No One Killed Venus Wilson

XXVI. VINGT-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

      LILY'S HANDS gripped around the steering wheel of the 1999 Toyota Corolla her older brother had begrudgingly taught her to drive before he left to pursue his internship for the rest of the year. Her father had reassured her that he'd be back for the summer break so she wouldn't be alone, however, she knew that as erratic her life had become, her father's lifestyle on the truck was just as everchanging.

The humidity in the air had caused her hair to look unkempt as she examined it in the rearview mirror. A deep sigh escaped her lips and danced in the air as she focused on the door she was to knock on. The door she'd said goodbye to just days ago, the man she'd finally let go of until he'd pulled her in once again, a reel around her endless desire to know everything. She knew he was playing her, with the way he used his trump card against her. Yet, he was still ignorant to the woman he loved, ignorant of the stubbornness that had her create an act of breaking up to get what she wanted.

     "I mean I did want to do that," she murmured to herself, justifying the showdown that left a broken-hearted man bargaining with the devil to get his lover back. "He should have let go."

     It would have been easier had he done so.

     A thick droplet of rain pattered against the windshield and formed patterns as it cascaded downwards until it met the leaves and pollen jammed in the crevice between the windshield wipers and the hood of the car. Lily stared above at the clouds turning grey by the passing second and pulled out the key from the ignition.

     As she rose out of the car, she found herself losing her footing, having to lean on the wet car for support. Her hand rose to cup her forehead as she tried to shake the piercing sensation that traveled in her brain before she let out a pained gasp. Her eyes squinted shut and just as she did thunder roared outside causing her to jump in her spot. Begrudgingly, her shoes padded the ground inching her closer to his door with the sole aim to learn of the damned souls of Centennial Secondary School. There was a sense of uneasiness that swam free in her stomach, traveling to her gut, taunting her as she stepped on the small platform he'd made for her when she fell down the first time she'd visited his house.

A melancholic smile spread across her face as she looked down at the platform composed of a makeshift crate, their initials engraved in the corner, hidden by the moss that had started to grow. How innocent were they to think that it was them against the world? How foolish were they to have thought that love could silence all of their worries? In the end, the problems not only consumed who they were at the beginning but the peace and serenity that had blanketed their sheltered lives as well.

     When Lily's head finally lifted, she was met with the door she'd first knocked on a summer ago. Her father's car had broken down in the neighborhood, and she'd knocked on every door until she came across the dingy door that led into the world of heartbreak and secrecy. It was a chance encounter, how the two had met, yet she knew that whoever was above had it all planned. An intricate chord of fate had been played that day when she waltzed into his life only to be stuck in the dance of love forevermore. And now that she was free, she found herself being drawn in once again by the memories that haunted her tainted heart.

She didn't love him, not who he had become. She didn't love him, yet she knew that if he opened his arms as an invitation for her to hide from the storm, she would accept. She didn't love him, yet her heart yearned for him. Perhaps because she saw a flicker of yesterday she craved in his eyes that morning when she'd erased the bond that held the two together in a world so big. A flicker of hope that he may still be the same Tyler she'd loved. How was it that her emotions were so easy to manipulate by the workings of the chemicals in her mind, where just weeks ago she'd wanted to be free from the relationship that drowned her. And now, she sought shelter in her failed relationship as the storm within her brewed.