Before It Rains

“This is the main building, and over there is the auditorium, and over there is the cafeteria and…” I trailed off when I saw Max coming towards us. “Max! This is my friend Max!” I shouted.

“Calm down, Sam!” she said. Layla had always been a very down-to-Earth person, kept Hanna and myself in line, and she could be a little shy.

“Sorry! I just can’t believe you’re here!” I squealed. Max raised his eyebrows. “Max this is Layla. She’s from Florida. Layla, this is my friend Max.”

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Where’re you headed to?” I asked Max.

“Um… Mr. Samuels sent me to find you… you know, rehearsal… today…”

I smacked my forehead with my hand. “I forgot!”

Max rolled his eyes. “I know you did. That’s why I’m bringing you back there with me. We’re reviewing the choreography from the entire week.”

“Do I have to go? Layla’s here.”

Max looked at Layla, and she looked at me. “Sam, you really need to go. I’ll just come watch if that’s okay, and we can do some stuff later.” I sighed.

“You guys don’t even know each other and you’re ganging up on me!” I whined, but I reluctantly headed towards the auditorium.

*******

I was relieved when rehearsal was finished, and Layla and I walked back to the boy’s dorms. Max had stayed behind to finish up practicing some cowboy moves and Layla and I took the elevator up. When we got to my room, the door was unlocked and I could hear voices on the other side. Opening the door, I found Kai, Shane, Will, Austin, and my brother inside.

“Who said you guys could have a party in my room?” I asked, crossing my arms, faking anger.

“Ruben,” Kai said. “It’s his room too.”

Good point. I moved into the room and Layla came in behind me. I put her bag down on the floor while everyone looked questioningly from me to her.

“Hey Layla… what are you doing here?” Ruben asked, looking a little surprised. She gave him a little wave.

“It’s a long weekend for me, so I flew out her to visit you guys.”

“Yeah, and now we want to hang out, so I’m kicking all of you out,” I told them.

“But you didn’t even introduce us!” Will said. I raised my eyebrows.

“If I do will you get out?” I asked. They all nodded. “Fine, this is Kai, Will, Shane, and Austin. And this is Layla. She lives in Florida.” They didn’t move. “Get!” I said, holding the door open. Will reluctantly got up, and the rest followed. I shut the door and plopped down onto my bed.

“You’re friends are hot,” Layla giggled, taking Ruben’s spot on the bed.

I sighed. “Tell me about it.”

“Which one do you like?” she asked me. I sat for a minute, a little surprised. I’d tried to avoid thinking about it until now, but as I was thinking about it I realized I didn’t really know. I told her that.

“There’s more than one?”

“When I got here, I thought I liked Austin, but once Will came, I thought I liked him. But when Austin asked me to homecoming, and I said no at first, I felt so bad about hurting him like that. And… and I just really don’t know.” The truth and nothing but.

“Well, I don’t know them, but I’ll let you know what I think later,” she told me.

“Which one’s your favorite?” I asked, smirking. She was right; they were all extremely good looking.

“Well…” she blushed. “I can’t really answer that. Because, um, I’mkindofalmostgoingoutwithJake,” she said, much too fast and quiet for me to understand.

“What?”

“I’m kind of almost going out with Jake,” she repeated.

I almost fell off the bed. Jake was a kid at my old school in Florida. Layla had been crushing on him for the past three years, and he’d always been really nice to her, but he was just like that. Hanna and I had dragged Layla to the supermarket where he worked countless times over the summer, but she had always made us leave soon after we got there.

She had never really had a way with guys. Layla was pretty. She had honey-colored hair, a little upturned button nose, and ice-blue eyes, but refused think that anyone could be attracted to her.

“YOU AND JAKE!” I shouted. “Since when?”

“Well, you know how I’m always the first one to pretty much every class?” I nodded. She was early for everything. “So I went into math and Jake’s in my math class this year and I was the first one to class and he was the second one there. And the teacher wasn’t even in the room yet. So he was like, ‘Can I ask you something?’ and I said ‘Sure’ because I thought he was going to ask me a question on the homework or something. So then he asked if you and me and Hanna really enjoy the supermarket or what… and I froze up, because I didn’t really know what to say…”

I laughed out loud. So the supermarket trips all throughout vacation were beneficial! Layla might not have said anything to Jake in all of those trips, but he noticed her.

“Shut up! So I just shrugged and he said ‘I certainly didn’t mind you coming’ and I still didn’t say anything and then he asked me to the movies and I said no.”

“You said NO?” I shouted again. “Are you for REAL?”

“I didn’t know what to say, and then he looked really sad and I told Hanna about it later and she got mad at me and went and told him that I’d go with him.”

“Thank God for Hanna,” I said. “So you guys are going out now?”

“We’ve been on a few dates and stuff.”

“Yay!” I got up onto my feet and jumped on the bed. “I’m. So. Happy!” I said with each bounce. At that moment the door swung open, surprising me. I hit my head on the ceiling and fell back down onto the bedspread. “Ow!” I rubbed my head and looked over at the door. “Austin!”

“Um, hi?” he said, looking from me, to Layla, who just shook her head, and back to me. “We were going to go get some dinner if you guys want to come?”

“Sure.” We joined the other guys in the hallway, my head still throbbing. “But now my head hurts, thanks to you!”

“Sor-ry,” he said. “If you weren’t jumping on the bed in the first place, you wouldn’t have hit your head.” Good point. “Why were you jumping on the bed anyways?”

“Classified information,” I told him, wiggling my eyebrows. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“No.” But he did want to know, I could see it in his eyes.

********

The cafeteria was busy, it being six o’clock and all. After standing in line to get our trays of food, we went over to our table, pulling up an extra chair for Layla next to Asia. I introduced the two of them to each other, and then dug into my pasta. I hadn’t realized it, but I was starving.

“So Layla, how’s Florida?” Shane asked. He’d known the girl an hour and he was already flirting with her. I decided to wait and see what he said before intervening.

“Fine,” she told him. Ha ha, Shane, not getting anymore than that.

“Cool, so…” I didn’t even want to hear what he was going to say next. “God damn, Shane, she doesn’t even go to this school and you’re already flirting with her!” I pointed out. “Besides, she’s taken!” Will snorted, Layla blushed, and Shane shut up.