LAYLA

We were taking turns visiting Ace in the hospital today. I knocked on the door and poked my head in. Ace looked up at me and smiled.

"How are you feeling?" I asked as I went inside, closing the door behind me.

"Better than yesterday." I nodded and sat down on the little couch beside his bed.

"What you did was very brave. But what you and Romeo did before? Stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life." He chuckled, but then winced and stopped laughing.

Then he shrugged. "In my defence, I was just trying to help."

"I get it, your intentions were good, but maybe you guys went a little extra."

Ace sighed. I decided not to press on the matter anymore. "Well, what's done is done, it can't be changed now. And anyways, you did redeem yourself." He nodded in agreement.

"So, how's school going?" He asked. Before I could stop myself, I blurted out, "There's this guy," and immediately realised the situation sounded different than I intended.

Ace raised his eyebrows. "Not like that. We were assigned a project together, but we had a fight and now I have to do it myself. By tomorrow. We haven't talked since, not even acknowledged each other at school. And now with all this going on, I don't know how I'll complete it. I don't even have his side of opinion on questions where both our answers are needed."

I finished my little rant. He listened to everything I said silently. I half expected him to ask me the guy's name and do background research on him once he's discharged from the hospital. But to my surprise, he just smiled a little, which was very not Ace like when it came to his sisters and boys.

"All I can say is, do what you think is right. If you really need his help, then be the mature one and reach out to him. Maybe you guys can solve whatever problem you have and work together again to finish your project on time." He suggested.

"I'll think about it." I replied.

Then his smile turned into a smirk. "Also, do you like him?"

"What the fuck Ace!?" I exclaimed, probably turning red.

"Yeah, I'll take that as a no."

I scoffed. "You've been spending way too much time with Luca, Lucas and Liam. Maybe Alex too."

"You think?"

"Duh. You sound just like them."

He frowned. "I'm not that annoying am I? Minus Alexis, of course."

It was my turn to laugh. "No, you've not reached that level yet. Enough talking now, you want to play UNO?"

"Who's acting like Lucas now huh?"

I stuck out my tongue at him in response and took out a pack of UNO cards from my bag. We played at least three games, me winning two to one. In the middle of the fourth round, the nurse looking after Ace came into the room with a food tray, saying it was time for Ace to eat.

I quickly put all the cards away and the nurse brought out the overbed table. After placing all the food on it, she told Ace to finish all of it, as it was necessary for him to eat according to his diet in order to heal quickly. She turned to me before exiting and told me to make sure he eats it all.

Once she left Ace groaned. "I hate this stuff. It tastes disgusting!"

I chuckled. "You heard what she said, come on now, finish it up."

"I'm not a little kid, in fact I'm your elder brother. You can't tell me what to do." He said, acting very much like a little kid.

"I'm not telling you what to do. It's the doctor's order." He huffed, but still ate his food.

While he was eating, we talked more about random stuff. Why purple was a better colour than blue, roses being overrated flowers, Ace's crush on Salena, an intern in his office - he says he doesn't have a crush on her but I knew better - who would win in a fight between Dumbledore and Grindelwald from Harry Potter etc. Basically nonsense.

Once he was done eating, the nurse came in again and said Ace had to rest, so it was time for me to leave. With one last bye, I left his room and got out of the hospital. While driving back, I thought about giving Deniz a call and asking him to help me out. But I couldn't imagine how smug he would get after it. That was something I didn't want to deal with.

I also wasn't very much interested in seeing him. I would rather do all the work myself than have him tell me how I had to get his help to complete a simple project for the rest of the year. As I reached my house I parked my car and got out of it. I waved to Carter, who was sitting in the living room and went straight to my room.

I laid down in my bed for some time before I would get started. It was five minutes later when my phone dinged. I picked it up to see a text from Oliver. The fuck?

Deniz: Hello beautiful, how's it goin?

I was taken aback from this. What is wrong with this guy?

Me: Are you sure you're texting the right person? You called me an 'ugly gorilla' the other day.

I waited for him to reply. I still had to complete the art project, and the deadline was tomorrow. Oliver was not helping by doing this.

Deniz: Shit...

Deniz: Sorry, wrong number

I rolled my eyes. Does he not have eyes? Can't he see who he's texting. The last thing I needed was him ruining my day.

Me: First off

Me: You're disgusting

Deniz: :eye_roll:

Me: Secondly, do you talk smoothly with every other girl you see? Or am I getting special treatment?

I was pretty sure it wasn't the 'wrong number'.

Deniz: :gag gif:

Deniz: Anyways

Deniz: Now that we ARE talking, how's the project going?

Me: As if you care

Deniz: I never said that

Me: You never said you did either. We saw each other in school everyday, you didn't show how much you cared for it then

Deniz: You're the one who told me not to talk to you!

That was true. I did tell him to not text me. I also tried to avoid him in school. But I was not admitting defeat. Not yet, at least.

Me: Since when did you start listening to me?

I waited for him to reply. Two minutes go by. Nothing. He didn't have a comeback. I knew I had won. Won what? A voice inside my head asked. Ace's words rung in my head. "...be the mature one and reach out to him." I thought about it. I was gaining nothing from this argument. And also, if we teamed up, maybe we could finish it on time.

