Return of His Ex Ch. 01

All characters are at least 18 when the sexual activities take place.

15 years old Rob sighs. He just woke up a few minutes ago and is feeling lazy. The boy doesn't really feel like going to school today but knows that he can not skip it. Getting out of bed, he goes into his bathroom to brush his teeth and take a shower. After that he puts on his plain clothes. Unlike other young teens, he doesn't really care much about how he looks and never wore fashionable clothes. It's also partly to do with his lack of fashion sense that he doesn't try to make himself look cool, because he knows that he can't. He has a cute face but that's all.

After he's done he goes to the living room where his parents are sitting and waiting for him to join them. They all have breakfast together, with Rob's dad reading the morning newspaper. Rob has a strained relationship with him and his mother. He loves them and also knows that they both love him very much, but they keep on trying to push him to be more like they were. His dad was a lacrosse player back in the day, while his mother was one of the most popular kids in their high school. They want Rob to play sports and make some friends instead of just sitting at home and reading all day.

It doesn't take long before his father starts. "Listen, kid. I know you don't like playing sports but maybe you should try out for one of the teams. It can be good for your confidence," he says. Rob sighs in exasperation. They have already talked about it before last night and he doesn't want to repeat the conversation again. "I can start training you in lacrosse. You've got a good body structure and can move fast. I think you can do very well in the sport if you work hard enough at it. Just think about it for a second."

Rob does consider his father's suggestion, but not really seriously. He doesn't want to be an athlete just because his dad was. But the boy knows he will have to pretend to think about it for a while if he wants his father to stop. Finally he says "I'm not really interested in playing lacrosse dad. It doesn't seem like fun to me. I have already tried training in it before and I didn't enjoy it, so please don't try to make me play again. I seriously don't want to and will probably not put much of an effort in it."

His mother is the one sighing now. "It's okay if you don't want to play sports, honey. But you should think about making friends. Friendships are very important for someone of your age. Trust me, I was a teen before," she tells him, sipping his coffee. If anyone else suggested that he make friends, he would probably laugh in their face. But this is his mother, so naturally Rob doesn't laugh in her face. "It was difficult for me too, to interact with others at all times. I managed to do it though, and you could too. You are a nice boy, Rob. Your dad and I raised you well enough. Just go out there and talk to some of your classmates."

"When you said it was difficult but you managed it, you neglected to mention the part where you succeeded due to your good looks, charisma and confidence. I have none of those things and I'm not going to try to do what you just did, mom, because we are different people," he says. "Now I'd like to go back to eating because I'm incredibly hungry and want to get to school on time, so I can go hang out in the library." He then resumes eating, shovelling food into his mouth as quickly as he could.

Once they are done, Rob washes the dish. He fills up his water bottle and checks to see that he has packed his bag properly. Then he gets into the shotgun seat of the car and buckles his seat belt properly. His mother drives him to school just like every other morning. As she drives, Rob stares out the window, looking at the trees and houses as they pass them. The scenery is rather nice and provides a healthy distraction from his problem, namely, having to deal with loneliness because he has no friends. Maybe his mother is right but he is just too stubborn to admit it.

They arrive within half an hour and he gets out of the car and starts walking up to the main building. Many people around Rob are hanging out in groups, with friends and boyfriends and girlfriends. Rob has none of that but he's okay. Lonely, but still fine. It's not a big deal, he tells himself. He'll be able to make friends when he reaches university in about three years from now. For now he just has to hang on and do his best here to make the most out of his time in high school.

He gets inside the building and heads straight for his locker. The boy wants to retrieve all of his stuff that he is going to need for the day, before going to the library. But it doesn't seem like he will be doing that soon though. Rob notices a girl in his class being surrounded by taller fellow students. Her name is Layla and she is a slightly overweight, brace-wearing girl with acne all over her face. She is also the daughter of the principal. "Look at how ugly you are. No guy would ever want you," Penny, a blonde cheerleader, is deriding her, sneering very contemptuously.

