Yours Truly

Chapter 21

She could "wake up" right now, but she doesn't think it would be the best time to have a heart-to-heart with all of the girls in the room and their emotions still high. Lily is probably still really upset too. It might be best to wait a bit before they talk it out.

"I think she is sleeping," Desi mutters softly. Oh, well, of course she would be the one to think Carina's asleep. She's pretty gullible. If it were any of the other girls checking up on her, then they might have caught Carina in the act.

"Go wash your face and then head off to bed, Lily," Naomi suggests gingerly. "I think you should sleep the night off."

"You're right," Lily agrees, her voice nasally and stuffy, undeniably from her crying. "And I'll just sleep on the couch tonight."

Carina listens as the other girls give her all words of encouragement and support, all telling her that things will be okay and that "Carina didn't mean it." And she didn't mean it. She was just upset and she let that get the best of her.

"I hate when they fight," she hears Amanda mumble once Lily heads into the bathroom and turns the shower on.

"Me too," Desi concurs, letting out a long and dreadful sigh. "But they'll be okay. They always are."

"No relationship is perfect and no one is perfect, but they're perfect for each other. There is no doubt in my mind about that," Naomi adds in genuinely.

Carina repeats that in her mind over and over again. She is far from perfect and she does still have some things she should work on about herself, but there is no one better in this world for Lily than her, just like no one is better for her than Lily.

-

Hours pass and the storm outside halted completely, leaving no trace of evidence that a storm even occurred tonight aside from the various puddles left behind. The calm after the storm is soothing and slightly comforting. It's kind of symbolic about how even the bad things have to end.

Lily is sleeping on the couch tonight with her sweater as a blanket. Well, at least she's trying to sleep. She's just been staring at the back of her eyelids while her mind is going a hundred miles per hour.

She would be lying if she said she still wasn't deeply hurt about Carina's sudden explosion of how she doesn't need her and how she's just fine with her. That really fucking hurt. A knife through her heart probably would have hurt less than hearing those spiteful words leave her mouth. Did she really mean that? Or was she just saying it in the heat of the moment? It's weird how something as simple as words can evoke such strong emotions. Carina is capable of making or breaking her heart with just mere words. That's some intense power that someone can hold over you. And she willingly gave Carina that power as soon as she gave her her heart.

Lily wipes a stray tear that rolls down her cheeks. She hasn't really stopped crying since then. She's calmed down since her intense sobbing session in Naomi's arms earlier when the girls found her sitting by herself in the lobby after Carina locked her out, but the tears haven't stopped falling. And her heart hasn't stopped aching.

The soft sounds of three different snores occupy the hotel room, all coming from the bed closest to the couch where she lays. Desi, Naomi, and Amanda still stuck with their original idea of sleeping on one bed while Carina and Lily took the other. Although Carina has the bed to herself now, Lily knew that none of the girls wanted to take place of her absence because they were secretly hoping they would wake up to find the two of them together in the same bed again.

Yeah. Lily hopes for that too.

Sleeping in the same room as Carina but not having her in her arms is torturous. She is literally only about 15 feet away from Carina and she should be there with her chest pressed against her back, her arm wrapped around her petite waist, and face nuzzled against the nape of her neck. But instead, Lily is lying on the couch in a room with four of the most important in her life, feeling lonelier than ever.