It was a dark, calm, clear Friday night in May. Layla had just arrived at her friend Joy's house for a sleep over because they had not seen each other in quite a while. Joy lived towns away, so of course they did not attend the same school. They had kind of grown apart with time, but still very much enjoyed each other's company and would be eager to catch up on what was happening in each other's lives. Joy had rented several movies from her local Video Villa and had planned to watch them with Layla, though Layla was not particularly fond of movies. It was alright though; Layla knew she would enjoy her time with Joy, because she always did.
"Hey Layla. Which one do you want to watch first; My Three Sisters or An Evening with Frank Ward?" Joy asked her.
"Umm... what's My Three Sisters about?"
"It's about like... this girl... who like... grew up with an abusive father and a drunken mom... and of course three sisters who helped her through it with their friendship and stuff. I heard it was really good." Joy explained.
"That sounds a little depressing and dramatic for me. What's An Evening with Frank Ward all about?" Layla inquired.
"That's about this teenage girl who falls in love with her therapist." she replied.
"That sounds kind of interesting. I'm surprised you didn't get a Comedy or so like usual though."
"Yeah. I figured I'd go for something different this time. You don't mind, right?" Joy asked.
"Nah, of course not." said Layla.
Layla was actually rather enthused about watching the movie, but she was more enthused about going to the kitchen to get something to feed her hungry gut. Joy had heard it growling all night.
"Umm... Layla?" Joy questioned.
"Yeah?" Layla answered.
"You want something to eat?!" Joy asked her, peering down at her noisy little stomach.
"That'd be nice. Do you have anymore of that ravioli?"
"Man, you love that ravioli, don't you? Of course we have it." Joy said.
"Thank God. I'm dying for it about now." Layla added.
With that, Joy whipped out the can opener and had started screeching away at the can of extra meaty ravioli she had gotten from her pantry. The sound was rather irritating, but the ravioli was to be gotten at any price. Just then, Joy and Layla turned their heads to a sound emanating from the living room to the left of them.
"Hey, girls. How's it going?" Joy's father had asked them, walking into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Howdy. It's going good. You just woke up?" Layla had replied, giving him a brief look up and down.
"Yeah. That nap must have lasted like six hours. How am I ever gonna get back to sleep?" he asked nobody in particular.
"You're not gonna keep us up with that Hair Metal crap, are ya, Dad?" Joy had rather impolitely asked her dad.
"Ha-ha. No. I'll TRY to get back to sleep. I don't think it'll work though." replied Joy's father.
"Hair Metal crap?" echoed Layla resentfully.
"Joy doesn't appreciate the older Rock N' Roll, y'see. It's a shame." he replied.
Their conversation had continued as the ravioli had been put into the microwave and began to cook. The smell of hot meat and cheese lingered all throughout the room. Layla's stomach had something to say about that.
"Down, girl." Joy's dad had commented, as he laughed just a little bit.
"Don't worry. Just fourteen more seconds." Joy told Layla, as she glanced down at her stomach.
"Welp, I'd better go before I get eaten alive. I'll be in my room if yous need anything." he'd said, with a wave to Layla and a kiss on Joy's forehead.
"So corny." commented Joy.
"Good night, Mr. Tyler." Layla replied.
"You don't have to call me that. How long have we known each other? You can call me Vinny, Vince, one of those. Good night, hon." he said, as he walked off into the darkness of their hallway, down further to his room. Layla's eyes followed him until he was no longer visible from the kitchen.
When all had been said and done on Mr. Tyler's part, the microwave had began beeping so as to notify Layla's stomach that it wouldn't be suffering much longer. Layla rushed to the microwave's eject button and grabbed the steaming bowl of ravioli from inside, placing it on the counter to the left of her and shaking off her hot hand.
"Yeah. You might want to let that cool." Joy suggested.
Layla then took a fork from a local drawer and began poking holes randomly into her ravioli, to make them cool faster. Joy had always looked at her funny when she did this. After a while of poking holes, blowing steam, and waving her hand over the bowl, Layla had finally began to eat the ravioli. She gulped it down as though she hadn't seen food in days.
"Good God, Layla. Do they feed you at home?" Joy asked, sardonically.
"Of course. Just not anything this good." was Layla's retort.
Joy laughed and walked with Layla back to her room, where they would proceed to watch An Evening with Frank Ward. Joy closed the door behind her, slid the video into her VCR, and sat down on the soft, fluffy quilt of her twin sized bed. Layla decided to sit on the floor, since Joy's legs were spread out everywhere, sort of blocking her from getting comfortable. Joy had then pushed a button on her remote which had gotten the movie to play for them, at a position where all the previews had been over and done with. The beginning of the movie had started off a bit slow, introducing the characters, peering into the main character's stereotypical High School student life, but eventually it had gotten more interesting. Parts of the movie shown were a bit risqué, which Joy and Layla hadn't expected because the movie was unrated.
