I hope you enjoy!
Lilly hated Valentine's Day.
It was something that went without saying when anyone saw her around that forsaken day. She wore black, didn't smile, and definitely did not give anyone her love. She would never be caught with flowers, or cards, or chocolates, or any cheesy plans to try to get a guy to fall for her.
It simply didn't happen.
Many people had asked why she hated February 14th. She gave them all the same answers. She hated red, pink, white, and purple, especially all together. She hated cheesy romantic movies that always came to the movie theaters on that day. She hated cute couples and kissing couples and any sort of couple.
But, most of all, she hated the fact that she could never get the person she wanted.
And that person was Miley Stewart.
Her best friend.
Miley loved Valentine's day.
"I just don't get it," Miley said, sticking her tongue out of the side of her mouth as she finished a physics problem and looked up from her textbook. "How can you hate Valentine's Day? It's the best day of the year!"
"It's a holiday created by Hallmark so people will buy more cards," Lilly grumbled, closing her physics book loudly and sliding it aside. She picked up her copy of The Count of Monte Cristo and opened it to the marked page. "I don't see the point of wasting money on a whole bunch of crap that will most likely end up breaking my heart. Once you're finished with those problems, tell me so we can compare answers. I think I messed up on number thirty-four."
"If I didn't know you so well, I would think that you're a cold-hearted… meanie," Miley struggled to finish, making Lilly laugh. The blonde looked up from her book, marking her page with her finger.
"Can I be honest with you?" Lilly asked, and Miley looked up from her homework, her curiosity roused. Lilly raised her eyebrows and smiled at Miley. "If I wanted to tell someone that I love them, then I wouldn't wait for what is supposed to be the most romantic day of the year when they're going to expect it. I would wait to tell them on some random day, when they were least expecting it, so I could surprise them and make one ordinary day an extraordinary day."
"How are you single, again?" Miley teased.
Lilly shrugged. "I just haven't met someone who's good enough for me," she answered nonchalantly. "When the right girl comes around, I'll know."
That had been one of the first things Lilly had told Miley when they had first met in the ninth grade. She was gay. And she had continued to say that if Miley had a problem with it, then she might as well tell her right to her face because Lilly couldn't stand people talking about her behind her back. Miley had honestly told her that she had no problem with it, and the two of them hadn't thought anything more of it. It came up in their conversations regularly, and neither of the girl felt awkward or weird about it. It was just the way their friendship was.
"Is anyone good enough for you?" Miley laughed, shaking her head.
"Don't even bring up Oliver," Lilly warned.
"He was just trying to impress you!" Miley protested. "I mean, I thought it was cute and romantic!"
"You think everything is cute and romantic," Lilly grumbled. "And interrupting a movie at the movie theater isn't what I qualify as romantic, especially when he was the first person I came out to. He knows that I'm gay, he knew at the time, and he was still honestly surprised that I turned him down."
"I wish someone would do that for me," Miley muttered, turning her attention back to her physics homework.
"Miley…" Lilly sighed.
"I know, I know, I'll find the right person eventually," the brunette interrupted. "He'll love me forever and ever and I'll regret ever wishing for him to his butt up and meet me already. But it sucks spending Valentine's Day alone."
"You could come over to my house," Lilly offered with a small smile. "I'm going to be baking a butt load of cookies for this party my mom is having at her law firm. She's busy working on a case, so she doesn't have any time to cook or anything. We can order out Chinese, sneak some cookies, eat a whole tube of icing, and then crash on the couch and freak out when we realize that we left three dozen cookies in the oven for an hour and a half."
"That's what we did last year," Miley sighed, leaning her elbow on the ground and resting her head in her hand. "I want do something fun. Exciting. Romantic."
"Well, that's what I do for Valentine's Day every year," Lilly shrugged. "If you don't want to hang out with me, I totally understand. I'm not exactly the most upbeat on Valentine's Day."
"And I still don't see why," Miley complained.
"Because that's the day my dad left, that's why," Lilly snapped, effectively shutting up Miley. "Are you happy? Can I finish my homework, now?"
The brunette nodded wordlessly and Lilly opened her book up, quickly reading and turning the page. A couple minutes later she looked up to see that Miley had stood up and was gathering her books together.
"Miles, what're you doing?" Lilly asked, panicking. She stood up and threw her book down on the ground.
"I remembered that I have to go home," Miley muttered, neatly putting her textbooks in her bag. She slung the bag over her shoulder and headed for the door. Lilly stared after her, sighing in aggravation and sitting down on her bed. She put her heads in her hands, thinking that she had messed up. And the next day was Valentine's Day, which meant that the brunette would have her heart broken for the fourth year in a row.