Layla might not look very pretty but Rob knows her to be a genuinely kind person and hates seeing her, or anyone else, being bullied. He watches for a moment as she says "Why are you being so mean to me? Can't you leave me alone please?" The boy could feel his heart breaking as he takes in the hopeless tone in Layla's words. Her voice is shattered and he can feel all sorts of emotions welling up inside of him, including the desire to protect her and tell her that it's okay, and she shouldn't care what those assholes are saying to her.

Penny and her friends imitate her, mocking the African American girl's whining. They laugh at how she is, according to them, pathetic. "You can't stand up for yourself, weakling. Not just ugly but a wimp too, aren't you?" Penny asks mockingly, getting into her face. Layla flinches and cringes backwards instinctively, accidentally spilling coffee on Penny's pastel shoes. "You bitch! How could you? Do you have any idea how expensive these are? You're going to get it now!"

She rears back her hand, preparing to slap Layla across the face. But before Penny could hit the black girl, Rob jumps in and grabs her wrist. "First you insulted her and now you are going to slap her? You are too much of a coward to pick on her by yourself aren't you? That's why you have all your friends standing around as backup," he says, pushing her away roughly before turning to look at Layla. "Ignore these cruel bitches. Their opinions aren't worth anything. Let's get to class now before we are late." He then leads her away from the throng of people.

He is completely unaware of how the black girl is looking at him. Layla's face is blushing madly as she looks at him the way she has never looked at anyone anymore. For her, it is almost love at first sight. The way he walked in to save her was so cool and heroic, and she is totally smitten with him. Layla hides her besotted look as well as she could and Rob doesn't see it but the others do. Some of the other girls exchange smirks as they watch the oblivious dork walking with a girl who is eyeing him like he is her future boyfriend.

"Are you okay?" he suddenly asks, bringing her out of her reverie. She looks at him curiously. "Those three were being very mean to you. I'm worried that you're hurt by what they said. You know they are nothing but cruel bitches right? Their words don't mean anything." Rob finds her shyness cute instead of annoying, possibly because he himself is also shy and can understand how it feels, to have your throat clamp up when you need your voice the most. Stupid, disobedient organ, he thinks to himself, like he did countless times before.

Layla quickly nods, flushed when he is looking at her. "Yeah, thanks. If you didn't step in I don't know how I would have handled that? Would you please have lunch with me today? I don't want to be alone. And you're pretty cool too. I'd really like to hang out with you, Rob," she says to him rapidly. He blinks a few times, before smiling. She really is cute, he thinks to himself. He nods and she smiles brightly, making him feel those butterflies in the stomach that he has only heard about up until now. "Yay!" Layla exclaims and then hugs him.

They go to class together and sit down at their seats, listening to the teacher drone on and on for ages. As the class goes on, Layla sneaks glances at Rob, catching him stare at her at times too. She throws caution to the wind and winks at him, and now he is the one blushing, realising that he has been caught. It's clear that there is a budding romance between them. Everyone can see that, even Rob himself who is notoriously dense when it comes to girls. It's hard for even him not to notice when he himself is the boy that a girl happens to like.

During lunch, the girl asks "So when are you going to tell people that I'm your girlfriend?" Rob nearly chokes on his vanilla milkshake. She frowns. "You don't have any problem with dating a black girl right?" The boy rapidly shakes his head. "Good. I don't want to pressure you into our relationship. That would be toxic and I will never be toxic towards you. I can promise you that." She then takes some of the French fries from his plate and starts eating, before stopping. "No, I can't do that. I don't want to gain any more weight. I'm fat enough already."

"You're not fat," he immediately says, making her quirk her eyebrows and touch her own slightly protruding belly. "Well, I mean, maybe you have a few extra pounds but still I think you are pretty. You can slowly work them off, you know? No need to beat yourself up over it and call yourself fat." He desperately tries to find the right words, only for her to start giggling. It is the sweetest sound he has ever heard and now he realises why people want to have boyfriends and girlfriends.

