You're My Obsession

Jamie was still curious about Layla's life because she wanted to know why she didn't have any friends. She must have had friends in the past, but it was for her to find out herself.

She asked Layla if she could come over to her house. Layla was a cool girl, which made her question why no one was her friend. But everyone has friends, right?

After school, she and Layla entered her home and her mother was in the kitchen. "Hello, Layla. You must have had a nice day of school by the smile on your face."

"Yeah, it was great," she turned to Jamie. "Mom, this is Jamie. I just met her and she's one of my new friends."

"Hi," Jamie waved.

Layla's mother smiled. "I'm glad that Layla made a friend. You're welcome here anytime."

"Thanks," Jamie nodded, but then her attention turned to her arms, which were covered in bruises and it made more questions pop up into her brain.

They both went upstairs and entered Layla's bedroom. When Jamie sat on the bed, she decided to ask the questions.

"Hey, um," Jamie stuttered.

"What is it?" Layla looked alarmed. "Is something wrong?"

"I kind of have a personal question to ask you," Jamie began.

"Yeah?"

"Uh, were you telling the truth about all having no friends?" she asked. "Or is there something behind all this."

"I did have friends before," Layla confessed. "It's just that I stopped talking to them since...."

"Since what?" Jamie wanted to know more.

"Since my parents divorced," she averted her eyes and Jamie wasn't sure if she was crying or not.

"Why did you stop?"

Layla had to tell someone the truth. "I admit it, I lied about people making fun of me. The real story is that my dad used to love my mom so much, and he really cared about me also. But things just didn't work out so good."

Jamie was still curious. "Please continue."

"My dad soon became stressed with work and it got to his brain somehow," she continued with the story. "He then stopped coming home with a smile on his face and only yelled at us every day. The days got worse and worse and the yelling moved onto hitting. Every single night, I was traumatized by him abusing my mother. One day, I couldn't handle it anymore and hit him to stop him from hurting her. And I got hit back."

Hearing the truth was horrible. "So your mom divorced him?"

"Yes," Layla said. "But he got into car accident and they told us that he didn't make it. After my dad's death, I just kept quiet and wanted to be alone. My friends didn't talk to me either because I guess they thought I was mad at them, and I've been alone for three months. And when you and your friends actually talked to me, I felt like a real person again and it made me think about my past."

"I'm really sorry about what happened to you," Jamie apologized.

"I'm just glad that you're here to understand me," Layla began to cry again. "It's been a while since I've spoken to anyone and I never told anybody what happened."

"You have friends again," Jamie assured her. "Nothing like that is ever going to happen because everyone here is going to love you. I just know it."

Layla wiped her tears. "Thank you. I've never met someone this nice."

"Then you haven't been to Belleville," she said.

After being with her for a while, Jamie left Layla's house. She had a huge amount of pity for her and knew that it must be really hard to get over a past like that. But she at least got her questions answered and Layla told her everything.

Except for the fact that she has a crush on Mikey.