Yours Truly

Chapter 12

"Hello?" Lily answers weakly, her nose stuffy.

"I would ask you how you're feeling today, baby girl, but your voice kind of says it all," Matt says with a gentle tone.

"I feel like ass."

"And I don't doubt it," he says with a small laugh. "You hate having to miss school so the fact that you are missed yesterday and today really worries me. Rest up and take it easy, okay? Guzzle down some water, bundle yourself up in blankets, have some warm soup, take a marvelous shower-all that jazz. And call me if you need anything at all. I'll be there in a quick jiffy."

Lily smiles for the first time in what feels like eternity. Her dad's caring nature and odd use of vocabulary never fails to lift her spirits up, even if it's just a little bit. Matt knew that there was something deeper that was adding to Lily feeling like ass and he didn't mention it, but she knows that he knows. Dad radar.

"Thanks, Dada," Lily says. "I will and also thanks for checking up on me. I know that you'll do it again in an hour but I still appreciate it all very much."

"It's my job, Lily," he says cheerfully. "But seriously. Take care of yourself and I'm only a phone call away. Love you."

"Love you," Lily smiles. "Bye."

She hangs up the phone and shakes her head happily to herself. Her old man.

Lily takes a glance out of her bedroom window to see that today's weather is the exact polar opposite of how it was Saturday night. Abundant sunshine and not a cloud in sight . It's a perfect day and she doesn't want to let it go to waste. It's be good for her to go out anyways.

After quickly downing down some soup that helps soothe her throat and warm her body, she puts on some worn-out jeans and a wool sweater topped with a beanie. A pain hurts her chest when she sees some of Carina's clothes that she let her borrow sitting neatly in the corner of her closet. She makes a mental note to return it to her soon. She always let Lily borrow her favorite things so she knows she's want it back.

Grabbing her keys, she leaves the house and hops into her car, on her way. Normally when she goes to her favorite spot in the woods, it's because she needs some time away when she's having a bad day. Of course, with the exception of taking Carina there since the younger girl needed some time away herself. But since meeting Carina, Lily hasn't had that urge once because there wasn't really such a thing as bad days with her.

It really doesn't feel great to have her be the cause of the bad day.

--

"Are you sure that you're alright, Carina?" Amanda asks as she reaches over and pats Carina's knee. They're on their way to drop Carina off at her house this Tuesday after school. Considering they haven't seen or spoken to each other since Saturday, Carina has been unquestionably miserable. It was painful to turn around in her seat in English to find it empty instead of seeing those bright green eyes she loves so much and that dazzling smile that makes her heart skip a beat. She's making a real effort to try to avoid her.

Now the whole assignment is an absolute mess, but they still have to do it. At least Carina is still going to continue with it. The past two nights while she was writing her letter, the list of things to talk about was definitely different. She wasn't anonymous anymore and neither was Lily. The nameless person who Carina had a genuine infatuation with before she met Lily wound up actually being the same person. Now she knows why she thought Lily was so special when they first met. They already knew each other so much better than they thought.

Carina isn't just going to pretend like they don't know each other's identities in the letters. So she decided to take an alternate route and just wrote what she wanted Lily to hear her say instead. But because Lily wasn't there today to see the letter Carina wrote for her that night, she just took it out of her folder for her. She needs Lily to read it so maybe she can do a variation of Ding-Dong-Ditch by ringing the doorbell, placing the letter on the ground, and hauling ass on out of there before Lily sees her. But it's mainly because Carina is too scared and nervous to call/text her in fear of rejection. But Lily has to reply to the letter. She cares too much about school to take multiple zeroes for this assignment.