Miley's Valentine's Days were almost as bad as Lilly's. At least, the ones that had been spent in Malibu were bad. Every year, Miley got herself hyped up for some cute, romantic boy to ask her out on a date and surprise her with a bouquet of a dozen roses (two dozen if he really liked her, Miley had told her once), only to be disappointed as she snuck into Lilly's house just after midnight to reveal that her dream hadn't come true that year.
She would just have to make sure that Miley's heart wasn't broken again.
Miley met Lilly at the corner where their streets met, as usual, to walk to school. For the first time in three years, she wasn't dressed in some ludicrous Valentine's Day outfit. The brunette smiled at her tentatively, hiking her book bag up higher on her back, before starting to walk… without Lilly right next to her.
"Hey, Smiley Miley, will you wait up for me?" Lilly yelled, running to catch up.
"Sorry, I just… today doesn't feel like a good day," Miley mumbled.
"Aw, come on, you love Valentine's Day," Lilly reminded her. "It's romantic and fun and there'll be flowers and hearts and chocolates…."
"For everyone but me," Miley finished for her.
Lilly sighed. "Don't think that I'm going to take your view on Valentine's Day just because you're down," she warned. "That's not going to happen."
"It's okay," Miley mumbled mournfully. "I don't expect you to."
The rest of their walk to school was spent by Lilly trying to cheer Miley up unsuccessfully. Once they got to the parking lot of the school, Lilly gave up. She knew a lost cause when she saw one, and she wasn't about to spend Valentine's Day trying to convince Miley that it was the greatest holiday of the year when she had a personal vendetta against it.
They reached their lockers to find Oliver in a lip lock with his girlfriend of seven months, Joannie. Lilly smacked the doughnut on the head, getting sheepish look from him and a glare from his girlfriend before they moved a couple lockers down. The blonde rolled her eyes at Miley, giving her a quirky smile only to be met with a pair of wide eyes.
"Lilly, how many people know my locker combination?" the brunette asked.
"Me, you, Oliver, probably Joannie, and our homeroom teacher, why?" Lilly asked, unlocking her locker to find that someone had stuffed a hastily made Valentine's Day card through one of the slots. After seeing that it was from some guy she didn't know, she pitched it in the garbage can.
"Because there's a basket of chocolates with my name on it in my locker."
The blonde looked over in Miley's locker to see that the brunette was telling the truth. There was a little red basket full of Hershey's kisses sitting on top of Miley's calculus book, and a small white envelope was attached to it with Miley's name on it.
"What's the note say?" Lilly asked.
Miley's hand shook as she opened the envelope, reading to herself before reading out loud. "Here are some hugs and kisses for someone who deserves affection on a very special day. Get ready for the best Valentine's Day of your life. Love, Your Secret Admirer. There's no name, and it's typed."
Lilly rolled her eyes. "Duh, there's no name," she scoffed, turning back to her locker and pulling out her binder for calculus. "It's from your Secret Admirer. Why would he put his name on a note he gave you?"
"I wonder who it is?" Miley murmured, reading the note one last time before putting it back in her locker.
"You'll find out," Lilly promised her. "These guys always show their faces at sometime or another."
"What's that you got, Miley?" their friend, Sarah, asked. "Oh my God, do you have a valentine this year?"
"I… don't… know," Miley answered slowly, still staring at the basket of chocolates that Sarah had her eyes glued on.
"No, she has herself a Secret Admirer," Lilly answered for her, slamming her locker door shut. She leaned against the wall of lockers, rolling her eyes at Miley's dazed face. "Come on, Miley, is it really so hard to believe that someone finally realized that you're amazing and deserve to have an awesome Valentine's Day?"
"I thought you were against Valentine's Day," Sarah accused, her eyes narrowing.
Lilly shrugged. "Well, I kind of… put a damper on Miley's day yesterday, and she wasn't feeling too hot this morning. She said that she felt like today wasn't going to be a good day, so I've decided that I'm going to try to cheer her up. Apparently, someone else is trying to beat me to it."
Sarah looked at her suspiciously for one more second before shifting her gaze to Miley. "I have to agree with Lilly on this one," she said confidently. "Obviously some stupid guy out there has finally realized that you're worth his attention. Not that he's worth your attention, but I say take advantage of it. Who knows? Maybe he'll end up being cute."
"Or she," Lilly muttered to herself.
"What was that?" Sarah asked quickly, looking at Lilly.
"I said that I'm in the mood for sushi," Lilly announced loudly. A couple people walking down the hall gave her weird looks. "What?" she yelled after them. "Can't a girl have cravings?"
