Sarah didn’t like the fact that Lilah was making her look like she wasn’t in control. So that very few people could hear, she leaned in, nearly nose to nose with Lilah. Enunciating every word, “It means, stay away from Kyler.”
Lilah was furious with herself for not having the confidence to ever ask Kyler, but now, with blood boiling through her veins like the heat of the sun, “You two aren’t even together, are you?”
Sarah laughed and rolled her eyes. She liked for people to believe that she and Kyler had a thing, but she had never confirmed or denied anything. Thankfully, Kyler had always ignored the rumors.
“Wow. That’s it. That’s why you hate me so much. He gave me attention that you wanted. Is that it,” Lilah asked, suddenly feeling bolder than ever.
“We’re together. We’re always together. Maybe if you weren’t such a skank like your mother,” she began, trying to divert Lilah’s attention away from the fact that she and Kyler definitely weren’t together.
It was a nasty blow, but Lilah wasn’t deterred. That’s all Sarah had left in her arsenal. “Really, if the two of you are always together,” she began. She couldn’t believe she was going to say it, admit to it. It was something so special and private, and she felt bad for sharing it with anyone. Perhaps the adrenaline had clouded her judgement when she blurted out, “Then how was he able to spend an entire weekend with me?”
Sarah could have questioned her, should have called her bluff, but something in Lilah’s eyes told her that it was the truth, and she spiraled down into a blinding rage.
Lilah stumbled backwards from the more than aggressive shove. Her only reason for not falling flat on her back being that Alice and Jolee were so close behind her.
She didn’t know what made her do it. It was one of the most uncharacteristic things she had ever done.
Apparently, Sarah wasn’t the only one in shock when she found herself brutally thrown up against the row of lockers behind her.
“Ladies,” an all too familiar voice boomed throughout the hall. It was terrifying enough that the small crowd that had gathered, quickly shot off in all directions.
Principal Willis.
Chapter 35
Kyler was one of the stragglers getting from the field into the locker room that afternoon; however, when he walked in, the loud discussions he heard on the other side of the door went nearly silent.
Miles was the first to rush up to him. Hesitantly, “Hey, have you checked your phone?”
Kyler shot him an incredulous look. “Yeah, definitely. I keep it in my cup during practice,” he said, motioning to his uniform.
Miles laughed. “My bad.” Then his face turned serious and concerned.
“What is going on? Did someone die?” While Kyler was only half serious, with the way everyone was staring at him, he wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.
“Umm…Now don’t freak out…”
“Dude! When you start a sentence like that–”
“Lilah got into a fight,” Miles quickly blurted out.
Kyler felt like he heard Miles through a body of water between them. Lilah could definitely tell people which way to go if she wanted, but she’d never be dumb enough to get herself into a physical altercation.
He was afraid to ask, but the look on Miles’ face told him there was more. “With who?”
“Sarah…”
“Are you kidding me?! What the hell,” he screamed. He attempted to hurl his helmet at one of the lockers, but stopped himself halfway in. Losing his temper right now wasn’t going to solve anything.
“I’m not sure on some of the details. Some people are saying it was over Simon…” Miles paused when he saw Kyler’s face clench up and his knuckles turn white from his tightened grip on the helmet. He probably could have left that part out. “However, some people are saying that it was over you.”
Kyler’s eyes went wide, and his jaw fell open. A sick part of him really wanted that to be the case.
Dawson came up, phone in hand. “Okay, Alice just text me back. She said Lilah text her that she just got done with Willis. Her punishment is…” He stopped. Before he could even say another word, the door was already swinging shut behind Kyler.
“I don’t know about you guys,” Gavin began as he flung his arms around the shoulders of both Dawson and Miles. “But this is way too much drama for me.”
