beverly hills - asher adams

07

"You don't know how much I love the beach, Layla." Allie turned her head to her best friend as she laid on a beach towel in a two piece red bikini while tanning her skin.

"Well you've said it around twenty times, so I'm assuming you like it a lot." Layla grinned at her best friend and tapped her nose with a pen she was wiggling.

She was writing in her super secret song journal that even Allie wasn't allowed to read. Allie knew better than to bug her about it, because it was important to Layla's mom.

It's been four days since the party and Allie had been feeling better mentally more than ever. Her father had moved out with little conversations between her mother and him since then. But on the bright side, Allie had gotten closer to her mom and finally got the guts to tell her she didn't want to walk the runway. And surprisingly her mother wasn't upset.

It seemed like since they got her father out of the picture, her life was beginning to look brighter. There were less crying in her room and more mother-daughter dinners where they ended up ordering pizza because neither of them could cook. Her mother was happy, so Allie was happy

Today was a beach get together with the football team and some friends, so it was a great time to just get away from everything and hang out with the people she knew would never hurt her. Especially Asher and Layla.

"Shut it," Allie playfully punched Layla on her bare arm with a sarcastic giggle. She then spotted Spencer walking their way from the boys who were playing a game of catch near the water. "Don't look now. Hottie on your right."

Layla actually rolled her eyes at Allie. "Not this again. Could you try not to set me up with Spencer? You know I'm not looking for a boyfriend at this moment."

"I wasn't looking for a boyfriend and I found Asher," Allie replied with a small shrug. "And we all know he's perfect."

She knew Layla was interested in Spencer, she just was too shy to show it. It was a plan in the back of her mind to set Layla and Spencer up. Maybe not at this moment was the right time to enact it.

"So, this is what rich kids do at 5 p.m. on a Tuesday." Spencer greeted both girls, but his gaze mostly lingered on Layla. Allie could already tell he didn't want to talk to her, but Layla didn't want her making a big deal, so she pulled her phone out of her Kate Spade purse and went on Instagram. "Go ahead. I'm definitely not listening."

Layla shook her head at her best friend. "Ignore her. And It's not all fun and games. We get work done, too. The student council's here, we're prepping for the big football booster party this week, and this year, the pressure's on because everybody is coming to meet our new star player. That's you, in case you were curious."

"That's what we're doing?" Allie looked up from refreshing the explore page. She wasn't trying to be funny. Allie genuinely thought Layla was writing in her lyric book the whole time.

Layla shook her head at her clueless best friend, and turned her attention back to Spencer. "Don't tell me you're leaving already?"

Allie saw Spencer shrug and reply from the corner of her eye as she liked one of Jordan's recent shirtless pictures from 33 minutes ago. "It's getting late."

"It's just getting started. Beers, a bonfire, s'mores. JJ's got his guitar out." Layla tried to sell the deal of a normal weekend beach night to a Crenshaw native who probably did nothing of the sort where he lived on the weekends.

"Sandcastles and John Mayer sing-alongs." Spencer said sarcastically.

"Okay." Layla said with a grin and a fit of giggles.

Spencer nodded. "It sounds tempting, but, uh, I got business to take care of."

Business? What kind of business? Allie was most definitely listening to their conversation instead of watching a video of some kids at their school getting in a fight.

"Business? Very mysterious, Spencer James." Layla brushed her hair out of her face and giggled.

Oh yeah, this girl definitely had caught the lovebug. Allie internally squealed. Shipppp!

"That's how I like it." Spencer replied. "See you later?"

Layla nodded and her straight hair bounced on her bronze shoulders. "Yeah."

Spencer walked away with a sort of swagger as if that conversation had added this newfound confidence boost as if he wasn't already confident enough.

Once Spencer was out of earshot, Allie turned to Layla and gave a smug smile. Before Allie could even open her mouth, Layla placed a finger on her Allie's red stained lips. "Don't."

Allie stood up and held her hands to the air as if she got caught by the police. "Whatever do you mean?"

Layla only shook her head. Allie giggled. "Come on, let's see what JJ's playing."

So, Allie dragged Layla over to the bonfire pit where Jordan, Asher, JJ and other guys from the football team and their girlfriends (or boyfriends) sat in a circle.

Allie broke the circle and sat between Jordan and Asher, while Layla sat on the other side of Jordan. "We talking about footbally things?" Allie chirped and hugged both boys separately. She was, for some reason, in a great ass mood.

"Actually no." Jordan replied with a nod and a smile that hadn't been on his face moments before the girls had sat down. "We were talking about Homecoming, and who we're taking."

Layla made a mischievous look. "And so who are you taking?"

"Well, Jordan, here, has broken up with Hadley. So, I'm thinking about taking her to you know, soothe the pain." Asher joked cockily with the comment directed to Allie.

Layla and Jordan's jaws both dropped. They knew this could either go two ways. Allie was very dramatic.

However, Allie knew Asher was joking, and decided to play along.

Allie's eyebrows flew up. "Oh really? So I guess I'll go with Jordan and we could be homecoming king and queen."

Allie then scooted closer to Jordan and basically forced him to wrap his arms around her bare waist. "Jordan? What do you think?" The blonde said with a sickly sweet tone in her voice.

Jordan was lost hopelessly in the sort of game between the couple. Layla was just on the sidelines silently giggling to herself about how stupid Jordan looked.

They only thought this would go two ways. Crying or arguing. Turns out there's three; jealousy.

"Oh um, um. I um—," Jordan was at a loss for words.

"God you look like you've seen a ghost, buddy." Allie giggled and scooted back over to Asher. "I'm just so irresistible, I know."

"There's the narcissistic girl I know." Layla rolled her eyes. "Could you even go a day without saying anything at all about your appearance?"

"Is that a challenge?" Allie loved to do competitions. Frankly, she just had an obsession with winning. Maybe that's why she strives to be queen at every major party.

"Only if you want it to be."

Only Allie knew that this would be hard, not talking about herself. It was like an immediate reflex, something she said when she had nothing to say.

"You're a bitch, you know that." Allie said in a jokingly tone.

"Love you too, Als."