Her Secret Garden

Chapter 5

Lilibeth’s head was swarming with questions, with things she wanted to say. How could Blaine be here? Where has he been? Why didn’t he come talk to me? Why is he ignoring me? She wanted to yell at him, scream at him, but she just sat there silently.

“Why are you being rude?” Tim asked. “At least say hi.”

“Hello,” Blaine said in an icy voice.

Lilibeth’s heart sank.  She felt like there was something grabbing her insides and squeezing them into a knot. She was sweating, but she felt cold, and she was shaking. Is that all you’re going to say? Lilibeth thought. She was angry. Why didn’t he say more?

“I’m sorry about him, he’s usually not this rude,” Tim said. “He’s just been a little down lately.” He shot a glare at Blaine.

“Come on guys, no fighting at the table,” Lucy said, trying to regain peace. She never liked conflict. “So Lilibeth,” Lucy said after eating a spoonful of potatoes, “how did you meet Hunter?”

“What?” Lilibeth said, she wasn’t paying attention to what Lucy was saying. “Oh, where we met. It was at school.”

“Oh, so have you met Victoria?” Lucy asked eagerly.

Lilibeth took a glance at Victoria, who had stopped in the middle of putting some green beans in her mouth, and she actually looked a little scared. It was obvious that Lucy and Tim didn’t know about her actions at school. Lilibeth paused for a moment, thinking about her response.

She wanted to say, “Oh yes, I’ve met Victoria. She only puts me down every day, making fun of me, telling me I’m worthless,” but she didn’t. Instead she said, “I may have seen her a few times around the school.”

“Oh, cool,” Lucy said, “maybe you guys can hang out more.”

“We really don’t see each other that much,” Victoria said bitterly.

“I’m sure you have plenty of time after school!” Lucy said joyfully, completely oblivious to the previous conflict the two girls have had in the past.

Victoria started to sweat a little because she knew she wouldn’t be able to come up with an excuse that Lucy would believe, she threw a panicked look at Lilibeth. Lilibeth almost thought that it was funny that the one who had been bulling was now in the hands of the one who had been bullied, had her thoughts not been preoccupied with Blaine sitting just a few feet away from her.

“Well?” Lucy asked.

Lilibeth really didn’t want to spend time with Victoria either, but for some reason that she almost felt guilty for, she liked watching her struggle. Lilibeth finally said, “I actually use that time for schoolwork.”

“I see,” Lucy said, “maybe some other time later on.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Lilibeth said.

They sat in silence for a few seconds, delicately placing food in their mouths. Even though Lilibeth’s mind was like a swarm of bees being disturbed by a bear breaking into their hive, she managed to speak.

“This food is really good, how did you make it?” she asked.

Lucy seemed happy that there was conversation again, she started to describe the process, but Lilibeth wasn’t actually paying attention, her mind was still swarming with the thoughts of Blaine. With all the things that she thought that could go wrong when she was walking here, Blaine being in the house didn’t even make it on the list. The betrayal she felt was crushing. She didn’t know who she was mad at more, Blaine or Hunter. On one hand Hunter didn’t only know about Blaine, he was related to him. On the other hand Blaine didn’t even take the time to mention to her that he was still alive. It was like he had dropped off the face of the earth. Lilibeth had lost her appetite, although she still managed to fork down the food. If she hadn’t have been so distracted by Hunter and Blaine she thought that she might actually enjoy the food. Lilibeth kept on trying to steal a glimpse of Blaine, but every time she looked he was merely staring down at his food, not really eating it.