"...and Willa was denying it the whole time. Can you believe it? My daughter is lying to me!"
It was only ten in the morning and Lilia was damn hungry. So while she was awkwardly balancing her phone on her shoulder, she strolled through the kitchen in search of the bread she had bought yesterday and listened to Samantha complain about her five year old daughter.
Their friendship was still as staring as it had been fourteen years ago, but the both of them had lost all the ties with Rosalie. They still held that relation in heart, but the communication had come down from little to nothing.
It had been quite long since Lilia had had a decent conversation with her best friend, so when she had rung her up, Samantha had been extremely surprised, to say in the least. But the both of them fell into conversation quickly, just like old times.
"It's natural, Sam," Lilia said, discontinuing her search and hopping up to sit on the counter, "she thought that you'd scold her if she told you the truth, so she settled for the lie. It's human nature."
"Yeah? Well, I don't remember lying when I was six!"
"Your daughter is five."
"Lia!"
"Sorry, sorry," she laughed lightly, before getting serious, "you should talk to her, I guess. Tell her that lying is a great sin and the monsters under the bed eat those who lie. It worked in my case."
"Your mother told you that when you were young?"
"Nope, dad did. I told my first lie when I was around thirteen."
"A semi saint," Samantha laughed from the other side, "that's good."
Lilia paused, then choked back a tear that was threatening to spill into her words, "is it, Sam? What was the point?"
There was a moment of silence, before Samantha spoke out slowly, "don't say it like that. He'll come back. You know he will."
"Honestly? I don't think I do." Before Samantha could protest and tell her to have hope, Lilia interrupted her saying, "it's been two years! How long am I gonna keep hoping for?"
When Samantha didn't reply, Lilia gulped back her tears. She didn't have an answer. No one did. All they could do was look at her with pity in their eyes and say that they were sorry. She didn't need their sorry. She just wanted him back. Why was that too much to ask for?
Samantha stayed silent, but Lilia knew that she was trying to think of something to say that would make her feel better. Lilia was tired of words, to be honest. She was just tired of everything going wrong around her.
The silence in her house was thickening with every passing second, echoing loudly in her ears. She could physically feel her loneliness. Without the slow sound of her breathing, the whole house was awfully quiet. Just how it had been for the past two years.
"Do you," Samantha started, her voice laced with caution, "do you remember your eighteenth birthday?"
An involuntary smile creeped up Lilia's lips as the memory flashed across her eyes. That was undoubtedly one of the best days of her life, because it was the start of all the infinite amount of happiness that had adorned her life.
"You think I'll ever forget?"
*****
Two hands wrapped around Lilia's eyes, blocking her vision of the school corridor.
She stumbled a bit, before catching herself and letting out a laugh. "Alec, let go!"
"How did you know it was me?" Letting his hands fall, Alec walked in front of her with a mischievous smile on his lips.
