Chapter 26 - Gen 1 - Lilly

~Kiss Me Slowly ~


There is kind of an unwritten rule in this house, if the bathroom door is closed then the bathroom is occupied, if the door is open then its unoccupied.  The door is wide open so I presume it's empty and just walk straight in - instantly regretting it.  The sight and sound of Lilly on all fours head down the toilet and throwing her guts up is not a pretty sight.

"Oops sorry!!"  I start laughing at her even though I shouldn't  "Hang over!!!"

"MANGO!!"  she growned at me between bouts of throwing up.

I started to brush my teeth while Lilly carried on throwing her guts up.   She groaned and stood up wiping her mouth then started moaning about how much she hates being sick

"Well that will teach you for drinking too much won't it!!"  She came over to me and I hugged her still laughing  "You must have passed out properly last night you actually slept in your own bed all night."  Last night had been the first night in months that she hadn't woken me during the night climbing into my bed after one of her nightmares.

I'm a little surprised to find her whispering in my ear  "I missed you last night, did you miss me?"  It's not so much what she said but how she said it - now what did she go and do that for?  I'm confused enough already without her making it worse!!

 I step back and she has a look on her face I've only seen once before, I'm beginning to wander if she is still a little intoxicated.  Her head starts to come towards me slowly, I'm not quite sure if she is planning on kissing me or if she is just swaying in my direction, then her arm goes round me pulling me towards her.  Damn!!!  And she says my timing stinks!!!  She is going to kiss me, her lips are virtually touching mine and all I can think about is her throwing up only minutes before.

 I stepped backwards away from her "Stop!!"

"What?!"  she looked at me a little hurt and confused

"I'm sorry!!!  You need to brush your teeth, puke and stale booze don't really mix well together."   The look on her face ......... now I've gone and upset her, but no more than I've upset myself having to stop her from kissing me when I've waited berry knows how many years for just that to happen.

"I'm Sorry I didn't think!!"  she said looking at the floor uncomforably.

I needed to get out of here, so turned to walk out of the bathroom but she stopped me.  "Have you seen the mixologist at the dive bar with the scars all over her face?"  she asked

I know instantly who she is talking about.  The mixologist has some really nasty scars on her face and I've often wanted to ask her how they happened but thought it too rude to ask.

"Yes, the blue and brown girl, she's worked there for months why?"

"Do you know her only she is really bugging me she seems familar but I don't know why, I feel like I know her even though I haven't seen her before."

I don't know her, I don't even know her name as I've never treated her as a patient.   I don't know why Lilly thought she might know her.  My mind is not really interested in the mixologist, I needed to get away, to put some space between us so that I could get my head straight.

Lilly has really been confusing me lately and now the episode in the bathroom has made it worse.  She has been changing slowly over the time that she has been here and I'm really not sure what it means, I think I might know but then I think it's my imagination and its just wishful thinking.  She is a lot happier these days and I think she is slowly starting to forget Cosmic, she never mensions him anymore, she has put away his photograph and she no longer visits the graveyard.  It's the little things that she does that confuse me.  Like calling me honey or sugar sometimes, something I don't even think she realizes she is doing herself.  She talks a lot in her sleep and quite often she tells me she loves me, but she's asleep, and she never says it when she is awake.

She is slowly filling up the house with painting of me, I would go as far as to say she has become a little obsessed.  It seems like every time I get home from work another painting with my face on it has appeared, none of them I've posed for, she says she is painting them out of her head.  Some of the painting are damn near perfect, how does she remember every little detail of my face ...... which makes me wander if she really does love me after all.

but I could never be that lucky!!

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I've had Caramel distracting Lilly for a few hours so that I could get my new piano delivered and the old one brought to the meadow.  I had wandered what I am going to do with the old one until Lilly gave me an idea.  I sit impatiently playing while I'm waiting for her to arrive.

After a short time I heard Lilly laughing behind me.

She didn't say anything at first she just sat down and watched me playing.

"Why on earth would you bring your piano out here??"  she asked looking at me, I just grinned at her

"You said you wandered what it would be like to play out here  - so knock yourself out - it's all yours"  I waved towards the keys and sat back resting my hands on my legs.

