Light Me Up Again

chapter 8

Colin

Luci made a great point, and I was determined to ask Lily tonight at dinner, "Luci, how about we make dinner here tonight and we bring it up? Maybe discussing it with her might persuade her into trialling it. " I pause waiting for luci to comment in hopes she will say yes, I know she has been through a lot, but she is the answer to my problem and knows Lily well enough to plant the seed.

"Fine, I will cook dinner, and we can discuss it, I hope she will agree," luci finally says after a longer than usual pause. "Thank you, Luci,". I'm left with Arlo as luci goes off to start some work. "So, Arlo, how are you feeling?" he looks at me confused, It's not that I don't like him, I just don't know him well enough to know if we have anything in common.

"I'm well, now that Luci is doing better. I almost lost her, and I was helpless. " He begins to break down in front of me. I place my hand on his shoulder. "Dude, she is one tough cookie. When she first moved to the house, we had an incident when I found her hours later at a cave freezing cold and pale. I carried her back, put her in front of the fire, kept her warm, and she woke. She doesn't mean to do these things to herself it just happens. She's just lucky to have people around to care for her. "

Arlo looks up to me. "That was her?' he says, shocked. "What do you mean that was her?" I ask in wonder what he was meaning. " I was walking along the beach that day and I saw a girl run past me, I remember saying to myself why doesn't she have any warm clothes on?. I see her go through the water and run up a path out of sight, so I continued to walk home". I pat his back. "You wouldn't have known, you done nothing wrong. You feel responsible because you know her now and her history. "

I reassure him that everything is fine and he begins to settle. He really isn't coping well with what happened at New years. His body filled with guilt that it's pulling him apart. "Arlo, stop feeling guilty, what happened is over and she is alive, please man she needs a you and you her, be strong for each other". He looks up to me and shakes my hand. "Thanks, you're right. I have to be strong," and he leans in to hug me.

"Oh man, what did I miss?" Luci says, and she walks around the corner to the lounge room. I smile at her and walk away. My phone begins to ring, it's Lily. "Hey baby." "Hey babe," she says, her voice soft, "We are having dinner at Luci's tonight. Meet me here ok" The call goes silent, and I hear her talking to someone in the background. "Sorry colin, someone walked into my office, Ok sure I will meet you at Luci's. I love you." And the line closes.

I walk back into the room to find them both gone. I walk outside and begin my daily duties. Today, I am going to pull out the old flowers from the garden bed and plant new ones alongside an herb garden, Luci likes cooking, and I think she will really like fresh ingrediencies. "Colin!" I hear my name, so I turn my head to see Elliot standing there. "Hey man, I thought you went back to the city with Anna?" I say while shaking his hand. He looks over at the house. I follow his eyes to see Luci in her bedroom with her shirt off.

I look back down and continue to garden, "So Elliot, What are you doing here still?" I ask again, trying to get him to look at me. "Anna had to start work and I don't really have to be at the office so I told her I was going to stay a few days more and meet her in the city." Anna is probably thinking the worst because he didn't go home with her, given she now knows their history, I bet she's worried as well.