"Okay. Please just try to use one hand, alright? I hate this." Layla mutters, and I chuckle quietly, bending down to her height. I gently take her face in my hands and tilt her head up so she meets my eyes.

"Don't stress, Sunshine. One hand only, okay?" I reassure her, lightly brushing my thumbs over her cheeks.

She nods and lets out a sigh, "Let's get this over with."

I chuckle and step through the door, pulling her arm through just enough for me to be able to stand in front of the toilet before shutting the door not quite all the way so her arm is peeking through. I hear Layla huff as she faces into the other room. Shaking my head, I quickly do my business and flush the toilet.

"Alright," I mutter, and she opens the door, stepping in so I can walk to the sink and wash my hands. After I've dried them, she smiles and pushes me out of the room.

"My turn."

~

"I checked every drawer, cupboard, cabinet and container in my kitchen," Liam announces, walking into the living room, "And they were in none of them."

"We checked the whole living room and the entrance way, we couldn't find them either," Layla tells him.

"We also checked any rooms upstairs that would have been unlocked last night, and they aren't in there either," I agree, attempting to fold my arms before remembering that Layla and I are still in handcuffs and opting to let my arms hang at my sides instead.

"I checked in the front yard, the backyard, the shed and the garage," Anna mutters, collapsing onto the couch, "Nada."

Layla lets out a sigh, flopping down on the couch beside Anna and consequently tugging me along to stand next to her. She smiles up at me sheepishly, but I give her a reassuring smile. I'm used to it by now. "This is hopeless," She mutters, "We'll never find the keys to these things," She jingles the handcuffs for effect.

"I guess our plan worked then," I mumble, massaging my temple with my free hand. "A little too well maybe."

"Are you sure you guys can't remember where you hid them?" Anna asks, looking between Layla and me.

We both shake our heads and I reply, "If we could, we wouldn't still be handcuffed."

A sudden ringing makes me jump and Layla curses under her breath, digging her phone out of her pocket and answering the call, putting the phone to her ear. "Hey, Mom."

I wince, knowing this can't be good. Neither of our parents will be happy that Layla and I are handcuffed together. We need to find the keys before we head home.

"Yeah... I don't know when I'll be home, I shouldn't be too long hopefully... You're going out?" She looks up at me with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. "Yeah, I'll be home in time to look after Bella... Where will Dad be?" She waits a moment before grinning, "He's going out too? Right, Jim's birthday... Yeah, what time will you guys be home? It will be late? Okay, yeah... I might be back a little after you go, but Bella can go to... Oh, she's at Claire's now, okay, I'll call her when I get home. Alright, bye."

She lets out a breath, hanging up and setting her phone down beside her. She then looks up at me, "Okay, this might work. My parents are going out, so if we can't find the keys before we leave, you can stay at mine tonight. They'll be home late, so hopefully we can head out before they wake up and come back here to keep looking for the keys. After that... if we can't find them we'll just have to tell both our parents."

I nod, thinking it over in my head, "Okay, that will work. We should be able to find them by Tuesday before school. If not, we'll tell them."

She nods and lets out a relieved sigh, checking her phone again, "My parents will leave in twenty minutes. It's almost seven now, so we should probably get going."

"Alright," I turn to Anna and raise an eyebrow, "You ready to go?"

She smiles sheepishly, "Well... You see, Liam and I were gonna go out for dinner tonight..."

I raise my eyebrows at the both of them, "Oh really?"

Feeling a light punch to my arm, I look down and see Layla now standing next to me, eyes narrowed. "Leave them alone."

"But she's my little sister," My eyes widen, and I look down at her pleadingly.

Her glare doesn't soften, "And he's your best friend," She leans in closer to whisper in my ear. I shiver when she speaks, her vanilla scent encasing me, "You and I both know they're in love with each other. Just let me handle this, alright?"

When she pulls back, I only nod my head. She smiles up at me and I know I couldn't argue with her even if I wanted to. That dámn smile gets me every time. She could probably get me to do anything with just one of those beautiful smiles of hers.