Layla was particularly intrigued by these parts of the movie, but apparently Joy wasn't. Not only had Joy never had much of a libido, but it was evident that she'd gotten pretty drowsy. Joy lay on her side, lightly snoring, as Layla sat in an awkward position on the floor, particularly engaged in an erotic scene between the young Marie and her middle-aged therapist. Not only was Marie cute, but her therapist was downright sexy, at least in Layla's opinion. The scene between the two had gotten particularly hot, as Mr. Ward had begun to place his hand on Marie's thigh, under the silky fabric of her short a-line skirt. Layla began to blush as she thought of Joy catching her watching this sort of thing. She knew Joy would have something embarrassing, and of course loud (which, naturally, was her voice), to say about that. Heck, Joy's dad would probably even hear it on the other side of the house, and what would THAT make him think?
At this point, Layla was torn between watching the movie, just hoping Joy wouldn't wake up, and ejecting the movie to watch something else, which would probably wake Joy up because she was a light sleeper. A bit disappointed, Layla ejected the movie and put it in the rewinder; a pretty noisy process. Joy had then lifted her head to see what had happened, mumbled, and plopped it back onto her pillow. She was snoring again in a matter of minutes. The rewinding process had ended and Layla decided to channel surf. She was once again disappointed to discover that there was practically nothing on, except for infomercials. So there she was, alone. It was 2 AM, her friend was sleeping like a baby, and there was absolutely nothing to do but try to sleep herself.
Layla laid down on the small folding bed which had been set up for her, and wrapped a thick blanket around herself. It suddenly occurred to her that she forgot her teddy bear at home, which was also a bit disappointing. She'd have nothing to cuddle with on her way to sleep, like she always had. Remembering that Joy was a slob and always left her toys and what-not all over her room, Layla simply reached out and felt for something furry to hug. Soon enough, Layla's fingers had led her to what felt like a stuffed rabbit, made from some velvety material. She grasped it into her arms, closed her eyes, and tried to drift off into dream land. About a whole half hour later, she was still awake. Not only was Layla freaked out by the pitch black darkness of Joy's room, but she had heard some noise coming from a distance. It sounded like muffled screaming and breaking glass; not the kind of thing you want to hear past midnight.
Layla's heart began to beat faster as she contemplated what to do. Should she stay in Joy's room and hope the sound was nothing, or go out to investigate and risk getting into danger if it WAS something? After a while of contemplating, Layla got quietly out of the bed and grabbed a baseball bat which had conveniently been leaning against Joy's closet behind her. She snuck gently toward the door, trying to prevent the floor from creaking. She opened the door hesitantly, checking to see if Joy was still sleeping. She peered out of the door, and saw nothing. She decided to walk toward the kitchen, because the front door to the house was there. Still nothing. The noise, however, had gotten louder. Layla gripped more tightly onto the bat and proceeded to explore the house.
She walked down their seemingly endless hallway, full of doors to rooms she wasn't remotely familiar with. She couldn't stop looking behind her. The noise had gotten louder still. She shivered. Layla finally arrived upon an open door. Lights flashed inside the room it led to. It was now obvious the noise came from here. Discreetly as possible, Layla peered into the room, not sure what to think at this point.
"Hey! Whoa, there. What's with the bat?" Joy's dad had asked her in a surprised tone.
"I'm sorry. I heard some suspicious noises. I was getting kind of creeped out." Layla replied, shyly.
"Haha. It's no problem. I'm the one who should be sorry. My door should have been closed all the way."
"That's alright. I'm just glad it wasn't.. anything.. uhh.. dangerous."
"Just a bit of Rock N' Roll." Vince said, motioning his hand toward the TV set.
"Ohhhhhhh, cool." Layla said, smiling at the Whitesnake video which had been playing.
"Don't tell me you're into that?" Vince asked, with a tone of doubt in his voice.
"Yeah, especially the uhh.. 80s Hard Rock I guess you'd call it?"
"Cooool, cool. Most kids your age are into Rap and stuff, you know? Not to offend you if you like Rap, but.. yeah, I'm not into that." Vince explained.
"Me neither. Can't stand it." Layla replied with a quiet laugh.
There was a brief moment of silence as Vince sat up against the headboard of his bed and Layla was still barely in the room, the both of them watching the music videos. Layla rested the bat up against a corner of the wall.
"So, what are you doing up so late? Is Joy still awake?" he asked.
