Chapter 1 - LILY
June
The restaurant was smokier than I remembered from going here with my dad as a child. It was called Little MaGee’s, but now it’s not. The majority of customers were older than fifty and it smelled like expensive carpeting and upholstery, so it didn’t surprise me that Luke would take me here on a date. He was an eighteen year old with an old soul and a lot of money. Places like these, with old men in golfing attire and a stuffy atmosphere just called out his name. But because I’m the good girlfriend that I am, I showed up in a cute summery dress that reached my fingertips because any shorter would not be allowed with him. My blond hair was down and over the past year I had let it grow down to the small of my back even against Luke’s polite protests.
Now I sat there at this god-awful restaurant in a leather booth that made my thighs sweat waiting for Luke McCall to come back from the men’s’ room. I pulled my hair around to the front of my face as Luke walked over and sat down across from me.
“Thank you for coming here with me Lily.” He slid into the booth and smiled sweetly. He looked great in his (what I called a man-blouse) and khakis. His dusty blond hair fell over his eyebrows barely and his face looked a little flushed. He reached across the table and grabbed a light hold of my hand and squeezed it ever so gently. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” I smiled and held his gaze. Luke was honestly the most perfect boyfriend in existence. He always said and did the right things, never showed up late, and always called on time.
But staring at him, I couldn’t help but think of someone I knew whose imperfections were so perfect. Staring at Luke, I couldn’t help but thinking of Wes. Wes, the boy that had driven me crazy with his stubbornness, his narcissistic attitude, and the way he frustrated me with his stupid riddles. He had changed me, the whole way that I thought of life and love. As I sat here, I couldn’t help but think of my year with Wes Hills.
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Last Week of August
My mother helped me pick out my outfit for the first day of Senior Year at Bentley High. She was always good at that sort of stuff unlike me, who would rather have worn an over-sized t-shirt and sports shorts. But mother said in her ‘mom’ voice that morning, “Lily! You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and I will not have you going to school looking like your brother! Now get dressed, we need to leave.” She tossed me a short slim–fitting navy blue, long-sleeved dress that ended much higher than Luke would have allowed and a big brown belt to go around my waist. This is what my friends wore, not me.
I put it on and ran down the stairs as fast as anyone could in tall brown leather wedges and out the garage door to go to the car. I threw my purse in the backseat and hopped in the passenger side as my mother sped out of the garage and onto the street.
We made our way to school in less than five minutes at the speed my mother was driving and she let me out at the school’s front double doors. I kissed her cheek and walked inside, eager to start a new year. I went to homeroom and found Luke and my friends sitting close to the window. I took my spot between Luke and Kate and smiled at everyone as Ms. Butch, the unattractive homeroom teacher took attendance.
“Lily Allen?”
“I’m here.” I raised my hand slightly and looked at her. Ms. Butch was wearing a cream colored dressed that was fitted in all the wrong places. It looked like she tried to match the color of her dress and sweater which did not go over well. She gave me a smug look and called out more names of people that I had gone to school with for years until one name.
“Wes Hills?”
No body answered. Wes Hills, an obvious new kid was not even present for the first class of the first day of Senior Year. Everyone looked around and then went back to talking. One thing about our public school was that our kids were not as bad as people usually suspect for public school kids. We were all good, only the stupid rebellious kids or outcasts skipped school or didn’t turn in homework. Of course you’d see a few smoking after school but only a select few and we had the highest GPA in our side of the country. No one got pregnant, or was a pothead, or bribed people, or pushed kids in lockers. Our sports teams did very well and Luke was the captain for the lacrosse team. Everyone knew everyone, that’s just how it was.
Homeroom ended and I found Luke’s strong hand as we walked to our first class which was the only mandatory class that we had for senior year, English. I took my assigned seat by the window and pulled out my blue composition notebook to take notes. As Mr. Huggit spoke about clauses and other boring material I stared out the window. I was looking at the soccer field when I saw a tall figure leaning against a tree next to the bleacher. It was a guy wearing a dark black tight fitting shirt with light jeans on. He had a black backpack slung carelessly over one shoulder and a cigarette in the other hand. He brought it to his mouth and inhaled then exhaled in the next second. I rolled my eyes at the idiot. He wouldn’t get away with it.
