Payback [ON HOLD]

Chapter 7

     "Whatcha doin'?" Dakota asked with a smirk, her pretty dirty blond curls bouncing slightly as she plopped down beside Lilly, who couldn't help but wonder how her best friend's nosiness so equally resembled her own.

     "Um... nothing...?" she said as she slowly raised the phone to Kota's eye level.

     A second later, she gasped and let out a silenced squeal. Ring? she mouthed, a huge grin on her face that mirrored Lillian's as she nodded.

     Naturally, this got the other girls' attention pretty quickly. Lilly was just thankful her sister Lizzy had left immediately after the ice cream was gone and wouldn't witness. Though... Calvin might tell—

     "What's up?!" Grace asked excitedly, plopping down on Lilly's vacant side (her left), and interrupting her thoughts. Lillian quickly put her phone out of Grace's reach and turned it off.

"No no, you're showing me whatever that was whether you want to or not," Grace said with a laugh, half-heartedly reaching for the phone while Lillian kept it safely out of reach.

"Sorry, not this time," Lilly told her with an admittedly smug grin. The girls did not need to know that her boyfriend had just agreed to get her a one-year-lasting (at least at the moment [DON'T JUDGE ME YOU GUYS] ) promise ring. Not that she expected them to know what that was. She was finding that most kids her age didn't know what a promise ring was, even though it was quite simple: a ring given to seal a promise of a person's love and commitment for the chosen amount of time. Usually forever. But Lilly wasn't gullible enough to trust that she'd be with Timmy forever, however much she wished it. She was very much aware that she was at an age where feelings could too easily change. Not that she was thinking of her own.

In fact, all her mind could really focus on at the moment was the ecstasy that came with the knowledge that Timothy was getting her a ring, and that everyone but Dakota had to stay out of the knowledge for a bit. At least, until 4am when everyone was delirious with nothing to do but mutter secrets back-and-forth with the other wakers.

As Lillian slowly came back to the present, she found everyone playing Minecraft. Heard something about someone falling into a floor of lava which was followed by groans and whiny protests from all but Jess, who was laughing maniacally. Not being the Minecraft type, and being too afraid to try her hand at it now while the people around her were literally screaming (Jessica still laughing), Lilly decided it would be better to watch some Miraculous Ladybug. Hating on Lila and Kagami always made her feel better. So she plugged in her earbuds, and watched Miraculous Ladybug episodes for the next hour-and-a-half. And was it satisfying? Yes, yes it was.

When the hour-and-a-half was up, all the girls got off screens, turned out the lights, and arranged their sleeping bags in a circle in the living room. It was time to drag out everyone else's deepest, darkest secrets.

And that's when it started. The reason all of them would lose months of sleep. It happened... tonight. Now.

The moment when Ria demanded details on Timothy's and her relationship, and Grace turned bright red, muttering with a very forced laugh, "Ohhh, so you're back together now? Since... when?"

"Since a few days ago," Lilly replied cautiously.

"Already? After he asked me out on a whim right after he broke your heart the first time?"" Grace asked, slightly colder.

The simple comment shattered more than half of her newly-formed faith in him, but she still said, "I trust him not to hurt me again. He- he was just on the rebound. And you—"

"Wait... so I was just supposedly his rebound comfort until he got over it and went back to you? Is that what you're saying, Lilly?"

"No, I—"

"Hey, no quarrels at the sleepover that will go down in history!" Jessica said, pushing her way between them.

"We're not quarreling," Grace told Jess coolly. "I just want to hear what Lilly thinks of me."

"Gracie," Lillian said desperately, getting almost irritated as she took her friend's hand and guided her up to the bedrooms, out of earshot of the others, "all I meant was he made a mistake, and now he's fixed it—"

"Mistake? Did you just call me a mistake? What the he—"

"Please no curses, Gracie. And that's not what I meant!"

"Don't call me Gracie right now. If that's really not what you meant, what did you mean, hm?"

Now, Lilly's eyes burned. "I just meant that he wouldn't hurt me again like that! Stop being such a drama queen!"

Grace looked stricken the same time Lilly covered her mouth, realizing what she'd just done. Her friend — very possibly former friend — looked as if she were about to retort to it, when Dakota came in and asked, "Are you guys okay?"

Instead of responding, Grace stormed downstairs, leaving Lillian alone with Kota.

"What happened?!" Dakota demanded to know.

But Lilly didn't know how to respond to that until almost 20 seconds had passed. Then all she said in a VERY small voice was, "I don't know, but... I messed up."

On the last word, her voice cracked and she started sobbing uncontrollably like she hadn't done in years.

It felt very, very embarrassing to cry in front of her best friend. But, however hard she tried, she couldn't stop herself. The hot tears continued to streak down her face and into the corners of her lips, where she tasted salt, and her nose ran in the most annoying, terrible way, because she knew trying to blow her nose now would be useless, since it would keep coming.

Dakota stood there awkwardly for a moment, seemingly unsure of what to do, when Jessica ran up the stairs, gasped at the scene, and pulled them into a group hug, which finally convinced Lilly to take her hands away from her mouth to soak up the comforting gesture.

What felt like a good sort of eternity later when the three finally broke apart, Jessica asked, "Lilly... why's Gracie saying she wants to go home? What happened?"

But all Lillian could do was mumble brokenly to herself, "What have I done?"