"Lilly, shut up!" Oliver yelled from down the hall.
"Oh, go stick your tongue down your girlfriend's throat!" Lilly yelled back.
Joannie flipped her off.
"That's what you get," Sarah sighed. "I'll see you guys in calculus. I have to go see my physics teacher to make sure he got my project. I e-mailed it to him last night and I'm not sure if it got through. Happy Valentine's Day!" Sarah bustled down the hall, dodging doe-eyed couples and brawny football players giving chocolate and flowers to their complaining girlfriends.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Lilly groaned, waving her away. Miley was still staring at the basket of chocolates and Lilly sighed, shaking her head. "Come on, Miley," she said, pulling out Miley's calculus book and thrusting it in her arms. She closed Miley's locker and pulled her down the hall towards their homeroom.
"Miley, whoever the guy is obviously wants to spoil you," Lilly said, sitting her down in a desk. "Just go with it. Have fun! And don't start gushing on me in the middle of calculus because I'm on the border between an A minus and an A. Our next quiz is Friday and the teacher is giving out potential quiz material today."
"I just don't get it," Miley murmured. "Why this Valentine's Day instead of any of the others?"
"I don't know, ask whoever it is when you meet him," Lilly shrugged. "And it looks like there's more coming."
Their homeroom teacher, Ms. Kunkle, was walking towards them with a heart-shaped box in her hands. She set the box down on Miley's desk and gave her a look that definitely didn't go with the box. "This was in my teacher mailbox this morning, and since it has your name on the note attached to the front, I assumed that I'm supposed to give it to you. Please don't talk too loudly during homeroom, girls." She turned on her heel and marched away. Lilly stuck her tongue out at her.
"Someone needs to get laid," the blonde muttered under her breath.
Miley reached for the note on the front of the heart-shaped box with a shaking hand and fumbled to open it. Lilly watched as she read, her eyes scanning across the small piece of paper.
"So, what does it say?" Lilly asked.
"Come what may, I'll be here to stay. More is on the way. Happy Valentine's Day! Love, Your Secret Admirer," Miley murmured, handing the note to Lilly. "It's typed again, so I can't tell who's handwriting it is."
"Smart guy," Lilly muttered, tossing the note back on Miley's desk.
The brunette slipped the ribbon off the heart-shaped box and slowly opened the lid to reveal an assortment of gourmet chocolates. Her eyes widened and she looked over at Lilly to see that the blonde wasn't paying attention to Miley's gift in the least.
"Lilly?" Miley asked. "How does this person know my locker combination and my homeroom?"
"Probably stalks you," Lilly answered lightly. At the glare from Miley, she held up her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, he doesn't stalk you. I don't know, maybe he has friends who have friends who have a friend named Oliver. You never know. While Oliver could never pull something off like this, he's a romantic at heart and would probably help one of his friends pull this off."
Miley nodded, looking back down at the chocolates. "Maybe today isn't going to be so bad after all," she murmured, putting the lid back on the box.
The bell rang and people began to wander into the room. Lilly rolled her eyes as a couple sat down right in front of her, the girl sitting on her boyfriend's lap and starting to make out with him. A smirk made its way onto her face as Ms. Kunkle looked up and spotted them. No matter what day it was, the ornery teacher would not allow something like that to go unchecked.
"Okay, class," Ms. Kunkle said loudly once she had separated the couple attached at the lips and the second bell had rang. "Unfortunately, I have been burdened with the responsibility of handing out the Valentine's Day flowers that you ordered for each other. I don't know why this couldn't have been given to student council members, but it wasn't. But be quiet and come get your flowers when I call your name."
Ms. Kunkle began to call out names and hand out roses. Lilly rolled her eyes as her name was called and took the half a dozen roses that had been sent to her by various guys throughout the school. She ripped off the notes and slowly began peeling away the petals.
"Why do you have to do that?" Miley asked with a disgusted look on her face.
"Because all these guys want is to have sex with me," Lilly answered her simply. "They all know I'm gay and they're probably hoping that they can get a video of me making out with some girl, which, by the way, is not going to happen." She aimed the last comment at the boy sitting behind her who was getting more and more excited with every word Lilly said.
"Miley Stewart!" Ms. Kunkle called, and both Miley and Lilly looked up to see their homeroom teacher holding a bouquet of a dozen white, long-stemmed roses. Miley gasped and stood up, going to the front of the room and taking the roses from Ms. Kunkle before making her way back to her seat and sitting down.
"What's the note say?" Lilly asked in a bored voice.
The brunette snatched up the note that had been tied around the stems of the roses with a red ribbon and opened it. "I know roses are red and violets are blue, but when I saw these flowers, I thought of you. Happy Valentine's Day! Love, Your Secret Admirer. It's handwritten this time."
