When the end of November came around, I decided that it was probably time to begin to decorate my university dorm a little more.
At least, I had been so occupied with meeting new people, studying, dealing with the drama that was Lily Everett, that I hadn't gotten around to it just yet.
I decided to place some posters on the wall of my favourite musicals, and then proceeded to put up the pictures of my family, too.
I smiled back at the photograph of all of their lovely faces, feeling a little warmer as I did so.
I loved being at university now, save for everything going on with Lily, but I did have to admit to missing my parents and sister, too, even if she could be slightly temperamental at times.
In saying that, though, she definitely was not as temperamental as one Lily Everett.
That was a whole other situation, though.
Although we had been talking on occasion, after our previous disagreement, if you could even call it that, I hadn't seen much of her.
I had to admit, that matter did take me slightly by surprise, given the fact that Lily was always seemingly everywhere.
She would just crop up whenever I went out or met up with the others, and then the air in the room would suddenly drop about thirty degrees.
Regardless, I was determined to find out more about her, so that I could truly understand what was going on with the girl who appeared to hate me so much.
After I was content with how I had decorated my room, drawn the blinds and made my bed, I headed outside.
Once I was there, I soon found Lance sat underneath an oak tree, on the main campus grounds.
"Hey Lance. How are you doing?" I greeted him.
"I'm good, thanks, Selina. Just relaxing. How are you?" he asked.
I sat beside him and began to fiddle with a daisy in the ground.
"I'm okay," I replied.
He looked towards me then, perceptively.
"Is something on your mind?" he asked.
"I suppose there is. A few days back Lily basically told me she hated me, to put it simply."
Lance's eyebrows crinkled together slightly, as he gave me a concerned expression.
"She doesn't, trust me. Lily has a habit of impulsively saying things she doesn't really mean. And...she's always been odd around certain girls, usually because of- well, never mind. I can't tell you that or she'll kill me. What I can tell you is that Zara and Lily had a thing a while back, but shortly after that, Zara had so much internalised disgust at herself that she broke it off with Lily and pretended nothing had happened. She outed Lily to the entire school. Our dad still doesn't know, though. Anyway, it messed up Lily's trust, and I know that doesn't excuse what she said to you, but I hope it can somewhat explain it," Lance told me, then.
I just listened intently until he was done, and when his warm eyes met my own again, I felt a little lighter.
Huh.
So, Zara and Lily had been a thing. That was interesting.
It still didn't entirely explain why Lily was the way that she, well, was around me. However, it cleared up some things.
For one, I supposed I had never really considered liking girls before I had become aware that Violet did, and now that I knew Lily did, too, it made me feel a little more secure in the fact that my attraction for guys had never ever truly gone beyond aesthetic attraction most of the time.
Sure, I had dated a couple guys in college, but it hadn't worked out great.
We barely kissed, honestly.
While my mind began to drift away into a forest of thoughts, I was soon pulled out of that, when Winona was spotted wandering towards the two of us.
"Hey you two!" she grinned, as she came to sat with us.
"Hey Win," I replied.
She looked between us, then, seeming to sense the mood between us.
"Woah. Did something big just go down?" she inquired.
I simply shrugged.
"Not exactly," I said.
"Yeah, we were just talking about...Christmas," Lance stated.
"Right, Christmas," I said.
"Well, I'm helping Lily plan a Christmas party before the end of term. I sure hope you guys are ready for it," she stated, then.
That admittedly took me by surprise, because I didn't think that Lily even liked Christmas.
She soon approached our group, and looked towards me.
"You. I need to speak to you," she said.
"You do?" I asked her.
"Yes, loser. Come on," she stated.
I sighed, and Lance and Winona met me with sympathetic expressions, before I walked away with Lily.
Eventually, we headed inside because it was beginning to rain.
"I wanted to say something to you," Lily said.
"Right," I replied.
I silently had to wonder if I had done something wrong. I was never a big fan of the whole 'we need to talk' thing. It seemed far too serious for my liking.
"Right, I just need to be brave and come right out and say it," she said.
"You do?"
"Give me a minute," she said, as she swallowed.
I simply waited.
"I needed to tell you that I am...sorry for what I said to you a few days back, Selina. That was out of line, and I don't know, perhaps I'm just putting up walls," she said.
Well, you could certainly say that was what she was doing here.
"However, I wanted to apologise. You didn't deserve that. I can tell you have a sensitive soul and even that was harsh of me to say," Lily stated.
"I forgive you," I said, then.
"You do?" she asked, her eyes widening slightly in her surprise.
"I do," I said.
Lily just reached out to grab my wrist in her hand, then, and although the grip was a little strong, I wasn't about to mention it.
"You can't tell anyone about this, okay, moron?" she asked.
I smirked.
"Okay, Everett," I said, with a roll of my eyes.
"Good," Lily said, and then looked down towards my wrist, and her cheeks pinkened a little, as she let go of it.
It looked as though the rain was starting to ease up a little, and so Lily and I wandered back outside.
"Are you two okay yet?" Lance asked, as he approached us with his hood drawn up over his head.
"We're fine," Lily stated confidently.
"Yeah. We're all good," I stated.
"Perhaps in time we could almost be, dare I say it, friends," Lily said then, with optimism.
Though, there was this part of me that was assuming she was putting a little bit of a show on, in front of her brother.
"Okay. Glad to hear it," Lance said, but his expression became a little contemplative, as his eyes drifted between the two of us, for a moment.
I was glad that Lily had the courage to apologise, though, even if it may have physically pained her to do so.
I felt as though we were making progress, even if it was only small.
"Phew, I'm hungry! Let's go to the canteen," she stated, then, and just began to march towards it.
Lance looked towards me with a humorous expression.
"You coming?" he asked.
"I suppose so," I agreed.
It didn't seem as though I was blocked out of joining Lily anymore, which was definitely a good thing.
I felt a little lighter as I walked to the canteen with Lance.
It was as though a heavy weight of worry had been pulled off me, and I was thankful for it.