The Wild One

Chapter One

 Chapter 1 - LILY

 June

 The restaurant was smokier than I remembered from going here with my dad as a child. It was called Little MaGee’s, but now it’s not. The majority of customers were older than fifty and it smelled like expensive carpeting and upholstery, so it didn’t surprise me that Luke would take me here on a date. He was an eighteen year old with an old soul and a lot of money. Places like these, with old men in golfing attire and a stuffy atmosphere just called out his name. But because I’m the good girlfriend that I am, I showed up in a cute summery dress that reached my fingertips because any shorter would not be allowed with him. My blond hair was down and over the past year I had let it grow down to the small of my back even against Luke’s polite protests.

            Now I sat there at this god-awful restaurant in a leather booth that made my thighs sweat waiting for Luke McCall to come back from the men’s’ room. I pulled my hair around to the front of my face as Luke walked over and sat down across from me.

           “Thank you for coming here with me Lily.” He slid into the booth and smiled sweetly. He looked great in his (what I called a man-blouse) and khakis. His dusty blond hair fell over his eyebrows barely and his face looked a little flushed. He reached across the table and grabbed a light hold of my hand and squeezed it ever so gently. “I love you.”

            “I love you too.” I smiled and held his gaze. Luke was honestly the most perfect boyfriend in existence. He always said and did the right things, never showed up late, and always called on time.

            But staring at him, I couldn’t help but think of someone I knew whose imperfections were so perfect. Staring at Luke, I couldn’t help but thinking of Wes. Wes, the boy that had driven me crazy with his stubbornness, his narcissistic attitude, and the way he frustrated me with his stupid riddles. He had changed me, the whole way that I thought of life and love. As I sat here, I couldn’t help but think of my year with Wes Hills.

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 Last Week of August

    My mother helped me pick out my outfit for the first day of Senior Year at Bentley High. She was always good at that sort of stuff unlike me, who would rather have worn an over-sized t-shirt and sports shorts. But mother said in her ‘mom’ voice that morning, “Lily! You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and I will not have you going to school looking like your brother! Now get dressed, we need to leave.” She tossed me a short slim–fitting navy blue, long-sleeved dress that ended much higher than Luke would have allowed and a big brown belt to go around my waist. This is what my friends wore, not me.

            I put it on and ran down the stairs as fast as anyone could in tall brown leather wedges and out the garage door to go to the car. I threw my purse in the backseat and hopped in the passenger side as my mother sped out of the garage and onto the street.

  We made our way to school in less than five minutes at the speed my mother was driving and she let me out at the school’s front double doors. I kissed her cheek and walked inside, eager to start a new year. I went to homeroom and found Luke and my friends sitting close to the window. I took my spot between Luke and Kate and smiled at everyone as Ms. Butch, the unattractive homeroom teacher took attendance.

            “Lily Allen?”

            “I’m here.” I raised my hand slightly and looked at her. Ms. Butch was wearing a cream colored dressed that was fitted in all the wrong places. It looked like she tried to match the color of her dress and sweater which did not go over well. She gave me a smug look and called out more names of people that I had gone to school with for years until one name.