A New Life [PaulxOc]

[Chapter Two] Catching Up

Trying to keep a somewhat steady up lead pace, but who knows, I am trying to make sure each chapter is a pretty good length, I work so it takes me a little longer to type it all up, thank you for your patience. 

Looking down at her shoes as she stands just outside the front door, she was happy she remembered to put on some worn shoes when she left her house. The short walk through the yard from her car, had covered her shoes with mud. Wiping her shoes off as best as she could she walks inside the warm home, out of the wet cold. Billy's home had always felt so warm to her, not just temperature wise. Maybe it's just a Billy thing. Yeah, that's probably what it is. She pulls off her coat and purse and hangs them up on the coat hanger hung on the wall next to the door.

She walks into the home, looking around to see where Billy had gone off to. "Hey Billy, where did you go off to?" She walks further into the home, now in the living room. He rolls out from the kitchen a cup of tea in one of hands. He holds it out to her "Here ya go, sit down a bit and catch up with an old man."

Lillie laughs "Billy you're not an old man shh." Taking a seat in one of the nearby arm chairs. "What have you been up to lately?" She brings the cup to her mouth, blowing on it before taking a sip. Lemon tea, her favorite. She smiles down at the mug in her hand. Billy has a special way of making someone feel better when they're down. She could already feel the tea kicking in, feeling like a balm to her soul.

Billy rolls to an empty spot near the coffee table, he grabs the remote off the table and turns the nearby tv on, lowering the volume so that the noise from the baseball game that was on wouldn't drown out their conversation. He angles himself towards her.

"You know how it is, council meetings and keeping the kids in check." She had no idea how that is but she nodded along anyway, letting him talk, his voice just had this way of making people just want to listen to him. She remembers when she was younger and would come over with her dad, she would fall asleep to Billy talking and her dad would have to wake her up each time.

She laughs, "I'm sure the kids are that bad." Then again, she would not be surprised if the kids have been acting up, remembering how Jake was when he was younger, they could get up to some wild stuff. Self control was not really in Jake's vocabulary back then. A few times Jake had cajoled Lillie into some of his shenanigans. Luckily they had grown out of that rebellious phase, well mostly, Jake still had his moments. She would not change that though, it was part of his charm. She would never tell him that though, his ego does not need that ego boost.

Billy sighs "I swear they get worse every year, last week I caught one of them trying to shave one of the older ones' hair while he was sleeping. I swear I'm getting close to leashing them just so I can keep an eye on them."

Lillie couldn't help but chuckle at that. She could just imagine the scolding he had given the boys. She had experienced the full elder experience a few times with Jake. Billy had a way of scolding where you felt extremely guilty. She had thrown mud at Jake once, and Billy had her wash his entire truck, and then sat her down to talk, she never threw mud at anyone since.

"They'll probably calm down in a few years. That's how it usually goes, at least in my experience." She took another sip of her tea.

Billy chuffs "Couldn't happen any sooner." He gestures to the kitchen down the hall with his chin. "I'm going to get your fish ready, you make yourself at home and relax, shouldn't take too long." She nods to him, and he heads to the kitchen. She looks around the cozy room, thinking back to all the times she had spent here with her dad.

Lillie follows behind her dad quietly. He had wanted to pop in at billys to say hi, and have a beer with him. She had the six pack in her arms, her dad had a bucket of bait Billy had asked them to pick up on their way over. It was a large bucket too, she had know idea how it was going to last very long.

They walk up to the front door and her dad knocks twice before opening the door. He yells out "We're here." She could hear the rolling of Billy's wheelchair coming closer from the living room's direction. "About time, a game is about to come on." Her dad's posture picks up "Ooh who's playing."

That was when she had zoned out to the rest of the conversation, handing over the beers when Billy held his hands out for them. She liked to watch sports with her dad every now and then, but she was never into it like he was. Get her dad, charlie, and billy in the same room together when a game was on and it was chaos. She took a seat at the end of the larger couch, picking up a random book that had been sitting on the table. It was a book about native american legends, she wasn't surprised, billy was a very...spiritual man.

