Chapter 10: A Sea Of Confusing Thoughts

The Quinn Residence, Backwoods, Temperance, South Dakota...

Finally making it home after the long day she had and the events of the diner, Layla had not been surprised to see that Jarrett left the house a complete mess for her to have to spend hours cleaning despite everything she'd already had to do at work and school before she even got to finish her homework. She sighed as she stepped inside the stuffy old yellow house and began her long-labored task of cleaning it before her father returned from his rare job appearances. He had let the rottweiler out into the backyard and tied him up to his dog house, a small favor if ever there was from him. He knew that Layla had a good deal to clean and that she and his dog had not been the best of friends. His desire to see the house cleaned apparently trumped his need to make his daughter feel uncomfortable about bringing anyone over while he'd been away. For once Layla was glad of it after everything that happened with the druggie and Brick she didn't need anything else getting in the way of her having a few moments to herself.

She barely had any time to register her strange feelings for Brick, to begin with, and now she was alone and bombarded with questions from her own mind about why she found herself so drawn to the brutish man wearing leather biker getup. He seemed to be a down-to-earth person, if violent and sarcastic, and he had even given her his switchblade knife for protection instead of treating her like a common damsel in distress. It was odd that he seemed to value her opinion, as she had not wanted him to kill the junkie and didn't care much for his smoking.

Of course, he could have simply been polite as he went right back to smoking when she was gone. Layla sighed as she turned her attention toward getting the house cleaned up before her father returned from whatever binge drinking he'd been doing as of late. The last thing she needed was to hear him go on and on about how irresponsible she had been if she didn't adhere to his demands about keeping a clean house. He'd even go so far as to make her quit her job if she couldn't juggle the respective responsibilities.

With a roll of her eyes, she set to work collecting the dirty dishes and filing them into the sink with the others which had been piled high since her father had been home alone. Layla had been well used to this, having been responsible for the upkeep of the household ever since her mother had run off and it became a permanent position when they found out she'd been killed. She wished she could say something good about her mother, even a warm memory at the time of her death, but there wasn't anything she recalled aside from her nagging and whining about not wishing to be a mother and having the very nature of it "forced" on her so to speak.

Visions of a heavily perfumed blonde bimbo seeking nothing less than life's thrills often filled her mind but there was no bond, no relative closeness...just disgust and rage whenever she thought of the woman who had given her life.

Layla took her time running the dishwater and stacking the dirty dishes where she could clean them without having to track them all down. The stench of the rancid old food and grime on them had not been pleasant to deal with but it was a lot better than the breath of the junkie that attempted to rob her.

She sighed as she began taking one dish into her hands and dunking it into the fresh soapy water. It was warm to the touch and washed over her hands nullifying the smell a bit as she began using the dish rag to clean off all the leftover sauce and caked-on food particles. Her mind once again traveled back to the alley but under more pleasant circumstances as she recalled the heated kiss between her and the handsome biker Brick.

It had indeed been her first kiss and it wasn't something she'd forget any time soon as she had always expected it to be someone more her own age range, like Casey's older brother, but Brick was quite the kisser and she'd been almost sorry that it ended when it did. She knew met anyone that could captivate her as much as the stranger had in such a short length of time. Her crush on Casey's brother paled in comparison it seemed as she found her mind trailing back to the kiss in the alley and the feel of his muscular body powerful in its tension as he pressed her against the wall and his tongue danced along with her own for what seemed like hours before he finally came to they collectively came to their respective senses.

She rather enjoyed the way he smelled, like leather, sweat, and faintly of thick cologne. She smiled when she recalled how his beard brushed across her face as their lips locked the strangeness of her being completely alright with and the hunger that seemed to be just behind his hypnotic grey eyes as a result.

Layla found herself still reeling from the kiss, which left her knees weak and her breath rapid when she ventured back into the diner only to be confronted by a worried Phoebe who had grilled her hour after hour during their shift before she came clean and confessed that she was out back with one of the handsome bikers that rolled into town and that he had quite possibly saved her life.

Phoebe was shocked that such a rowdy bunch had someone in it that possessed chivalrous qualities in this day and age, but it was more so due to the fact that they were used to the men and boys of Temperance, outside of Carey's brother Kerry, who had been an anomaly of sorts.

Layla continued cleaning the remainder of the dishes and set to work vacuuming the carpet in the living room and bedrooms respectively. She had managed to clear away the dirt and clutter from the front room and her father's little used bedroom before finally fixing up the bathroom and cleaning the leftover laundry.

She finished the whole house in good timing thinking of her very first kiss along the way, Brick had not been there but he seemed to have an effective way of making the grueling tasks fade away as well as the long hours as she slaved about ensured the house had been ready for her father's arrival before taking a long hot shower and venturing to her own bedroom and doing a bit of her leftover homework before her father came back in whatever condition he deemed and had her long day of cleaning begin all over again.