All I Want

CHAPTER 9: There's More

How she would have killed for a slap from Athena right about now. Death would have been far more cruel; death by a blunt sword. Two days ago when Lily caught her and Dennis on the verge of fornication, she was caught by something far worse than surprise. Wasn’t Lily supposed to be in hospital? And, had she been released, wasn’t she supposed to be in some kind of lunatic asylum or something? What the hell was she doing at a club… and why at that exact time?

‘She doesn’t want to see you,’ Kyle Walker said decisively to her. Heather begged for just a minute with Lily but Kyle held his stance. When she was getting discharged, Lily had cried to the doctors and nurses not to take her back home; she couldn’t go back home; not to Don and Kara. Kyle, being her shrink, offered to take her in but only for a few days. Only until the issues between Lily and her family could be figured out and settled.

‘You should leave,’ Kyle said.

Heather sneered at him but let it drop as soon as it forged itself. ‘Okay,’ she said, ‘I’ll leave. But please tell her that I’m sorry, okay? Tell her that if she just gave me a minute to explain…’

Kyle’s stare was studious and firm, almost intimidating. However, when he heard how distressed Heather was, his stance was tested. Sure, he was curious as to what Heather could have done to Lily, but he was also certain that he didn’t want to know. The past two days Lily spent crying and keeping to herself and though he was supposed to make her speak to him, Kyle refrained from asking what upset her this time. When she was ready, he figured, she would say it.

Slowly moving aside, he said, ‘You have a minute, and then you have to leave.’ Heather almost smiled as she brushed past him and walked into the house. Of course being the daughter of an ambassador meant that not everyone had a house as big as hers, but this one was impressive nonetheless.

The corridors were narrow, lit only by dim yellow lights on the walls. Here and there on the walls were a few portraits; some original paintings, others poor copies. The place could almost pass for a poor man’s gallery.

Lily’s makeshift room was nothing like Heather pictured. It was a typical guest room, en suite and all. After a deep breath and a minute of staring at the plain black door, Heather turned the glass knob, letting herself in.

‘Lily,’ she said softly, prompting Lily to turn around with a deadly scowl on her face. In a flash, the latter grabbed the vase by the bedside and without a qualm, pitched it straight at Heather’s face. Luckily – or unluckily – Heather moved just in time to save her face, but her shoulder wasn’t so lucky.

‘I thought I told you to stay out of my life,’ said Lily, incensed.

‘Lily, just listen to me…’

‘Listen to you…? Listen to you like I did when you swore to help me? How do I know you’re not just lying to me like you always do?’

‘Lily, what are you talking about? Is this about the other night, because…’

‘I don’t care about the other night!’ she yelled, rage oozing from every inch of her. ‘At least not when there are so many other things going wrong with my life.’ Then, out of the blue, Lily dropped back onto the bed and began to cry. “Why?” she thought of asking. Why did Heather lie to her? Why did she give her one thing and claim it was another? Was suicide on Lily’s part the intention from the start? If so, again, why? ‘Just leave, Heather,’ Lily said through her tears. ‘Get out. I don’t ever want to see you again.’

Coming here was meant to loosen the noose around her a bit but Heather only got confusion. As she left, though, it occurred to her that Lily knew. She knew everything about the drugs, about their effects. Suddenly her little exploits with Dennis didn’t feel so significant.