"Yeah, but all notes are handwritten by the student council members that organized the whole thing," Lilly pointed out. "So that really isn't your Secret Admirer's handwriting."
The brunette physically deflated. "Oh."
"Hey, you got some awesome flowers, though!" Lilly instantly said, trying to cheer her best friend up. "And who knows what else is coming?"
By lunch, Miley had a pile of gifts in her locker, which included a teddy bear holding a rose, a book of poetry, a white gold necklace with a heart-shaped charm, personalized m & m's that had "I 3 Miley" on them, a fifty dollar gift card to a spa in Los Angeles, and some perfume that Miley had said she was planning on buying just the week before.
"Whoever this is obviously really likes you," Sarah said, sitting down at their lunch table. Miley was staring down at a note that one of the lunch ladies had given to her when she had been in line. "What's the note say?" The brunette handed Sarah the note and she read it out loud. "Go to your locker, there's a surprise inside. Happy Valentine's Day! Love, Your Secret Admirer. Wow, someone is head-over-heels in love with you. Go get whatever it is in your locker."
Five minutes later, Miley sat back down at their lunch table with a picnic basket in hand. Lilly just rolled her eyes, unpacked her paper bag lunch, and started to eat her peanut butter and jelly sandwich as Miley set the picnic basket down on the table and started to unpack the food that was in it.
"Oh my God, this is so romantic!" Sarah gushed.
"All my favorite foods," Miley murmured. She had the food spread out on the table: a thermos full of ice cold lemonade, angel hair pasta with sweet red pepper pesto, warm biscuits with strawberry jam, a small cherry pie, and a container of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
"Well, you only have about twenty-five minutes left to eat that, so if I were you, I would hurry up," Lilly muttered.
"You're just jealous because you only got a couple of roses from guys that don't even like you," Sarah said. "Let Miley have her fun. It's Valentine's Day and she deserves to be pampered."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Lilly mumbled, opening her bag of chips and starting to snack on them.
By the end of the day, Miley was overwhelmed. She had gotten more chocolate, more flowers, and more little gifts for her Secret Admirer. And she still had no idea who it was. All of the boys in her classes were completely oblivious to everything, more intent on the chocolates they had bought themselves to snack on during the day than seeing if Miley enjoyed her gifts. When she met Lilly at her locker, she looked totally confused.
"Now what's going on?" Lilly asked in an exasperated voice.
"Wouldn't he have told me that he was my Secret Admirer by now?" Miley asked uncertainly. "Or do you think that this was all just a joke?"
Lilly shrugged. "I don't know, maybe he's gonna show up at your house later and sing you ballads underneath your window," she said nonchalantly, turning to her locker and spinning in the combination. Three Valentine's Day cards fell out and she rolled her eyes, tossing them in the garbage before pulling some books out of her locker and putting them in her bag. "But we have to do those analyses of the poems for English tonight because that physics project is due on Monday and we have the calculus quiz on Friday, which means there isn't any other time for us to do it."
Miley was staring at a note in her hand. "I think he wants to meet me," she murmured.
"What?" Lilly asked, turning to Miley.
"He wants to meet me," the brunette repeated, handing the note to Lilly.
"Dear Miley, I just wanted to say that you are the most amazing girl I've ever met in my life. To be honest, I'm kind of nervous to tell you who I really am, but I know that it would be horrible of me not to. So meet me at the beach tonight at eleven o'clock by the big rocks off to the left of Couples' Cove. I know that there are probably going to be a bunch of people there, but we'll be by ourselves if we stay far enough away from Couples' Cove. Looking forward to tonight! Love, Your Secret Admirer."
"Hey, Lilly, your house isn't that far away from that part of the beach," Miley said, taking the note back when Lilly handed it to her. "Do you think I could sleep over and just head out at 10:30? I'll meet you back at your house and we can do homework and bake cookies or whatever until then."
"Sounds good to me," Lilly shrugged, shutting her locker. "Are you gonna be able to bring all that stuff home or do you want me to help you carry it? We can drop it off at your house, grab your stuff to sleep over, and then head right over to my house."
"That should be fine," Miley agreed.
So, after saying their goodbyes to Sarah and Lilly teasing Oliver, which resulted in her getting a punch from Joannie, she and Miley headed over to the brunette's house to drop off Miley's Valentine's Day gifts and grab her stuff for their sleepover. Lilly had the picnic basket slung over her arm, which was full of chocolates and other small gifts that Miley had received throughout the day while the brunette carried the bouquet of roses and other flowers.
