“Snap out of it, Layla!” Amanda flicked her fingers in front of me as we sat inside the school lunchroom the day after the races.

I was tired and hadn’t eaten any of the food on the tray that was in front of me. “Sorry. I guess I didn’t get enough sleep last night.”

That was partially a lie. I was indeed in Zombie mode. I had barely been able to focus during my first 3 periods of the day, but that was mostly because I was spacing out about the night before and the time I spent with Mason.

“Come on.” Amanda picked up my plastic fork and forcefully placed it in my hand. “Eat your turkey.”

I moaned and started cutting the turkey and gravy combination into small, bite sized pieces, and Amanda started scarfing hers down like she hadn’t ate in days.

“Caleb asked me to prom last night,” she cooed.

“That’s good,” I replied. “Are you going to go with him?”

Amanda shrugged. “I don’t think so.” She took another bite of her turkey and spoke with her mouth full. “We made out a little last night, but I don’t think he’s the right one for prom.”

“What?” I asked. “You made out with him?”

“Yeah, when you went racing with Mason, it just sort of happened.”

“And you’re not going to go with him?”

“What? Just because we made out doesn’t mean we have to go to Prom together.”

I shoved her shoulder. “You’re such a slut.”

“Am not!”

“What’s wrong with Caleb? Why don’t you want to go with him?”

“Caleb is super-hot, but I don’t know. He’s just young and kind of immature.”

“He’s the same age as you.”

“Yeah, but Russell Blake is 19, going on 20. He has his own apartment and everything.”

“That’s because Russell failed freshman year twice. You’re really going to go out with him just because he’s older?” I shoved a piece of turkey in my mouth.

Amanda pooched her lips, ignoring my question. “And did you see all the hot guys at the Bluff last night? Oh. My. God.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed. “You really got to stop being so superficial, Amanda. Caleb seems like a really great guy.”

“What about his brother?” Amanda gave me an equally hard shove. “Talk about fuckin’ hot.” She began bouncing her butt up and down in her seat, causing the lunchroom table to shake a little. “Did you get to ride on his stick shift?”

I ducked my head and almost choked on the unchewed food in my mouth. “Stop it!” I spat.

Amanda cackled. “You know, I can tell you have a major crush on him. It was so apparent when we were all sitting around after the race. And there was something in his eyes that tells me that he likes you too.”

I swallowed my food and squinted my eyes at her. “That’s what you said about Caleb. I’m not falling for that one again.”

Amanda shrugged as she pulled open a carton of chocolate milk. “I just callz it how I seez it.”

“And besides, did you see that girl? Samantha or whatever? She’s a freaking supermodel. He would never be interested in a girl like me.”

“She is beautiful.” Amanda shook her head and then took a sip of her milk. “But you’re bootyful.” She slapped my ass playfully, causing me to jump.

“Don’t touch my butt again, bitch.” I pointed my plastic fork at her.

“I bet you’d look just as good as her if you put makeup on. She probably looks like a witch without all that face.”

I was pretty sure she wasn’t right, but her comment made me smile anyway. “Last night…” I paused.

“Yeah?”

“Or this morning, rather. When Mason dropped me off, he invited me to come to The Bluff again next week.”

“You’re kidding me…” Amanda’s jaw dropped. “Yessssss,” she hissed.

“Do you want to go with me?”

Amanda sucked in through her teeth. “Depends. If I don’t go to Prom with Caleb it might be a little awkward for a little while. I don’t want to lead him on or make him too disappointed.”

I dropped my eyes. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“But if I change my mind before then, I’ll go.”

I straightened my posture and nodded. “Sounds good.”

“In the meantime, I want you to have a blast. But…”

“But what?”

“Don’t forget about Prom in two weeks. You still need a date.”

I poked at my turkey lunch. Suddenly going to prom with anyone, even if it were Russell Blake or Caleb didn’t seem that appealing. I’d probably end up just going with one of the guys from my Physics class to get the whole thing over with, but no matter who it was, there was no way that guy was going to compare to Mason.

I didn’t look forward to prom at all anymore, really. Going back to the Bluff and spending time at the races sounded far more exciting.

* * *

“Layla?”

I pulled my heavy eyelids open and looked at my dad staring in my doorway. “Yeah?” I groaned.

“What are you doing sleeping? It’s only 6pm.”

