The Smell of Lilies

Chapter 24

It's 9:23 p.m.

Brandon has been sitting in his truck across the street from Kel's house for twenty minutes, trying to put together the proper words to make proper sentences. He heeded his mother's warning, but just made things overly complicated. He felt silly and juvenile, rehearsing lines to say to her, as if he were some love sick sixteen year old.

Maybe this whole rehearsing his lines thing was just a way for him to stall. Was he stalling?

Fuck it, I am.

Two more minutes. He'd give himself two more minutes to cool down before he went up there.

He peered over to her driveway and saw a small black Honda parked where his truck had been previously.

That could be Craig's car.

He was out of the truck before the two minutes had even started.

Suddenly he was at her back door. With a long breath in, he rang the doorbell.

Be a man.

It wasn't Kel who opened the door though, which through him off completely. He recognized the small woman with the dark bob hair as Leila. She had on pink pajamas and fuzzy socks. Her hair looked wind blown, and she wore large, round sun glasses. He could see one of her eyebrows was raised, peeking over the rims.

"Don't speak," she said, holding a hand in front of him. "I have a massive hangover and loud noises hurt."

"Is Kel here?"

Leila's face scrunched. "What did I just say? And maybe she is, maybe not. What's it to you?"

Brandon spoke softer. "I need to speak with her."

"Why?"

"Because..." Brandon didn't really feel like pouring his heart out to Leila, especially in the condition she was in, and most likely Kel was in too.

"While you continue to search for the answer, let me just tell you something," Leila's voice grew more sinister as she spoke. "She trusted you. She fucking trusted you and you knew, you knew, how much you meant to her. And then you exploded and just drove away."

It was true. Every word.

"I didn't mean -,"

"Shh," Leila interrupted, waving her hand in front of him. "I'm not done. Do you know how much shit that woman has been through? She already had her feelings destroyed once this week, and you had the fucking nerve to do that exact same thing to her. Well listen here, buddy. There had better be a real good goddamn reason why your back standing on this porch. Because I'm the one who cried with her and I'm the one who pretended your head was a bowling ball and I'm the one who needs to hear your reason for standing here before I let you come in this house."

Brandon's eyebrows were up to his hairline. And then he heard Kel's voice from inside. She was talking to someone. It was muffled and distant, but he could hear her. The voice he'd fallen so deeply in love with.

Now it's easy.

"I'm in love with your sister," he confessed. "She's the best thing that's ever happened to me."

Leila reached to take her sunglasses off. Her normally big eyes were red and harsh. She searched him for any indication that he could just be yanking her chain. She found none.

Her expression softened and she stepped back. "Come in."

Brandon stepped into the kitchen and could see the back of Kel's head sitting on her couch in the living room. Some guy was sitting next to her. They were watching the Broncos and Patriots game.