EIGHT YEARS AGO
Four days after our first date, I still can't get over the fact that Lily not only actually agreed to go out with me, but is also spending time with me, and true to her word, saves the seat next to hers in Statistics 101 for me.
I watch her as she walks down the hallway towards me, her blonde hair as wavy as always, blue eyes shining and that smile of her lighting up her entire face and the world over.
God, I'm pathetic.
She smiles with people she knows, or maybe even with people she doesn't know because Lily might be shy sometimes, but she's friendly and confident and all good things.
The hallway is long. Too long because I want Lily to be standing next to me, but not long enough because I want to see her walk towards me just like this because with the sunlight streaming in and lighting her up, like she's definitely an angel.
Lily stands right in front of me and smiles up at me.
"Hi, Marco," she says, smiling wider at me than she did at the rest of the hallway.
It makes me feel like the King of the world.
I reach for her hand and intertwine our fingers.
"How was public law?" I ask her and Lily nudges her shoulder against mine.
"You're such a creepy stalker," she tells me, "You looked at my schedule just once and you remember that?"
"I remember everything about you, angel."
Lily makes a scowl, but she blushes, giving away what she feels.
"Are you ready for doodling class?" I ask her, as we start walking towards the statistics class.
Lily blesses me with her laugh.
She leans forward, her hair falling over her face, her hand over her mouth as she laughs, her eyes all scrunched up.
"I let you sit next to me with the deal that you will let me learn," Lily warns me.
Lily is so cute.
Especially if she thinks I'm going to stop doodling with her.
"I never promised such a thing," I shake my head, "I will always doodle with you."
Lily pulls me into the Statistics class and we sit in our unassigned assigned seats and she pulls out her notebook.
I set my books on the table for Lily to be able to see the one at the top.
She does.
Lily stares at the planner notebook I got for a few stunned seconds.
She told me that I was cute about how disorganized I was when I had come running to her after basketball practice because I forgot I had practice when I planned to hang out with her.
It wasn't cute.
It was a potential disaster in the making.
I had to get organized.
So, I bought a planner.
I forget that I bought a planner, sometimes, but I'll make it work.
For Lily, I'll make it work.
"You bought a planner?" she asks me, flipping through the pretty much empty book.
I nod, proudly.
Lily smiles. "So that you don't repeat what happened two days ago?"
I nod, again.
Lily laughs a little, but then she looks at me. "I'm happy that you're becoming organized, Marco."
I love that Lily says my name.
And I love that I make Lily happy.
"Never going to have clashes in my schedule again," I tell her, "How are your debate practices going?"
Lily sighs, tiredly. "We're really trying to get good enough to qualify for regionals and then keep going to win nationals."
I squeeze Lily's hand.
"I'm completely sure that you guys will be amazing," I say, "And if you need to help, I can totally help you write note cards and argue statements with you."
Lily looks at me and her eyes light up.
"Really? You'd do that?"
I'd do anything for you, Lily.
I nod, "Definitely."
Lily angles her head at me the way she does when she's thinking that I'm completely insane.
"Why are you so wonderful to me, Marco? You've known me for all of two weeks."
I shrug. "What can I say, angel? When you know, you know."
Lily makes her knowing face at me.
"What do you know, Marco?" she asks, raising her eyebrows, her eyes shining.
I look her dead in the eyes when I say, "That you're important to me and will be for a long time."
Lily's pink lips part and she blushes.
Her eyelids lower and her gaze fixates on my arm that is resting on the table.
Slowly, her fingers move over to my arm and she touches me.
It's amazing how Lily's simple touch can make me feel ten times better than any of the other thing any other girl has ever done.
Her scent infiltrates my nostrils and I inhale that heavenly smell of lavender that she has, as Lily draws circles on my arm, burning me, branding me with her touch.
I say nothing and I do nothing, but watch her. She's biting down on her lower lip.
Ever so slowly, Lily raises her pretty blue eyes to meet mine, "I," she starts, her voice is soft and nervous, but still powerful enough to shake my bones. "I like you, Marco."
I smile, looking at her. "I like you so much, Lily."
Lily smiles.
I'm going to fall in love with you, Lily.
* * *
I sit in a sparsely inhabited corner of the courtyard with Lily as she reads out her argument points to me.
They're very good.
The way Lily talks when she's defending her stance is powerful, and not just because of her voice, but also because of her amazingly intelligent and convincing arguments. Her points are well-thought out and informed.
I watch in awe as she tries to convince me that plastic bags should not be banned.
It's not what I think.
It's not even what she thinks, but she still argues like it is.
I'm sold.
The way she speaks her mind and is so commanding with her tone is just so hot.
The fact that she is so intelligent and came up with all these points to argue something that she doesn't even wholly support makes me wonder what it would be like if it were something she supported.
Lily is incredibly smart and I know it and I'm sure she knows it.
She's even smarter than me, I'm sure.
I love it.
I love that she's so smart.
And that she's so unapologetic about it.
I love that you're smart, Lily.
When she's done, Lily puts her notes down and looks at me. "Well?"
"I wouldn't want to be opposing counsel," I tell her with a shrug.
Lily laughs a little, but gets right back down to business. "Tell me," she urges, nudging me with a smile.
I clear my throat and situate myself. "Alright. I think your arguments were clear and well thought out, but you get a little carried away when you're particularly passionate and you talk quite fast. I think it would be better if you slow down a bit, so that people understand your excellent points."
I grin at her.
Lily angles her head at me and smiles.
"People tell me that," she sighs. "I have to work on it, but I just don't know how."
I consider what she says. "Do you feel what you're saying in the depths of your soul?"
Lily giggles a little and nods.
"When you start feeling like you're heating up, try to take a breath before you go on. I might help."
