Page 40 of Creeping Lily
“Lily?”
She looks up slow, like she’s waking from a dream, or maybe a nightmare. “What are you doing out here in the cold?”
I drop down beside her. She stares into the dark, her focus miles away.
“Air,” she says simply.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice is soft, but her eyes look hollow.
It’s freezing and she’s sitting here like she doesn’t feel it. It makes me wonder if she’s gone numb inside too.
“Come on,” I say, standing and slipping my hands under her arms to lift her. “Let’s get out of the cold.”
Her fingers are like ice when they slide into mine. It sets something heavy in my gut.
“Did something happen?” I ask quietly as we walk.
She shakes her head, but the way she avoids my eyes says otherwise. Lily doesn’t go quiet unless she’s hiding something.
Bethany intercepts us before I can press further, scolding Lily for missing all the “fun.” We slow as the crowd thins, an open space forming on the dance floor.
And there he is.
Trick. Standing dead center, eyes locked on our hands, betrayal etched across his face.
“It’s notwhat you’re thinking,” I say, trying for the tenth time to explain to Trick. We’re leaning against the car, and Trick has a cigarette pressed between his lips as he eyeballs me suspiciously. He stopped smoking a year ago.
“I get it, man. Okay? Lily’s gorgeous. Which red blooded male wouldn’t be interested in her?”
I have a hard time trying to convince him that there’s nothing going on between Lily and me. He tries to let me off easy, but I know he’s having a difficult time buying it. Not that I owe him an explanation. Our past dictates that his trust in me should be unwavering. He doesn’t have the right to be second guessing me now.
“It’s not like that,” I repeat. “She was sitting outside in the cold, upset about something. Afraid. I just walked her back in and she took my hand. You know how Lily gets around crowds of people.”
He nods his head knowingly. He knows. I know. She doesn’t deal very well with crowds and would rather be anywhere but here tonight.
“What was wrong with her?”
“She wouldn’t say. But Lily’s a small-town girl, Trick; she’s private like that.”
He scrunches up his face in confusion, then sucker punches me with his words.
“Do you think it’s because I was dancing with Wendolyn?”
That’s the last thing I expect him to say but leave it to Trick to decide Lily really does have feelings for him. But I can’t bringmyself to tell him that Lily couldn’t give a flying fuck who he dances with. I can’t break his heart like that, even though Lily already has. I start to think enough time has passed with him trying that he should understand by now that Lily isn’t interested. He’s not usually so daft.
“I don’t know why Lily was upset, Trick. She wouldn’t tell me. You know how closed off she is.”
“But yet, she felt safe enough with you to hold your hand,” he mulls, looking at me thoughtfully.
I flick my cigarette across the gravel and fix him with a dark glare, fed up with all the shade he’s throwing my way.
“We’re friends, Trick. That’s what friends do; they look out for each other,” I tell him, before I push off the door and walk away.
21
LILY
