Three Brothers (Completed)

Mending Fences

That summer there had been a hole in the fence surrounding the pool. This is important because being young and stupid we weren't very smart with that hole. We used it to get rid of garbage we didn't want to walk all the way to the garbage can to throw out. Nothing too environmentally unsound, normal things like torn wristbands, gum, the odd rock we found on the deck, you know pool hazards.

Now I had a late shift that day, which meant that I started at four thirty instead of twelve and I had been both excited and nervous for it. It was the first shift I'd have with Lily after the incident, and I was sort of hoping that I could either convince her to try and date me, or maybe get her to talk to James who was still sulking and still very, very mad at me.

Imagine my surprise when Lily wasn't there and someone was fixing the hole in the fence. It was more surprising to see someone fixing the fence, nothing ever got done during the summer, and we had been complaining about that hole for months now. I had gotten there early, so maybe she was still on her lunch break but I found out something very disturbing.

I can only tell you what my coworkers told me. Lily had been cleaning up the garbage as per the usual, because she was one of the only guards who actually did that without being asked to do it, when she had decided to just drop a few of the things she had collected through the hole. At the same time, Patrick had been playing this game he called Lawn Chess, which involved throwing blocks of wood at other blocks of wood.

He had lightly bounced the block and it ricocheted, quite dramatically for only a light toss, at Lily who had her hand through the gap in the fence. The block hit her arm and of course she then got her arm impaled upon with the green wiring that made up the fence's perimeter. Lily had been bleeding profusely, and pretty worried about having to get a tetanus shot, so my boss had sent her home.

My response to this story was to immediately worry, under the surface of course because I didn't want any of my coworkers figuring out I STILL held the torch for Lily. I sent a text to James, who had the day off, and asked if he'd be comfortable going over to Lily's house to see if she was alright.

I thought he wouldn't want to go, but when I got off at eight that night, he came and picked me up and together the two of us went over to Lily's. Lily greeted us at the door, a big white bandage around her arm, she looked shy and nervous and I didn't blame her. "Hey guys, I guess you heard what happened?"

"Yeah, you okay?" James asked. Lily nodded and an awkward silence ensued.

I cleared my throat, and avoided eye contact. "I feel really bad about what happened," I finally managed to spit out.

Lily wouldn't look at either of us now, but James nodded with me. "Yeah, I said some pretty bad things to you, things I really regret."

Lily nodded. "It's alright, I probably deserved it," she said meekly.

James shook his head. "Stop it Lily, we were jerks to you, stop just taking it and be angry at us for treating you so badly."

Lily looked up surprised, and then slowly her face grew red. "You're right, Royce, you did everything possible to ruin the relationship I had with your brother and for what? Are you happy now?" I shook my head and Lily continued, "And James, REALLY? That's why Connor doesn't like me? Why would you say that to me?" Both me and James hung our heads with shame. "For two people who claim to like me so much, you sure have a horrible way of showing it."

"I don't like you. I don't get attached to people, you were nothing but a bit of fun," James growled. He took in Lily's unimpressed glare and changed his tune. "Look, I know there is a lot to work on, and a lot to forgive, but that doesn't mean that we can't still be friends, the three of us. We can work this out, can't we?"

We stood therestaring at each other, daring one of us to say no. Instead Lily said: "Sure,why not?" We all gathered around for a group hug, but things never did getworked out, in fact things changed drastically, almost overnight.