In the last two classes of the day, he could barely focus. Rob feels the smile threatening to break out across his face and barely manages to hide it. He is inwardly grinning like an idiot. He has a girlfriend! And a really nice one too, who is so cute. It's a miracle that he manages to answer the teacher's question well despite being so distracted by the latest development in his life. At the end of the class, he hurriedly leaves, wanting to go home so he can moon over it. But he doesn't go home before getting her phone number though. It's the first time he ever got a girl's number and he is overjoyed.

At home he smiles constantly, making his mom and dad feel very curious. They have never seen him like this before in his fifteen years of life and are starting to worry that he might be on drugs or something. When his parents ask him why he's so happy, Rob just says "I got a girlfriend now," before he skips back to his room, leaving his parents sitting there on the couch, completely stunned.

Two years later

Despite them starting out at a very young age, both Rob and Layla were mature enough to make their relationship last. They are now two years into it, having dated throughout those years without having any problems. It seems like that would remain the case too, but there are actually secret issues lying deep down that Rob has no idea would one day surface and threaten to tear them apart. All he knows is that he is very happy right now in his relationship with Layla. They have only kissed and cuddled, and haven't done any sexual stuff together yet, despite both of them already being 17, but he is fine with that, being a consummate gentleman.

Layla has lost some of the excess weight but is still carrying extra fat. She knows her boyfriend doesn't mind, since he's never let it be a problem between them before. All he's done is be an encouraging partner who supports her as she tries to lose those pounds. He is so sweet and kind and caring to her. Layla doesn't know if she could ever love anyone as much as she loves him. Just being near the boy makes her forget about everything else. A meteor could strike Earth and wipe out all other life forms and she wouldn't care, as long as she is with him.

They go everywhere together. She would accompany him to the bookstore and he'd wait while she shops for new shoes or jackets. Even if he personally dislikes shopping, Rob puts up with it because he loves Layla so much and just wants to spend time with her. It doesn't matter where, just as long as they are together. The black girl really appreciates her white boyfriend always being there and makes sure to let him know it too.

One day, as he is about to leave the house, Rob's mother asks him "So are you two planning to go to the same university?" He pauses to think about it. "It could be good, you know. Just make sure you're focussing on studying instead of letting her kiss you all day long like I know she wants to." His dad snickers at this part and she turns to him and glares, making the man go silent. "Believe me, Rob. It will be fine as long as you dedicate time to studying."

Rob thinks about this, considering the feasibility of what his mother suggested. "You know, Layla doesn't want to kiss me all day. She isn't that into making out with me," he tells them. His father snickers. Right, he did catch her sticking her tongue into Rob's mouth before. "Okay, so maybe she does kiss me a lot but it's perfectly healthy. Anyway, I think that we might apply to the same places. I will have to talk to her about this first before making any final decisions. Now I have to go meet her. I promised here we'd get some ice cream together."

"After what I've seen of you two, I can see her licking it all off your lips," his father muses, making him go red in the face. Laughing at how he made his son grimace, Rob's dad gets up and walks over to pat him on the back. "No go on out, son. Better not leave a lady waiting." It turns out to be a perfectly fine date once he forgets about how his parents teased him earlier. His ears are still red but she doesn't look at them so much and he manages to conceal how embarrassed he was earlier.

But despite how wonderful he is, Layla still has some problems with the boy, ones that she has tried to ignore before, but can't. It has been the source of her irritation since they were 15. She finds him to be too much of a dork and wants him to stop spending all his time reading, and start socializing. The girl has aspirations to become even hotter and more popular than the bitches who harassed her over the years. That's why she has been steadily losing weight and getting newer, way more fashionable clothes. She is still a bit of an ugly duckling but is now moving slowly away from that. The fact that Rob has no sense when it comes to fashion doesn't help since being next to him makes some of that rub off onto her. It bothers her so much that she's taken him to the shopping mall several times but he still refuses to throw out his old dorky clothing.

