the various chances

chapter nineteen

Lily

The last week felt like a mini-vacation. Other than the fact that Jeremy had been on my tail about medicines, food and rest since I was discharged from the hospital, everything felt great. He had been secretly texting Emma about keeping an eye on me about my health update. This handsome idiot won't even let me have my rest at peace.

Jeremy came up to the door when I was discharged. He personally has an eye on me taking my medicines and eating properly, no thanks to Emma who was now turning suspicious about us. She thinks that Jeremy likes me, I had snorted on her statement as if it were to be the lamest joke ever, because it was.

He may have normal human ethics and all that but Jeremy liking me was far from reality. It was just like a fictional character coming to life, utterly impossible. What Jeremy likes is to mess with me. He likes to throw comments thinking they were humorous when in fact they are far from it.

Fuck you, Jeremy!

The medicines on the other hand helped me sleep and I was so grateful for the same. Though my nightmares were present I did manage to pull some nice sleep. I read books all along the week, staying up in the bed with warm food and all. That was the best therapy I could ever ask for in a while.

As for the current notion I had prepared dinner and was waiting for Emma and Sammy to head back to kitchen after shower and change of clothes. Sammy walks in, her hair damp and skin shinning under the kitchen lights. "Lily, you should be resting." "I am more than fine now, so I guess I could move my limbs, ya know", I say.

Emma joins us. She helps Sammy set the plates while I arrange the pots on the table. We were seated, filling our plates when all of a sudden Emma puts her fork in the plate and turns to me. "Lily" -she says, dumbfound I look at her and she continues- "what is your relation with Jeremy Nicholas Langford?"

Fuck my life!

I blink once and hear Sammy let out an 'oh no' sound. My eyes carefully flicker on Emma. She looked determined; her straight posture said that she was not going to take any shit I feed her. I had to be honest or else she might just stab me with the fork. Eyes narrowed, her body was turned in my direction.

After a sigh I reply, "We were together for Maths and English Literature class in high school." Her eyes remain narrow, "that means you've known him for quite some time?" A little scared I shrug, "I mean yeah but I was not in New York for like 6-7 years after my high school graduation."

"You never contacted him once in those 6-7 years?"

I nod. There was no use to contact him. I was left on my own even after Nonna rescued me form this hell hole. She'd been with me for those years but my return to New York was for some other reason which turned out to be fruitless, so yeah, it was no use dragging Jeremy into my personal matters.

"What are you two exactly? Friends, high school friends, high school sweethearts or what?"

Fucking hell!

That was the answer I've been always looking for. Jeremy and I were never meant to be a part of each other's lives yet we bumped into one another and things were going up and down for us.

I recall the fact that we were enemies when it came to scores, results and ranks and all but now it was nothing like that. We'd grown out of that phase so there was no point in labelling shit between us lest if feels other way from the day 1. The phone, the ride, the gala, the kiss, every single event between us made me want to think whether or not there was a part of me that appreciated Jeremy's presence in my life or it was just a mere coincidence, something bound to happen.