Thin White Lies | a.i.

One

EIGHT YEARS AGO

Finally, Lily thought as she flopped back on her bed after a long ass day of high school. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself not to cry. It wasn't exacly a bad day, but it certainly hadn't been a good one. While her older brother, Luke was really cool at their school, the littler Hemmings wasn't quite as high on the social ladder. Which meant she was frequently picked on.

Whatever, Lily was fine.

She huffed quietly to herself, convincing herself that her homework could wait. She just wanted to stay lying on her bed, her feet still planted on her bedroom floor as she stared at her cieling.

The sound of her bedroom door being knocked on startled her slightly and the groaned at the thought of standing to answer it. She deffinately did not want to do that.

"Come in," she grumbled, deciding that whoever was at the door, could answer it for themselves. It was probably just her mother, Liz, or Luke.

"Hey, Lily," Michael Clifford peaked his head through the ever so slightly open doorway. Lily squealed, not realising that the person at the door would be one of her older brothers cute teenage friends. Sure, Lily was only fourteen, and Luke and his friends were sixteen, that didn't mean that Lily was blind. She knew what a cute boy was. And Luke just so happened to be friends with exactly two of them.

"Mikey!" She shrieked, throwing a cushion in the general direction of the doorway, before yanking on her school skirt as a way of covering her exposed legs up. If it had been Luke or her mother, she would not have cared less about her baby pink underwear being displayed, but Luke's older, cute best friend Michael, she was a little less okay with that.

"I'm sorry!" Michael shouted, slapping a hand over his eyes. "You said come in!"

"I thought you'd be mum!" Lily cried. "Or Luke!"

"I'm sorry!" Mike shouted once more.

Lily huffed like the little brat she knew she was. It wasn't his fault that she'd been lying there completely exposed. What could be done? All there was left to do was to try and move past the fact that Michael Clifford had seen her in her underwear without blushing furiously.

"What do you want Michael?" Lily whined, finally sitting up straight on her bed. Michael refused to look anywhere but her eyes, trying very painfully hard not to let his gaze wander toward her now covered thighs. It was sweet, really, but at the time, Lily's fourteen year old mind just thought the way he was staring into her soul was weird. She raised an eyebrow at the green haired boy, urging him to explain his surprise presence.

"Uh-" he stuttered. "Luke wanted to know if you wanna watch practice? There's a drummer trying out to be in the band today."

"A drummer?" Lily perked up at the boys words. She knew a little about her brothers band, 5 Seconds of Summer, but not as much as she'd like. She knew, however, that one: she was currently their biggest and only fan and two: they didn't have a drummer. "Wait," she squinted, "Luke wanted to know . . . or you did?"

"Jesus, Lily," Mike groaned, rolling his eyes. "Do you wanna come watch us play or not?"

Lily's eyes brightened. It wasn't every day Luke or his friends invited Lily to watch them rehearse. Luke always got really embarrased and ended up yelling at Lily to get out because her being there made him 'far less punk rock' than he wanted to be. It was no secret that Lily was the true embodiment of innocent, and Luke absolutely dispised that about her.

"God," he'd once said. "Do you every wear anything other than pink?"

"Hurry up!" Michael announced, turning back down the hall and toward the garage. "Before we change our minds."