Layla turns back to Anna and Liam, raising her eyebrows at the two of them, "Is this dinner a date?"

Anna blushes bright red at the same time Liam says, "Yes."

Anna turns to him with wide eyes, "It is?"

Liam's eyes widen now, and he stammers, "Uh, I mean, if- if you want it to be, then-"

"Yes." She cuts him off, smiling shyly.

"Really?" He sounds breathless, staring at her in surprise.

She nods, "Uh huh. It's about time you take me on a proper date."

"Well, I did ask you to homecoming," He tells her.

"And you didn't do anything further. That would have been the perfect opportunity." Anna replies, staring at him pointedly.

"I'm sorry, Annie," He mutters, hanging his head.

Anna laughs, stepping closer to him and holding his face in her hands, "Don't be sorry. Just don't hesitate from now on."

They just stare at each other then, and before I know what's happening, Layla is dragging me out of the room, calling over her shoulder. "Bye lovebirds!"

"What- Sunshine, what are you-" She doesn't stop until we're out of the house and she has slammed the door shut behind us. She turns to me with an innocent smile.

"I wasn't about to let you ruin their moment," She states simply, shrugging her shoulders.

My eyes widen, "They were having a what now?" I instantly turn to go back inside but Layla tugs me back to her using the handcuffs.

"Leave them alone," She mutters, rolling her eyes and starting to drag me towards my car.

"But-"

"But nothing. They're cute, let them have their moment. I'm sure Anna's been waiting her whole life for him to kiss her."

"He's gonna kiss her?" I turn around again, but I'm quickly pulled back again. This time, Layla pulls me right down so that we're face to face. I take in a sharp breath when her bright emerald green eyes met mine.

"I shouldn't have said that," She mutters, shaking her head to herself, "Just come home with me. You know you can trust Liam. They'll be fine."

I huff but nod my head, allowing her to continue leading me towards my car. When we finally get there, another problem arises.

"How the fúck are we supposed to get in the car like this?" She mutters, surveying the car for a moment. After a couple seconds, she holds out her hand to me, "Keys."

I obediently hand her my car keys and she unlocks the car, opening the door on the driver's side.

"Okay, luckily we're handcuffed so that you're on the left and I'm on the right. I'll just climb over the middle to get into the passenger seat. Will you be able to drive alright like this?" She asks, lifting up our handcuffed hands.

"I'll be fine, Sunshine," I tell her.

With that confirmation, Layla climbs into the car, clambering over the middle and into the passenger seat. Halfway through, I have to start climbing into the car as well because of the handcuffs. Eventually we both collapse into our seats.

After a beat of silence, Layla mutters, "Now we've gotta do that to get out of the car as well."

I laugh, tilting my head back and letting it loll back against the headrest of my seat. "Why did we do this to ourselves?"

She giggles quietly and I roll my head to the side to see her in a similar position to me, looking at me with that adorable smile of hers. "Because I'm very impulsive when I'm drunk and you..."

"Can't say no," I conclude with a small sigh, shaking my head. I sit back up straight and start the car, fixing the air conditioning to the right temperature before looking back over at Layla. She's still sitting in the same position, just gazing at me. I raise my eyebrows in question, "What?"

She shakes her head and chuckles quietly, "Nothin' really, just thinking."

"About what?" I question further, pulling out onto the road with both hands on the steering wheel. I then take my handcuffed hand and move it to rest it in between Layla and I, leaving one hand on the wheel so her arm isn't stretched across the car.

She lets out a small sigh and looks out the window, turning her head away from me, "Life."

I turn my head to look at her for a brief moment before focusing my gaze back on the road. "Life?"

"Uh huh, just thinking about how much has changed this year and how much is continuing to change, y'know? Like, I became a Senior, became friends with you and your family. And now I'm moving to New York," I feel a sharp pain in my chest at the mention of her moving, "I mean, we're going off to college next year. That's in what... eight months? Nine months? Life's just going too fast. I feel like I barely have any time to actually live it."

