Dark Layers Volume 2: Dark Layers by A L Gray

were not allowed, girly sleep over's, and camping in her back garden - we used to sneak out at three a.m. when we were sure everyone was asleep.
    "The good old days." I whisper to myself.
    She emerges in new clothes - a red mini dress. Her hair is pinned up in a messy bun and she's owning scarlet red lips.
    "Why did you get changed?"
    "Because I don't plan on hanging around getting ready; you need to be drunk in... T minus one hour," she jokes as she looks at her gold watch, "we have no time to waste."
    Oh, no!
    "I'm not sure you want to get me drunk, I'm still a light weight!"
    "Nothing has changed then."
    I huff at her memory of me and laugh.
    "Right Miss Gooden, ready?"
    I roll my eyes at her, knowing she's going to get me in trouble.
    "As I will ever be." I joke.
    On the ride back to London, we listen to - Vanessa Carlton, Making My Way Down Town, and sing like dying cats. Sophie really was not joking when she said, 'T minus one hour'! She's a scary driver - I will not endure this journey with her again in a hurry!
    Once the music dies off, I cannot help but bring up Elijah - I need a girls opinion.
    "Sophie... there is this guy..." I stop, not knowing how to explain him.
    "There always is Honey, tell me all about him." She flashes me a side smile.
    "I have been sort of seeing him – if that's even what I can call it - on, and off, and on, it's never ending. He's... different, difficult and controlling, beautiful, the list is endless. He's trying to find stuff out about my mother and I; he has been in contact with my father. He even paid off my bloody student loans."
    I reel off as much information about Elijah as I possibly can. She gives me some well needed honest feedback. It's nice to have someone - a girl - to talk to about this; especially someone who has more experience than I do.
    "If he wants to intrude into your life, you should just let him. You probably couldn't stop him anyway. He obviously likes you enough to want to know everything about you - so unless you have something to hide - just let him get on with it. And Anile, don't over analyse him, men are so bloody simple. Take him as he is and try to make the best of things - life is too damn short."
    She couldn't be more right. I don't know how I can take him as he is, because I still have not established who he is exactly, but I have declared to myself that I will try to take things lightly with him. If he wants to look into my background, then I will let him - all providing he keeps my personal information to himself. I don't have anything that I want to hide from him, and I really want something with him - a relationship if you will. I have realized that the past week. I miss him terribly.
     

Chapter Seven
     
    WE FINALLY GET back to my apartment in one piece, but we do not hang around. Sophie forces me to get ready in record time. We are both in red mini dresses. Sophie's is strapless, barely covering her arse while mine has straps and almost meets my knees. The dresses are a gesture to Scarlet on Sophie's behalf which brought me to laughter - she knows how I hate her. I have called Derek to invite him out, but he's on a date. I'm sure he's trying to make me jealous by the way he was asking me, ‘are you sure you don't mind Sweets?' I'm jealous by how easy his date will be but not by the fact that he has one.
    Knowing I cannot get Derek out, and desperately trying to forget my life for one night as Sophie so easily puts it, we head out, aiming to take London by storm – she probably will but I definitely will not!
    We arrive by taxi at the Primo Bar in central London. It's a nice clean five star place to listen to bands and drink the best cocktails in town. The furnishings are dark and business like, but ooze sex in my opinion. The seats are red leather - they remind me of Elijah. The floor is like one complete sheet of chic black mirror. The walls are wallpapered with elegant textures of black and white stripes; and the best bit about this place is