Me: Listen

Me: I think we both know we're being childish

Me: And we should probably

Me: ...

Me: Become a team again

Me: what do you say?

Surprisingly, I didn't have to wait long for an answer.

Deniz: I... somehow agree

Me: That's new

Deniz: So how do I help?

I thought for a minute. Then I replied.

Me: How about you come over? We could work on it together.

Deniz: I mean... sure. Um, right now?

Me: Yeah, how about ten minutes?

Deniz: Alright then, I'll be on my way.

Me: Don't be late this time.

Deniz: No promises were made

Me: :eye_roll:

I put my phone down and hoped I had made the right decision by calling him over. Now all I had to do was wait for him.

Fifteen minutes later, someone knocked on my door. Carter looked inside.

"Some guy says he's come to do a project with you. Oliver Deniz, I think his name was. Should I send him up here?" She asked.

I smiled at her. "Yeah, that would be good, thanks." She smiled back and went away.

Thirty seconds later there was another knock on the door. "Come in." I said.

Oliver opened the door. "Um, hey."

"Hi."

There was an awkward silence after that for a while. I got up and collected my papers.

"You're late." I finally said.

"By five minutes!" He retorted.

"So are you just gonna stand there by the door?" I asked. I could've sworn I saw him go a little red.

"You didn't really invite me in."

"I do remember asking you to come in."

"Whatever." He mumbled. "Your house is huge."

I smirked. "Anyways, we should get started already. Show me what you've done so far." I nodded and we started working.

------

After half an hour or so, Carter came into my room. "Hey, I brought you two some snacks."

In her hand was a plate full of cookies. She placed it on my bed where we were sitting.

"Thanks Carter." I said, picking up one and taking a bite out of it.

"No problem. How's everything going?" I shrugged.

"Better than expected, actually."

Carter laughed.

As if to prove me wrong, Lucas and Liam decided to choose that moment to walk in. "Hey sis. Whatcha doin-" Lucas stopped mid sentence when he saw Deniz. Both Liam and Lucas raised their eyebrows, to which I rolled my eyes. And Oliver decided to not make eye contact with anyone, for some reason.

Liam came to me and peered over my shoulder. "So this is what you were talking about?"

"Yeah. Can I do something for the two of you?"

"Now that you've asked, you could answer a couple of questions." Lucas said.

"No thanks, I'll pass. Now, get out of my room."

"But I'm not in your room." He replied, pointing down.

That asshole was standing outside the doorway.

Luckily for me, Carter came to my rescue. "Okay, that's enough. Let the two do their work. Out, both of you." She said, shooing my brothers out of the room. "All the best." She said and shut the door behind her.

"You should be nicer to your brothers." I heard Oliver say.

I turned to him. "What was that?"

"Nothing." He said quickly. "Let's just finish this."

"Of course." I replied.

About another hour later, we were finally done. We decided to put both our opinions in it. I had to bring our work to school the next day.

"See you tomorrow in school then." I said as he exited my house. "Yeah, don't forget to bring it with you."

"I won't."

"Alright then. See you."

I turned around and saw Lucas and Liam standing there smirking. No prizes to whoever guesses what they said next.

"So, do you like him?" I rolled my eyes and headed back upstairs to my room.

"We'll take that as a yes."

"Fuck off!" I shouted back and closed the door.

So Ace really has been spending too much time with them.

---------

"Layla Di Angelo and Oliver Deniz next!" Ms. Marano called out. I looked over to him, as we both got up and went over to her. I handed over our papers to her. I anxiously tapped my foot as she analyzed our work.

When she was finally done, she said something I didn't expect her to.

"It was really good, but some questions were overdone. As in, you gave two answers when you were only supposed to give one. You will have to do an extra assignment if you want to make up for your grades. Both of you, since this was a partner project. Come to me next week if you decide to do it."

My jaw dropped. The bell rang marking the end of the day at exactly the same moment. "That will be it for today, I will be seeing you next week." She said, ignoring the two surprised students in front of her. I went back to my seat to pack my stuff as she, with many other students, went out of the class.

Oliver and I were the last ones to finish packing. "This was all your fault." He said to me as we exited the class. I stopped right in my tracks, and so did he.

"Excuse me? If you don't remember, she said to make up for our grades. And who's the one with bad grades between the two of us? You are, Deniz. So it certainly is not my fault." 

"If only you would've put your pride on the sidelines and let me decide just some of our answers, none of this would've happened. Or even better, after you did not let me, at least you shouldn't have asked me to help again. This probably wouldn't have happened then. Now, we have to go to Ms. Marano again tomorrow and ask for an extra assignment or we, at least I, fail."

I looked at him in disbelief. Was he really blaming me for this?

"And here I was, thinking you might've matured. But no Oliver, you never will. And you know what? Two can play that game. My grades are good enough for me to pass without that extra credit, so I won't be asking for another project. Go figure it out yourself." I didn't wait for him to reply, I turned around and stormed off.

I guess we were never really meant to be friends.