✽ ✽ ✽
Kyler hoped that Alice was as addicted to her phone as she appeared. He also hoped that Lilah had indeed text her immediately after leaving the office. Rather than navigating through the halls of the school, he opted to go straight to the front. As he rounded the last corner, parked directly on the other side of the street from the school entry was a familiar black car, which gave him further hope that he hadn’t missed her.
Just as he started up the steps to the main doors, they swung open.
Both he and Lilah stopped dead in their tracks. Kyler hadn’t been sure what he’d say to Lilah if their paths were lucky enough to cross, but now he didn’t have the breath to manage the smallest of words.
Lilah was certain that her little spat, as she was going to call it, with Sarah had spread like wildfire. With the way most of her classmates were, she could only imagine what the tale had now become. Obviously, it had to be something for Kyler to be standing in front of her, covered in dirt and sweat, still in his practice gear. She hated how gorgeous she found him.
“Are you okay,” Kyler managed.
Not missing a beat, “I could ask you the same.”
Kyler shook his head. Only Lilah would ignore his sentiment and come back with a comment like that.
“I heard some stuff and I wanted to make sure–”
“I’m fine,” Lilah quickly interrupted. She could already feel her cheeks turning red. Her conversation with Principal Willis was one thing, but talking to Kyler about her spat with Sarah would be one of the most difficult and embarrassing things in the world.
“Do you even want to know what I heard?”
Great. The gossip had already gotten out.
“Nope,” Lilah said with little care, descending the steps and brushing past Kyler.
While he didn’t expect that Lilah would be over the moon to see him, he also didn’t think she’d be so dismissive.
Following after her, “I heard you and Sarah got in a fight over Simon.” He could feel his stomach churn with those words; however, was surprised when Lilah stopped abruptly and slowly turned back to face him.
Through clenched teeth, “We did not get into a fight.”
It wasn’t exactly the response he wanted to hear.
“We had a minor disagreement,” she continued.
“Over Simon?”
Lilah took in a deep breath and allowed their eyes to meet. She could see that he was scrutinizing her every response. “Partly,” she admitted with a shrug as if it was no big deal.
That one word nearly destroyed Kyler, but he quickly began overthinking it. Partly meant that there was still something else that they were fighting over.
“What else?”
Sensing that Kyler wouldn’t be satisfied, and desperately wanting to get home before the school called her parents, Lilah knew she needed to tell Kyler everything, or mostly everything.
“What do you want me to say? That I’m some stupid girl who got into a spat with another girl over some boy?”
Feeling brave, “Depending on who that boy is, yeah.”
For some reason the comment rubbed her the wrong way.
“I mean, you shouldn’t fight with any girl over a guy. If he’s yours, he’s yours. Ignore the rest of them.”
Lilah hated that his words were, unknowingly to him, making her so angry.
“I thought he was hers.” Her words were so soft and for a moment she thought that Kyler hadn’t even heard them, or maybe she hadn’t even spoken them.
“Wait, I think I’m a little confused. Are we talking about Simon?”
This was going
to be so difficult. She felt so stupid for not asking Kyler about his relationship status the second she started to have feelings for him. “No! I thought you and Sarah were together. She’s made enough comments that would lead almost anyone to believe that.”
“Okay, now I’m a lot confused.”
“Sarah convinced Simon to ask me out. I said yes because, call me crazy, but I’d actually like a boyfriend one day. Anyway, I went to confront Sarah about that, and then you came up.” She thought she played it off rather nicely, giving him the overall gist of it all without downright spelling it out for him.
“I came up,” he questioned her. His eyes were narrowed and could not have been more focused on her.
“She called me a derogatory name and told me to back off from you, and one thing led to another. There. Happy,” she concluded, throwing her arms in the air to say that that’s all she had left to give him.
“No.”
“Well tough, That’s all I’ve got.”
“You thought Sarah and I were together?”
With slight hesitation on her part, “You’re really not?”
Kyler couldn’t believe what Lilah was asking, or what she had assumed for who knows how long. “No! Never! Do you really think I’d kiss you and tell you what I did if I was with another girl?”
