Cursed

2 (Part 1)

"Tug at that skirt one more time and you'll lose the hands," Alina warned, her tone so serious that Lily was unsure whether she should believe her or not. Either way, her hands fell to her sides where they swayed slightly with her walk and away from the flowing fabric of her skirt.

"How do I know that it's no too short or up at the back?" She practically whined as the warm wind rustled the hair that had been nesting on her shoulders. 

The summer sun was bombarding her skin with its warm rays, making her glad for the short sleeves of her top and the skirt that brushed just above her knees, swishing with the way she walked.

She needed something that would keep her hands occupied and was suddenly annoyed that she hadn't brought her cane. She hadn't thought that she would need it because she was with Alina but it would have been something to focus on that wasn't the length of her clothes. 

"I've told you that it's fine about a hundred times now," Alina replied, mocking the tone that Lily had just used. "Would I lie to you?" She added; the question in a voice that was too sweet to be trusted.
"Lina," Lily warned as he gave her skirt a tug, even though it refused to slide any further down her hips, "I'm being serious, I need to know if I look decent." 

"I was being serious as well, Lily, you look amazing— you're welcome by the way— Tony is going to be blown away," Alina babbled before she stopped walking, "crap." She added in a small mutter that she probably thought was an undetectable tone. Lily froze as well, the number of steps that had been flowing at the back of her mind coming to a crashing halt as she processed what her friend had just said. For a second she was slightly amused seeing as Alina had never been that great with secrets, though the amusement quickly wore off.

"You set me up?!"Her voice was so loud that she heard the scrape of shoes halting against the sidewalk and felt the pressure of curious stares coming from all sides of her. She cleared her throat and tugged at her skirt before continuing in a much more reasonable tone. "How many times have I told you not to do that?"
"I swear, Lily, you're going to love him. He's really nice and has a cute smile and an amazing body—"
"Then you date him," Lily deadpanned, interrupting her friend's gushing. She couldn't care less about his looks.
"I have a boyfriend and you know it," Alina replied with, quite calmly, before adding "besides someone to cuddle with would do you some good." 

Lily wasn't sure how to respond without sounding completely outraged. In the end she just let the feeling leak into her voice. She had a right to be upset. "I don't need some boy to be happy, Lina"
"Tony is not a boy, he is a man. And besides that not what I meant," her friend sounded beyond frustrated as she let out a deep breath, something that Lily guessed was supposed to be calming.

"Then what did you mean?" Lily quizzed angrily, "that I'm so helpless that I need someone to stick to my side when you're not around so I don't hurt myself?"
Alina was quiet, though not the guilty kind; more like the one that said she was trying to find the right words to say to avoid making her friend any angrier.

Lily wasn't in the mood to wait.

"I'm going home." She declared annoyed and slightly betrayed. Alina had tried to set her up countless times but they always ended up as pity dates that led to relationships that she had to break off seeing as they were too cowardly to do so themselves. She had made Alina promise to stop but apparently the words hadn't meant a thing to the other girl.

That was probably what upset Lily the most, it wasn't exactly that Alina had tried to set her up again, it was the fact that she had promised not to do it anymore yet she still went ahead and did it. 

"Do you even know where home is?" Alina asked; her tone equally mad and just a little bit patronizing. It almost made Lily frown, instead she just scowled.
"Well, it's 300 steps away from you," Lily snapped before turning and starting to stalk off, though a thought stopped her making her turn to, roughly, where she remembered Alina's voice coming from. "You know what, Lina? I trusted you and it was really crappy of you to just go behind my back and do it anyway. You could have at least asked me whether I had changed my mind."

Feeling more satisfied with justifying her exit, Lily counted down from 300 as she took long angry strides, forgetting that the 300 rule only worked when she was walking at a regular pace. She had figured out a system to it a while ago, after she had gotten herself lost in the middle of a gigantic shopping center her and Alina had been at.

It hadn't only been embarrassing but utterly terrifying being in what felt like the middle of nowhere with people shoving past and whispering and laughing— not at her, but at times it felt like they were— she had thanked goodness for the invention of the cell phone as she dialed Alina's number and admitted that she had gotten herself lost.

Whatever insignificant thing they had argued about had been forgotten as Alina rushed to find her— after, of course, she sucked up her pride and asked a passer-by what store she was in front of.

It wasn't long until Lily had reached a familiar street, the sound of Mr Panini— a tired sounding man with a heavy Welsh accent— doing his routine lawn mowing came from her right, along with the scent of freshly mowed grass. She wasn't quite sure whether or not she liked the smell, it was somewhat comforting, a sign that she was, in fact, on the right street but it also made her nose twitch. 

The whir of Mr Panini's lawn mower suddenly cut off as she heard his gruff voice call out "morning Miss Sephora!" No matter how many times she told him that her preferred name was Lily he seemed insistent on calling her by her first name.
"Morning, Sir," she called back politely as she stopped walking and turned to where his voice had come from. 

"Where's the tall blond who's always stuck to your side?" He asked out of sheer curiosity
"We're currently not talking," Lily admitted as she rubbed her arm awkwardly
"Now what's the knob done this time?" He sounded genuinely interested and even though he always had great advice in the past, she didn't feel like yelling the story across the road to him, nor did she want to cross. She didn't fancy getting hit by a car. 

All she wanted to do was go home even though she knew that that would just be thirty minutes of her telling herself that she was overreacting. It was just a date after all. While the other half of her would be saying that Alina had been out of line as well. That would continue until her friend finally showed up and the pair would make up. 

"It's nothing big," Lily waved off
Mr Panini seemed to take the hint as he gave her a gruff "I'll see you later then," before returning to mowing his lawn.
She whispered a "bye" that was drowned out by the sound as she resumed her count down and made her way home.