Smoke Screen

Chapter 10

Just before school was about to end, Layla stood up and faced Tony. "Wanna work on that project now?" She asked.
Tony raised an eyebrow at her. "You actually want to work on it?"
"You surprised?" She said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Yeah." He quickly stood to his feet before she could change her mind. Whatever was going on with Layla, if she actually wanted to work on the project with him for once, he would take it. "Alright, let's go!"
Taking his car, they drove off just as the final bell rang. When they got to his house, they first gathered all the information they already had. Once they figured out what they still needed to do, they got to work right away. It was mostly just putting together all of the information and fine-tuning it. Since they had already done a good amount of research, they were done in just barely over an hour.
When they were finished, Layla laid back onto Tony's bed. Tony looked over at her, surprised that she did not immediately bolt out as soon as they were done. Unlike how stressed she was all day, she actually seemed more at ease now. It made him happy to see her like that.
    "What, Toretto?" Layla said as she eyed him skeptically. That was when Tony realized that he had been staring at her with a smile on his face for probably too long.
"Oh, uh, nothing." He said, his face heating up slightly due to the embarrassment. Layla smirked as he quickly looked away.
    Usually she would leave as soon as they were done, or would even cut their time together short to go home. But this time the dread of going home kept her from jetting out of there. She was sure that Tony was going to kick her out, not wanting to hang out with her any longer than he had to. But until then, she would just hang around.
   As she laid on his bed, she closed her eyes, letting herself relax, which was something she did not do often. Tony's eyes drifted to Layla again. He could not help but think that she looked cute while lying there like that.
    "You're welcome to hang out here as long as you want." Tony said.
    Layla propped herself up with her elbows as she looked over at him. "Why?" She questioned him. They did not have any more work to do. Why would he want to hang out with her otherwise?
    Tony smiled slightly. They were back to the same thing with her questioning why he would want to hang out with her. "Unless you have somewhere else you need to be." He said.
    Layla was silent for a moment before answering. "No."
    "Good." Tony said as he stood up. "So, what do you wanna do?" She stared at him blankly, giving him a look that said she did not care. "Why don't we watch a movie?"
Layla shrugged. "Sure." She stood up and followed him into the living room.
"Wanna watch Fast and Furious?" He asked. "It's based off of a true story."
"Uh, sure." She said as she plopped herself down onto the couch.
Tony put on the movie and sat down next to her. "Did you know Dom's my cousin?" He said a few minutes into the movie.
"No he's not." Layla said with a scoff.
"Tony Toretto." He said with emphasis on his last name. Layla's eyes widened with realization. Tony pulled out his phone and showed her a few pictures of him with Dom. He smirked at her reaction. "See."
"Show off." Layla said before averting her attention back to the movie. Tony did the same, though the smile on his face did not go away.
Once the first movie finished they put on the second. They continued watching the movies well into the night. The thought of her dad was far away from Layla's mind. She had completely forgotten about that along with all of her troubles.
Now being more relaxed and calm than she had been in a long time, Layla felt herself growing tired. Halfway through the third movie she unknowingly began to drift off. Feeling the weight of something pressing against his shoulder, Tony looked down to see Layla asleep next to him, her head resting against his shoulder.
Tony's face heated up slightly. He had never been this close to her. He tried not to stare but he could not help himself. He was drawn to her and he was not sure why.
A smile played on his face. He was glad to have been able to spend time with her and hoped to be able to get closer to her even more.