Always, Huh?

Four - Meet Nancy

Lily and Nate were walking up the driveway and stopped, stunned at the sound of silence. They listened hard, straining to hear any noise from inside the house, but the suburbs were quiet and deserted.

Lily unlocked the door and opened it a crack. A heated discussion slipped through the gap.

"John, you can't just expect me to do everything. I have a job too. I can't handle all this paperwork, all these forms and all these envelopes. You've got to so some things..."

"Damn it."

"At least they're not yelling."

"I suppose."

---/|\---

Elizabeth and Johnathon managed to make it through an early dinner of spaghetti without shouting at each other.

"I've got a shift at the pizza joint. See you guys later." Nate rushed out of the door as soon as he finished his last strand of spaghetti.

Lily could sense the rising tension in the room, so excused herself before the argument began. She raced up to her room and closed the door. Shoving her noise-cancelling headphones on she expected not to be able to hear the fight. It was a little muffled, yes, but she could still define every word,

"You've got to take some responsibility! This was not all my fault, John!" Lily sighed. She took off her headphones, put on her boots, checked her keys were in her pocket and crept down the stairs.

She tried her hardest not to make any sound, not to step on any creaky floorboard, though she doubted that it would make any difference, her parents were shouting that loud. Lily picked up her duffel coat and slipped out of the door.

It was a pleasant spring evening outside, the sky was turning from a glowing orange to a dark indigo. There was a light, cool breeze, that smelled fresh and dewy, like rain, but it was still warm.

Lily wandered aimlessly round the streets of her town. She stuck her hands in her pockets as the sun disappeared under the horizon and the warmth escaped with it. She felt the cool, metal surface of coins and flipped them over between her fingers.

She walked past a late night corner stop. Backtracking, she purchased a pack of Oreos.

After almost all of her Oreos gone, Lily stopped at a dark, empty children's playground. The swings swayed with the breeze eerily, the roundabout creaked ominously and the seesaw stood stock still. The grass surrounding the padded area was slowly turning green for the summer but patches were still an ugly shade of brown.

She sat herself down on one of the squeaking swings and started swaying subconsciously. She stared, unseeing, at the seesaw. Her mouth began to sing one of her favourite country songs for no good reason, the song didn't even match her mood.

Lily's mind imagined a possible future. Two kids, snuggled under a blanket on the couch with their mom, watching a movie with hot cocoa and ice cream. She was so immersed in the daydream that she didn't realise that it had started raining.

A rumble of thunder snapped her out of it. Her clothes were sodden, her hair was dripping and even her underwear was soaked. She was still singing.

"That's a nice voice you got there," a low voice said over the perpetual hammering of rain. Lily thanked the gods that it was dark as her cheeks were flushing furiously.

"Dylan?"

"That's my name," he replied. Lily scanned the growing darkness for him. He stepped a little closer. "Do you need an umbrella?"

"I don't suppose it would do much good now but alright." He passed her his black umbrella , his blond-brown hair almost immediately flattening to his forehead. His bright green eyes meeting with her dull brown ones, Lily took the umbrella, her fingers brushing against his. A shiver ran up her spine. "Are you sure you don't need it?"