Payback [ON HOLD]

Chapter 9

     It'd been two months since the disastrous event that took place at the sleepover, and Lillian and Grace avoided each-other like the plague, no matter how hard the others — especially Jessica — begged them to stop being so dramatic and just work it out, then be best friends again. But it really wasn't that simple anymore, no matter how much the rest of the girls desperately wanted to believe it. Timothy kind of saw it too, though he — like the others — knew nowhere near the full story.

     It'd been coming on for a while now, honestly. It wasn't even really about Timmy, though that'd kinda been the start of the last straw. Though their friendship had been super fun-filled, neither had been very honest with each-other during it. Lilly now knew that Grace's mother didn't hate her or anything to do with her at all. Apparently there had been many miscommunications between the mother and daughter, such as Olivia's being kicked out of the house: Mrs. Marla had said something similar in frustration because the cat hadn't been fixed, and was doing some very unpleasant things around the house. But that was a whole other story.

     The only thing that really bothered Lillian now about all this was... how terribly she'd acted acted toward someone she'd called her friend, and how terribly that very same friend had treated her. After their little sleepover nightmare, they'd had a few accidental meetings, and neither could seem to help but talk about it. One about making amends, the other saying she wanted to move on from her clearly toxic ex-friend while calling her out on sins she'd never actually committed. In Lilly's perspective, that is. And the one trying to truly make amends? She bore the scorn and agreed to every insult to herself, just so maybe the other would see how hard she was trying. But... she didn't. So Lilly ran.

     At this point, two months later, Lillian both desperately wished to have one of her very best friends back AND preferred to forget she'd ever existed, to avoid the pain like the wimp she was.

     "Lill," Timothy whispered in her ear, nudging her shoulder with his.

     "Huh?" She mumbled, trying to push back the depression she'd been attempting to sort through.

     "Are you okay?" he asked, his brow puckered with concern, which made her want to reach up and smooth it out with her fingers. But in the school cafeteria? Hmmm, hard pass.

     "Hey, boy, we only let you sit with Lilly because you gave our girl a ring. If you're going to sit here, mushy stares are forbidden," Dakota informed him crossly. But her smile gave her away. As did the other girls' smiles as they nodded their agreement.

     "What? That wasn't a 'mushy stare,' " Timothy protested, a bit too genuinely for Lilly's liking. "I was just making sure she was alright."

     "Okay, one, chill," Raelynn told him, "and two, of course she's not alright! Haven't you caught that by now? No girl would be okay with this. ON HER RING FINGER," she practically sang, snatching my hand and holding it up for him to examine, though he already knew what was there.

     The ring was rather simple, yet lovely in an almost fairytale-esque way. The band was some sort of silver-colored metal that glinted copper and florescent blue in the sun if you looked very closely. Two little spheres of the same metal framed the gem, one on wither side. And the gem? It didn't glitter like a diamond, but it was so beautiful. Its color was like an evergreen tree's, and it was opaque, which surprisingly added to the beauty of the color. There were also three lines of a slightly lighter green — one on a side, two on the other — that some would deem as imperfections, but Lillian adored. To her, it added something unique to the gem. She'd bet everything she had there wasn't another like it.

     And no, of course she hadn't been staring at it much. Why would you think that? Utterly ridiculous! ...And, of course, the narrator wasn't being sarcastic or anything.