Chapter 1: Disturbed Dreaming
I was dreaming. And I knew it. I knew it because, well, I just knew it. There was no real explanation to it. This dream was the craziest dream of my life.
I'm sixteen and I'm an innocent girl. The skater chick, the funny one, the one with the double life as Lola Lufnagle. As I said before, I'm an innocent girl. I don't have anything to hide, or share that's inappropriate. Or wrong or gross or anything. I'm just normal. Smiley faced, etc. I'm Lilly Truscott. And I was dreaming. Dreaming isn't wrong or anything. But, depending on the dream, it's not right either. I was having a sexual dream. It disturbed me in every way. Quickly, I awoke myself. Shooting up in my bed, breathing heavily. My eyes were still shut, I refused to open them. I waited.
"Lilly, are you alright?" Came a familiar voice. I very carefully opened my eyes. My best friend, Miley Stewart, who also had a double life as Hannah Montana (teenage pop sensation) was looking at me concerned from across the room. Hannah Montana was doing a tour in Tennessee. She needed her side kicks to go with her. Aka: Lola Lufnagle, Mike Stanley III, her dad and Jackson (her brother).
"I'm fine." I lied. Trying to calm myself down from that erotic dream.
"Seriously, Lilly. Don't creep me out like that again. I've got to rest. I'm performing as Hannah tomorrow.." Miley yawned.
"Sorry, I had a… An unusual dream." I gulped.
"Oh! Tell me!" She was suddenly wide awake.
"I can't." Yeowch. That was like the first time I had refused to tell Miley something. She was my best friend in the whole wide world. I thought she'd take this quite badly. But instead she just shrugged it off and closed her eyes. Muttering 'good night, go to sleep' to me. I sighed and lay back down in bed. I went back to sleep, dreaming of less weird dreams.
The next morning was quite cold, but sunny; the kind of weather I like, since it was still February.
"Morning Lilly.." called my best guy friend, Oliver Oken, who has the double life as Hannah's other side kick; Mike Stanley III.
Oliver was tall, with long, dark brown hair and brown eyes. His skin was olive colored, like me and Miley. Jackson had a pale white skin, while her dad was tanned. Her dad had long light brown hair, like Jackson. Jackson was really short, even if he was two years older than us. Miley had brown wavy hair, she was tall and skinny.
I have blonde hair and blue eyes. I'm kind of tall and have a slender body, so they say. ~Wink, wink~ Ha. Fail at life.
"Morning Oliver," I said absent mindedly, eating my cereal.
"You woke up late." Jackson muttered coming out of the kitchen with his dad.
"Sorry, I'm just not used to waking up like a…" He looked at Miley, "Superstar." He grumbled. We understood why she needed a double life, and how whenever she needed us we had to be in disguise as someone else.
"Oh, get used to it!" Miley laughed, drinking some apple juice.
"How'd you sleep last night, Oliver?" Mr. Stewart asked.
"Pretty good… I love this house you guys have here, Mr. Stewart." He smiled, sitting down in front of me. 'He's such a suck-up!' I thought as I quietly sipped on some water.
"And you, Lilly? How did you sleep last night?" Mr. Stewart asked sweetly, leaning on the kitchen counter. At the question, I choked on the water and spluttered over Oliver who shut his eyes and cringed. Everyone in the room looked strangely at me. I coughed a few times before saying: "I'd rather not speak of it." I cleared my throat and shut up.
"It's true. She shot up in her bed and had some kind of nightmare. It woke me up too." Miley said casually.
"Really?" Jackson said, sounding like he might actually care.
"Yeah, she couldn't even tell me about it! Makes me wonder what it was about…" When Miley said that, I turned pink. Her dad nodded with seeming understanding. There was a knock at the door. I raised an eyebrow and looked at Oliver.
"Guys! Don't worry. It's just an old friend of mine. His name is Travis Brody. He's a really fun guy. And he knows about the Hannah/Miley thing! He'll be staying over a few nights." She said reassuringly.
"Oh, okay.." Oliver sighed, his muscles becoming less tense. Miley walked over to the front door and peered through the peep hole on her tip toes. She got back down and opened the door with a smile. 'Travis' was wearing a baseball hat on his head, covered by his hood. People who visited this house had to be very secretive so that no one finds out where Hannah Montana lives. Miley hugged him and laughed.
"I missed you so much!" She murmured into his tall figure. They pulled away and he spoke in a uniquely deep voice.
"I missed you too!"
