Chapter 2.16- Betrayed

This is your warning!

More Sim Buttocks appear this chapter!

Turn back now or forever hold your peace. 

          “Music blaring and a screen over the door this early in the morning? I thought ya said she wouldn’t be up this soon and we'd be surprisin' her?” A slightly rough voice sounded over the radio still blaring on the fridge.

          “She’s not normally,” a second, softer, voice answered.

          “Well, go put that basket on the counter and let’s go and see if she’s roused or it she just sleeps with that racket goin’ normally.”

          Estella had turned to the dining room and pulled up short. Behind her, Sally gasped.

          “Has there been a break in and she slept through it with the music so loud?”

          “I dunno, Sally. But it’s best we keep quiet and make sure yer cousin is ok. Hopefully the scoundrel who did this is gone by now.”

          And they tiptoed around the mess on the floor.

          There was a puddle of water on the floor both stepped over. The vase looking pathetic on its side.

          Going to view the living room Estella snorted with derision.

          Sally snapped her view to her mother, concerned, before looking back at the floor in front of her.

          Seeing a bra in front of the end table and the lamp on it's side triggered a nearly identical reaction from Sally.

          “Oh,” she giggled. “She’s not been robbed at all. Wow! What on earth were they doing to make this kind of a mess though?”

          “That’s enough,” Estella cut her off. “You’re too young to know such details.”

          Behind her, Sally rolled her eyes taking a better look at the dining room with a smirk on her face.

          Estella stepped over the pants on the floor, then over a gem with a ginger step.

          “Dear Watcher! What a mess. Is yer cousin usually this messy?”

          “No. I’ve never seen the house like this,” answered Sally. She had found Layla’s tank top on the floor and had hooked it on the tip of her boot.

          “There was that one time she hadn’t swept her kitchen in like 2 days and when I pointed it out she freaked that I’d noticed,” Sally added, putting the shirt back and following her mother through the mazelike path to the hallway. “But after that nothing was ever out of place.”

          With a look of disgust Estella stepped over the boxers, her eyes barely resting on the panties in the corner when she stopped.

          Sally had just encountered all the underwear and had stopped herself when Estella brought a finger up to her lips and gave her daughter a terse warning look.

          Listening hard, Sally could hear low tones coming from the bedroom beyond. Whoever Layla had spent the night with was still here!

          A twinkle in her eye, Estella leaned in closer to Sally and whispered “If you’re lucky, my Lovely, you’ll get to have breakfast with a mayoral candidate this morning.”

          Clamping a hand to her mouth, Sally had to stifle a giggle.

          “Stay here,” Estella whispered again.

          With stealthy steps and a light hand Estella pushed open the door gently and the voices within sounded louder.

          For a moment only, Sally stood. Then she lightly picked her way across the hall to peek in the door. Her mother had finally made it in, but she was standing stock still.

          Stopping as she got a better view of what was in front of her Sally felt like she’d received a frying pan to the face and her jaw dropped.

          Beside her, her mother looked oddly triumphant. Like she’d just confirmed something she’d known in the back of her mind.

          It was the most uncomfortable moment of Sally's life and she shrank back behind her mom. They should have knocked. Then her mother decided to make it worse.

          “Well,” she announced loudly, making the couple jump and gasp. “Well we did bring by some fresh eggs for breakfast, but it looks like you’ve got all ya need!”

          Ignacio flattened himself against Layla whose horrified face shone over his shoulder.

          “We’ll just be goin’ then,” And Estella pushed Sally out of the room closing the door firmly behind her.

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          The pair lay still for a long while as both digested what had just happened.

          Ignacio finally pushed himself up to sit on the side of the bed. Afraid he was going to leave her Layla quickly went to wrap her arms around him. She wasn’t ready to let him go just yet.

          “I need to go,” he said huskily.

          It was such a switch. Just moments ago they had been happily chatting, ignoring that morning had arrived and along with it had come the time to face the music. Now the atmosphere was heavy and the air strained.