"You are an idiot sometimes, you know that don't you!!" we both started laughing as she started to play.  She's actually getting pretty good at playing the piano, it took me ages to teach her how to read sheet music, then the notes on the piano keyboard but she eventually got it and now all she needs is practice.   After a few minutes I joined in and we played the music together.

We played for hours and we did a lot of laughing, mainly at her mistakes.  She doesn't feel the music like I do, she needs to concentrate and there is only so long that she can concentrate properly for.  She starts to get tired then makes mistakes and that's when she starts to get ratty.  The lid slamming starts when she gets ratty and frustrated at the mistakes she's making - she stops laughing, she starts frowning, now's about the time I need to remove my fingers before she breaks them.

"I can feel some lid slamming coming on, I'm a surgeon and need my fingers remember."  I said as I pulled my hands away, her fingers also left the piano keys as she looks at me and smiles.

 I stood up grabbing her hand  "Come, I want to show you something."  she got off the piano stool and started to follow me but she was dragging her feet a little.

"Are you just going to leave your piano there?"  she asked which kind of tickled me like I could just pick it up and put it in my pocket. 

"Yes, unless you think you are strong enough to carry it on your own - it took 5 men to get it here!!"   she just looked at me like she is just realising what she had said   "Don't worry, I never did like it being so dark, I had a new one delivered earlier it's a lot brighter."

I led her to the bench and we sat down.  I sat waiting for her to say something, but she didn't, I'm not sure she has even noticed what I've done.  The pond lights over the years have slowly one by one stopped working and it seemed such a shame so I had them replaced with new ones.    


"Do you like them??"  I asked her when she said nothing "I had them changed"

"Whatever did you do that for?"  she said  "You know removing all traces of purple from the world is not going to make any difference don't you!!  Im beginning to worry I'll come home one of these days and find you have painted both of my brothers a different colour!!!" 

That kind of upset me - yes I guess that is what she would think - but that is not the reason why I changed them because of their colour, I never even knew they were purple until she just said, I changed them because most of them no longer worked any more.

I used to love this place when I was young we used to think it was a magical place with the lilly pads that used to light up the water when it was dark..  I used to sneak here with my friends even though my parents didn't allow it.  When my parents caught us coming here to swim without adult supervision I got grounded for a month.

Lilly's phone started to ring, she just sat there like she wasn't hearing it and showed no indication that she is going to answer the call.

"Are you not going to answer that?  It could be important"

"No..... I've ...... errr ...... started getting those silent phone calls again."   I felt like I had just had a punch in the stomach, I sat bolt upright in a panic.

"Why in Berry's name didn't you tell me!!!  Since when - when did they start again??" 

"Last night, Prelude is getting them too."   I closed my eyes while my brain started doing sumersaults, why on earth had she said nothing, would she have told me about the silent calls if I hadn't been here to watch her ignore her call???  I wandered how long it is going to be before I start getting those damn awful text messages again??  Why does this have to start again??!!

"First thing tomorrow I'm getting you a new phone and we are going to the police straight away this time, you can argue all you like  - I'm doing it whether you like it or not!!!"

She didn't argue with me she just nodded.

"Please Mango - can we not talk about this right now!!"  she said suddenly

"Lilly you know you can't just sweep this under the carpet, what if ....."

"NO!!!! DON'T SAY IT!!!!" suddenly she jumped up off the bench and started running

I got up and started to run after her, I grabbed her and brought her to a halt where she just crumpled into a heap on the grass.   I pulled her towards me and just held her.  "Ok - Ok - I'm sorry, but I'm NOT letting anyone else fade, I will be doing something about it tomorrow!!!"  I told her and just held her while she cried herself out.  I hated it - no doubt she is crying over him again - it's been two years I'd hoped she would have stopped this by now.  Every time I think we are getting somewhere then with one kick I have my legs knocked from underneath me again.

"I'm sorry - I don't mean to keep hurting you, I will get over it one day!!"  She said like she had just been reading my thoughts. 

"I know"  I said half heartedly, I wanted to get away from this conversation it has already started to irritate me and Berry help me if she mentions his name ........... 


