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Warren
Thirteen-year-old Layla Benitez, who in Pride’s “remix” of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice corresponds to Lydia Bennet, is twin sister to Kayla and younger sister to Janae, Zuri, and Marisol. Fun-loving, extroverted, and rebellious, Layla does things like skip school and attempt to flirt with older boys. Early in the novel, Layla tries to get her new neighbor, handsome 18-year-old Darius Darcy, to dance with her at a neighborhood block party. When Darius refuses, Layla’s older sister Zuri, already predisposed to dislike the rich Darcys for gentrifying their Bushwick neighborhood, interprets Darius’s refusal as a sign that he is arrogant and looks down on her whole family. Later, when the Darcys invite the Benitez family to a cocktail party at their “mini-mansion,” Layla—having snuck some wine from an unwary caterer—loudly jokes that her oldest sister Janae, who has started dating the Darcys’ oldest son Ainsley, is a successful gold digger. Darius overhears her, takes her joke seriously, and convinces Ainsley to break up with Janae. Still later, Layla sneaks out to Carrie’s house party in Park Slope, gets drunk on cognac shots, and kisses Zuri’s ex-crush, the villainous Warren. When Zuri sees photos of Layla’s misadventures pop up on Instagram, she and Darius go to save Layla; this incident helps cement Zuri and Darius’s fledgling romantic feelings for one another.
Layla Benitez Quotes in Pride
The Pride quotes below are all either spoken by Layla Benitez or refer to Layla Benitez. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapters 1–5 Quotes
“That whole family might as well be white.”
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Chapters 11–15 Quotes
I recognize that look. It’s that same look people used to give us when Mama would get on a crowded train with a double stroller holding the twins, me, Marisol, and Janae with our messy hair, runny noses, and each with a bag of chips to keep us occupied while Mama quieted down the babies. It’s the look that assumes Mama is a single mother, that she’s on government assistance, that she beats us when she’s tired, that we all have different fathers, that we live in the projects, and that we’re ghetto. Everybody used to look at us like that—white, black, other mothers with kids who thought they were being responsible by only having two or three. I’d look back at them with defiance and a little pride; a look that says that I love my family and we may be messy and loud, but we’re all together and we love each other.
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Chapters 16–20 Quotes
“I can’t believe you would ask me out after what you did to both my sister and Warren. In fact, we shouldn’t have kissed at all. Now that was a mistake.”
“So you think I’m a bad person?”
“Yes! You judged them, and you turned your nose up at them. And me.”
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Chapters 21–25 Quotes
You’ve got this whole white audience
Watching this fight like some sport
So to whom do I pledge allegiance
To my heart or to this war?
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Chapters 26–30 Quotes
“You treated my sisters like shit, and I needed to call you out on it. And I can’t help that or change that.”
“But I wasn’t . . .” He pulls my hand toward him a little bit.
“Darius.”
“You judged me too. You treated me and my brother like shit too.”
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Layla Benitez Character Timeline in Pride
The timeline below shows where the character Layla Benitez appears in Pride. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapters 1–5
...home after her freshman year of college. Zuri’s Mama and her three younger sisters, Marisol, Layla, and Kayla, are working to prepare a celebratory dinner for Janae in the kitchen.
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...and Marisol, whose nickname is “Money Love Mari,” bet the family would be White, while Layla and Kayla bet they’d be Black. When two handsome Black teenage boys exit the SUV,...
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Layla and Kayla are about to run and introduce themselves to the new neighbors when Mama...
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Outside, Zuri finds her sisters already talking to the boys. When Zuri approaches, Layla introduces Zuri. The taller boy, who looks irritated, introduces himself as Darius and stares at...
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...the street to talk to her sisters, she and Ainsley seem struck by each other. Layla tells Ainsley Janae’s name and that she attends Syracuse, and in response, Ainsley volunteers that...
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...she gets up and starts dancing too. Ainsley and Janae are dancing in tandem when Layla and Kayla playfully accost him. Zuri is embarrassed, but Ainsley handles it gracefully.
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Zuri spots Darius on the sidewalk, not moving to the music. Layla approaches him and tries to dance with him. When he makes a face Zuri perceives...
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Zuri tells Layla that Darius doesn’t want her “all up on him”—he’s glaring at her “like [she’s] a...
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Chapters 6–10
...suggests that then they’d be “a dynamic duo stereotype”—a basketball player and a rapper—and mentions Layla and Kayla still believe the Darcy boys’ dad must be one of the two. Zuri...
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...he’ll text her. Zuri is left confused and disappointed. Meanwhile, from the Benitez apartment window, Layla yells down at Warren to “come back soon.” Then Zuri spots Darius unlocking his house...
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...she asks whether he’s retaking the SATs so he can get into Harvard. Kayla—followed by Layla—arrives with pencils and gives them to Darius. He says he’s not applying to Harvard, thanks...
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Unexpectedly, Darius returns and apologizes to Layla for his behavior at the block party, saying that he just didn’t feel like dancing....
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Chapters 11–15
...people. Meanwhile, Darius takes some club soda from a caterer and hands it to Zuri. Layla comes over holding a red drink and tells Zuri she should be drinking “this” instead....
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Zuri looks for Darius, wondering whether he overheard—and believed—Layla’s joke about Janae being a “gold digger.” She sees Darius whispering to Ainsley, whose face...
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...in the afternoon. Outside Zuri’s apartment building, Warren is about to kiss her when Marisol, Layla, and Kayla walk up, interrupting. Warren tries to go in for the kiss, but Zuri,...
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Chapters 16–20
Chapter 20. Zuri gets home after midnight. Mama, Layla, and Kayla all try to grill her about whether she’s dating Darius now—which she denies...
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Chapters 21–25
...she is scrolling Instagram when she sees a picture of Warren at an outdoor party—with Layla sitting in his lap. When Darius walks up, clearly still wanting to talk to Zuri,...
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Zuri rushes inside. When she runs into Carrie, she asks Carrie about Layla. Carrie leads Zuri to the bathroom, where Layla is vomiting into the toilet. Zuri expresses...
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Outside the door, a White boy starts yelling “Fight!” Layla wobbles upstairs, Zuri and Carrie follow, and they see Darius and Warren outside fighting on...
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Chapters 26–30
...“different planet” where what’s right actually occurs. Then she notes that she needs to get Layla home somehow. Carrie helpfully provides Zuri with a plastic bag in case Layla vomits on...
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Darius, Zuri, and Layla take a cab back to Bushwick. Zuri is distraught, worrying that her parents will feel...
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...Warren. When Darius retorts that he wanted an excuse, Zuri asks whether he wasn’t defending Layla. He says he was—he wouldn’t want her to be victimized like Georgia. When Zuri points...
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...nearly asleep, when Darius notices an ambulance outside Zuri’s apartment building. They go downstairs, get Layla, and head across the street. Zuri’s whole family spills out of the apartment building. Layla...
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...offered to drive her up to Syracuse, since Cornell is only an hour away. Immediately, Layla and Kayla start teasing Janae.
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