The Miracle of a Teenage Romance

Chapter 11

"Lilly! Lilly! Lilly!" calls out Caden frantically. It has now been fifteen minutes and he still hasn't found her. "Where could she be?" sighs Caden with worry laced all through his voice. A couple of minutes go by and all of a sudden, he spots something shining beside a giant tree. He thinks, "Could it be her?" He rushes over to the tree and confirms his thoughts. It is her, although not as he anticipated. He peers behind the tree to find her passed out on the grass. "Oh my God! Lilly!" He rushes to her side, kneeling down on the ground to lift her head up. He snatches up her glittering backpack, which he saw shining beside the big tree, and gently lies her head on it. He gently shakes her shoulders as he calls out her name, "Lilly! Lilly! Lilly, wake up! Please! Lilly!" She doesn't wake up. He gently taps her cheeks with his hand as he continuously calls her name, "Lilly. Lilly. Lilly, please wake up. I'm sorry, Lilly. I'm so sorry I lied to you. That was very wrong of me. I'm sorry. Please wake up.... Lilly!" Once again, she doesn't wake. He places his hand on her forehead, but immediately jerks it off of her. When he touched her forehead, he thought that he had touched a hot stove. He exclaims, "Oh my God, Lilly! You're burning up!... Hang on, Lil. I have an idea," says Caden as he reaches over to grab his backpack. He rummages through it and pulls out a bottle of ice cold water. He unscrews the cap and gently pours a tiny bit of the water over her forehead as he calls her name, "Lilly. Please wake up, Lilly."

   Lilly finally regains consciousness. She feels a soft, warm hand gently caressing her cheek as a muffled, worried voice calls her name, "Lilly. Lilly. Lilly." She slowly blinks her eyes open to reveal a very distraught boy.

   She mumbles, "Caden?" 

Caden lets out a breath that he didn't realize he was holding in and exclaims, "Oh, Lilly! Thank God, you're ok! I was really worried about you. What happened? Did you get too hot? Did you have another one of your dizzy spells?"

Lilly slowly sits up and looks at Caden. "What are you doing here?"

Caden replies, "Forget about why I'm here, Lilly. Are you ok? What happened?"

   Lilly pulls away from Caden's hand and says, "Why do you care?

Puzzled by her question, Caden asks, "Wh-what do you mean why do I care? Of course I care."

Lilly snaps back, "Really? If you cared about me, you wouldn't have lied to me and you wouldn't have treated me the way you did this morning."

Lilly stands up, picks up her backpack, and begins to walk away, when all of a sudden, she feels a hand gently grab her arm. She jumps and whips around, locking eyes with Caden. He tells her, "Lilly, I'm really sorry. I know I shouldn't have lied to you this morning. That was so wrong of me and I'm sorry."

   Lilly sighs. "Caden, it's not just that you lied to me, it's what you did," states Lilly as she begins to walk away once more.

   Caden just stands there, completely clueless as to what she meant about 'what he did'. He stands there running through many different thoughts as to what she could have meant, but he still can't come to a conclusion. He runs up behind her and gently tugs on her arm. "Lilly, wait. What do you mean? What did I do?" asks Caden with an almost broken voice.

Lilly whips around and with tears stinging her eyes, she states, "Caden, how can you be so clueless? Do you even realize that you treated me pretty much exactly how Brittney did Tuesday morning?"

Caden truly did not realize that and after hearing it, he feels even worse. He didn't mean to hurt her. He just didn't want her to be mad at him. Lilly turns to walk away, but once again Caden gently latches onto her wrist. Before she can speak, he says with pure sincerity, "No, Lilly, I didn't realize that. I'm really sorry. I never wanted to upset you or hurt you, especially not like Brittney did. I'm sorry. I just didn't want you to be mad at me. That's why I lied. I'm sorry, Lilly. I'm so stupid. I should've just told you the truth."