"These are my friends, Lilly and Oliver…" She gestured to us as the 'Travis' guy turned away from us to hang his hat on a coat hanger and removed his hood. Revealing his blond hair.
"Truscott? Wow I haven't…" He paused in his sentence to turn around, "Hey, I'm Travis.." he turned around as he said so. I could have screamed. That face, that smile, those teeth, those eyes. His everything. Those eyes though, were so incredibly familiar. He was in that sexual dream from last night. I shot out of my chair with a small yelp. As I did so I had pushed the bowls, cups, cereal boxes and other things all over the table. Everyone looked at me again. This can't be happening.
"I.. Umm.." I wheezed. Looking at Travis who was approaching me with a hand extended for a handshake. I avoided it and he glared at me. "I need to… G.. go.. Huh?" I backed away from him. Tripping over things and bumping into a wall. "Wha… Erm.. Uhh.." I stumbled forwards and towards the back door, kicking an empty card board box. "Uhh.. Ah-ha.. Buh-bye." I darted for the back door and rushed outside. I closed it firmly and the rays of sunlight smacked my eyes. I made my way over to the barn and sat down, taking in air. This cannot be possible. It just can't.
"Lilly? Lilly?!" Oliver called from the house. I didn't reply. I just sat down on the floor of the dark barn clutching my legs to my chest in the corner. The footsteps neared the barn doors and the creaked open. "Lillian?" He whispered, opened the door wide to let light into the dim barn. The light crept over the tips of my converse shoes. He pushed the door opened wider and the sun light shone against me. I squinted up at him.
"Can you close the door, please?" I asked softly.
"No." He grumbled, walking over to me and sitting down by my side. "Something wrong? You're acting whacky." He muttered, looking at me.
"I can't say." I said into my knees.
"Aw come on!" Oliver groaned. He always dies for gossip.
"I had this dream. And… It wasn't normal." I didn't look at him, I refused to. Oliver was starting to catch on.
"You mean… Like, the dreams Gabe LeMati talked about last year?" Gabriel LeMati was the hottest thing on earth. But he recently left the school.
"Yeah.." I gulped. Oliver sighed.
"I have them all the time." He confessed.
"What?!"
"I'm a guy. I have guy brains. We're different from you girls." He shrugged, turning pink.
"Oh, okay. I've only had one in my entire life. It was last night." He leaned closer to me, because I was speaking so quietly.
"Hey, Lilly, it's alright. I'm your friend. I can keep a secret, you know I can. And I know you can keep a secret too." He muttered. I sat up properly, looking at him now that he was so close. He can't keep secrets.
"Yeah, thanks. But, it's just so different for me. It's shocking and it – " before I could finish, he kissed me full on. I was taken aback. We were both so caught up in the moment of truth that something triggered in our minds. The next thing you know, we were making out against Miley's barn wall. Our lips cascading together, tongues sliding against the other, our hands traveled around the restricted areas of one another's bodies. That's when it hit me. I shouldn't be doing this. Oliver is my best friend, and I don't like him, Miley does. We were just caught up in the moment. I parted from him awkwardly, my hand wound tightly at the back of his hair. He knew it too. He moved away from me and put his back to the wall, like me. Our heavy breathing cut devilishly through the dead silence.
"Lilly, I don't know what came over me." He said finally.
"Me too.." I stated, looking at him. He felt my eyes on him and turned to face me.
"I like you, Lilly, as a friend and nothing more. And I really, honestly, don't know what just happened." He breathed.
"I agree. We shouldn't speak of this ever again… Deal?"
"Deal." He coughed. An awkward silence followed.
I guess I was just desperate, or rusty. And so was Oliver. I think that's why what happened in the barn, you know, happened. I'm not sure. It's still all quite a blur to me, but after that things were back to normal. Kind of.
"Hey," I said walking into my room. I heard a loud gasp and stuttering, I closed the door, "Miley do you – " I flinched and dropped the laundry I was holding. Travis was there, by himself in me and Miley's room. He was in his boxers and was wet. "What the heck are you – " I screeched, turning away from him. But the door was closed so I ran right into it. I hit my face hard. I yelped at the shot of pain and turned back around clutching my face.
"Okay! Umm.. Hello! Hi! I umm… I know this isn't a good time, but we need to talk and are you okay?!" Travis stammered.
"Why are you in my room?"
"Because I – "
" – and why are you naked?!" I yelled, stumbling over. My legs were weak and my nose was bleeding.