"I'm happy with the clothes that I have and don't want any new ones," he says to her one day. "And why do we have to try to impress all those horrible bitches who have always been nasty to us over the past couple of years? We're okay the way we are. There is no reason to try to be like them." He places his hands on his hips, completely unable to understand why she wants to change just to be a cool kid. It's all pointless in the boy's mind. To try to be like one of those shallow girls who made her life hell is a mind-boggling pursuit that he has tried to stop her from pursuing several times already, without any success.

"It's not just about impressing them. I want to be hotter and more popular than they are. That means I have to be in better shape, wear better clothes and be cooler in general," she tells him. "Now, I can take care of my shape by myself. I can also get new clothes without your help too. But I can't be cool if I'm dating a loser, and that's what you are. So can you please maybe stop being such a loser and start making yourself look cooler too, so you won't keep me down?" It's only afterwards that she realises what she just said to her cute boyfriend.

Rob looks at her in disappointment. He can't believe he is hearing her say this. "Loser? Is that what you think of me now? Am I a loser because I wear my old, boring T-shirts and don't get any new ones? Fine! Maybe I am a loser. Know what that means? You're dating a loser," he says to her. For the first time in two years, he's raised his voice at her. He never did it before and is quite surprised by his own little shout.

Layla, meanwhile, is startled. She then glares back at him. "How dare you? You don't get to shout at me! I can't believe you think you can do that. Now like I said before, I don't want to be a tiny little dork and if I'm dating one then that's how I'm going to be seen too. I want to finish high school with a bang. We only have less than a year left. Just some months to go so I want to finish this well. It's not just your clothes by the way. You're also a massive geek too. I mean, I could understand reading school books to do well on exams but reading for pleasure?"

If Rob was upset by her talking about his clothes, he is completely livid now with her bringing his reading habit into it. "Hey, there's nothing wrong with reading for fun, Layla. I've been doing that since the beginning of our relationship, so why are you raising an issue now?" he demands. He has never seen her act so unreasonably before. She never treated him like this, not even once. Now she is acting like she owns him or something.

"Well, maybe I put up with it for two years! I love you and that's why I tolerated it for so long. But I'm not sure if I can tolerate it anymore, Rob," she says. Then the girl freezes. She realises that she might have gone too far. But then another part of her tells her that it doesn't matter. Layla has to be strong for herself. It means having to leave Rob behind because he can't keep up with the program. That would hurt, but it would be for the best. One day she will recover from it.

The white boy is looking at his black girlfriend in shock. He couldn't believe she would say that to him. His sweet, kind girlfriend has always been so gentle. "Did you just say you want to break up with me? Because you can't tolerate my lack of fashion sense and fascination with reading? I can't believe this. I've been a dork for two years and you were fine but now you want to dump me over it because it's hampering you when you're trying to be like one of the girls who made our lives hell."

"I'm so sorry, Rob. I will always love you but I can't be with a loser like you anymore. I hate to do this but we are done now," she says, tears in her eyes. Rob's eyes area also full of tears that he struggles to wipe away with the back of his hand. "Please don't cry. I can't bear seeing you hurt. Move on from me. You deserve someone better." He quickly rushes out of the house and she stands there in the middle of her living room, wondering if she made the biggest mistake of her life.

Given that her mother is a high school principal, Layla grew up surrounded by academic literature and is very well read. But she isn't good with social cues. Rob made her feel more confident with how understanding he is and the way he cares for her. And she just tossed her away. Was it a huge mistake? She is pursuing revenge on the girls who tortured her, intending to become even sexier than them and take all the limelight for herself. It sounds pretty great but is it worth losing the only boy she has ever loved? She guesses she will have to find out now.

Her mother returns home a few hours later. Mrs. Durham is shocked to see her daughter sitting in a chair with some crumpled tissues on the table, her eyes still red and puffy from crying. She quickly sweeps her teenage daughter into her arms protectively. "Oh sweetie. Tell me what happened to you," she says soothingly, caressing her hair gently and cradling her face. "Did one of those girls make fun of your appearance again? You know that they are just saying it to be mean. What they think doesn't matter. Me and your dad love you. Rob loves you. We are all you need, baby."