I'm here (English Version)

Secrets

I had not seen them for a while, either because of work commitments on both sides, or because it hurt her, although she loved me as another sister to see me. I could see it in her eyes. Little Lilly.  It had been so hard for her. A missing sister, an unknown brother, and a father who had betrayed her mother. She didn't want to end up talking about Jake all the time, reopening old wounds, and if she could she avoided me. She was sensitive, the smallest of us. Her initial hatred of me was only dictated by fear. The video story was just fear and desperation. She was afraid and attacked first. Yes it is true, thanks to that video I had risked a witch hunt and he had to disappear but we forgave and understood her. Actually behind that fake aggression she was sweet and good as bread. And to think I didn't like him at all. It was only because of Jake that I began to deal with her by discovering another person, completely different from the one I had imagined. She was still working at the Motel. She had lost more than anyone in that story.  She had lost trust in his father, she had lost the vision of the family she thought her had, she had lost a friend, Richy. She had lost a sister she thought she knew and instead ran over a girl, hid her body in the woods, and lost a brother she had never even begun to know before he died in that mine. But she had found him. Her rock. He had cared for her child and he had cared for her woman. They saw me coming and they smiled. Oh yes, yes, they were really smiling. They were hiding something, it was obvious. Hailey stop it dammit, you went out to have fun, leave the officer in the closet.
" Hey you. What can I get you to drink? " I didn't wait for an answer, grabbed a chair and sat with them. Yes I do, not exactly polite behavior, but I knew them. They would have said no, as usual. After two ritual pleasantries she would have made some excuse, he would have followed her and gone. I would have lost them again for months. Although this time they didn't seem to have the intention. He spread his big arms wide and leaned out, pulling me to him in a hug. More like a bear holding a fawn. Big, big-headed Dan. How he pissed me off at first. "I want nothing to do with you," he had said.
Blunt and direct like few. He is a true friend. He is the friend everyone would want. In fact, no I stand corrected, he is the friend everyone would need in life. The one who rushes in the middle of the night leaving everything and everyone behind as soon as he hears that you need help. He had even rushed in a wheelchair to protect his friends. If that is not a true friend I really don't know what is. It took him months of rehabilitation to get back on his feet but he found in Lilly the reason to get busy and not neglect himself. He blamed himself for everything that had happened to Richy. If I had stayed in the hospital, if I had not shot him, if what if. She had kept him from letting himself go into the abyss. He had always loved her since childhood, she even during Hannah's disappearance had leaned on him, and this had evolved. For both of them fortunately. They were similar but really complemented each other.  "Are you hugging me or are you trying to kill me Jack Daniels?"
"I'll have to think about it," she said as she let go of me and her brown leather jacket creaked. She, Lilly,  was still smiling, incredibly amused. What the heck was going on? Was there something on my face? A clown nose perhaps? I chased away the mental image of me with a red nose before I started maybe laughing hysterically and boisterously. When I was tired I laughed like a psychopath at every stupid thing that went through my head. They saw my puzzled face and looked at each other. As if asking each other a question without talking to each other, they understood each other on the fly.
"Oh screw it, I'll buy you a drink today Hailey. Sure, the Aurora's whiskey is not the good one from the Black Swan but we'll make it work for us." .
"Yeah maybe, but Phil's doesn't give sparkling two-wheeled chariots."
"Touché."
He wasted no opportunity to take the usual jibe at Phil's. He just didn't like it. We had changed but maybe not even that much. Here, we were us but older. And anyway, yes, they were strange, they hadn't run away and they were definitely hiding something from me!