Page 41 of The Life Experiment
‘Shit.’ Maya giggled. ‘That’s when you know you’re depressed.’
‘I’m fine,’ Layla replied, but Maya looked at her like she knew better. She didn’t say anything, though. Instead, she turned back to the TV and continued to watchFriends.
Although the sisters had seen the entire series several times already, they would never stop rewatching it. There was comfort in the familiar dynamics and jokes. When life was chaos, Layla needed that.
When the episode ended, Maya yawned exaggeratedly. ‘Time for bed, I think.’
‘It’s not even ten o’clock! You’ve changed, Maya Cannon,’ Layla teased.
‘I know, but I have a four-year-old to entertain. We can’t all be like you, taking endless time away from our responsibilities,’ Maya said, leaning over and ruffling Layla’s hair.
‘Shut up,’ Layla said as Maya stood and walked to the stairs. ‘Night,’ Layla called.
‘Love you,’ Maya replied.
The words knotted in Layla’s chest. She opened her mouth to say them back, but it was too late. Maya was already upstairs.
Not for the first time in her life, Layla wished she was more like her sister. Someone who could say ‘I love you’ freely and wear her heart onher sleeve. Maya might have been the younger sibling, but she was the one who lit up a room. Her wit was quick and her personality sunshine yellow. She had a vast friendship group to prove it.
As Layla thought of her own empty social calendar, the difference between herself and her sister had never seemed starker.
Like many things in Layla’s life, her friends seemed to have slipped away over time. Life pulled the people she’d had water fights and sleepovers with in different directions. In her early university days, Layla tried to keep in touch with people back home, but her assignments stacked up. With the part-time waitressing job she worked around her studies, she had little time to reach out. There was no definitive line in the sand to explain the end of Layla’s childhood friendships. No falling out, no argument, just the gradual, growing distance between people who no longer had anything in common.
Truthfully, part of the reason Layla hated coming home was because it forced her to see people who had once been integral to her life look at her as though she were a stranger. It felt like there was an invisible barrier around her that said, ‘You’re not one of us anymore.’ She wondered if she ever had been.
Another sigh bubbled in Layla’s throat, but she swallowed it.
Snuggling deeper into the sofa, she returned to texting Angus.
I’m glad you understand the severity of the situation.
I think I’ve finally learned what heartbreak is x
My red flag detector is waving at that statement…
But let’s ignore it so we can talk food!
If we were going for Indian, what would you order? x
What wouldn’t I order!
First of all, we’d have to get poppadums and a chutney tray x
Agreed. It should be illegal to go for a curry and not order all the sides x
You’re a lawyer, do you think you can make that law enforceable? x
Between each giggly exchange, Layla devoured the mind-numbing peace of social media. She watched videos of women styling outfits, wishing she had their confidence. She watched a baby with a cochlear implant hear their mother’s voice for the first time. Crying, she wondered how she could ever feel down when life had moments that were so beautiful.
As she sniffed away her tears, the front door opened. ‘Hello?’ Layla called out.
‘Only me,’ David replied.
His tone was peppy, but Layla heard what lay beneath it. Stuffing her feet into a pair of slippers, she shuffled into the hallway in time to catch her dad wincing as he removed his coat. ‘You sound tired,’ she commented.
‘Because I am. You would be too if you’d spent six hours driving.’
‘You work too hard, Dad.’ The comment earned a laugh from David, one Layla responded to with an eye-roll. ‘Is the “Layla works too much” joke ever going to get old?’