"I will honestly, but I don't know why you put up with me!!"

"You know why!!"  I said as I thought of the perfect distraction  "Let's go swimming!!"  

Lilly started to protest mubbling something about a swimming costume  "We don't need one - it's not like I've never seen you in your underwear before!!"

 
I scrambled to my feet and started to take my clothes off, I am pretty surprised that she started to do the same without any more moaning, I had thought for a minute I would be going swimming alone.

 "You know I'd rather fade myself than lose you!!" 

I swept her up into my arms and started laughing  "You best not be throwing me into that pond!!"  she must have read my mind again because that had been my first intention, but on second thoughts I thought better of it -  it's been years since I've been in that pond, I dread to think what might be lurking about in there now.

The water isn't as cold as I thought it might be, I lowered her gently into the water.  She started to pull the strangest faces and I could tell she is moving her feet about on the floor of the pond.  I found myself wanting to kiss her, we are far too close and our arms are around each other. 

I started to lean in to kiss her.

STOP - STOP - STOP

I have to keep repeating over and over to myself in my head.  I swore I would never make the first move - I don't want her blaming me when everything including our friendship falls apart because I've started something that I shouldn't have - she has to start it or I'll never know if it's what she really wants.

I felt her arm go around my waist and I suddenly jerked towards her as she pulled me in even closer.  Suddenly she is there her lips are pressing down on mine, the initial shock made me freeze for a second then I closed my eyes as we started to kiss each other slowly.

I always knew if this happened I would never be able to control myself, the slow kissing is no longer slow, it's getting quited heated then she wrapped her legs around my waist, she is driving me crazy with the way she is kissing me.  I move us to the edge of the pond and lifted her out onto the grass and climbed out myself.  She grabbed my hand to help me and pulled me so I tumbled onto the grass beside her where she instantly started to kiss me again .........  there is only one place that this is going .........

Waking up in the meadow on the damp grass with the morning sun, I wondered for a moment if it hadn't all been just some mad dream until she wrapped her arms around me and started to kiss me again, reassuring me that it had all been real and it was no mad dream even though it felt like one to me.

The switch from friends to lovers seemed so natural, there was no awkwardness, we didn't even talk about it, we just got on with it and it felt so right to me.

I couldn't sleep, something Lilly had said while we were in the meadow keeps bouncing around inside my head and it won't go away.  Prelude is getting the silent calls.  Why?

"Lilly you need to wake up!!"  I started to shake her gently

"What's wrong?"  she said as she sat up rubbing her eyes

"You said something in the meadow about Prelude getting silent calls."  she nodded  "Well why would Prelude be getting them?"

It doesn't make any sense to either of us for Prelude to be getting the silent calls, he didn't get them before and he doesn't know Lime, so why would he be getting them now?  I suddenly began to feel very uneasy.

"Mango, why have your eyes gone a funny colour?"  she asked me while we were slow dancing.

"They messed up my prescription, I've had clear contact lenses for years and some idiot decided to mess up and do me awful coloured ones instead, I would never have known if my Mom hadn't been the one who picked them up for me, she noticed that they were coloured.  I've only got to put up with them until tomorrow, I'm fetching my correct prescription in the morning."

"So you can just get coloured contact lenses if you want them?"

"Yes any colour you want, I always have clear ones, I'm really not sure why anyone would want to change their eye colour."

Lilly suddenly went into a flap, letting go of me and treading on my foot in the process.

"OH BERRY!!!  That's how she's done it!!"  Lilly started rambling

"Who??"

"I need to go ......."  she said as she started to run towards the door

"Go where?"  I shouted after her but she didn't answer me

Before I knew it she had ran out of the house, I called after her again but she didn't stop.  I really don't want her out there alone especially not now that the silent calls have started again.  I scrambled to get my shoes back on so that I could run after her, but by the time I ran outside she is already out of sight.

I don't have a clue where she has gone or why?

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Song:  Kiss me Slowly - Parachute

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You might recognize parts of this chapter - this is the flip side of Lilly's dream in chapter 16, hense why I have used the same song.