She had been mindlessly reading the book for about forty minutes when she heard the front door slamming open and loud, angry footsteps heading deeper into the house. She looks at the two adults, her dad seemed shocked and a little worried, Billy just looked like it was a normal occurrence. An angry Jacob came into view, he looked around the living room, with nothing but a nod in their direction he went to his room and slammed his door closed.

He looked different. It hadn't been that long since she had seen him, maybe a few weeks. He was always out when she and her dad would visit. His hair was short now, she had loved his long hair and was sad to see it was no more. That was not the most shocking change either, he had grown, like a lot. He now looked like he had been working out hardcore for years. It made her a little worried, her goofy friend Jake was no more, in his place a bulked up angry teen. He had also not been wearing a shirt, only shorts, so she had gotten a glimpse of the tattoo now on his bicep. That was definitely not something the old jake would do.

Looking at the adults again she could not help the way her body was screaming confusion and worry. Her dad was the same. Apparently the new Jake was new to him too. Her dad turns to Billy "What the hell was that, what happened since the last time I saw him." Billy smiled at her dad and her "Just a puberty thing, he's been stressed out with school, and the council has been giving him some new...chores." Even Lillie could tell he was keeping something from them.

They couldn't dwell on it for long, Billy yelled out in excitement, something good had happened in the game. Billy had effectively distracted her dad from the earlier conversation. Lillie on the other hand wasn't so easily distracted. She respected Billy too much to push for more information, but she could not help the questions that had begun to swarm her mind.

The front door opening snapped her out of the memory. She looks to the hallway that leads to the front door, waiting to see who has entered the house. A dripping wet Jacob comes into view. He calls back to the kitchen "Dad, I'm home." He hadn't noticed her yet, he was looking back at the puddles that followed behind him.

From in the kitchen Billy's voice boomed "You better clean up that water Jacob, I don't need my house all wet." Jacob winced, looking again at the puddles sheepishly, before running into his room. A few minutes later, all dry and in different clothes, with a towel in his hands, he began to clean up the water.

When he finishes with the mess he made, he tosses the towel in his room. He turns around and that seems to be when he finally notices Lillie's presence. He looks at her shocked, before he chuckles and waves to her. "Hey Lillie, nice to see ya here."

Jacob walks over and sits on a nearby armchair. "What have you been up to loca? It's been a while since we've been able to catch up." He was not wrong. Sure they had seen each other briefly, but it had never been more than a few minutes. They had never had time for more than a few passing words in greeting.

She takes a sip of her tea before clearing her throat? "Not really anything of interest, just the usual. Been working, that's about it. You know me." she shrugs then looks at him expectantly. "What about you? You seem to always be up to something when I see you?"

Jake laughs "You're not wrong, it seems everyone has been needing me for something, all the time. Lately though, I have just been helping put together the gathering the elders are planning." He leans further into the armchair, seeming to melt into it. "Apparently they need my superior skills."

"Yeah, definitely your skills." She snorts, yep definitely had a large ego.

Billy comes into the room, a large brown paper bag in his lap. He goes to Lillie and holds it out to her. "Here you are, what is your uncle gonna make with them?"

"I have no idea, he likes to keep it a secret, says the surprise is part of the experience." Que the air quotes. Dinner was certainly an experience back home. Uncle Mike treated dinner like his own cooking show. She wouldn't complain though, the man really knew how to cook.

Lillie pulls Thirty dollars out of her pocket and hands it over to Billy, which he then puts in his own pocket. She remembered how he used to refuse to take her money, but after a while of her sneaking the money in cups or other hiding places, he gave up and just took the money.

She sets the bag next to her, she was about to get ready to go when Billy gave her a look and she relaxed back into the chair. He points to her cup of tea. "You should stay until you finish your tea at least, no need to rush off." Lillie nods sheepishly, feeling bad for almost leaving so early.

