Chapter 230

Chapter 230
He held me for hours, running his hand through my hair as as stayed clung to him. The sun was nearly rising by the time I fell asleep, but he stayed up regardless to continue comforting me until I finally drifted off.

Layla's POV

I jolted awake in a panic, gulping in air and grabbing the arm around my waist as instinct for support. It took me only a few seconds to realize it was Jessica, since I had startled him awake and he was now sitting up to see what was wrong. I quickly calmed myself down in his brown eyes and sighed.

"I'm sorry," I apologized for waking him.

"It's okay. Bad dream?" He asked, rubbing my arm.

"Yeah, you could say that," I let out soft, painful laugh, wishing that I got bad dreams instead of torturous ones. I continuing trying to steady my breathing.

"You've barely slept tonight, you should get some more sleep," he spoke softly, trying to help me back down. I gave him a sad smile.

"It doesn't work like that," I told him the sad truth, "I'm gonna start making breakfast," I held my hands as they shook ever so slightly.

"But it's 5 am," Jessica responded, sitting up further with me now.

"I know, but I always do after a really bad nightmare.. it was all I knew how to do after a while so it became my coping mechanism in a way. It gets my mind off of everything," I explained, and he rubbed his eyes.

"Wait here," Jessica told me and went to get up from the couch, but I put his hand on arm to stop him.

"No, Jessica, just sleep. I'm fine, really. I've been alone with this my whole life," I tried to reassure him, but it just made him frown and plant a quick kiss on my forehead as he stood up and walked to the kitchen. I quickly wiped a tear from my face that fell and waited, not knowing what he was doing.

A few minutes later he came back with two mugs and a small smile on his face. The sun was barely up, but he seemed to glow in the dim light. He sat down next to me and handed me one of them, and I realized it was coffee from the delicious smell.

"Let's have a shit on of coffee together and then we'll make breakfast. Together," he said as he took a sip, his voice still a little raspy from just having woken up.

I felt a small, genuine smile spread on my lips.

This boy... he knew me.

"Okay," I replied and took a sip of my own. "I'll make the coffee next time, though. This is okay but I make it better," I joked, and he softly chuckled.

"Did I ever tell you about the time me and Asmodeus accidentally got Jake stuck in the clothes-drier?" He asked with an amused grin, and I had to fight to keep in my shocked laugh as my jaw dropped.

"What?" I asked in disbelief, so ready to hear the story. I sat criss-cross-applesauce on the couch and faced him, scanning over his defined features as he told me the story.

Don't worry- it wasn't on. Apparently they had been playing around with Jake and somehow got him in there, but the door wasn't opening when they went to let him out. They had to pretend like it was fine so that Jake didn't freak out in there, but the two of them were freaking out. I couldn't help but laugh my ass off as he told me the story, trying my hardest to keep it silent.

"And then Kade came, and apparently he's had experience with getting things stuck in a drier for some reason, so he knew how to take off the door somehow," he continued, and I just smiled at him. Don't get me wrong, the story was super funny, but the fact that he was doing this for me made me feel better than any story ever could.

Unless that story involved me meeting Harry Styles, obviously. But unfortunately that probably wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

"You three are gonna be the craziest fathers one day," I chuckled, and he shrugged.

"We're gonna be the funnest," he corrected.

"That's not a word, bud," I told him, patting him on the back.

"Whatever, nerd," he replied and we smiled at each other. I noticed we had finished our coffees, so I made us some more. My coffee was clearly better, but I didn't rub it in. He got in a few more funny stories about stuff I had missed a few years ago before we finished, and I loved them all.

"Alright," Jessica said, taking my mug away from me after I finished."Let's go make a kick-ass breakfast."

I was pleasantly surprised at his breakfast-making skills, but I was still the superior pancake chef. He only had me beat with the bacon, but even that was a close call. Everything else was clearly my terrain.

None of that mattered, though. Because for the first time ever I was making my comfort-breakfast with someone else.

And I could really fking get used to that feeling.