"I'm not naked! Besides, the guest room shower doesn't work! And Miley told me to use this one!! Jesus! Are you sure you're okay?" He shouted back. I attempted to stand up again. He bended over and grabbed me, pulling me upwards. He grunted at the amount of strength he used to help me up. As soon as I was up I tried to back away from him, but, he stopped me with his strong arms. "We need to talk." He said sternly. I gulped under his stare. The stare of his big, beautiful, baby blue eyes, they were quite like mine. Only better… And what am I saying?!
The door swung open and other people emerged with looks of panic on their faces.
"We heard screaming and we – oh, you're finally talking." Miley sighed with relief.
"Yeah, the whole day you've been ignoring Travis, Lilly!" Jackson pitched in.
"Dang right! Haven't said a word to him all day long." Said Mr. Stewart. The Stewarts were always gossip mongers. They turned to Oliver, as if they were waiting for him to say something. He just shrugged. To try and get the spotlight off him.
"Never mind.." Miley said, then her face lit up as if an idea had struck her. "So, what were you and Oliver talking about in the barn?" I went pink at the sentence, so did Oliver. This is the problem with Oliver. He never lies. He can't lie. Even when he tries to the truth comes out.
"We uhh…" Oliver gulped, "We m – hmm – we ma… Made some.. good conversation…" Oliver choked. He was trying his best to avoid the truth.
"They probably made out or something…" Jackson said as if it were normal. The Stewarts laughed a bit and looked back at me and Oliver, to see if we were laughing too. We weren't. We were very serious.
"You…" Miley's face distorted, "You did, didn't you?" My face turned pink and tried to hide it.
"It wasn't.. On purpose.." Oliver defended..
"It was sort of… An accident.."
"Kissing is not an accident!" Miley butted in quickly, I knew she liked Oliver. After her mega front-cover break up with Jake Ryan. I started to feel terrible, I can't believe I almost forgot she liked Oliver. Oliver and I had dated once, for a few months, then we realized that we were better off as friends. Miley ran out of the room. Jackson followed, he had a look of 'I want to watch my sister upset'.
"Sweet heart?" Her dad yelled. Mr. Stewart grabbed Oliver by his shirt and made a run for it. I discreetly tried to sneak away, but, with an annoyed expression Travis pulled me back.
"Lilly." He said through his gritted teeth.
"…Travis..?" I replied with a small question-like tone. He made his way over to the door.
"We're talking about this." He said again. He closed the door and locked it, too. He turned back to me, I tried not to look at him. I tried as hard as I could because I have to admit, he was one fine boy!
"Why do you hate me so much? Honestly, why?" He said, throwing up his hands in the air with seeming defeat.
"I don't hate you.."
"Oh, oh really now? I highly doubt that because then why would you be like this towards me?" Travis took a step forward, and looked directly at me, "You don't remember me at all do you?" He asked softly.
"What?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Travis Brody. We went to summer camp together like eight years ago? In 2002. You seriously don't remember me?" I almost stopped breathing. Was that really him? The blonde hair, blue eyes… No… Seriously!! What? In 2002 when were just nine years old, he was a scrawny, unattractive mess. But, I could never forget those eyes of his. It was him, my old best friend.
"I remember…" I said, day dreaming, "The years have been kind to you.." I murmured, I thought I had said it in my head, but I said it out loud. I went pink, he just laughed playfully and smiled. My face quickly recovered and became normal again.
"Ditto. But seriously now, Lilly, why are you avoiding me?"
"It's no big deal. Really, it isn't." I said, trying to think this mess over. He half laughed to himself. I turned to him, a little shocked.
"What?" I asked plainly.
"Nothing.. I… Umm.. Nothing.." He shook his head, fighting back a smile.
"Travis? Seriously, what is it?" I asked again, now smiling a little bit to myself.
"You…" He bit down on his lower lip, "You're pretty. There! I said it! Now go away!" He hid his face childishly and turned away from me. I laughed like a girl and my lips then curled into a smile. My face felt hot. Oh, no! Please do not tell me I'm blushing. He turned back, his cheeks were slightly pink. "You're blushing…" He pointed out.
"You too." I said right back.
"I am?" He said, his voice was suddenly high pitched.
"Yes, you are!" I said, about to crack up.
"Shut up!!" He chuckled, touching his face.
"You are blushing!!" I exclaimed, finally laughing at him.
"Well, so are you! So there!" He called over my laughter.