What Happens in L.A.

Chapter 7: Out

L

When you are in the middle of something you don't understand, you do things you don't understand. Lilly didn't understand why felt bad about declining Jayce, or why she had a sudden change of character. The more she thought about it, the more she walked away from the park. Her guilt matched her strides; long and seemingly immutable. She was not living the life she prided, and she hesitated every second of doing so. Lilly was an indecisive mess who believed she had a friend in Jayce, and she let him down.

Lilly phoned Sage as soon as she burst in the doors of her house. Her parents had left for work, so they weren't there to detect her anguish. It did not take long for Sage to be fiercely knocking on the door since the phone call mentioned her key word: Jayce.

"He asked me to pretend to be his girlfriend." Lilly didn't even start with the beginning of the story. She didn't plan to.

Sage's eyes widened in excitement. "Lilly you, fortune cookie! Do you know how many doors you just opened?"

"Yeah!" Lilly exclaimed. "By saying no." Her voice flat-lined. Sage was of course going to make her feel worst about this, but she was determined not to change her mind.

"Are you trying to land back in Compton?" Sage accused.

"Sage!" Lilly scolded. "We never lived in Compton! No where close! Stop trying to push things out of bounds. Jayce has nothing to do with my living situation. He never will."

Sage sealed her lips, then took a breath. "Anyways, I cannot believe you- of all people - did such a heartless thing. Why did he ask to pretend anyways? That makes saying no even worse. It would do you no harm."

"Well there's this video out and, he's kinda like on this rampage about something, and my name was mentioned. And you never know what can harm you with Jayce."

Sage ignored Lilly's last line. "Not that I'm against it, but why do you have to pretend to be his girlfriend for that?" Sage questioned in a calmer tone.

"Because." Lilly started. Sage kept silent as a signal for her to continue. "He was talking about sneaking up my window or something." A brief silence followed.

"Lilly."

"What?"

"I can't believe you won't help him out. All he was stating was a simple fairy-tale boy thing. It was a joke. He was joking, and the media took it and twisted it. I want you to go back, and reverse what you've done." Sage lectured. And like that of a young child, Lilly moused. She softly nodded her head, deciding Sage was right. What's wrong with Jayce wanting to be a hero?

The next day.

Lilly walked out to her car to head to Addilyn's house. She wanted to ask Addilyn what she thought about the whole situation, before she actually went through with it. She was a nervous wreak, knowing she was about to start her first adult relationship. Real or not, if Jayce kept climbing up the ranks people would be watching them intensely. And Lilly was one terrible actress.

She reached in her purse to apply some lipstick in the side-view mirror, because the mirror in the car was too awkwardly placed for her liking. The lipstick jumped out of her hand as soon as she took the top off, and rolled under the car.

"Oh no. . . I'm wearing a skirt and the lipstick just ran away from my hand!" Lilly exclaimed like the damsel in distress calling for a rescue. She laughed at her own humor. "I have on underwear, no one's out, so oh well." She got on her knees to retrieve the lipstick, and her hand was just a centimeter away. She flattened to reach under the car more, then heard light footprints. She hurriedly tried to emerge from the car, bumping her head.