“We can watch Adventures in Babysitting. That’s one of your favorite movies, right?” Lily offers.
Daisy smiles. “You remembered?”
Lily nods. “Yeah. You told me…” She closes one eye as she recalls the date. I could kiss her again. “…last week, I think.”
“That sounds good.” Daisy takes off her jacket, settling in.
“Here, I’ll hang that up,” I tell her, grabbing the green fabric.
“Thanks.” She gives me a weak smile and scoots closer to Lily. Both girls have their feet on the couch. “So…” Daisy pauses.
Don’t say it. Don’t bring it up. I liked thinking that she’d pretend it never happened. I open the hallway closet and take out an empty hanger.
“…I thought you weren’t supposed to have sex in the kitchen or the living room—not that I’m judging. I just always thought it was a rule.” I hear the curiosity in her voice. Still, I’ve never had the urge to discuss my sex life with my girlfriend’s sixteen-year-old sister. In fact, it’s as uncomfortable as it sounds.
“Uhhh…” Lily draws out the word. “Lo?” She peeks her head over the couch, waiting for me to return to handle this one. Her cheeks are tomato-red.
I hang up Daisy’s jacket, shut the closet and take a seat on Rose’s Queen Anne chair. “It’s not a rule so much as a suggestion.” I smile a bitter smile. Then I collect the remote, about to increase the volume to GBA’s Ballin’ New Year’s Eve.
“Are you sure Ryke and Rose know that it’s a suggestion and not a rule?” Daisy asks us. “I think they’d be really upset…” She licks her dried lips. “I mean…it’s not considered relapsing, right?”
Guilt washes over Lily’s face.
I go cold.
“No,” I interject quickly. We’re at a good fucking place. She’s confident, not compulsive. I won’t let their fears fuck with her progress. “Not that I really want to explain this to you,” I add and then grimace. Way to be a prick, Loren. “Lily’s therapist says that we can move things forward, depending on how well she’s doing.”
This is completely true, but even if Rose and Ryke had a sit down with Dr. Banning, they’d probably still believe that Lily needs more structure and limitations. Outwardly, she seems aloof and anxious, but most of that is because of the media.
It’s complicated.
Daisy wears a pained expression. “And you’re doing well?” she asks her sister.
Lily nods, but she has very little evidence to prove this, considering she hides under desks, dodges cameras, and isolates herself from people.
“Hey, Daisy?” I rub the back of my neck, my eyes narrowed. “Can you never tell my brother what you saw tonight? In fact, let’s just keep this between us.”
Lily says, “Please. We’ve been trying not to advertise our sex life as much.”
Daisy’s not stupid.
The gears click in her head—thinking we’re on a dangerous road. We aren’t. Not yet, at least.
Lily clasps Daisy’s hand and then says, “Do you want ice cream? Rose stocked up on double fudge for you.”
“I can’t…I have a photo shoot next week.”
“Oh,” Lily says, more remorse filling her eyes.
“No, it’s cool.” Daisy hugs her sister back, and just like that, their relationship has been reversed. Daisy cheering up Lily, something that only makes Lily feel like shit. “Let’s just watch the movie after the countdown. Who needs ice cream, right?”
Then the door swings open again.
And both Lily and I look to Daisy. Her loyalty to us is about to be tested.
{ 11 }
0 years : 04 months
December
LILY CALLOWAY
A six-foot-three brooding—mostly irritated—guy bounds through the door. “I fucking hate people,” he states, barely glancing at Lo on the chair. I have to crane my neck over the couch to catch sight of Ryke, as does Daisy.
He saunters into the kitchen with an angry stride, disappearing through the archway.
“Not that I don’t love you here,” Lo shouts from across the room, “but you said that you were spending New Year’s at that frat guy’s kiddie pool.”
Ryke returns from the kitchen with a bag of pre-popped popcorn and a water bottle. “It was his hot tub, and he graduated in May, same as me.”
Ryke must have had a not-so fun time at his friend’s party. His stormy expression says it all. The irony: Lo and I were having a pretty good night, all things considered. Usually we’re on the other side of the fence.