Lily thinks for a moment and gives me a grateful smile. "I'll try that."
I look at her, just knowing that she's the next girl that I'm going to fall in love with.
My phone makes a sound on the ground beside me and I look down at it.
It's a message from my Mom, which I will get to later.
"You can take it," Lily tells me sweetly when I look back at her.
I shake my head. "It's my Mom. I'll call her later."
Lily moves closer to me and I put my arm around her, pulling her into me.
Lily snuggled up next to me is the best thing in the world.
"What's she saying?" she asks me, conversationally.
I press a kiss to Lily's temple. "She's asking about you."
Lily turns he head and looks at me. "Your Mom knows about me?"
I nod. "Yeah, she called me right before I left for our date, so I told her."
"What did you tell your Mom about me?" she asks, cheekily.
"I told her the truth."
Lily looks at me, questioningly.
"That you're an angel."
That earns me a nudge in the ribs and one of Lily's melodious giggles. "Are you ever going to give that up, Marco?" she asks.
I shake my head. "It's the truth."
Lily sighs like she's tired of it, but she's smiling.
You like me, Lily. You told me yourself.
"Tell me about your Mom," she says.
"Well, my Mom is great. She has blonde hair, like you. Of course, hers is lighter. She has light grey eyes, unlike you. She's the sweetest and best person I know," I tell her.
"You really love your Mom, huh, Marco? Do you look like your Dad? You don't sound like you look like your Mom."
I nod. "I do look like my Dad, but that's not why I don't look like my Mom. My Mom isn't my birth Mom. My Dad remarried when I was about eight or nine."
"Oh," Lily's voice is soft, like she wasn't expecting that, "I'm sorry."
I laugh a little. "It's not your fault, Lily."
"What happened with your Dad and your birth Mom?" she asks.
I sigh. "My Mom cheated on my Dad. When I was born, we lived somewhere else. We didn't live in Hillwood. I don't remember too, too much about that place, but I remember some of the people. Elliot? My friend? He is someone I knew before we moved to Hillwood. My birth Mom and Dad were happy, I think, and I don't really know what happened, but I think they hit a rough patch. She cheated on him and she had been for a long time and he found out.
"When my Dad filed for divorce, he didn't want to live in that town anymore, with all of his friends and colleagues after what had happened. I think he felt a little ashamed that his marriage ended, so we all moved to Hillwood. Well, my Dad and I did. My Mom and whoever that guy was went somewhere else. About a year into living in Hillwood, my Dad met my Mom and they dated. I loved her even before they got married. She was always so great to me. Two years later, they got married and they're doing good now."
I realize that I'd been talking a lot and I look at Lily.
She's smiling at me. She tells me, "I'm glad you got a Mom who loves you, Marco."
I smile back at her.
Truth be told, one of the first reasons I loved my Mom when my Dad first introduced me to her was because he seemed happy again. He had been so mopey and sad for a long time after the cheating and the divorce and meeting my Mom finally made him happy again.
It made me feel better that he was happy.
I had always felt like I was at least partially to blame for their divorce because people had kept saying that they were happy when they were young, when they got married.
I always assumed that things went to hell after I was born.
I'd always felt a little responsible for breaking their marriage.
I don't tell Lily this because it's in the past.
I just look at her.
I look at my future and smile.
"What about your Mom?" I ask, "Tell me about your family."
Lily's hand is holding mine and she twiddles with my fingers. "It's a little messed up," she says.
I hold her tighter. "Tell me anyway?"
Lily nods. "Well, it's just a strange story, really. My Dad had a whole other family. He worked in Sweden when he was younger and he had met my Mom, but they weren't really dating. He had apparently gotten married in Sweden and they had a kid, but things went sour and he left Sweden, separating from that lady. He came here and started dating my Mom and wanted to marry her. They got married and then, he told her about the marriage and she wanted to break it off, but my Dad convinced her not to and divorced the other lady and" – Lily sighs – "I don't know, Marco.
"It's a weird thing at family gatherings. My Mom was married, too, before marrying my Dad, but her first husband passed away and she had a baby with him – my sister. I sort of have two step-siblings and it's a weird situation, but I think we make it work."
She chuckles, nervously.
"I like them; the kids, I mean. They're nice. And we all try to put everything past us and most of the time, it doesn't really bother me, but then I sometimes wonder how to explain it to people." She stops talking.
I squeeze her hand. "I think you did a brilliant job, angel."
Lily smiles and slowly, her smile turns into a laugh.
She leans in closer to me. "I didn't scare you off?" she asks, widening her eyes.
"Not a chance," I shake my head.
She turns fully, so that she's facing me directly. "I think you're wonderful, Marco."
I lean in closer to her. "Not as wonderful as you, angel."
Lily looks right into my eyes and my breathing stops.
She's biting her lip.
I lean in even more.
Lily smiles a little, knowing what's coming.
She nods, gently.
Smiling, I cup her face with my hand and close the gap between our lips.
It's amazing.
Kissing Lily is better than anything else.
It's better than winning at Uno.
It's better than winning at Monopoly.
It's better than shooting a three-pointer.
It's better than all those three things combined.
Lily's lips move with mine like they're blocks that fit together perfectly.
I like kissing Lily.
It feels like floating on a cloud.
I want to kiss Lily forever.
She smiles against our kiss.
You like kissing me, too, Lily.
Lily's hands find their way around my neck and she holds me tightly.
I'm the King of the world.
After what feels like hours, but is still not long enough, we pull away.
Lily smiles at me, shyly.
She bites her lip.
I smile back.
I decide that I love kissing Lily.
She leans in again.
Oh, God, yes.
Have you guys spotted some similarities?
Let me know how you think the story is going so far. :)
Much love!