Nick demanded to walk me home, not trusting me on my feet. His actual words were "Lily, if you get yourself killed, I'll never forgive you. I'm walking you home. No arguments." Of course with that tone of voice, I had no choice but to agree.
Once I reached my house, I waved goodbye to Nick and limped towards the back door. As soon as I got inside, my mom heard my groaning and rushed over, fluttering over me with bandaids and Neosporin as mothers do.
My mother had two daughters, myself and my sister Payton. Payton went to college this year, so my mom only had me to spoil. Sometimes this was good, and sometimes it meant that she hyper-focused on me. This also meant that I had to do all the chores, Including, feeding the animals.
I was a bit of an animal-lover. Due to this trait, I currently owned 3 cats, 4 dogs, and 3 chickens. I had 4 chickens at one point, but one of the dogs caught it when they escaped one time. She bit down a little too hard on the neck, leaving us with a carcass and a house full of feathers.
With that many animals, feeding time was hazardly to your health. While navigating your way past the furry bodies wiggling with excitement, you had to balance the bowls of kibble without dropping a kernel of food on the floor. If you did, it was a feeding frenzy and a fight to the death to earn the meager tidbit of food. Despite my noble efforts, as soon as the bowls touch the ground, the dogs feasted on the food, and it was gone within seconds.
After doing the gruelling task, I grabbed my copy of Alas, Babylon, and laid down on my bed to read. Summer had dwindled down into a day, and I had to review for the test that we would be taking the first day of school. Even though it was starting on a Friday, which was weird if you asked me. I was just starting to read my notes on the margins of the book when my phone buzzed.
I sighed and picked it up, finding a message from Nick. It said:
"Did you make it?"
I laughed at his mother hen qualities and typed back quickly, "Yeah I'm all good. Not a single bruise, well except for the ones already there." I opened the book back up and read through a few more notes before receiving another buzz, announcing the presence of a text message. I smiled to myself and picked up the phone, reading the message on the home screen.
"You should take better care of yourself." I rolled my eyes and didn't reply. Lo and behold, several notes later, a ringtone goes off , meaning that Nick had decided to lecture me over the phone. I sighed with annoyance, threw the book down on my bed, and picked up the phone, answering, "Yes?"
"Hey girl, I need some help with English. Why do you sound so pissed off?"
I rolled over onto my stomach. It was Laney. "Sorry chica, Nick was nagging me. I fell in front of his house again."
"Oh you 'fell' again. I see." I could feel the air quotes from the other end of the line. I scoffed.
"Oh shut up. You know I don't like him like that. But while we are on the subject, Nick got hot, Lane."
"Oooooooo.... how do you mean?" Her giggle reached me from her end. I smiled and conjured the image in my mind.
"Well... he got contacts, he got his braces off, and he cut his hair short. Oh and he got skinny. And to top it all off, he's about 6 ft now." Laney sighed at the thought.
"He sounds hot. I can't wait for school!"
I gasped with fake shock. "School? My my Mrs. Connell, how your tastes have changed."
She laughed and explained herself. "Well all the middle schools filter into our school so we are bound to get some new fish in the sea. Hopefully they will be gourmet."
Her analogy made me laugh, the sound echoing in my room. "Well don't get your hopes up. Look I got to study, so do you. So bye lovely."
"Bye doll."
I hung up the phone and got back to work, but not before texting Nick back with a sassy comment.
That night, I stared up at the ceiling of my bed. I couldn't fall asleep, but I was so tired. I told myself that it was the nerves. I racked my brain for comfort, something to help me sleep. I sat straight up because I knew what would help. I grabbed my earbuds and my phone.
About a year ago, Nick had stumbled across this song while searching the Internet for a hack into his favorite game. How he found it exactly, I will never know. But nevertheless, Nick presented it to me with an iTunes gift card, and I downloaded it immediately. I loved it from the first strum of the guitar. I deemed it our song , though he called it Lily's song. It was actually called Moon River, from Breakfast at Tiffany's. It was ours.
I pushed repeat on my music and played the song, letting it carry me away. I fell asleep that night with Nick lying beside me.