“Ms. Allen, dear, can you please avert your attention away from the window and back to the lecture?” Mr. Huggit smiled at me when I turned my head to the board.
“Yes, sorry Mr. Huggit, sir.” I went back to taking notes.
A minute passed and the door of the room opened. Everyone looked up as the boy from outside walked in. The smell of cigarettes filled the air. His dark hair was slightly rumpled even before he ran his hand through it. His green eyes were bright and unnaturally excited. He fixed his backpack and slung it around to the front of his body, clumsily opened the front pocket, and took out a crumpled note. Mr. Huggit lowered his glasses and snatched the note out of the guy’s hand. He read over it once then shoved it in his pocket. “Please have a seat Mr. Hills. Uh, you can go right next to Ms. Allen over there.” He pointed to the empty seat on my right.
So this was the new guy. Not much of a surprise since he had skipped class and smoked on school ground all on the same day, I guessed he wasn’t aware of the rules yet. Wes looked over at me and I saw an annoyed expression cross his tan face. “Gladly.” He answered sarcastically.
I looked down; obviously much too focused on my sentence structure notes, when Wes took his spot next to me. He shuffled in and knocked his backpack into me as he shifted it over himself and onto the floor. “Alright class, for the first semester project which will take you half of the year you will be building a model of anything that has influenced American history, and it must be English oriented. Uh, for example, you could build the model of a huge red masque to represent The Masque of the Red Death from Edgar Allen Poe. Then you will each write a report separately on it. The only thing you will be doing together is the building, understood?” He made his way across the room to the front row. “I’ll be picking your partners. It will be groups of two or three, alright? Now let me see.”
He went off and picked random people to be groups, most groups consisting of two people. He got down to the five last people which were Wes, Luke, Ari Hoax, Kate Lewis, and me. I prayed that I wouldn’t be with Wes or Ari. Ari was the school’s slut if you could even call her that. The guys called her Easy Ari. No one needed to ask why.
“Alright Wes, Ari, and Lily you’ll be one group and Luke and Kate will be the other. Now that that’s taken care of we will finish up the lesson before the bell rings.” Mr. Huggit clapped his hands together and smiled at the class. “Don’t worry; sentence structures are fun, fun, fun!"
School had ended and I was walking out to wait for Kate who would take me home when I noticed Wes smoking on the side of the school. When our eyes met he glared at me walked to catch up with me. Under the pungent smell of smoke surrounded him like an invisible atmosphere I could smell the cologne he was wearing. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and asked, “What do you need?” My tone was neither mean nor nice.
“Well since we’re having to work together on this dumb-ass project I thought we could go to Home Depot or something and get, you know, the supplies. I haven’t talked to that other girl yet though.” With that he hacked up something in his throat and spit out something on the ground.
I stepped away from him. “I’ve got homework so it’s going to have to be later tonight. I don’t know if Ari can come, I don’t have her number.” I answered him. I shifted my purse to the front of me and searched through it quickly for my iPhone. Finally finding it I opened up my contacts and let him add his number. “I’ll find out Ari’s number and let you know.”
“Okay, whatever. See you.” He turned on his heel and walked away.
Even from the first moment that I saw him I detested him. So how’d I end up falling in love with this bad boy? How did his smoky lips ever find mine and why had I let them? Was Luke’s love for me less fulfilling than it had been before? Is that what drove me to Wes? Damn, what a hell-of-a year.
WES
September 4th
Her house was large and brick. It reminded me of someplace that a government official would stay; no fun, serious, dark. I pushed back my hair and pulled into her narrow driveway. I sat in the car and took a deep breath before opening the door and going up to the front door. After knocking a few times a short thirty-five year old woman answered. “Oh hi, you must be Wes.” She held out her hand for me to shake, but I just left it there until she calmly put it back down to her side. Usually adults get mad when I ignore them like that but she just smiled and welcomed me inside.
“Lily, come on.” She called up the spiral marble staircase. I’d lived in a house like this at one point. The Smith’s, my least favorite foster home lived in a house almost identical to this one. At least they had had a pool.
