Sterling's Daughter

When Laya climbed onto the bus Monday morning, she felt a warm hand close around her good wrist and yank her, not particularly gently either, down into a seat near the front of the bus.
"Hey!" she whined, then clamped her mouth shut as she found herself pressed up against Will's shoulder.
"I was serious when I said we needed to talk," he said quietly, mouth close to her ear. Laya jerked away.
"Are you still on about this?" she hissed. This whole 'talk' thing was beginning to get on her nerves.
"After saturday, I realised that I really do need this talk," Will was still holding her wrist tightly. "Laya, I've really messed up."
There was something in the way that he said those last 5 words that made Laya stop feeling so agitated. She looked at him, and began to get that familiar butterfly feeling in her stomach. Her heart rate sped up as usual.
"If I'm really honest with you," she managed to find a sharp tone, "you mess up a lot."
Will's eyebrow rose.
"Ouch," he said, not at all offended. "When can we talk."
"We've been over this," Laya glared at him. "I've told you. I can't be bother...Fine. We can talk. Well, you'll be the one talking or whatever. Now. Talk. Fess up or whatever you want to do so much."
"What? Here?" Will stared at her. "No way. The music room is empty at lunch. We'll talk then."
Laya rolled her eyes.
"Whatever," she groaned. "Anything to get this over with. You're a serious pain in my butt, William."
"Whatever," he mocked her voice, but he didn't keep it up for long. She shoved him in the chest, then couldn't help but blush as he fixed her with that dark gaze of his. She folded her arms tightly across her chest and stared straight ahead as the bus rolled to a stop on school grounds.
"What was that all about?" Kirsty demanded as she caught up with Laya as they headed inside the school building. "Since when do you sit by Will on the bus?"
"It's not like I had a choice," Laya grumbled, and told her about WIll and his insistance on having a 'talk'.
"Wow," Kirsty smiled. "He sounds really desperate to talk to you."
Laya grumbled under her breath. Yet she felt a strange feeling building up inside her, and she couldn't help but feel curious about what was to come.
***
Laya shoved open the door to the music room and took a few steps inside. Will was perched on a desk in one corner of the room. When he saw her, he stood up and wandered over, looking uncomfortable as he shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans. There was a small silence. Laya wasn't keen to start talking so she fixed Will with a hard stare and waited for him to take the lead. He got the message.
"Laya, I'm sorry," he said after taking a deep breath. Laya's jaw fell open and she blinked at him, astonished.
"Uh..." she stammered, completely caught off guard and not entirely sure why he was apologising.
"I was a complete and utter jerk to you for ages and I realise that now," Will was staring straight into her eyes as he spoke, and he did look kind of ashamed. "At my old school I fell in with a bad crowd and my parents wanted to get me away from that, so we moved. When I started school here, I was still angry with them for moving away from our old place that I was really determined to stay a jerk and fail at school in every way. I wanted to get back at them for moving away from my friends and old life. When I met you, you were so determined for a challenge that I just couldn't resist myself and fought back. I guess I fought back too hard."
Laya's mouth open and closed a few times before she finally shut it firmly. She was astounded by the flow of words that had just left his mouth, and stared at him helplessly as he stood there in front of her.
"Wh...what do you mean you fought back too hard?" she stammered, finally managing to get some words out.
"You ended up in hospital," Will said quietly. There was a long, awkward silence. Laya's brain was working overtime, trying to make sense of the situation and all that he'd just said.
"I..." She began slowly. "I guess i kind of deserved that, though. I was a total bitch to you."
WIll's eyebrow shot up.
"Sorry, is this Laya talking?" he asked.
"I could ask you the same thing," Laya shot him a death glare. He nodded ruefully.
"True," he admitted. "I just want to know if my apology is accepted."
Laya froze.
"Accepted?" she repeated. She wasn't entirely sure what she thought of the situation she was currently in. "Uh...well..." she thought quickly. "I'd go as far as to say that we're equal. You were a jerk to me, I was a bitch to you. And saturday we decided that it was both our faults that the accident happened. So we're equal."
"Good," Will looked relieved. He placed both hands on either of her shoulders. "You know what? I reckon that that conversation on saturday was the first one where we didn't try to chew each other's heads off."
He was right, Laya realised. Instead of being at each other's throats, they had actually had a relatively serious conversation. It doesn't mean anything though, she told herself. The question was though, why were they suddenly getting along? It didn't make any sense.
"Thanks Laya," Will said, starting for the door.
"Hey!" Laya called before she could catch her tongue. Will paused and looked over his shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry to," she muttered, feeling her cheeks burn under his stare. There was silence, and Laya built up the courage to glance up at Will.
He smiled.