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8
Nic
She was gone so fast I could barely process it. Theo had to tell her and ruin everything. He still hated me for everything, even though I tried my best to make up for his lost years. Nothing I did mattered.
“Why the fuck did you do that?” I asked my brother who stood by laughing as if he was pleased with what he’d done.
“You deserved a fucking reality check, plus it’s not like you were keeping her around anyway. She’d be thrown out like trash the same way you’ve done every girl in your life. You use and abuse them, and then cut them loose.” Theo was right, I’d done that so many times, but with Layla it was different. She wasn’t just some toy to fuck with.
“It wasn’t the same with her,” I admitted out loud. I didn’t know where my feelings had become so tied up in her, but they had. She was something I’d never had before. She didn’t care about the glitz and the glam. She just wanted me for me, like I wanted her for her. There was something lasting with her and I’d never had lasting before.
“You say that, but you’d dump her in the trash too,” Theo shrugged as he poured himself another drink.
I rushed at him. I snatched the glass from his hand and threw it against the wall.
“Listen, you low life motherfucker. I’m sorry for what I did and how things turned out, but I’ve suffered too. Why can’t we forgive and forget? Just fucking move on. I don’t need you acting a fool and ruining everything!” I shouted loudly in his face, his breath smelling of vodka in my face.
“You’ve suffered?” He laughed manically. “I spent five fucking years in prison. My own fucking mother hated my guts and refused to visit me. She died, and I never got to see her again. All the while, you were out in the world living this fast and famous life with your little company. Don’t fucking tell me you suffered as much as me. That’s a motherfucking joke and you know it.”
“Listen, I know it wasn’t the same for me as it was for you and I appreciate every fucking day the fact you took the blame so I could keep thriving. I’m so fucking sorry for that, but you’ve just cost me the only thing that could ever bring me happiness. Yeah, I was out in the world living this life, but was I ever happy? Fuck no. Layla though, she’s finally that missing me, and you’ve got me her.” I wanted to pull out my hair.
“Then why the fuck are you standing around and fighting with me, loser. Go fucking chase her.” I’d never once heard my brother say anything so intelligent in my life. Yeah, I had to chase her.
I ran directly to the elevator and down to the floor her room was on. Arriving at her room, my fists pounded on the door in hopes she was there. A door opened, and a guest peeked out into the hall.
“Hello, Mr. Sullivan. The girl in that room just left. She was getting on the elevator with her suitcases as I was coming up,” the kind woman who I recognized as a shareholder informed me.
“Thanks.”
I rushed off and took the elevator to the ground floor. Jogging to the front doors, I saw her, my Layla. She was getting inside a taxi. Before I could reach the doors in time. The door to the taxi closed and it drove off.
“Fuck!” I groaned before taking out my phone and dialing Nina. “Nina, I need a car, right now, to meet me at the front of the hotel to take me to the airport.”
“You don’t have any flight scheduled today,” Nina said, oblivious to why I needed a ride to the airport on such short notice.
“Just tell the fucking car to take me to the airport.” I hung up and stepped outside. The bellmen and valet staff greeted me. I tapped my foot anxiously before I spotted my car pulling up.
Not even letting the driver come to a complete stop or get out to open the door for me, I hoped in the back seat and directed him to get to the airport as fast as he could.
The ride was filled with anxiety, but I knew one thing. I was getting Layla back, no matter what. She was mine and I was determined to have her be mine forever.
When we arrived, I jumped out of the car and ran into the terminal. I didn’t know what airline she’d be flying on, but I checked the board for all flights to San Francisco. There were a few and I ran off to those airlines. I checked one with no luck and then another. Finally, at the last, I spotted her in line.
“Layla!” I shouted as I jogged in her direction. I saw the anger on her face before I even approached her.
“Why are you here?” he asked me with irritation lining her every word. “I told you I was gone. This is done. You lied to me.”
“And I’m sorry. My past is complicated, but I just want you to hear me out. Please, Layla, just hear me out.” I was begging her with everything in me.
Layla took a deep breath before she left her place in line and followed me to a seating area in the terminal.
“Okay, talk. You don’t have long. I want to make this flight.”
I loved her attitude. Layla wasn’t as meek and docile as she could seem outwardly, she had a feisty bit inside her, and I’d let it loose.
“Yeah, my brother dying was my fault. I’d come home, Theo and I wanted to party and celebrate, our little brother, Dionysius, or Dino as we called him affectionately, was barely eighteen and wanted to join us. We’d originally told him no because he wasn’t twenty-one, but he tagged along away. He ended up having a few drinks and was trashed. I decided to send him home, but I wasn’t thinking clearly or intelligently and gave him Theo’s car keys instead of just making him get in a cab. He crashed into a light pole and died instantly.
“We were notified the next morning. Theo took the blame for it, even though it was all my fault. I should have never let him come and I should have called him a cab. Theo wanted to protect me and my growing career. He ended up spending five years in prison for involuntary manslaughter. My mother hated him, though she didn’t know her anger should have been directed at me.” I watched the look on Layla’s face as I told her my story. She looked somber and reflective.
