The Challenge

"So you're not going to kill me or anything?"

A smile did not leave my face the entire day. Brad asked me about it during lunch, I told him I was happy about baseball season beginning. Mike cornered me in the locker room, I told him I just bought an new pair of sneakers. Both of these statements were true, but neither of them were the cause of my beaming smile.

I turned around, watching her retrieve books from her locker. My grin widened and I thanked god that Mike and Brad had already gone home for the day.

I continued to stare, my gaze fixed on her. She must have sensed a presence because she looked away from her books to meet my gaze. Her eyes met mine and she gave me a large smile and a timid waggle of her fingers. I traced the curve of her bottom lip with my eyes, my smile stretching until it hurt, as I thought of how less than twenty four hours ago, those lips were pressed against mine.

My thoughts flew back to yesterday evening, remembering the kiss. Somewhere during my reminiscing, Lilly had shut her locker and walked towards me.

"Are you busy after school?" she asked, her voice snapping my attention.

I grinned down at her. "Nope," I said with a suggestive smirk.

She rolled her eyes, grabbing my hand in hers. "Let's go somewhere," she eagerly grinned.

She closed my locker for me, giving me no room for protest. Not that I was going to anyway.

She began to lead me out the doors of the school, when I pulled her back into place. She looked up at me with curious eyes.

She looked the other way covering her cheeks with her hair, trying to hide blushing. She began walking down the hall. I ran after her, grabbing her hand in mine once again. Her eyes widened in surprise at my action before returing to normal as a small smile graced her lips.

We stepped into the parking lot as we both headed in the directions of our cars. Unfortunately, our cars were on opposite sides of the lot, and with our hands still intertwined, we didn't get very far before the other person pulled us back into place. We snapped our heads towards each other, both of us wearing matching expressions of confusion.

"I'm driving," Lilly firmly stated as she jiggled her keys in front of my face.

"No. I'm driving," I said as I pulled her to the direction of my car.

"No," she argued, pulling me back to the spot.

"Yes," I mimicked her tone, steering her in the direction of my car.

"You don't even know where we're going," she fought back as she walked in the opposite direction. I sighed, letting her pull me.

"You could tell me," I suggested.

She only shook her head at me with a devious smirk. "Payback. Dustin. Payback."

The truck pulled up in front of a building I didn't recognize. It was a church, or what looked like the remains of one. The building was completely broken down, with windows hanging off its hindges and pieces of tile falling off the roof. I stepped out of the car after Lilly did. She walked ahead, through the large black iron gate that surrounded the church.

"What is this place?" I asked, uneager to follow her into the building that looked like it came out of a horror movie.

She looked at me from over her shoulder, still walking across the courtyard. "My safe haven," she said with a smile.

I swallowed the fear and jogged to catch up with her. I intertwined her hand with mine, quickly feeling reassured, despite the dark gloomy shadows that casted over the courtyard.