Smoke Screen

Chapter 15

    A few weeks after Layla had started avoiding Tony again, he finally caught her on her way out of school. "Hey Layla." Tony said as he stood right in front of her so she could not walk past him.
    She was surprised that he still tried to greet her and did not have any animosity in his voice. He was as cheery as ever, like she had not been avoiding him at all. "What is it Toretto?" She asked as she crossed her arms.
    "It's almost summer break." He said.
    "So?" She raised an eyebrow at him.
    "Do you have anything going on over the summer?"
    "Why?" She continued to give him short answers.
    Tony pulled a paper flier out of his pocket, unfolded it and handed it to her. She looked at the words printed on it. It spoke about the details of a summer camp. "Think you can go? It'll be fun!"
    She did not have anything to do over the summer, but she also doubted that her dad would let her go to a summer camp. But the last thing she wanted to do was hang around the same house as her dad all summer long. He hated being around her just as much as she hated being around him. Maybe she would be able to convince him to let her go. She just had to approach him at the right time.
When she got home, she put the flier in a safe place. Before she could ask her dad if she could go, she had to wait for the right time. Until then, she spent a lot of her time trying to think of how to approach him and what to say.
    A few days later, she got her opportunity. After her dad had drank a few drinks, she figured that it was her best opportunity to approach him. If he had too many drinks, then he would get violent. Well, more violent than normal. But if she was able to catch him before then, he should have been in a somewhat of a decent mood.
    When he was in that state, he was the easiest to convince. That was when she had the best chance at reasoning with him. So, taking a deep breath and briefly thinking about what she was going to say, she walked into the living room.
    Her dad was sitting on the couch with a half empty bottle clutched in his hand. When he saw her enter the room, he raised an eyebrow at her but did not say a word. She stepped towards him, stopping a safe distance away.
    "I have something I need to talk to you about." She said. He grunted in response, giving her permission to continue. "There's this summer camp coming up and I-."
    He cut her off. "You want to go?"
    "Yes."
    He stared at her blankly for several long seconds. "No."
    "What? But you didn't even hear me out!" She said full of frustration.
    "Well?" He vaguely gestured towards her with his bottle, silently telling her to go on.
    "It's only for a week. If I don't do that then I'll have nothing to do over the summer, which means I'll just be around the house all summer." She smirked as he groaned. "If I go then I'll get out of the house and you'll have the house to yourself."
    He stared at her for several long minutes seemingly deep in thought. The look on his face made her think that he was going to say no again, until something seemed to click in his eyes. He then looked at her with the closest thing to a smile that he could muster.
    "Alright." He said.
    "Wait, really?" She looked at him in disbelief.
    "Yeah, now leave before I change my mind." He barked at her gruffly. She quickly rushed back to her room, unable to suppress the smile on her face.
    She was not sure why, but she was strangely excited. She had no idea what was going to happen at camp, but she had to admit that she could not wait to find out.