          “No,” she pled. “Please don’t go, yet.”

          “I have to go and talk to Ned as soon as possible, before your aunt or cousin manage to get this out to the rest of town. I have to explain,” he said.

          “Explain what?” she asked, burying her face in the back of his neck. “Was this only a mistake for you, is that why you're leaving so quickly?”

          As she said it her heart hammered and her stomach plummeted. She couldn't face the fact that she might have thrown herself at someone who couldn't even bring himself to look at her now. But could she blame him? She had potentially cost him his job with her actions.

          “No,” he said, pulling her to sit beside him instead of behind. “No, it was not a mistake. But I’ve just betrayed my friend and I need to see him and tell him myself before he finds out in a less pleasant method.”

          “And just what are we explaining? We haven’t made any decisions,” she said, reaching up to stroke his cheek as his words sank in. If Ignacio had betrayed Ned, so had she. And he was right. Ned could find out through them or through the town's penchant for gossip. Though it would be awful to tell him in person it would be worse to for them all to ignore it. It also added to the tally of things she had lost for them both in the course of a single night. She sighed heavily. How much damage would have to be repaired? And why on Sim Planet would Ignacio want to be around the sim who cost him so much?  “Maybe we should talk first before we go talk to Ned. I’m in this as much as you are.”

          “But every moment I wait is another opportunity for someone else to tell him,” his voice had hardened a little. “No offense, but your cousin and your aunt are the two biggest gossips in town. Everyone will know about this by the end of the day. And it is the day of the election also. I’ve got to go to him.”

          Pushing his jaw with her thumb, Layla finally managed to get Ignacio to look at her.

          “What are we explaining?” she asked again. “Was it only last night? Or might it last longer? And you won’t go alone. He deserves my confession as well.”

          “I would like to think that last night was not a one time thing. but it is not for me to decide. Ned considered you his girlfriend.”

          “Okay, well I don't want it to be a one time thing either. So that's a start,” Layla stroked his cheek, feeling a little better, but still a knot twisted in her gut as she thought about the explanation she needed to give to Ned. She highly doubted he would consider her his girlfriend after he heard what she had done. “And I know Ned thought of me as his girlfriend, but I didn't really feel that way about him. I’m the one who forced last night and led him to believe that I had any feelings for him. You don’t need to apologize the way I do.”

          Ignacio frowned. “He’s going to be very upset, Mi Llamita. Are you sure you want to be in there?”

          Nodding, she tried to smile a little and failed miserably. “I think I can handle it. I kinda think I have to.”

          Ignacio still looked glum and dubious. She'd have to reassure him. After all, if she had been able to leave Anthony behind, she could do it to Ned too. It wouldn't be fun, it certainly wouldn't be pretty, and the discomfort all three would feel would be pretty awful for a while but at least they would all be able to move on afterward

          Blushing, her eyes didn’t waiver from his as she moved to stand in front of him. “Look, as I said last night: I don’t want Ned. I want you. So long as you stand by my side when I tell him how horrible I am, and then maybe come and see me another night I’ll be ok.”

          “You do not know what you are asking for,” he said, running his hand up her back.

          “I think I do,” she said, tracing his ear with her thumbnail. “Just don’t apologize for me. I should never have betrayed him like that. And now it’s my fault that I’ve ruined your relationship with him too.”

          “But I will have you now.”

          “Just as I'll have you.”

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The two did indeed make it to Ned before the gossip reached his ears.
Ned never met Ignacio on friendly terms again.
 Layla, he simply ignored.

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I crushed Ned. I feel bad about it, but this wasn’t how the generation was ever originally planned. The story changed a lot when I rolled for Generation 3. And, uh, btw, there is still no roll reveal. We’re not done yet.. I just figured I'd go ahead and quit actively tormenting Ned for a little while at least. Poor guy. Also, there is an outtake up for this chapter as well as a blooper of Cruz Martingale who happened to amuse me one night.