Billy turns to Jacob "How is the preparation for the gathering going?"

"Oh you know, we're getting there, Paul is out there right now with Seth clearing out the rest of the area." he shrugs. Lillie could not for the life of her place a face to the name Paul. Seth, she remembered vaguely, from picking up fish before Seth's father died.

"Did you remember to call Sue about the tables, and what Emily is going to need for food?" Giving his son a pointed look, as if already knowing Jacob forgot.

"Nope, but I will tonight. I have the canopy all ready, I don't want the food to be soggy like last time." The grimace on his face let Lillie know that despite the food getting wet, most likely from rain, that Jacob had still eaten it. Which didn't surprise her anymore, the man acted like he only ate once a week whenever there was any food nearby.

Billie gives a grunt of approval. "Make sure you boys make sure to break it down as soon as the gathering is done." He looks at Lillie, his eyes showing the gears in his head turning. "Lillie you should come, you haven't been to one of the gatherings since you were a toddler."

Lillie gives the older man a warm smile. "Thank you for inviting me, Billy, that's really sweet, I don't know if I'm going to be free that day, so I'll yet you know. Just have Jake text me the info, and I'll check my schedule and stuff. I don't even remember going to any, I must have been too young."

She hopes that she'll be able to make it, the reservation gatherings are said to be amazing, and super exclusive. You couldn't go unless you were invited, there was no party crashing either. She remembers back in high school when she was a sophomore, some seniors had been complaining about it. Apparently they had tried to sneak into one, and got kicked out before they even set their eyes on the gathering.

Lille felt super honored that Billy would invite her, but at the same time she could not help but feel like she didn't really do anything to deserve that honor. Maybe Billy was taking pity on her, ever since her dad died and she had moved in with her aunt and uncle, she kind of detached from society. Whenever she would visit Billy he would try to get her to hang out with the rez 'kids', as he put it.

She only went with it a few times, and it was just to appease Billie. They had a bit of a soft spot for each other, thy silently bonded over their grief over their loved ones. Not to mention the fact that Billy and her dad were good friends, ever since they were younger. It just felt natural being around the elder, he felt like an uncle of sorts to her.

Billy gives her another one of his warm smiles. "All right lils you just let us know when you decide."

He looks back at jake. "So how's the clunker you're working on going?" Jake's face lit up as it always did whenever anything mechanical got brought up. Building things, especially things that had engines in them, were his thing.

Last year she had bought him an Advanced Mechanics textbook she had found at a bookstore, and he hugged her so tight she thought he was going to crush her. The last time she had seen the book, it had post its sticking out from all over the place, the pages had been dog-eared, and she could see loose slips of not paper spilling out. When he put his mind to it, Jake could be a real whiz.

It made her kind of sad he didn't decide to further pursue it. When he was a freshman they would talk about what they wanted to be and Jake would go on and on about wanting to go to school to learn as much as he could. For some reason though he never did, then all of a sudden he got super busy and his main focus shifted to something she never learned. She would have to look into some more books for him, she suddenly decided. It was the least she could do for him.

Jake was like his dad in the regard of encouraging her to keep living her life after her dad died. He never really treated her differently like everyone else did. He did not treat her like she was a ticking time bomb. He still made jokes with her. Still teased her about her anti-social life, while at the same time still trying to get her to hang out with him and his friends. When she would have her breakdowns, he would just sit down next to her, without saying or doing anything, just being there for her. That was probably what had kept her from detaching from him like she had from all her high school friends. Knowing Jake like she did though, she was sure he would not even let her attempt to stop being friends.

When her dad first died, all her old friends had tried to be their for her, but after a while they just couldn't handle it. She was a mess, but at the same time a hollow person. Lilly just did not know how to process the death of the person she was the closest to. The father and daughter relationship they had was unique. They were each other's best friends. 'Thick as thieves, me and my lillie bugs' he had used to say. He was her favorite person to spend time with.