“She just made it seem like I was something fun and you’d eventually,” she paused. Looking back, she wished that she had thought more clearly and not let her emotions get the best of her head. Maybe that’s what happens when you’re in love. She swallowed heavily. Her only saving grace was that she hadn’t just babbled all that to Kyler.
When Lilah didn’t finish her sentence, Kyler took it to mean that she probably wasn’t going to. “I’m not going to lie, I’m a little pissed right now.” He ran his hand through his sweat dampened hair. “You know more about me than my friends. Do you honestly think that I have time to be in a relationship with two girls? Or that I’m that kind of guy? Actually, I don’t even need to be bothered with a relationship period, but I really wanted you.”
Lilah’s eyes shot up to meet Kyler’s. “Past tense.” It wasn’t a question, just a statement.
Kyler had no intention of hurting Lilah, and he could see the panic in her face, but he was too hurt to think about his next choice of words. “Right now, that’s what it looks like.”
As if his words didn’t sting as badly as they most definitely did, “Well, thanks for clearing that up.” She tightened her grip on her bag and turned to leave for the final time.
He didn’t know what made him do it, he should have just let her go. They were both saying too much with emotions running high. However, fueled by frustration he followed after her, knowing that this would probably be their last conversation.
“So that’s it. When you’re not comfortable talking about something you just run away. I tell you I love you, you run away. Now I tell you I don’t want to be with you, and you run away.” She kept walking, not once bothering to respond. “You know, maybe what everyone thinks is what it really is. I’m just some hotshot quarterback that gets a thrill out of going from girl to girl, and you’re some stuck-up princess living a life of luxury, and at the end of the day, our lives couldn’t be more perfect.”
Lilah turned to glare at him, hiding her tears for just a little bit longer. He didn’t allow her to counter anything he had said. This time it was his turn to walk away.
“You should go. Your car is waiting on you.”
Chapter 36
Needless to say, when Lilah arrived home, she wasn’t surprised that a family meeting was being called. What she was utterly shocked by was the nature of the meeting.
“Wait,” Rover interjected. “We have to go to some of the sessions too?”
“You will be incorporated on some occasions, yes,” Jenna explained.
“Why? You two are the ones that need help!” He was not happy about the fact that he’d have to occasionally lose an afternoon of gaming.
“It’s called counseling,” Steven clarified.
“So, you’re not getting a divorce then,” Lilah asked, still completely confused by her parents’ relationship.
“No. We’ve decided to work past our differences,” Jenna answered with the sweetest and fakest of smiles.
There was nothing for Lilah to smile about. She hated how her mother referred to her affairs as differences.
Steven glanced down at his phone and excused himself.
“So is that it,” Rover asked.
“I think so. Your father and I just want the both of you to know that we really do love you, and we’re going to try everything to get this family back on track,” Jenna concluded.
Lilah rose from her seat, unable to make eye contact with her mother. The statement she just heard made her want to vomit. Perhaps her mother talked it over with lawyers and discovered that she wouldn’t be getting as much as she thought if she went through with a divorce.
Lilah hadn’t made it halfway to the stairs when, “Lilah Rose McCallister!”
Rover, already halfway up the stairs stopped and turned to look at his sister below. “Whoa. You are in so much trouble.” Just like that he took back off, running toward his room, no doubt for some video game.
There was no running anywhere this time.
Lilah made her way back into the living room where her outraged father was already filling her mother in on the details.
“It was just a spat,” Lilah corrected.
“A spat? A spat?!” Steven began to pace. “A spat doesn’t end up with one girl in the hospital!”
Lilah clenched her face. Hospital? There was no hospital.
“Lilah,” her mother gasped. “What in the world did you do?”
“I didn’t put a girl in the hospital!”
