Discovered Read Free

Tuesday.”
    “Please take me with you,” Kevin replied with a
pouty lip. “I’d love to go to New York.”
    “Yeah, it’s cool,” Layla responded, “but it’s
home to me, so I don’t really see the big pull that others do.”
    “You still consider New York home?” he asked.
“Haven’t you settled here yet?”
    “No, that’s not it at all. I like it here well
enough. I meant home in the sense of where I was born, where I grew up most of
my life.”
    Born and raised in Queens, Layla spent her
whole young life riding the subways, hailing cabs, and walking whenever possible.
She missed the accessibility of things in New York, but was coming more and
more to consider Cary home.
    When her father went missing over four years
ago, James was all too quick to step in and fill his place. Layla understood
that her mother didn’t really love James, at least not in the way one should
love a boyfriend, but he was a distraction from the pain and loneliness. Her
mother, Cheryl, and James had been friends for some years before the accident,
and they always had an easy, comfortable relationship with each other. When
Layla’s father was no longer around, they seemed to cling to each other, to
lean on each other to fill the void. Layla considered their relationship a
little strange, but who was she to judge? Grief has a way of doing strange
things to people.
    The summer before eleventh grade, Cheryl had
broken the news that James wanted to move to North Carolina and wished for her
and Layla to move with him.
    Layla couldn’t understand why and was furious
that her mother had agreed, at first, but the more she thought about it, the
more it made sense. Her best and only real friend, Joanna, had moved to
California six months before, leaving Layla at loose ends. She really had no
other close friends. Perhaps, she thought at the time, a change would be beneficial.
She did have a few casual friends, but none really worth sticking around for.
    The decision became even more appealing when
Cheryl informed her that they would be moving to the same town that Layla’s
elementary school friend, Julie, had moved to right before high school. After
Layla had emailed Julie to inform her of the upcoming move, the decision was
set.
    So the year before, Cheryl sold their apartment
in Queens and moved in with James. One of the bribes that James had initially
used was his promise to buy Layla a car, which he was still to make good on.
Most teens in New York City didn’t own cars; not because their parents couldn’t
afford them, but for lack of necessity, more than anything.
    Layla was barely a week in North Carolina when
she and Julie fell back into their old, comfortable friendship.
    “So what do you think?” Kevin asked.
    Layla widened her eyes, realizing that she had
blanked him completely. “Sorry, I was just trying to remember if I finished my
calculus homework,” she lied.
    “I said, why don’t you take me with you?” he
enunciated annoyingly. “We could tell your aunt that I’m your boyfriend.”
    Layla smiled falsely. “Yeah, but my mom would
never go for that.”
    Thankfully, the bell rang at that moment.
“Later,” she said, jumping up quickly before Kevin had a chance to make any
more ridiculous proposals. She headed straight for her science class, trying desperately
to erase the vision of Jay Logan from her mind.
    She sat in her physics class, barely listening
to Ms. Sweeney talk about electrons. “Noels Bohr determined that an electron
shell, which contains lots of different orbits of diverse electrons, encircles the
protons in an atom’s nucleus. Can anyone explain what occurs between these
orbits that allow a spectroscopistto know what types of chemical
elements make up the stars?”
    Layla was still having a hard time paying
attention to anything. On more than one occasion, she scolded herself inwardly
for obsessing constantly on the following night, even going so far as to be
uncharacteristically pre-occupied with