“Coming, I’ll just be a second!” An invisible voice called down though I knew it was Lily’s. I hoped she’d hurry because I wanted this night to be over more than anything.
Lily’s mom and I made our way to the kitchen as we waited for Lily. “So Wes, how do you like Bentley High? It’s quite a lovely school.” She said as I took stood awkwardly against the marble island. Why was everything in this house marble? She poured herself a cup of coffee. “Would you like some?” She asked when I didn’t answer her first question.
“No.” I responded sharply.
“So where are you from? Living here in Georgia all my life I can tell that you’re not from here.” She put the cup to her thin lips and took a sip.
“What gave me away, the accent?” I asked sarcastically.
“No, it was the manners.” She responded coolly and still smiling. I might just start to like this woman. I looked at her a bit closer than before. Her hair was blond and cut short at her shoulders. She was thin but muscular with bright blue eyes that seemed to always have a hint of amusement in them. She had permanent wrinkle lines but that wasn’t a surprise. Southern women are all about the hospitality so they are usually smiling.
“Touché, Ms. Allen.”
“Hey guys, sorry ‘bout the wait. Wes, let’s go, Home Depot closes at ten.” Lily appeared from the open door at the kitchen. She looked good in her tight black athletic pants and under armor shirt. Her blond hair was up in a ponytail. I had to admit. She was a good looking girl.
“Alright, thanks.” I turned to Lily and we made our way to my car. When we got inside I realized that I had a pack of cigarettes on her seat and I threw them in my pocket. “Sorry, let me get rid of those.”
Lily took a seat and buckled her seatbelt. “You don’t have to wear that you know? I could care less.” I said. She gave me this weird look and turned to look out the window as I backed out of her driveway.
“I want to. Besides it’s the law and I’d like not to break it but obviously those aren’t your morals.” She rolled her blue eyes.
“Whatever.” I shrugged.
After a minute or two in silence Lily put her hands on her temple and her brow furrowed. She coughed and then opened the window. “What’s wrong?” I asked not because I cared but because I hoped that she was getting sick so we wouldn’t have to do this damn project.
“Do you have an Advil? I’ve a headache from the awful cigarette smell in your car.” She winced.
“Yeah, it’s in the glove box on the right.” I answered. As she started to open the glove box I realized what she’d find. Not drugs or even dirty underwear, but my---.
“What is all this? Is this amount really that necessary?” And then she laughed. It was throaty and good-natured. She was laughing so hard that small tears made their way down her cheek, leaving a wet trail behind them. She clutched her stomach and laughed for another minute before containing herself.
“Well I’m glad you found it amusing, but I don’t understand what’s so funny about my sex-life.” I gripped the steering wheel tight in frustration but I couldn’t help but to crack a small smile. Lily held up the bag of Trojans.
“This is literally priceless. What girl would want to do this with you? No offense, it’s not like you are lacking from the good looks gene pool but you are rude and disgusting and have no manners what-so-ever. Sorry Wes, but it’s true!” She started laughing again. “And really, you need this many? You have to have at least two-fifty in here!”
I tried to snatch them out of her hand but she was quicker. “Give me them!” I growled. I tried to get them again but she held them out of reach and I needed to pay attention to the road.
“I can’t believe you would really need all of these Wes.” She was unbuckled now and sitting cross-legged in my direction. The bag was in her lap. “I mean come on now.”
“I don’t need that many. My stock has just grown over time.” I answered rolling my eyes at her. Damn this girl was annoying. Why did our town have to not have their own Home Depot? If we did then I wouldn’t have to be in the car with her for an hour. I just wanted to get this over with.
“Fine, then you’ll be okay if I do this.” She rolled down her window and held the back outside for everyone to see. Cars honked as they passed by.
“Alright, alright, just please put back inside or I’ll, I’ll-.” I couldn’t think of what to do, but now we had turned off the highway and onto a normal road through suburbs. Then I thought of something. “Or I’ll do this.”
I swerved off to the side of the road and into the grass barely missing a mailbox. Lily screamed and threw the bag at me. “OH I swear I’m going to kill you! Ari was smart to drop out of our group or she’d have to deal with you too.”
