Tears of Gold: House of Anubis

Liliana XXVII

Evie's Notes: Anything in bold and italics is a text message. Also the "True Love" duet by Dove Cameron and Jordan Fisher from Liv and Maddie is the vibe I imagine for Lili and Jerome in this chapter.

 Warning: Minor torture in the nightmare sequence at the end of the chapter.

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She was going on a date. Her... Liliana Beth Wells was going on a date with someone other than Jerome Clarke. Looking in the mirror Lili tried really hard to get excited. But as hard as she tried, she couldn't help but feel like she was doing something wrong. That was silly of course, since she had given Jerome plenty of time to speak up... yet he hadn't told her what she was hoping to hear.

Lili had honestly felt that they had built something special together over the years. They hadn't ever really talked about it, but she had honestly expected them to end up together. When Hadrian had originally sent the text, she had frozen not knowing what she should do. Her kneejerk reaction was to run downstairs and talk to Jerome, but she obviously couldn't do that. Speaking to Alfie was also out of the question since his views on her love life were obvious and he would want her to talk to Roe. With her two best friends out of the question Lili was left with only one other person she could talk to, Amber.

Liliana had quickly grown fond of the blond girl and counted her as a close friend, she wouldn't be as biased as Alfie or Jerome so Lili had turned to her for help. After cackling at Lili's distress for a few minutes, the blond pulled herself together and helped Lili sort out her thoughts on the subject. Amber did think that Lili should talk to Jerome and Alfie but wouldn't force the issue after Lili shot down the suggestion. That didn't stop her from constantly recommending it though.

For Liliana the weekend had never gone by so slowly. The text from Hadrian sat unanswered on her phone as she dodged all of Jerome's attempts to speak to her. Lili's luck finally ran out Tuesday night when she found Jerome waiting for her outside of Amber and Nina's room. With nowhere else to run she grabbed her coat and joined Jerome outside. The walk was awkward and awful and everything she had never associated spending time with Jerome being and it was all the dumb text's fault.

Jerome, always one to never let something bothering her go, continued to press Lili on the subject until she cracked and told him. In the back of her mind a tiny part of her considered that this could actually be a good thing in a roundabout way. She had, apparently wrongly, assumed that Hadrian asking her out would spur Jerome into action. Liliana knew that things would change after he found out, but for better or worse was still to be determined. While his words had told her to go on the date, his eyes and actions betrayed his distaste for the idea.

She knew it was wrong but as she wrote Hadrian back all she could think of was Jerome. Unfortunately for her, Jerome wasn't interested in a deeper relationship and well... Hadrian was. So as she pressed send Tuesday night, she had promised herself that she would give this date a fair shot and reassess her feelings at a later time. Brushing her skirt down one more time Lili reminded herself of this promise and grabbed her purse heading downstairs to meet Hadrian.

*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*

Coffee with Hadrian was... nice. Like it was fun and all, but Lili didn't feel any real connection or spark forming with the boy. She couldn't help but silently compare the boy to Jerome. And yes, she did realize how bad that was, but she couldn't help it. So when the date wrapped up, Liliana made it clear that while she had enjoyed their meet up, she wouldn't be interested in a romantic relationship. To be fair, Hadrian took it really well, and seemed interested in some of the Anubis/Isis/Osiris house events she had started to plan with Amber for the future.