Behind the Cherry Tree, A Not-So-Short Story

13. Collateral Damage

Well that worked. Not.

Will and I have been sitting in the park for about a hour and all that's happened is the rest of the guys have gossiped, taken their girlfriends for "walks" and gossiped more. Mike's here of course and my heart almost stopped when I first saw him upon arrival...

The guys were there with a few more girls around than usual, the distictive bruised appearance of hickies on the girls necks and the even more obvious mark of the guys arm around her waist claiming her as his. The girls are all friendly enough. Then there's Mike. He smiles and my heart flutters, my nerves almost instantly disappearing. He's alone.

"Where's Lily?" I ask.

"Oh, you know, she's somewhere." He says with a passe flicking gesture of his hand.

"Somewhere as in..."

"Right here." 

I turn to see Lily smiling at me.

"Have a good night last night?" She asks, her bitchy mouth pulled in a fake smile.

I want to slap that smile off her face so bad...

"Someone got... very lucky last night." She winks at me.

I stand there, jaw on the floor.

"What did you just say?" The words tumble from my mouth.

Some people have noticed what's going down, unfortunately Mike's not one of those people.

"I said," she began again, "someone got lucky last night. If you know what I mean." 

I've never wished so bad to be swallowed by the ground and or to hit someone so hard in my life. Until now. Until I met Lily. Mike's freaking girlfriend.

"No. I do not have a clue what you're talking about." I say after a deep breath. Will picks up on the tension.

"I'm sure you do." She says snidely, giving Will a once over and then looking back at me. 

Will moves closer to me automatically.

"Lily, what are you trying to say?" His eyes begging her to not say anything.

It's the huge elephant in the room. We all know what she's talking about. We all know that the other knows. Well, maybe Will doesn't know I know.

"I'm just saying that maybe some of us got a little bit of action last night? Had the time of their life last night." Now she's looking just at Will and I'm getting the feeling that this isn't directed at me anymore.

"Look here, Lily," Will begins vehemently, "just shut up, ok? Mel can barely remember last night and nothing happened anyway. So stop your insinuations, you're just making her worry."

"Oh I'm so very sorry that you think that, Will." Lily says, she can taste the victory. "If you think that that was nothing last night, then I'm indeed very sorry for you."

Will simultaneously goes blanch and blush with anger. If the situation hadn't been so tender I would have probably found this amusing.

"Lily, I don't know what the hell you're talking about so just stop being such a bitch, ok?"

"Mel!" Comes the familiar cry. Shit. Mike overheard that last bit. "What the hell! Don't call her a bitch!"

I just stare at him, gobsmacked. "Seriously, Mike? Seriously! There are so many girls are you chose her?"