CHAPTER SIX
XENOPHANES ONCE SAID, "no human being will ever know the truth, for even if they happen to say it by chance, they would not even know they had done so." Something that was said so long ago still held meaning to this very day. Humans hold the truth so high up in ranks that if someone they love or adore dares to lie to them about anything their trust wavers for a moment. The truth is a tricky thing to deal with, every truth that has been uttered to anyone has always come laced with a small fib in it. Those I love you, forever and ever, till death do us parts... they're all lies because there will come a time where one will only feel hatred for a person they said they loved, forever will seem as if it was only seconds long and vows to be together for eternity will end in two broken souls.
"I love you, Venus Wilson."
"You're a little too... married to be in love with me don't you think?"
"You're different Venus... I feel young around you, I want to do things to you..."
The world and society, in general, has created three broad categories for all of humanity to fall under: pessimists, optimists, and realists. One could say that pessimists love the truth the most, they hate lies. They enjoy knowing that the truth is as dark and horrible as they had thought — as negative as they had hoped. Optimists are beautiful fools, always willing to fall for lies disguised as truth. And realists, the ones that truly know that there is no such thing as a whole truth, for each truth is poisoned by lies told before it.
"You'll leave her for me?"
"I'd leave her in the blink of an eye if it were that easy, Venus. But what we have is best-kept secret... no one will understand what we share with one another. Not her. Not Tyler. Not even I did at first."
"You have a special way with words you know, you get me all happy, you shower me with these compliments that so many have expelled in my presence but you make it your own. It's like hearing it for the first time... I feel brand new around you..."
One could say that time plays a big factor in the way people perceive life. Everyone is always born an optimist, then form into pessimists, and then realists. It's the way of life, something that cannot be unchanged. One does not remain an optimist for life without becoming a pessimist or realist once along the way. That would just indicate how little that person has lived. To be able to say that everything in life is beautiful and positive after so many years. A life created for each human to experience a unique type of pain, heartbreak, happiness, sadness, and all other emotions unknown.
"You promised you wouldn't get rid of it..."
Silly Venus,
"You're kidding me, right? What are you like three? Remember when you told me that what we have should be kept a secret? I did what I had to to keep this a secret."
Caught in her own web of lies,
"But that was then!"
With only enemies left,
"Perhaps you're forgetting whose daughter I am..."
To bury,
"You're going to pay for this Venus Wilson."
Her name.
+ + +
There is a difference between lying to protect someone and lying to protect oneself. What Lily Tran could not understand was if the three people who were there that night were protecting her or protecting themselves? Though she already knew the answer, there was a small little feeling in her heart that those three were somehow protecting her.
"—We can't just leave the body here, this fucking dumbass already got her fingerprints all over it!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what to do!"
"Shut up!"
"I'm sorry."
"If she says sorry one more fucking time there's going to be two bodies on the ground!"
"Lily your phone... it's ringing..."
"—My phone is ringing," Lily murmured, her eyelids opening just the slightest before dropping at the sheer weight. "My phone..." she repeated quietly her hand dancing in the dirty snow for her phone, that continued to vibrate.
"Ma'am?" A voice called out just as the vibrating stopped, "oh no!"
And just as a new voice graced her eardrums, a new set of arms hauled her up from the snow that had seeped through her clothes. At first, Lily felt disoriented, but she couldn't portray it through actions with the way she was being held in place as the unknown male examined her for signs of hypothermia. Her eyes, once squinted shut, slowly opened to unmask her savior from the cold winter only to be greeted with a much older man. She jolted awake and jumped out of his embrace all while clearing her throat.
"Are you okay?" He asked as a slow as a turtle.
"I'm..." Lily trailed off looking for her phone, "fine," she exhaled as she retrieved the phone from the snow.
He didn't say much after that, both of them knew that a 'fine' person wouldn't go ahead and lay on the snow and fall asleep. A 'fine' person wouldn't scream what she had. But more importantly, a 'fine' person wouldn't need to lie about being fine. So he didn't say anything at all, he just watched as she uncomfortably shuffled from right to left trying to find words to say.
"I didn't know you were a friend of Venus'," he pointed out, earning a small scoff from Lily, so quiet that he almost missed it.
It was quite evident that Lily was the complete opposite of Venus, creating even more questions that would go unanswered unless he opened his mouth. But watching her hastily, yet nonchalantly wipe away tears which had already dried onto her ivory skin, made him halt in his interrogation.
