Giving Up

Chapter 1 part 2

Lillie put her car in the parking lot of her apartment building, climbed out, and grabbed her bags. She was so happy to be home. She walked up the stairs of her building to her second story apartment, turned the key in the door, and dropped her bags on the living room floor. "Here Kitty!" Lillie HATED cats, but ended up gaining custody of one, and she was starting to like her a little. "Miss Kitty, come here girl." Lillie took the cat from a friend of hers because her friend's daughter was allergic. The cat had already been named, and Lillie didn't have the heart to change it, although she found it to be ridiculous.

When the cat appeared, Lillie made sure she had fresh food and water, cleaned the litter box, and went to unpack her stuff from the weekend. She still couldn't get over that jerks comment. Pulling out her cell phone, she clicked on Kay's picture and the phone began to ring in her ear. "Hey Kay, just wanted to call and let you know that I made it home. I'm going to go jump in the shower and do a few things around the house, so I will just try calling you later. Love ya, bye." With her message left for her best friend, she went straight to the shower, and cranked the radio in her bathroom. Lillie showered until the water went cold.

"Well it's midnight, damn right, we're wound up too tight" As Lillie heard the Nickelback song start to play; she wrapped up in a towel and tried to get to her phone before it stopped. The caller ID said unknown caller. "Hello? May I help you?" but she heard silence in the background. "Hello? Who's calling?" She could hear heavy breathing in her ear. "Listen here pervert, say something, or don't fricken call me!" As she went to hang up the phone she heard a deep voice say "You better watch yourself." Lillie just laughed it off, because she didn't know why anyone would talk to her like that. She hadn't done anything to piss anyone off.

Lillie walked into work the next morning, and her coworker James was standing there next to her desk. "It's about time you come back from vacation Lilly Pad. I couldn't handle holding down the fort without you." Lillie worked at a hospital switch board. She answered and transferred all calls that came into the hospital. She enjoyed her job because it gave her plenty of time to study for her nursing classes, and she enjoyed working with James.

James was not a bad looking guy, but he wasn't exactly attractive either. He was about the same height as Lillie, a few pounds more than her, and he had a lot of acne scars. Lillie enjoyed working with James, but didn't know if anything would ever become more than that. She just wasn't sure they had enough in common. That and she could never tell if James was gay or straight.  "Jamie, I am glad to be back at work, and I am sure you did just fine without me. Now what did I tell you about calling me Lilly Pad?" Lil laughed. Ever since the first day she trained James, he had called her Lilly Pad, so she started calling him Jamie. He HATED being called Jamie from anyone else, but he allowed it from her.

James glanced at Lillie. He noticed that she had gotten her nails done, her hair seemed a shade lighter, and he loved the way she smiled. James didn't have the confidence to ask her out, but he thought she was beautiful. She had blue eyes that sparkled when she laughed, and a smile that could light up the room. He enjoyed every minute he worked with her, but he could never tell her that because he was pretty sure she saw him as some geeky coworker and nothing more. "So, Lilly Pad how was your vacation?"

Lillie looked over at James, let out a loud sigh, and sat down at her desk. "It was nothing special. The first two days I stayed home cleaning and rearranging my apartment, and the last two days I went home to that dreaded town I grew up in." James had often heard Lillie complain about the small northern town she grew up in, and he knew right where it was. He was raised in the next town over. Right when he went to say something to her about feeling her pain, her cell phone rang.

Lillie looked at her phone, unknown caller. Not this again, she thought. "Hello?" and once again, she heard someone breathing. "If you're just calling to breathe in my ear and make threats again, forget it, you don't scare me." Right as Lillie went to end the call, James grabbed her phone. "HELLO?" He shouted into the phone. "Stop calling this number! Leave my Lilly Pad alone or I swear to God...." Lillie grabbed the phone back from James and ended the call. "What the hell do you think you are doing Jamie? If they didn't know my name before, they do now! It is probably just some punk making prank calls!" Lillie turned the power off on her cell phone and turned to her computer. She logged into the work system and started taking calls for the day. She tried her hardest to ignore James, and everything else around her.