I pulled a hoodie over my head before glancing at the clock. 6:15p.m. I smiled and began to make my way down the stairs and to the front door taking the steps two at a time. Just as I was reaching for the handle I heard my mum call out to me.
"Link, honey. Where are you going?"
I sighed and stomped my way back to the living room, trying my best to convey that I was not happy. Any time that I spent here was time that I wasn't spending with Lily. "Lily and I wanna meet up at the park on Parkview. It's only ten-ish minutes away if you take your first right on..."
"I know where the park is, Link, it's just a bit late isn't it?"
"Mum, it's only 6:15, it's still almost light out." I pointed to the window behind her, reinforcing my statement. I didn't know why she didn't want me going out with Lily, she had always been fond of her. I think that had something to do with the fact my parents thought I was gay up until the day I brought Lil home. "Plus, we always go out, I don't know why you're acting weird, it's like every time I mention her name these days you freak out and I haven't seen her in four weeks."
"Link Winston, you will not talk to your mother like that." My dad had put his newspaper away and was staring right at me through his glasses.
"Sorry, mum." I remarked in one of those sing-song child voices. "It's just that I'm eighteen now and I've never done anything bad with Lily before. And you guys love Lily, so does Veronica." I added, intentionally bringing my younger sister into the conversation. They thought she was so adorable and never got mad while talking about her.
They shared a look with each other before my dad sighed, "Okay, kid, but don't do anything stupid."
"I wouldn't dream of it." I replied, faking a gasp and putting my hand on my chest before running out of the room to the front door.
I shoved my hands into the pockets of my hoodie after ringing the doorbell to Lily's house. After a couple of moments and a lot of shouting, the door was opened by Jasper, the youngest of her three older brothers. Before he could say anything there was a shout from the kitchen, probably Lily's mum, asking who it was.
"It's Link!" he shouted back. She must have been satisfied with the answer because there was no further shouting. "What do you need?" he asked me and there was something on his face, a look telling me that he really didn't want to hear the answer.
"I'm here to pick up Lily, we're going out to the park."
He ran a hand through his black hair messing it up and groaned. He opened his mouth and then closed it as if he wanted to say something but decided against it. His eyes were sad when he finally spoke and it sounded like it he was going to cry. "She left a while ago," he trailed off before starting again, kinda like Lily did when she was lying. It was pretty cute when she lied, her cheeks would go red and then she'd hide behind her hair proceeding to apologise for lying. I thought everything Lily was pretty cute, but her innocence and optimism were up there on the top-ten list. "I reckon she's already at the park." He finished. Jasper looked me up and down once or twice trying to decide if he needed to say anything else. It turned out he did. "I don't care how old you are, I'm older, and if you mess with my little sister you'll be in big trouble. Don't do anything more than hug her. Also, fix up your hair, she hates it when it flops over your face." He disappeared for a moment returning with a bottle of hair gel. "Here, you can use this to put it back up. It's your fault you dyed it white, now all she ever talks about is your mad scientist hair cut. Bring it back when you bring her back, I want them both in one piece when you return."
I thanked him and I was almost certain that when he closed the door that he said something along the lines of 'poor kid'. I didn't feel like a poor kid, not since I'd been with Lily.
I'd finished fixing my hair by the time I got to the park and it didn't take long to find Lily, well, it didn't take long for her to find me.
"Winnie!" she screamed, and jumped out of a nearby tree. She landed quite gracefully, which was odd because I'd never seen her stick a landing before. She was quite uncoordinated.
I smiled, I liked it when she called me that, a lot of kids at the school called me 'Lin', it was one of the many taunts they made about my sexuality. "Hey, Lil." I replied and she beamed back at me. I hadn't seen her in what felt like forever, we'd all graduated from school four weeks ago and she said she needed to spend some time with her family. I didn't mind, I don't need to be around her to be happy but when I am really, truly, happy, she's usually nearby. I couldn't help it, Lily was just perfect. "So, Lil, where to?"
"I've been walking around the park and I found this really nice spot with all these flowers and I've already put a blanket there and everything." She was practically jumping up and down with excitement. She has always been easily amused, getting hyped up over the smallest of things. I thought that was pretty cute too, the way her happiness rubbed off on everyone around her. She turned and started to skip off through the tress.
