A/N: Another little oneshot, although completely unconnected with the other Sky High ficlets.
Disclaimer: All characters mentioned below do not belong to me, I just enjoy playing with them!
Let me know what you think!
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Unwitting Heatbreakers
A heavy feeling settled in her stomach, and she knew without a doubt that they were going to break her baby's heart.
Not on purpose, she knew that for a certainty.
While she couldn't say that Warren would never deliberately do anything to hurt her son as she didn't know the boy that well, she knew without a shadow of a doubt Layla never would.
They didn't even realise what they were doing themselves.
Yet it was so obvious to her.
Her husband probably wouldn't realise until she pointed it out to him.
It was becoming obvious to her son, despite his determination to ignore it.
It was becoming obvious to their friends who all shifted uncomfortably at the casual touches and familiarity that they displayed. The way they started and finished each others sentences, the way that each one always knew where the other was.
His girlfriend had been determined not to ignore it and as a result they'd split up. Smart girl. She heard about that commotion from her husband after he'd been talking to their son.
She watched as Layla stood up and excused herself from the table along with Magenta and pushed back her chair, balancing her hand on Warren's shoulder as she did so instead of her boyfriend's.
She slipped around behind the pyromaniac her hand drifting across his shoulders as she did so.
For his part Warren didn't even pause in his conversation with her husband as she did so although she noticed that Will looked the other way to strike up a conversation with Zach.
She had to witness Warren ordering food for Layla, overriding Will when he made the wrong decision, she'd had to bite her tongue as Warren had casually stated that Layla never ate the Sweet and Sour Vegetable dish when visiting in the Golden Dragon, ordering the Chow Mein instead.
She caught the look of surprise on several of the waitresses faces when Layla had introduced Will as her boyfriend, she'd seen them glance at Warren uncertainly and then back to her son who had a tight grip on Layla's hand.
She'd seen the thoughts passing across their faces as they presumed that Layla and Warren had something going on behind her son's back, but before long the expressions had passed from distaste to pity.
Pity because it was clear to them that even though Will was present, Warren and Layla acted as they always did at the restaurant. Chatting casually with the staff, asking about the days specials and how the business was at the moment.
They'd taken the teenagers out in an effort to learn more about their son's friends. And they were, but she was learning more about them than she wanted to.
She didn't want to be waiting for the day that Will came home with the news that things were over between him and Layla.
A part of her was frustrated with him, he was just as blind and thick headed as her husband had been as a young man.
If he'd taken notice of Layla sooner then she'd never have even looked at Warren Peace, that was just the kind of girl that Layla was, loyal to the core.
The problem was that Will had taken to long to appreciate his best friend, and so she'd noticed, and been noticed in turn by other people that didn't dismiss her so thoughtlessly.
She knows all about how the friendship between Layla and Warren had started. Her son had been ill mannered enough to stand the girl up and Warren had been thoughtful enough to try and put a smile back on her face.
He'd succeeded, but it certainly wasn't a short lived one like he'd probably intended.
When they'd returned to the table she'd seen Warren glance over to Layla, eyes checking to make sure that everything was fine. "Hippie." He said pushing back the chair for the green fingered teenager and waiting until she was settled before going back to his conversation.
For Josie, dinner at least was painful affair.
Despite the fact that each of them had their own individual meals, neither of them were shy about helping themselves to something on the others plate despite Layla steering clear of any meat that Warren happened to have.
They didn't ask or speak about it, instead she'd observed as Warren had transferred an egg roll from one of his dishes across into Layla's bowl and then casually helped himself to some of her noodles in return without a second thought.
It was easy to see why the Chinese family that ran the restaurant had thought that the pair of them were dating.
Their actions were more familiar and intimate than any kiss they could have taken part in within the restaurant.
She watched as Layla smiled brightly at her son and continue chatting with him about the latest film they'd seen as she helped herself to another egg roll from Warren, flash the older boy a smile at his look of mock annoyance and then smoothly turn back to Will.
As they laughed over her husbands bad jokes, Layla leant back against Warren in amusement, trusting him to keep her upright.
When the fortune cookies were past around, Warren took Layla's from her hand and split it opened, passing her back the split remains of the cookie he unfurled the small piece of paper that had once been held within the fortune cookie.
His lips twitched as he read the fortune.
He looked up at Layla and leant forward slightly looking deep into her eyes, his voice low as he whispered something so quietly that she was unable to hear.
Josie's breath caught in her throat at the scene as she watched the pair of them, their heads bent close together.
The others around the table had also fallen quiet, they too were caught in the web before them.
"Wow." Layla sighed dreamily. "That is so deep." The soulful expression left her face replayed with a mischievous look. "And my lucky numbers are?"
"Four, sixteen, five and forty-nine." Warren replied with a grin.
Layla responded by rolling her eyes and nudging his shoulder accompanied by a small laugh.
It was an inside joke of some kind that only the two of them understood, Josie could see that the rest of their friends understood as little about the build up and the playful conversation as she did.
She looked down at the remains of the fortune cookie that she'd clenched too tightly in her hand and broken. Brushing off the crumbs she uncurled her own piece of chinese wisdom. 'The participant's perspectives are clouded while the bystander's views are clear.'
His girlfriend had been determined not to ignore it.
It was becoming obvious to their friends.
It was becoming obvious to her son, despite his continuing determination to ignore it.
It was so obvious to her.
Her husband wouldn't realise until she pointed it out to him.
She honestly didn't know how much longer it would be before they themselves realised what they were doing.
But it couldn't be much longer.
Josie Stronghold knew that one day soon they were going to break her baby's heart.