The Death Note

17 // Charlie

Our parents have gone off on a walk down the beach, leaving Lily and I alone, finally. It's pretty much been the perfect day so far. We made sandcastles and had a picnic, had a paddle in the sea, took photos, bought some ice creams- Dad dropped his -and now we're just sitting, relaxing and chatting in the sunset.

"Charlie?" Liliana says.
"Yeh?" I turn my head to look at her. She really looks beautiful. Her dark red hair glinting in the sunset, and her eyes bright with tiredness and possibly happiness.
"Will you sit with me? Like, on a chair so we're at the same height?" She asks.
"Oh, yes," I get up off the picnic blanket and get out one of the folding camping chairs we have, and put it in the sand next to Lily's wheelchair.
"Thanks," she says.
We sit in silence for a while, each lost in our own thoughts, watching to waves come in and out, and the pink clouds float across the sky.
"Do you like me?" Lily asks me, suddenly.
"Of course I do!" I reply, "Why?"
"Just that you're the only person that seems to."
"Aw, I'm not," I tell her, "Your parents, your friends? They love you."
"I have no friends. And my parents... I don't know." She looks down at her knees.
"Lily, your parents love you, they love you loads. They brought you to the beach, didnt they? They look after you, they help you, they do love you. And you do have friends, like me, and Jessica."
"Jessica isn't really my friend."
"Explain why she's coming over in a few days then."
"Is she?"
"Yes."
"I didn't know that.."
"They were talking about it at dinner last night."
"I must've zoned out."

There is another silence, and I wonder if she really believes that no one likes her. I don't see how anyone could not like her, she's so nice and funny. Maybe even- and I don't want to admit this to myself -better than Sadie.
"Wanna play a game?" I ask, thinking of Sadie, and the last time I saw her.
"What kind of game?" Lily replies, looking at me suspiciously.
"Would you rather. Played it before?"
"No..."
"Basically I say would you rather do this or this, and you have to choose."
"Okay... You start then."
"Would you rather be covered in hair or have no hair at all?"
"Ummm...no hair at all. I'd just wear a wig."
"Same. Imagine having to shave that much hair off!" I laugh. Lily laughs too, and that lifts my spirits. She's so pretty when she laughs, her eyes crinkle up and her whole face brightens.
"Your turn," I tell her,"Think of something."
"Okay, um..would you rather have legs for arms or arms for legs?"
"Oh haha uh," I laugh, imagining someone with legs for arms, "Probably arms for legs. Imagine someone with legs for arms!"
"They'd get in the way of everything. How would you eat? Or write? Or anything?" We both laugh, I even get tears in my eyes.
"Are you crying?" Lily laughs.
"No," I reply, "Well yes, but with happiness"
"You look funny," she tells me, laughing, also with tears in her eyes now.
"So do you," I reply, clutching my stomach.
"I'm going to have a six pack after this," Lily laughs.
"It hurts so bad," I agree.
We're now at that stage where it's not even laughing, you just clap like a retarded seal, making no sound.
"Ohh remember what happened last time you laughed like this," I say.
"Oh yeah, I re-cracked something in my back didn't I," Lily replies.
"It was scary," I say, "I thought you'd done something really serious."
"So did I."
"I didn't know what to do."
"At least I survived."
"Yeah, you're alive."
We fall into silence again, but i try and break it as soon as possible. I want to chat with Lily freely while I can.
"So what music do you like?" I ask. Lame question, I know, but it starts a conversation. Soon we're chatting again, smiling and laughing too. As it starts to get darker, I see four people walking down the beach towards us.
"The parents are back," I say.
"Yay," Lily says sarcastically.

"Hello," I say, as they reach us.
"Hi," Dad says, "How're you doing?"
"Great," I reply.
"Alright, Lily?" George asks.
"Yeah," his daughter replies.
"It's about time to go," Heather tells us.
"Shall we pack up then," Mum suggests.
"Yeah," George agrees, and they start to fold the picnic blanket, and pack up chairs. I pack up mine and put it away, then take one last look at the sea twinkling in the new moon light, and then walk back up the sand dunes with my family and Liliana's. I realise I'm quite tired now, as we've spent the whole day out here doing things, and suddenly I just want to collapse on my bed and sleep.

We get in the car, and start to drive down the little road away from the beach. By the time we've reached the motorway I'm in that kind of half asleep stupor. My eyelids feels heavy. I can hear parents chatting away, and I close my eyes. I feel sleep take over me, and my body falls to the side onto something warm. I think it's probably Lily, but I'm too far into sleep to care.

* * * *

"Aren't they cute?" I hear a voice say, waking me up. I open my eyes, slowly. I rub them and sit up, looking around. I'm in the car still, with Lily asleep next to me with her mouth open, and her eyelids fluttering. She must be dreaming. Heather an George leaning round to look at us from the front and my parents standing just to the side of us, also looking at us. George is smiling, as is Heather and Dad, and Mum just looks amused. I turn my head to look out the window, and see that we're in the Wellford's driveway. It's nearly dark.
"Wakey wakey," Dad grins.
"Mmm," I groan, rubbing my eyes again, and accidentally elbowing Lily. She immediately jerks awake.
"Oops, sorry," I say, "You okay?"
"S'okay," she replies, "I'm fine," looking around her.
"Why are you all staring at us," Lily says, her forehead crinkling as she frowns, confused.
"We're not," Heather replies.
"You are."
"You were sleeping an leaning on each other," Mum explains.
"It was cute," Dad adds. I mentally add that to my list of embarrassing Dad moments.
"Very," George agrees.
There is a silence, and our parents look at us, all half smiling, until I undo my seatbelt.
"Shall we get out then?" Heather suggests.
"Yep," Dad laughs.
I stand up, careful not to bash Lily too much, and then step out the car. I leave the door open wide, for my dad and George to help lift Lily out.

Once were all back in the house, in the living room, our parents start to plan what we'll do tomorrow.
"We could go into town and just walk around," Mum suggests.
"Yeah, I need to buy some things," Lily's Mum agrees.
"Or we could see what's on in the cinema?" George says.
"Yeah we could," Heather says.

"Shall we go upstairs?" Lily whispers to me.
"Yeah," I whisper back, then say to parents, "Can Liliana and I go upstairs?"
"Sure," Heather says,"George will you help her up the stairs?"

A U T H O R' S N O T E

This is a bit of a fill in chapter, but if my plan goes to plan (haha that sounds funny) then next chapter should be exciting :)
And I'm so sorry for the long wait for this as well, I don't really know what happened but it kept being deleted and then reappearing...

Emma 🍄