So yeah I haven't updated in ages, so maybe the last thing I need to be doing is starting a new story but oh well!
In case you haven't already guessed this will be based off the movie 'Adventureland' starring Jesse Eisenburg and Kristen Stewart. It's fricking amazing btw, just watched it today and came up with the idea of it for a Liley story. I may or may not continue this depending on what people think of it...so let me know by a review :)
This is Liley, which means Miley x Lilly, so if you don't like then piss off. Haha sorry to be rude mind you.
Enjoy! xx
"Look Lilly I'm sorry but I don't think I can see you anymore."
Ouch that hurt. She can't do this to me, not after all we've been through...well can she? Not just before the end of graduation. I mean we've been together for almost eleven days, surely just because I'm going off to Europe for the summer and then New York can't change our relationship? I've been a good girlfriend taking her on dates and stuff. Okay so maybe we have no sex-life and yes I'm still a virgin, but it's only because I want my first time to be special, you know? I want to wait till I'm in love. If only she'd give me time to fall in love with her!
"You don't...what do you mean?" I reply, knowing perfectly well what she's saying.
She knows it too and shoves the empty, plastic, red cup that was in her hand, into mine. Looking somewhat guilty she mutters a pathetic excuse for an apology before leaving me alone in the crowded room full of college party-goers. I sigh and look into the empty cup, wondering where I went wrong when my college buddy, Gabe, wonders over to me and puts a sympathetic hand on my shoulder.
"Women are mercurial dudette," he said. "And you did just start dating last week."
"It was eleven days ago." I corrected as we walked over to the keg near the back of the house.
"You didn't tell her about the 'Scarlet V' did you?"
The 'Scarlet V' that Gabe was referring to was the fact that I was still I virgin. Yeah, yeah go ahead and laugh, but like I said above I'm waiting till I meet that special person. God I sound so mushy. Gabe insisted that whenever I got a new girlfriend, or sometimes the occasional boyfriend, I mustn't tell them that I was a virgin. He said people get put off by the fact I'm so sexually inexperienced. Guys of course are well known for their promiscuity, but according to Gabe more and more girls were gaining themselves a reputation too.
"That has nothing to do with it." I state quickly...maybe a little too quickly.
"Oh Christ Lilly."
He sighs in frustration; slapping his face. Um. I'm guessing he's put two and two together.
"What?"
"You promised me!" he barked.
Well that's not true! I promised no such thing.
"Look, I don't lie to people who I care about."
"Yes, but you could've just left it out of the narrative, you know? You don't want 'virgin' to be your signifier. Here drink up."
Gabe grabbed a bottle of vodka and poured an unhealthy amount into the empty cup. I picked up a can of Coca-Cola, opened it, and transferred enough to mix with the vodka so that when I drank it, it wouldn't make me spew it all back up.
"You need to bed down the next lonely, plain-looking, insecure, depressive who throws herself at you, and get it over with!" he advises taking a swig of his beer.
"Look, I know most people have low standards," I said whilst taking a sip of my drink. It burned the back of my throat and made me squint slightly. Jesus it was strong. "I guess I'm different."
"Well you know what?" he said wrapping an arm around me. "We'll find you a girl all right? When we're on the European Continent! Here's to sexually-permissive cultures!" he yelled drunkenly before downing the remainder of his beer.
I smiled and hugged my idiot of a friend. Maybe Gabe was right. Maybe going to Europe and just getting it over and done with would be the end of all my troubles. Then when I go to Columbia in New York for grad school, at least I can say I'm not a virgin.
…
A week later, I graduated from UCLA. And to celebrate what did my mom and dad do? They took me for a meal. Yeah, fun. But it didn't matter because in less than two months I'd be jetting off to Europe with Gabe and sampling all that it had to offer me. The only problem was that I was a little short on cash. That's why I'm hoping my parents might lend me just a bit extra.
"To the graduate!" beamed dad as he lifted his wine glass up for a toast.
Not wanting to beat around the bush I dove straight into business.
"Yeah, so I researched some more youth hostels, and the median cost is just a little higher than I expected, about seven dollars and sixty-eight cent more, multiplied by the forty-two days is three hundred and twenty-two dollars and fifty-six cent-"
"Ken do you want to take this?" interrupted my mom as she caught the attention of a passing waitress.
