Death Lilly

Chapter 14

The rest of the week passed quickly. Cayn keeps his word, picking me up and dropping me off, helping me to forget the pain of my past. It's so easy to be in his arms. Even though I would never tell him, he was fast becoming the center of my world. Unfortunately for me, Cayn was away for the weekend; actually everyone in our group was away besides Levi and Paige. They had already promised to keep me company.

It's Thursday night and Paige is coming over to watch a movie. It will probably something along the lines of a Rom-Com. Movie nights remind me of Jude. She arrives just as I empty the popcorn into a bowl. We each grab a soda and curl up onto the couch with the bowl between us. She presses play and it is a Rom-com just like I thought it might have been. It's the very type of movie Jude would have hated. The kind that had no real story line, just a lot of laughs that would have had Jude arching his eyebrow at me in disgust. Despite myself I missed him. No matter how many times Uncle Stew tells me that Jude had been arrested or that Mr. Goldstein hadn't disappeared, it didn't change what I knew about Jude. He wasn't a cold-blooded killer. I just knew he was innocent but what could I do, the jury would have already heard the case. There was nothing left to say. All I could do was pray that they would see him for the person he really was.

"Lilly, earth to Lilly?" I Paige say as she throws a piece of popcorn at me. "You still here?"

"Hey." I say picking out the few pieces of popcorn that landed in my hair.

"Where did you daydream too or should I ask about who?"

I poke my tongue out at her. "Whatever."

"You want to watch another or you ready for bed and dreams about whoever is filling your head?" she teases.

The clock on the wall shows that it's nearly eleven pm. "You wanna stay the night?"

"Sounds like a plan. So you want to watch another movie? After all there is no school tomorrow so we can stay up as later as we want."

"What about shopping? Is that still on?"

Paige giggles. "Hell yeah, haven't you ever pulled an all nighter?"

"Umm you don't want to know me if I haven't had at least four hours sleep. I'm worse than a grizzly bear."

She throws a cushion at me, almost hitting my head. "You're no fun. Off to bed we go so that sleeping beauty can get her sleep." She teases.

"Very funny." I toss the cushion back at her. "I'll be fun tomorrow after I spent a little money."

We both make our way up to my room. I set the alarm early, as it's a three-hour drive one way, so I hoped it would be worth it.

"Goodnight." I say to Paige.

"Sleep well, sleeping beauty." She replies before rolling over. I find it easy to drift off to sleep. My dreams filled with images of the past and happier times spent in those last few months before my Grandmamma's death.

The alarm buzzes loudly at five in morning. The sun had yet to rise, however Paige is already up and showered. I want to hit the snooze button but she wont let me.

"Good morning sleepy head. Time to rise and shine so we can burn through some cash." She is literally pushing me towards the shower.

"Ok, I'm going." I tell her.

"Excellent you have half an hour. I'll pour coffee in my thermos so we can drink it on the road. Argh, the advantages of living in such a small town, hey Lil?"

"You are way to chirpy for this time of morning." I yell at her before slamming the shower door shut.

It's nine by the time we reach Raven's Point, population twenty thousand which seems almost ten times more then Devil's Canyon. There are two large malls but Paige informs me we only have time to hit one of them. She has plans tonight that can't be broken so we are on a tight schedule. She parks at the best one or so she tells me.