When Did Your Heart Go Missing?

"I knew it!"

I rolled my eyes as Kelsey laughed.

"So, what's up? Tell me, I'm all ears."

I sighed.

"Obviously, I'm depressed because of my mom..." I began. She nodded. "But at the same time, I'm fucking glad I...she...you know, she sort of kicked me out so I don't have to deal with her."

She nodded again.

"And, you know, I still have Frank..."

She nodded, again, only this time with blatant excitement.

"But..."

"But you just want him so much that it hurts to know he cant just thrust himself into y-"

"WOAH! A little ahead of ourselves, aren't we?"

Kelsey laughed hysterically and I chuckled nervously, feeling my cheeks warm up.

"I just..." I went on tentatively. "It feels like there's something that just makes our friendship weird and it makes everything else hurt that much more."

"Like your mom and the blond bastards?"

"Like my mom and the you-know-whos."

"Well, you know what I think?"

I looked up at her smiling. Her rants were sometimes annoying but when they were meant to help you, you definitely wanted to hear it.

"Yeah?" I said.

"I think you are stupid!"

My jaw dropped.

"You guys like each other so much it hurts the rest of us to see you subconsciously flirt and not just be together already. And now you can't even hang out with your friends because that's given you a heavy heart? Wait, no, heavy heart my ass. You don't have one. It's lost. It went missing. We need to put up signs. 'Have you seen Layla's heart? It went missing when she rejected Frank.' Yeah, that's right, I heard what he said last night. I'm not stupid. You told me yourself. You keep rejecting him. If you're gonna be moping around, wishing you could be with him when he's been literally throwing himself at you...you can leave my house right now."

Now, normally, I would've yelled at her or thrown her off the bed or dropped dead. I think I'd rather defend my point.

"But even he said last night that I shouldn't think about him," I retorted, crossing my arms in triumph at her dumbfounded expression. But then it somehow turned into an expression that said aw!

That's never good from Kelsey.

"He really does love you," she said softly. "He doesn't want to hurt you, Layla. But you're hurting yourself."

She stood and walked towards the door, an air of triumph coming from her.

"Wait!" I yelled after her. She turned, smirking.

"There's a reward!" she said officially. "If you find this poor young girl's heart! She's in desperate need of it."

And she shut the door behind herself. I groaned and lay back down on the bed, willing my heavy eyelids to let me fall so deep into unconsciousness, that I won't even think about...

My missing heart.

I opened my eyes, relieved to be awake. I felt cold yet at the same time I was whimpering and covered in sweat.

I'd had a bad dream.

One of those bad dreams where you just feel like crying.

And I couldn't help it. I cried like a baby.

"Sh..." a voice said softly to me. My eyes were closed again so I wasn't sure who it was. But it wasn't Kelsey. And it wasn't Frank.

The person brought their arms around me, lifting my to a sitting position and letting my head fall onto their chest. It was Mikey. I just knew it was.

"M-Mikey?" I stuttered. He rubbed my back gently.

"Don't worry," he said softly. "It was just a dream."

"Wha-what are you doing here?" I asked.

"I'll tell you when you calm dow-"

"I am calm!"

I pulled my head away and Mikey smirked.

"You are?" he asked. I cleared my throat. I sat up straight in the bed. I was still wearing Linda's clothes. I looked down almost subconsciously and realized my skirt was pulled up, showing off my legs (but not anything else). I looked up at Mikey, who was looking down with wide eyes. I placed a hand over his eyes and pulled the skirt down.

"I-I'm sorry," Mikey said nervously, his cheeks flushing red. Yeah, look down at my legs, why dontcha.

"I'm calm," I stated, pulling my hand away and crossing my arms. I tried hard to ignore the fact that I wasn't all that comfortable alone with Mikey in Kelsey's guestroom anymore.

"Okay," Mikey said cautiously. "But you won't stay that way for long."