Savior

The Girl and the Story

*EARLY UPDATE! MAKE SURE YOU HAVE READ THE LAST CHAPTER 'The Boy that Shows' AND GIVE ME LOTS OF LOVE*

I see it in her eyes; the shift.

It's like the storm that has been inside of her jade iris' since she showed up to Cheshire suddenly clears away. Like a wall that I, that she has been picking at for months, finally cracks and there is a bit of light shining through.

Not enough to light up a room, but enough to give hope that one day it will be.

The words that I spewed at her may have been scathing, but they were the truth. Ones that I have been pushing down for a while because I am afraid that one wrong wind will make her crumble.

But, hearing her trying to apologize... Apologize for rejecting me, for not feeling the same –no matter how badly that rejection stung. Well, they just came out.

And they didn't make her crumble, just her walls.

"Harry, I-"

"Layla, it's time to open up gifts!" And like she always did when I would take girls up to my room in school, my sister walks in and interrupts.

Layla sends me a soft smile, holding so many words she can't yet say before walking back into the living room and leaving me with a nosy Gemma.

"Your sense of timing in impeccable."

She just laughs and shakes her head, clapping me on the back, "Well, you two were in here a bit too long and I am too young to be an aunt."

The implication of her joke makes me flush deeply and I attempt to elbow her in the side, but she pulls away, laughing, and leads me into the living room where everyone is already seated.

And I run into my first dilemma because there is one empty spot next to Layla on the couch and then another next to my sister on the loveseat. Layla has her eyes casted down onto the ground, though I know she is paying attention to my choice.

I glance at Gemma, but she only shakes her head threateningly and nudges it towards the other empty seat. With a roll of my eyes and a nervous cough, I take a seat next to Layla.

And though I might have been imagining it, I swear she sags in relief.

"Okay, okay!" Eliza claps her hands together, shoving a decorative gift bag towards Layla, "Mine first!"

Layla's cheeks tinge pink, obviously not used to the attention as she digs around in the bag before pulling out a plastic container holding an old school flip phone. The kind you can buy at a sketchy gas station and throw away the next day.

Her eyebrows furrow and a troubled expression grows on her face, making her swallow nervously, but Eliza is quick to explain.

"It's a burner phone. I bought it under my name and also bought the minutes for it..." She doesn't say it aloud though it's clear that Eliza is saying this so Layla knows it has no connection to her, no traceable one, "The only numbers in there are everyone sitting here and Betsy... I figured you needed one so we wouldn't have to look high and low for you all the time... And if you ever need us... we're just one phone call away."

I know, without anyone else giving Layla their gift that this is the most thoughtful of them.

Because Layla may not have told us this, but we have gathered that she doesn't want people to know she is here, that she is running from someone.

And with this phone –under Eliza's name, no one will know it's hers, but she will still be able to communicate with all of us without fear of it leading back to her.