Lucky 13

Chapter 23: Choices

Lily's POV

After that pretty violent scene, with Suzy and two guards, I was left wondering with one question: "What's number 13?" It's funny to see how scared Catherine and Esmee got, as if I had learned something I wasn't supposed to. "Well?" I crossed my arms, I wasn't going to let this one go.

Catherine sighed, she seemed to realize she better be honest now. "Come." She took my hand and pulled me with her to her office. 

Esmee followed us but Catherine stopped her from entering her office. Esmee got the hint and just stayed behind in her office.

"Take a seat," Catherine walked around her desk and sat down at the chair behind it. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"Yeah," I took a seat in front of her. "But what did she mean with number 13?"

Catherine sighed. "I'm not proud of it," She paused. She put her hands on her desk, intertwining her hands. "Suzy wasn't my first girlfriend..."

"I figured."

She looked at her hands. "She was my 12th girlfriend."

My eyes widened, I gulped. 12 girlfriends... "So number 13..."

Catherine looked up at me. "She accused you of being my 13th girlfriend."

I didn't know what to say to that. Part of me felt like blushing, people actually thought Catherine and I would make a couple. Part of me was curious, how would a relationship with Catherine be? A relationship with one of them...

"Of course that's nonsense..."

I looked at Catherine, right in the eyes.

"Right?" She asked, leaving the question hanging in the air. It was clear to me that she saw something between us, but did I see that? Getting involved with one of them... My family would murder me.

"Is Suzy a human?" I changed the subject a bit, I was wondering about that.

"Yes," Catherine leaned back, creating distance between us. "Why?"

I scooted closer, I don't know why. "How does it work? A relationship between a human and..." I stopped, looking for the right term. "Well, one of your kind."

Catherine shrugged. "Just like any other relationship, I assume." She looked at me, once again her eyes changed. "Why are you wondering about that?"

I shrugged. "I was just wondering."

Catherine nodded but I could see she was amused by my reaction. "Anyway I hope everything's cleared out."

I nodded. "Yeah, thanks."

She nodded and started taking her papers to resume working but, when she noticed I wasn't leaving, put it all aside again to give me her full attention. "Why did you come here actually?"

I gulped. "I'm torn," I looked down, fidgeting with my fingers. "I feel like... Like something in me changed as I've gotten to know you and Esmee." I looked back up and saw Catherine motion something to something behind me.

I turned around, seeing Esmee enter the office. She walked to us and took a seat next to me.

"You don't mind that she's here, right?" Catherine asked.

I shook my head, it's good that she's here.

"Ok, continue."

I gulped again. "My family is so desperate to kill all of you, their main goal is freeing this world from people like you two." I looked down. "It disgusts me," There I said it! "I hate them for saying those things, I want to scream in their faces about how wrong they are. I want to tell them how not every one of your kind is bad. I want to make them realize that hate got the better of them." I gulped. "I want to tell them how much you two mean to me."

They said nothing. I felt their stares on me, I knew they heard me, but they remained silent. I wondered if they thought different of me now after this confession. I guess they didn't expect this.

"I love my family, I couldn't live without them, I admire them all and I'll always cherish the moments I had with them." I looked up at them, Catherine in particular. "But I can't look away anymore. You two mean a lot to me," I then looked at Esmee. "I'd never hurt any of you, I'd help you escape over and over if I could." I then looked at Catherine again. "But I can't be on both sides, it's simply not how our world works." I then looked down, tears leaving my eyes. "What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know," Catherine started, making me look at her. "Only you know what you want and what's important to you."

Esmee reached for my hand, holding it in hers. "We know you've gotten values and rules from your family, and we don't want to take those away."

"Absolutely not," Catherine went on. "Your parents raised you with the values they thought were important. What you should do is look within yourself what values you think are important to keep."

I slowly nodded, it makes sense to do that. But it wasn't going to be easy. "I know what I want," I sighed. "But my family wouldn't want me near them if I did what I want."

Catherine looked down. "I'm sorry."

Esmee nodded. "It's a difficult situation indeed. I know that we can't tell you what to do, nor do we want to do that." She paused. "But the way I see it, you have two choices. Choice number 1: you stay with your family, keeping them happy but no contact with our kind. Choice number 2: you risk getting the best of both worlds, keeping you happy but might destroy the tight relationship you have with your family."

"It might destroy you as well." Catherine went on. She then sighed. "Lily," She reached for my hand and finally held it. I don't know what it is with her but I felt safe with her, I felt safe with one of them. "I love being with you, we love having you here as our friend," She sighed. "But we don't want to make things difficult for you."

Esmee nodded in agreement.

"Go back to your family, be with them. It's what you've always known, it's what you're used to."

"But what about you?" I looked from Catherine to Esmee, back to Catherine.

"We'll be fine," Esmee smiled reassuringly at me. "Don't worry about us."

I looked down. They were giving me the easy way out, but was I going to take it?