“Oh, that’s what happened?” I thought it was because at one time Ari and I had hooked up on her living room sofa and she felt awkward working with us. Thank God Lily didn’t know that.
“Yeah so we’re getting a new partner but Mr. Huggit didn’t tell me which person yet.”
We were now at the Home Depot and with help from an employee we made our way to the wood section. Lily had a list of supplies she had made in her hand and was examining the wood while I stood off to the side. “So I was thinking we could do the project on Edgar Alan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death except not to a masque but a clock because that was also a main object in the story since it symbolized the time the party stopped and the people were afraid of it, you know? What do think?”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Let’s go get some stain.” She made me carry the wood as we walked down the long aisle to find some polyurethane.
As we walked down the next aisle Lily took out her phone and slowly her brow tightened and her facial expression became angered. She huffed and stuffed the phone back into her pocket. “Is there something wrong?” I asked even though I could’ve cared less. It was just to have a conversation.
“Luke’s just being Luke is all. He just didn’t like my dress and thought it got too much attention from the opposite gender today if you know what I mean. I mean, Luke is great and amazing and probably the best boyfriend ever he just is a little too caring sometimes, you know?”
“No I really don’t.” I said handing her a container or stain.
“Shut up.” She hit my arm and smiled. “You’re so rude, you know that? No wonder you have no friends.”
“Who said I didn’t have any friends? Have you been watching me?” I joked sourly. We made our way to the cashier and set our stuff on the belt.
“No.” She frowned. “Oh no, that’s Luke’s dad, I totally forgot he worked here!” Lily ducked her head and stood behind me. “He can’t see me or he’ll tell Luke I’m here with you.” She stuffed her hands in her pocket.
“What’s wrong with being here with me?” I asked angrily, my voice raising. Honestly I was tired of being treated this way. People take one look at me and think, Look at that damn delinquent.
"Nothing, just stand in front of me please!” She whispered as we made our way to the front of the line.
“No.” I stepped out of the way and Luke’s dad looked over and saw us, his expression hardening.
Finally he was in front of us and checking out our supplies. “Hello Lily. How are you today?” He asked. I could defiantly tell where Luke got his looks from. His dad had blond hair that was disappearing into a horseshoe around his head.
“I’m good sir. I didn’t know you were working here tonight or I would have brought you some of my mom’s famous apple pie she made for desert tonight.” Lily laughed. “She knows how much you enjoy it sir.”
Sir? Why the hell would someone want you to call them sir? It was so old fashioned.
“Well I can never turn down an apple pie.” Then: “Who is this young man?”
“I’m Wes; we’re doing a project together.” I explained.
“Hmm, okay then. Have a great night.”
“Goodbye sir.”
It was ten by the time we got back to Lily’s house. All of the lights were off and I guessed that Ms. Allen was asleep already. If it had been any other girl then that would have been the perfect chance to use my supplies out of the glove box. “Can you help me get this stuff inside? It’s kind of heavy.” Lily asked.
“Yeah sure.” I carried the wood over one shoulder and the bucket of polyurethane in the other hand. We were at the door when Lily was rummaging through her purse to find her house keys.
“Darn it.” She muttered as her purse fell to the ground and all the contents spilled on the walkway. That’s when I noticed a few tiny packages sprawled out.
“Are those from my car?” I asked.
“Uh what? No of course not.” She grabbed the condoms and stuffed them back into her purse.
“You’re such a bad liar! You seriously took them from me? You could’ve asked. I’ve plenty to spare. Besides those might not be Luke’s size, he seems like he’d need the kiddie size to me.” I laughed as I watched Lily’s face turn bright red under the porch lights. “Not like you would know.”
She slapped me across the face, leaving a stinging in my left cheek. “Shut up Wes. You know nothing. At least I have a boyfriend.” She opened the door and grabbed the supplies from my hands and put them on the dining room table. “Get out of here.”
“I’d be glad to.” I was about to turn around when I decided to say, “You know Lily, if you’re looking for real fun; you know where to find me.” I winked and then stormed out of her house as she slammed the door behind my back.
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