"I wonder who he is," Miley said as she let them into her house. Her dad was going to be out all day because of a Hannah meeting in Las Vegas and Jackson was supposedly on a date, but both Lilly and Miley had traded theories and settled on him really being at a pity party being thrown for all the guys who don't have dates.
"Miley, I… can you promise me that you won't be disappointed if it isn't who you think it's gonna be?" Lilly asked hesitantly. "I don't want you to get hurt."
"It's fine," Miley smiled at her weakly. "I'm used to getting hurt on Valentine's Day."
Lilly looked at her watch. It was after eleven o'clock, which meant Miley had been here for almost forty-five minutes. She had left her house at ten thirty, an excited expression on her face, and Lilly had left soon after. The blonde sighed and leaned against one of the rocks, hoping that Miley wouldn't be too disappointed.
"Lilly?"
The blonde turned to see Miley standing behind her, tears starting to trickle down her face. Lilly sighed and stepped forward, pulling the brunette into a hug and patting her back comfortingly. "Hey, hey, it's okay," she murmured.
"I was stood up," the brunette sobbed.
"How do you know?" Lilly asked gently, pulling back to an arm's length away from the brunette.
"But… but it's almost eleven-fifteen and the only people here are me and… you," she finished quietly, her eyes suddenly widening. "Lilly? Did… did you…?"
"I couldn't stand you having another horrible Valentine's Day, so I mustered up the courage to finally give you what you deserve," Lilly murmured, reaching out and gently wiping away Miley's tears. "I know I said that I would rather make an ordinary day extraordinary, but I would much rather make what's supposed to be an extraordinary day even better for you."
"So, that means that… all of that stuff I got today was… was fake?" Miley asked, starting to cry again. "The notes and the poetry, and all of the 'I love you' things weren't real?"
"No, no, no, no," Lilly murmured, shaking her head. "I promise you every single thing that happened to you today was real. Except, maybe, for my attitude. Because every time you got a gift, inside, I was secretly worried that you wouldn't like it, and elated when you did like it. You see, Miley, I have found the perfect girl for me. The girl who's good enough, too good, for me. I'm just worried that I'm not good enough for her. It's you, Miley. She's always been you."
"You… you like me?" Miley asked incredulously, furiously trying to wipe away her tears.
The blonde nodded and she pulled a bouquet of two dozen red roses out from behind the rock where she had set them. "You always said that if a boy liked you, then he would give you a dozen red roses," she whispered. "And if he really liked you, then he would give you two dozen. I don't know if the same holds true for a girl who likes you, but it seems to me that roses aren't enough to show you how special you are." She offered the roses to Miley and the brunette took them cautiously.
"So, all this time, all day, you… you were going around the school and setting up those gifts for me?" Miley whispered, her eyes tearing up yet again.
"It wasn't easy," Lilly grinned, "but it was totally worth it to see you happy."
Miley stared at her for a moment, then back down at the roses, and up at Lilly again. She carefully set the roses down in the sand and Lilly felt her heart drop down into her stomach. "Miles, I…."
"Lilly, I… I've never thought of having a relationship with another girl," Miley admitted quietly. "Honestly, I've only ever thought about boys. But… now that I think about it, if I could have a relationship with any girl, it would most definitely be a girl who was caring enough to show me that she loved me every day, even if she showed me by just being my friend."
"What are you…?"
The brunette shook her head and held her hand up for Lilly to be quiet. "Lilly, will you… will you be my valentine?"
The blonde let out a deep sigh of relief. "Yes, Miley, of course I will," she whispered, rushing forward and drawing the girl into a hug. "Will you be mine?"
"Yes," Miley whispered, burying her face in Lilly's shoulder. "There's just one more thing that would make today perfect, though." She pulled away from Lilly and the blonde looked at her worriedly.
"What? What did I miss?" she asked nervously.
"This," Miley whispered, softly kissing her. Lilly stiffened, then melted into the kiss as Miley looped her arms around her neck. The blonde wrapped her arms around Miley's waist and pulled her closer.
Miley giggled when they parted. "It's too bad that you hate Valentine's Day," she murmured. "Because this is going to be the anniversary of our first kiss."
Lilly grinned at Miley. "Lucky for me, it's not," she murmured, and a confused expression fluttered onto the brunette's face. Lilly showed Miley her watch. It was 12:13. "It's February fifteenth."
Miley just laughed and kissed her again.
Lilly had truly made one ordinary day extraordinary.
Okay, I know I should be working on my other stories, but this just popped into my head and I had to write it. It really didn't take that long and I promise I'm working on my other stories. And I know it's not Valentine's Day, but it was too cute not to post.
AThousandTimesMore
