Poison ➸ cth

t w o

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It didn't take long for me to get dressed. I usually go for a pretty casual approach: ripped jeans, t-shirts, sneakers. Tonight seemed different though. Almost special.
To be honest, I didn't dress much different than normal. I don't really have a huge variety of styles because I don't go places very often. I pretty much just cleaned up my usual style a little bit: black skinny jeans with no rips or holes, a buttoned up red and black flannel, my favorite all-black converse high-tops, and a cute black beanie to fix the issue of my bad hair day.

It took me maybe ten minutes to finish getting ready, then Ryan and I were headed out. We were going to the store first, so we would have to come back before dinner to drop off any frozen stuff we bought.

"Can you please just tell me?" I pleaded, turning in my seat to face Ryan. He refused to tell me a single thing about his surprise. I didn't have a problem with surprises, especially since I rarely got them, but the nagging was unbearable.

"Sorry, kiddo. You're gonna have to wait a little while longer." I grunted, throwing myself back in my seat and crossing my arms. He chuckled. "What's so funny?" I demanded, causing him to laugh even more.

"Nothing. Its just you remind me a lot of your father. He was an impatient little bastard." I smiled at the compliment. Yes, compliment. Its nice being compared to my father, who is not abusive and does not belong in prison.

"Alright, ready to shop?" I sighed, reluctantly at first but then in relief. "As long as the step-monster doesn't show up, I'm good to go." He laughed at my nickname for Regina before we both got out of the car and walked into Walmart.

Probably one of the best places to do your shopping.

"You have the list?" He asked, and I nodded, pointing to my head. "I've done this enough times to know exactly what Regina wants and how much of it." I guess I said that with a bit of a sour tone because he gave me a look that said 'Woah, okay, I'll back off. Calm down.'

I glanced around the store, remembering the routine that Regina and I would usually go through. "Okay, I usually get breakfast stuff first, and Regina gets the drinks so-" Ryan held up a hand, interrupting me. "Kid, you know how bad I am at remembering lists. I think I'm gonna have to stick with you on this trip."

I sighed, shaking my head but smiling. "Alright, then. Breakfast stuff first." He had no idea where anything was so I led the way. I turned down the cereal aisle, where I saw a familiar face. I let out a gasp of shock at first, but then my face broke into a smile. "Layla!" I exclaimed, running to give my best friend a giant hug. She laughed as I barreled into her. "Hey, punk."

"What the hell are you doing here? This isn't when we usually meet!" I asked, completely lost.

About ten years ago, when Regina finally decided she could use me to help her with the shopping, I met Layla. It had been my first time at a store since my dad got married, and I hardly even remembered the other times I went. I wondered off, away from Regina, and got lost. That was when I ran into Layla. Well, her mom actually. She noticed that I seemed lost and figured she should help me find my mom. I'm pretty sure I cringed at the word. Honestly, I'm not even sure I wanted to find her. Layla was incredibly confident, strutting up to me and introducing herself. I was the shy one, not quite sure how to make friends considering I wasn't allowed to have friends. I tentatively introduced myself and almost immediately, she popped the question. "Wanna be best friends?"

I was extremely shy but also surprised. I never imagined talking to a kid my own age, let alone making friends with one. Her mom even butt in, telling Layla we had only just met and that my mom would probably want to meet any new friends I made. That gave me a sudden boost of confidence and surety. "Ma'am, its okay." I knew my manners. "I would love to be best friends!" The two of us hugged, huge smiles on our faces.

Then the worst sound of my life broke up the moment. The sound of Regina's voice. She was calling for me, angrily. I was scared at first but wouldn't let her ruin my new friendship. I whispered to Layla, telling her to meet me in that spot, the cereal aisle, at that time and on that day of the week, which was Fridays at around seven at night. I explained everything to her later, the whole situation with my dad and step mom. Everything. She's probably the one person that knows almost everything about me.
To this day we still met up on Fridays in the cereal aisle of Walmart. The best part was that Regina never knew.

Although today was Friday, it was not seven o'clock. It was well past that time, nearly ten o'clock. She couldn't have been waiting all this time could she?

"You can thank Mr. Bennett for that." She said, motioning to Ryan. He scoffed. "Layla, please, you're practically family. Call me Ryan." I looked back and forth between the two, slightly confused but nonetheless thankful to have them.

"You told her to meet me at this time?" I asked Ryan. He nodded. "She gave me her number in case of, well, something like this."

"You know me. Always around." She smiled. "So what's for dinner?" I turned back to Ryan, confused yet again. "Dinner?"

"Well, yeah, I couldn't just tell her to show up here at ten and not invite her to dinner." He smirked. I literally ran into him with such a big hug that he nearly fell over. Some people were staring, but I didn't care because I had never done anything with Layla besides hide in the cereal aisle.

"Oh my God, thank you so much, this is amazing!" It really was. Now I understood why Ryan wanted to keep it a surprise. Its so much more exciting when you're not expecting it.

"So? Dinner?" Layla pressed, and I laughed.

"I thought we'd leave that up to Eira." Ryan replied, and they both looked at me. "Me? I don't know any restaurants, and you two know that."

"Then tell us what you're hungry for, and we'll pick the place." Layla suggested. I thought about it for a second. I hadn't had Chinese in a while. The last time I had it was probably last year when Ryan picked some up. It sounded good to me. "I'm kinda hungry for some Chinese."

"Panda Express?" Ryan asked, and Layla nodded. I guess we were going to Panda Express.

"Well, first thing's first. We gotta get this shopping done." Ryan stated. "Layla, would you like to help? It'll go a lot faster."

"Sure, I'd love to!" And then we were off.

I knew this night felt special for a reason.
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Sorry for the long wait! If you read my updated chapters of Black, then you already have the explanation... unless you don't read author's notes then I'm pretty much just wasting my time here.

So long story, short... I was going to update 3 chapters for each 5sos fic at once but one for each got deleted. I haven't been motivated to rewrite so I've been procrastinating a really long time and was just like screw it, I'm updating. There ya have it :)