Lily's Predicament

13

"I'm so so sorry Ben. I had no idea you were trying to call me. I really thought that Audrey or Ethan would have woken me up!"

It was the next morning, and Lily stood pleading in front of Ben who sat with his arms crossed on the couch. He was still very upset at her for getting home after her curfew, especially because she didn't message him and ignored his calls and texts.

He sat up most of the night with a weird gut feeling waiting for her to walk through the door safely. It wasn't until 6 am, the next morning, that she appeared home.

Lily thought that by apologizing he would fully understand that her intentions weren't to be reckless and that she had simply fallen asleep. But Lily had no idea that Ben sat up all night and was awake as she snuck into the house thinking she did unnoticed.

"I-I was just so exhausted, and suddenly fell asleep and didn't wake up until early this morning. Why is that so hard to believe?" Lily tried again to defend herself but the scowl on Ben's face showed that he wasn't listening.

Lily stared back down at Ben who ignored her pleading and nonchalantly watched the hockey that played in the background. She realized that he wasn't going to try and understand, so she sighed, crossed her arms and slumped into the sofa chair on his left.

She stared blankly at the dumb tv and trailed off remembering everything that transpired between the three of them yesterday. She had no idea what relationship the two had, but she sensed that they were fine with what they did yesterday, whatever it was. To be frank, she actually thought she dreamt it all but she was never going to bring it up or acknowledge it again. Maybe she was thinking too much about it.

"Actions have consequences Lily, and you need to learn to live with them." He spoke after some time through the tense air that engulfed them.

Lily clenched her tiny fists and turned to glare at her brother "I made one mistake Ben...one. You have no right holding this over me!" she then suddenly jumped and ran past him.

The slam of the door caused Ben to slump into the couch and sigh in defeat. He wanted nothing but the things between them to be alright, but she needed to know that spending the night at Audrey's without telling him was very dangerous.

Ben trusted no one, perhaps Dean, but even then he would still keep him at an arms length. Lily is oblivious and very naive to how the world works and didn't understand why he was mad. He had no reason to not like Audrey and Ethan, but there was something sinister about them, that not even he knew why. Hence why Ben has been extra cautious with Lily lately, just so he could keep her safe.

Upstairs, Lily laid on her bed with her knees pulled into her chest and used the sleeve of her sweater to wipe away a few stray tears. She had no idea why she was being a baby and crying, she just assumed it was because of her frustrations with her brother. Regardless she always believed herself to be emotionally unstable and cried over the smallest of things. She then started thinking that maybe this whole ordeal wasn't that serious and that she was just overreacting. She then thought about apologising.

Lily was then suddenly cut off in the middle of her somber thoughts by a shrill ringtone. Wiping her nose and sniffling she noticed it was Audrey. Biting her lip she thought about declining as she wasn't in the mood, but quickly answered it knowing she would just call again.

"Hello beautiful, just calling to see how you were this morning." Audrey's cheerful voice caught Lily off guard as she flinched at the overly peppy voice.

"Morning Audrey. I-I'm good, thank you for calling me." She replied in a croaky voice while sniffling softly.

Audrey, who was in her car, turned to Ethan. They could tell that something was wrong with their girl.