Wilde Fire

Chapter 24: Present

When I wake up the next morning, my entire face is swollen. I spent most of the night crying, though for the first time in a long time, it was mainly happy tears. After Kelby left, we sat down to eat dinner. Grandma's pot roast was amazing, as usual. It was nice to enjoy a dinner together without the heavy weight of a secret looming over us. The conversation felt lighter, even the air around us felt lighter, like I could finally breathe again. I asked a few questions about Noah, which led to great stories regarding the past few years of his life. Though I would never be able to get that time back with him, I felt closer to him somehow. As if he really was a part of my family instead of a stranger. We didn't talk about Ben, but I was used to that. I came to realize that it was a topic I would only ever be able to discuss around certain people, and my parents weren't one of them. At least not yet.

Before I went to bed, I took down the collage picture frame on my wall that was filled with photos of Lily and I. I emptied a few of the slots, replacing the images with the photos of Noah that Kelby had given to me. I kept the one where he looked like a carbon copy of Ben to put in a frame on my bedside table. There were still spaces left, so I dug out the prom photo from Ben's box, as well as a few pictures of Owen and I from our childhood that I had kept stored away over the years. I was always afraid to display a picture of Ben or Owen, or anything referencing my life in Kala. I thought my mother would find a way to use it against me.

Now that the big secret was out, I didn't feel the need to hide anymore. Of course, Kimberly Blackwood was still an obstacle, but for the first time in four years, I was able to have a conversation with a member of the Blackwood family without feeling tremendous guilt. That felt like a step in the right direction.

I fell asleep looking at those photos, the frame that now held every friend that ever had a place in my heart: Ben, Kelby, Owen, Lily, and Noah.

I look up at the photos again before climbing out of bed, and it makes me smile. My cheeks are puffy though, so it hurts a little. I am working the lunch shift at the diner today, so I don't have to be in until ten. This gives me a few hours to make myself look presentable enough for the public.

I go to the bathroom and run a rag under cold water. I am laying on the bed, the rag across my face to hopefully dull the redness, when my phone rings.

Blindly, I answer, bringing the phone up to my face. "Hello?"

"Oh my God, are you okay?!" Lily's voice is shrill in my ear. I lift the rag off my face and jump out of bed.

"Why are you FaceTiming me?!" I rush to the mirror and quickly smooth my hair around my face. My cheeks are still red, my eyelids swollen. I look like a chipmunk with a sunburn. Lily has great timing.

"Sidney, what's wrong?" She has repeated the question three times now. "Are you okay? Oh God, please be okay."

"Lily," I try to interject. I position the camera so she can only see one swollen eye. "I'm fine. Calm down."

"Have you been crying? Is everything okay?"

I let out a laugh, which is enough to stop her insistent rambling. "Yes," I say honestly. "I was crying, but I promise I'm okay. It was a happy cry. A much-needed happy cry."

"What happened?" She still sounds concerned, and I realize that I haven't been filling her in much. Granted, a lot happened in the past twenty-four hours, but I also chose to keep the details about Owen a secret. I did that on purpose, mainly because I was embarrassed that my first kiss ended the way it did and I knew Lily would never let it go.

"Well," I sigh, because honestly, where do I even begin? "It turns out I'm an aunt."

Lily gasps. "Wait, what?" Her eyebrows knit together. "But I thought. . ." I can tell by the look on her face what she is about to say.