"I feel that way sometimes too," I murmur, "The twins are turning seven in a couple months. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was at the hospital, Anna, and I each holding one of them for the first time. Time is flying way too fast."

"And you," She whispers, making me turn my head to look at her for a quick moment once again. She stares down at our handcuffed hands, gently reaching out to trace her finger over my tattoos. "It's been almost two months since we met now."

"Two months," I mutter, turning my hand over to let her trace the tattoos going up the inside of my wrist, her finger automatically following the inked lines. "It feels like I've known you forever."

"I know what you mean," She whispers, gently trailing her fingertips up the palm of my hand. The soft movement tickles my palm, but I say nothing as she slowly slides her fingers between mine. I quickly make up my mind and fold my fingers over, completely lacing our fingers together. "And in a little over a week I'll be three thousand miles away from you."

I inhale sharply and squeeze her hand in mine tighter. "Which is why we're going to make the most of what little time we have left," I turn my head for a brief moment and catch her eye, "Right?"

She nods with a small smile and squeezes my hand back, "Right."

We fall into a comfortable silence, the only sound being the soft music coming from the radio. It's only a few moments later that I fully comprehend what's happening. I'm holding Layla's hand. And not because she's trying to calm me down. It isn't just her tracing my tattoos anymore. Palms pressed together, fingers intertwined and completely locked together, we're holding hands.

But the best part is, she isn't pulling away. In fact, she's the one who initiated it. What does that mean? Is she just providing comfort to the both of us while we talk about her moving? Or does she just want to hold my hand? I'm so confused.

Soon enough, we arrive at Layla's house. The only car left in her driveway is hers, so I take that as a good sign. I don't really want either of our parents finding out we got drunk and somehow managed to handcuff ourselves together. Somehow, I don't think they'd be very happy about that.

To get out of the car, we do a similar move to the one we'd done to get into the car in the first place, except in reverse. Then we walk up the street a little towards Layla's house. We decided it would be best if I park down the street so that when her parents got home, they won't see my car and know I'm there.

"Bels?" Layla calls out when we step into the house. Once we're inside, I close the door behind us.

"Hey, Lulu, what- oh. Hi, Reece," Bella stopped in front of us with a surprised look on her face.

"Hi, Bels," I lift a hand up to wave at her but quickly realize my mistake when Layla's hand comes up with mine.

"Why the hell are you two handcuffed!?" Bella exclaims, staring at our hands with wide eyes.

"Who's handcuffed?" Claire walks into the room then and snorts when she sees our hands. "Whose dumb idea was that?"

Layla sighs, "Mine. I wasn't exactly in the most logical state of mind, alright?"

"You mean you were drunk?" Bella asks with a smirk, folding her arms over her chest and staring at us pointedly.

Layla rolls her eyes, "Yes, alright? I made a mistake. But you can't tell Mom and Dad. We can't find the keys, so Reece is going to stay here for the night. If we can't find the keys by Tuesday morning, we'll tell them, but until then, you two won't say anything, right?"

"Duh," Claire says as if it's obvious, "We're no snitches."

"Obviously," Bella agrees, "We'll cover for you guys if you need it."

Layla grins at them and my own lips tilt up into a smile just at the sight of her happy. Layla pulls me along with her and she presses a quick kiss to each of their temples as she passes them. "Thanks, babes. We're gonna order pizza for dinner, is that alright?"

Bella chuckles, "When is pizza ever not alright with us?"

Layla chuckles quietly to herself and continues through to the kitchen, me following behind her. Once we get there, Layla takes out her phone to order pizza. As I'm watching her, I notice that we're still in our costumes. And we probably reek of alcohol.

But I have no idea how we're supposed to change.

"Uh, Sunshine. One more problem," I mumble, scratching the back of my neck with a sheepish smile.

She looks up at me from her phone with furrowed eyebrows, "What?"

"We're still in our costumes."