?" Tony said in a purposefully over-dramatic way.
She looked him up and down and smirked. "Should I be honest?"
"Ouch. That hurt." He placed a hand over his heart like he just got shot and had little time left to live. They both chuckled slightly. Layla smiled. It was the first time she was hanging out so casually with someone like this. It felt nice but it also scared her.
She could not get used to this. They were just hanging out while they were working on the project together. It was not like they were friends or anything. Once the project was finished, she would go back to being alone.
With this thought, her smile fell. "C'mon, Toretto. Let's work on the project."
Tony was confused at where that suddenly came from but nodded anyway. "Alright." He said before following her back to his room in silence.