“Apparently,” her dad interjected, before she could start to explain. “Lilah threw the girl into the lockers so hard that she was complaining of blurry vision and head and neck pain. Her parents took her to the hospital to check for a concussion.”
“Oh brother,” Lilah huffed under her breath. “She’s just being dramatic.”
“All this! Over some boy,” her father boomed.
Some boy.
Lilah already knew that Kyler was anything but some boy.
It didn’t help when her mother tried to ground her that the only thing she could come up with was taking away her books and computer. Despite the worst Monday of her life, Lilah didn’t imagine the conversation she was yet to have with her mother.
Jenna stood in Lilah’s bedroom doorway that evening, a glass of wine in hand and let out a sigh. Lilah knew she was there but said nothing and went on staring out her window into empty darkness, or mostly empty darkness. There were still the streetlights, and in the faraway distance she could see the black turn to blue from the city lights miles and miles away.
“Are things not working out with the Campbell boy? Is another girl encroaching on your territory?”
Lilah turned, only to glare at her mother for saying something so ridiculous.
Knowing it would irritate her mother, “I’m not with the Campbell boy. I’m not with anyone. Just to clarify, people aren’t other people’s territory.”
“You don’t have to be so snappy.”
Lilah let out a sigh. “What do you want, mom,” she asked, crawling out of her comfy chair near the window and going in search of her pajamas.
“I just wanted more details than what was on the message your school left.”
Lilah rolled her eyes. Of course she did. Her mother was probably the Sarah of her high school back in her day. Even now when she went out with her girlfriends, all they did was gossip.
“Classic story,” Lilah said with a shrug. “Mean cheerleader, football player–”
She didn’t expect her mother to interrupt her with a fit of laughter.
“Oh, sweetie,” she began with a sip of wine. “Please tell me this isn’t over some football player.”
N
ot liking the amount of humor her mother found with the situation, Lilah replied with, “Fine then. I won’t tell you that.” She didn’t say another word and hoped her mother would leave her alone.
Instead, Jenna grew very serious. Lilah pressed herself up against her bathroom door waiting for whatever rubbish her mother was going to give her as advice.
“Lilah,” she began with another exasperated breath. “I know he’s probably popular, and muscular, and sexy right now, but think of your future. Chances are he’ll end up just like the jocks that I went to school with. Don’t get me wrong, they’re fun at the time, but not worth detention for a week. In ten years, he’ll probably be out of shape and changing the tires on the new Porsche your husband got you as an anniversary present.”
Lilah was stunned. Her mother could be a snob, but she never expected her to say something so callous about someone she didn’t even know.
“Trust me on this.”
In that moment, Lilah was absolutely certain why her mother was staying with her father.
Chapter 37
“It’s been days. The both of you look miserable. Dawson even said as much,” Alice groaned at lunch Thursday.
“I hate to admit it, but she’s right. Please tell me we’re not going to have to team up with them,” Jolee said, nodding towards Kyler’s table. “And do an intervention,” she concluded.
Lilah responded with a small laugh. “No. That’s not going to be necessary.”
“Right now the two of you aren’t even speaking. I’m not stupid. I know who you were always texting.” Alice concluded her statement by childishly sticking out her tongue.
“I’m fine. Really. Just drop it.”
Alice and Jolee gave each other a look. They knew she wasn’t fine. Lilah had never really admitted to ever liking anyone the way she liked Kyler. That had to mean something.
Lilah couldn’t help but occasionally glance in Kyler’s direction. After everything that had happened Monday, even the circumstances surrounding her parents, she had done a lot of thinking. One thing she’d never admit to anyone was that she was terrified of attempting to date someone like Kyler. In the beginning she found that she unknowingly compared herself to the types of girls she often saw surrounding his group of friends. She thought herself to be pretty and confident, but definitely not a sexy extrovert that she assumed Kyler wanted. It wasn’t until she sat staring at empty night skies, surrounded only by complete silence that she realized how truly stupid she was.
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