“I just wanted to take a nap…”

“You’ve never been the type to take naps at this time during the day.” He took a step inside my room and scanned the surroundings. There wasn’t much to see except my bed, a desk, a tube television, and an open closet filled with clothes. “Is there anything going on? You’re not doing drugs are you?”

“No dad… I…I just didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Okay,” he said. “Well, I ordered us a pepperoni pizza from Domino’s. Come have a bite whenever you’re ready.”

“Thanks Dad,” I said quietly.

My dad exited the door, and I sat up and yawned as I stretched out my limbs. I only had about an hour of sleep the night before, and after a long day at school, I was down for the count. But I was also feeling a little bit hungry, and pepperoni pizza sounded nice.

I left my room and dragged myself into the kitchen, grabbing a slice of pizza from the box that dad left on the counter. I placed the slice on a paper towel and walked into the living room where my dad was sitting on the couch, working on his laptop and watching TV.

The television was blaring with some science related show on the Discovery Channel. Something about giant human skeletons found in Antarctica. Dad and I loved watching anything that was documentary or science related, and it was one of the few things we did together to bond.

I plopped down on the couch, and Dad looked up from his computer over his thin glasses and smiled. “Giants,” he said, before he moved his focus back to his computer.

I tilted my chin at him as I chewed my pizza. “What are you working on?”

“Looking at offers. There’s this site called Zillow where you can put your house up for sale without committing to sell it. They call it ‘make me an offer’ and if someone gives you an offer that you can’t refuse you have the option to sell your house.”

I swallowed the food in my mouth and sat my pizza on my lap. “Why would you do that?”

“Just curious,” he said as he drew in a long breath. He pulled his glasses off from over his eyes and then looked at me with a serious face.

“Layla, what would you think about going to the University of Florida?”

“Florida? I don’t want to go to school there.”

He closed his laptop and set it aside. “You know, I have the beach house there. I was thinking—“

“You’re kidding right?” I interrupted.

Dad clenched his teeth and his eyes dropped to the ground. “Layla, I feel like there’s ghosts in this house. I see your mother everywhere I go. I mean, it’s not like I literally see ghosts, but we spent so much time together here, and every time I walk through the hall, I still see her lying on the floor.” His face slouched, and I could see the pain coursing through him.

I picked up my pizza, sat it on the coffee table and scooted close to my dad, wrapping my arms around him. “I’m sorry, Daddy.”

He looked over at the framed picture of Mom sitting on the end table and picked it up for us to see. “I miss her so much.”

“I know, Dad. I miss her too.”

We stared at the picture for a few seconds before he placed it back on the table, and Dad squeezed me tightly.

“I don’t want to leave this house. I grew up here.... But if you want to sell it, go ahead. But can’t we just move somewhere else nearby?” Dad was a freelance editor and did most of his work either from home or an office space that he rented nearby. He could literally live wherever he wanted.

“Well, I thought we’d save money by living in the beach house, but I wouldn’t be opposed to moving somewhere nearby. However…“

I looked up at him with questioning eyes.

“It’s just a thought for right now. I won’t sell the house unless I get a good offer. So far the ones I’ve gotten haven’t been all that great.” He gave me another hard squeeze then kissed the top of my forehead. “Don’t worry about it for now.”

“Okay Dad.” I pulled away and picked up my half-eaten pizza. I looked over to my dad and his hardened face. He looked like had aged 10 years in the 2 years since mom died. Before her death he didn’t have a single gray hair on his head, and now nearly half of it was laced with thick, silver strands.

“You know Dad…” I muttered lowly. “If you ever want to date again, it won’t be weird for me.”

Dad smiled and reached for his computer. “You’re the only girl I need in my life.”

I grinned. I loved my dad and how caring he was towards me, but it also worried me what he said. The death of Mom had damaged him so badly that I wasn’t sure if he’d ever get over it. He was only in his early 40s so he had a lot of life ahead of him, and I hated the thought of him living it out alone. I wouldn’t be able to stay with him forever.

“I’m going to go study,” I said, standing and lifting the remainder of my pizza.

Dad focused his attention back to his laptop. “Okay. I need to work anyway. I’m reading some thriller by a really, really bad author. It’s going to take me days to edit this thing.”

I walked through the hall and stopped at my bedroom door before turning back towards the living room. “I love you Dad,” I yelled.

“I love you too, sweetheart,” he yelled back.

I almost felt bad for sneaking out the night before and the fact that I had every intention of sneaking out again.