"I need to sit down," she groaned, massaging the temples of her head. "Oh," a small gasp followed as he dragged her to the nearest bench that overlooked all the tombstones of the deceased.
"Here," he wiped the snow off before placing his jacket over the soggy, wooden bench for her to comfortably sit. He looked up to find her examining his hasty behavior. "Come sit," he instructed as if they were back in school.
"Thank you, Principal Foster," she murmured, as she sat on the jacket, "I feel slightly embarrassed sitting on your jacket."
Principal Foster let out a hearty, yet empty laugh.
"It's Julian, you're allowed to call me Julian outside of school, Lily."
"Now that makes me even more uncomfortable." Julian stiffened, his posture straightened compared to the way he was leaning into her like a moth drawn to a flame. "Now I know you're an actual human being that has a life outside of school," Lily concluded, staring up at him with wide eyes, two beautiful pools of dark, chocolate brown, that were framed perfectly by her black lashes. "Principal — Julian?" Lily sang out, eyebrows scrunching together.
"Right, sorry," he never thought he would be so conscious of his pale complexion that reddened at the sensation of any type of cold. If only he was insensitive to the cold, it would not have been evident that he was blushing. He wondered if he should let a fib dance on his tongue but knew that what he felt in his heart was something he could not help but get excited over. After her death, he thought the feeling would no longer be there, but the warmth that spread through his chest—to his pants indicated something much more. "I was trying to figure out whether you were analyzing snow patterns on the ground, or taking a quick nap..." he tried to joke as he rubbed his fisted palms on his jeans so as to hide something from her.
Wrong joke.
Julian didn't need a verbal answer to know that he had said something wrong, it was evident by the way her once relaxed shoulders slumped under the weight of what had happened moments ago with her in the fields of snow. Suddenly his stomach twisted; a thousand bricks weighing him down. It was as if he was the reason behind the pain and anguish that swam freely in her eyes. Perhaps the guilt he was feeling made him oblivious to how his hand had found its way to Lily's leg, and had placed it on her knee protectively.
"Oh!" She exclaimed, at the warmth of his hand, or maybe at the sudden contact.
"Sorry," he whispered, still staring intently into her eyes until she broke away. Her eyes, once clear and filled with mischief were now blanketed with a thick layer of tears.
He pondered on how she could see him through those tears.
Lily was slow enough for Julian not to notice that she had slid further down the bench so he was an arm's length away from her.
"Was it Tyler?" He asked subconsciously, a question he had asked the previous girl that Tyler had managed to hurt.
Tyler was quite the heartbreaker. The way she snapped her head to the right to look at him was enough of an answer — another one, he thought.
"I apologize on my —" But before he could continue the tears she was trying to hold in began flowing down her cheeks.
"I really should be going home," her voice cracked at the very end. "Oh, Jesus, I'm so sorry Principal Foster!" Lily exclaimed, wiping her tears away.
"It's Julian,"
" — Lily?" A third voice chimed in, causing both Julian and Lily to turn around.
"Trevor!" Lily let out a sigh of relief, sliding off of the bench. "Thank God," and just like that the tears were gone and she was walking towards someone Julian was trying so hard to recognize.
"Principal Foster," Trevor nodded.
Julian mimicked the action with a tight-lipped smile in return of the frown.
"I — I found her on the ground, I was just checking if she was okay," Julian spluttered out.
"Thank you, Sir," Trevor said, wrapping Lily in a sweater that fit her perfectly.
Julian watched as Trevor looked down at her and started rubbing her arms to create a sense of heat. The simple action and silent words spoken; quiet enough for Lily to hear caused even more tears to cascade down her high cheekbones.
It seemed Trevor was doing more harm than good, and Julian felt the need to take Lily away from someone that was making her cry even more. Before he could voice his opinion the two were already walking towards the array of black cars. He watched as the two disappeared into the crowd of men, women, and reporters dressed in black, but not before he caught Lily trying to steal a glance back at him.
A small smile formed, on his stern face.
"—Where's Lily?" Another voice grumbled behind him.
Lily is quite the popular girl, Julian thought.
"You just missed her, Son," he clapped Tyler's shoulder.
"I fucked up," Julian heard him sputter out. "I really fucked up!"
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thank you so much for reading everyone, it makes me so happy knowing y'all are enjoying the novel so far! how do y'all like the relationship dynamic between tyler and lily? who's your favourite character so far and why?