Chapter 123. Leave the Rest Behind

Layla’s POV

The phone buzzed again next to me on the couch. Ezra’s name was lit up on the screen for the fifth time, and again I pressed decline. My chest ached, but I just couldn’t handle hearing his voice.

“He yelled at me,” I mumbled to myself. “Ezra never yells.”

I rubbed my palms together, nervous, while the silence of Chloe’s living room pressed around me. She went to her room to get something, and when she returned to the living room, she caught me staring at the phone.

“Still won’t answer him?” she said as she sat down on the couch.

I shook my head. “I can’t, after the way he spoke to me. He has never yelled at me before, Chloe. I can’t get past that.”

Chloe tilted her head, studying me. “You’re hurt.”

“Yes,” I said quietly. “I’m really hurt.”

She sighed. “Then don’t answer. If he wants you to listen, he should talk to you with respect. You don’t deserve to be yelled at.”

Her words were both uncomfortable and yet,