I tried to continue, but my dad cut me off as he spoke to the waitress, holding up his empty glass. Fucking hell this is more frustrating than I thought!
"Excuse me; can you get me a refill here?" the waitress smiled sweetly before taking his glass and walking to the bar. Dad brought his attention back to the table. He seemed fascinated by it. "That's old-fashioned!" I'm guessing he's referring to the refill.
"So with the money I have from Grandpa's trust fund," I began again. "Plus the nine hundred you guys are already giving me, thank you by the way, I do need an additional two hundred and seventy-nine dollars and eleven cent."
I took in a deep gulp of air, fiddling with the straw of my drink. That was way too much math for my liking. I gleamed at them both, hoping they'd see things from my point of view. Unfortunately my mom guiltily looked at dad and they both sighed. Oh shit.
"Lilly, we don't want to spoil your graduation…but your father has been transferred into a different department."
"Really?" I inquired. Surely if dad's been promoted that'll mean we're making a lot more money! "Is that…is it bad?"
"Yes, we're making less…considerably less." Dad interjected.
"But this trip was my graduation present so-"
"Sweetie, I'm sorry but we just can't afford it." Said mom as she placed her hand over mine.
I looked down at my empty plate that had been spaghetti carbonara. This isn't fair! Why does all this bad shit happen to me? I mean, I'm not angry with mom and dad 'cause I know they can't help it, but arghhhh! Gabe's gonna be so disappointed. I guess he'll just have to stick it out alone all summer.
"You could still help me out with rent next year, right?"
New York isn't a cheap city to live in, especially for a grad school student. Without mom and dad to help, there's no way I can afford an apartment even if I'm sharing it with Mr. money-bags, Gabe, himself.
"Look Lilly you're not listening to me." Mom snapped.
The waitress came back over with dad's drink, which momentarily made mom calm down a bit. God she's so high strung these days. Once the waitress left, dad tried to stop mom making another outburst and raised his glass yet again.
"Look, here's to you kiddo. Happy graduation."
Okay now I'm pissed off. First they say I can't go to Europe, and now they're expecting me to pay for rent in New York by myself? To make matters worse, they've both completely dropped the subject, leaving me with no fucking answers!
"Wait! What am I going to do about grad school? You know Columbia's holding a spot for me!" I shouted, gripping my glass harder.
If they piss me off anymore it's gonna break.
"Well if that's where you really want to go, then obviously you're going to have to get a job."
…
"A summer job?" Gabe yelled.
I was stood outside his house as he prepared to drive to the airport, to go to Europe. The same place I should be going. But no I had to stay in Malibu and get a freaking summer job. Damn parents and their money problems. Gabe's mom and dad were currently gossiping with mine on the front porch of the house, whilst we were stood down near the mailbox.
"Yup." I replied, shoving my hands into the pockets of my denim shorts.
"That's fucking harsh."
Ha I love Gabe's bluntness. He's right it is fucking harsh, my whole life is fucking harsh.
"It's a nightmare." I huff.
"Hey, yeah, well, you know what, don't worry about it alright? With my dad's connections we'll get a great deal on an apartment." Oh Gabe. I swear if he wasn't my best friend I'd totally marry him. I grin and engulf him in the tightest hug possible as he chuckled. "And hey, I float you for the first few months okay?"
If it were possible I'd hug him harder.
"Thank you so much Gabe."
I break off him and lean against his car, a red Mustang. He calls it his pride and joy…sad boy. It's just a fucking car after all. He proceeds to reach into his pocket and light up a joint of cannabis. Normally I'd be joining him but not when our parents are a few yards away!
"What the hell are you doing? Are parents are right over-"
"What them? They're clueless…fuck this is good weed." He says as he takes another drag.
We stay silent for a bit as he finishes the joint. Suddenly he lights up and starts fumbling with something in his pocket.
"Speaking of which," he began. "I want you to know that you'll be with me in spirit this summer." He pulled out a clear plastic bag full of what must have been at least twenty, already rolled joints, similar to the one he was smoking. "Go on, take it. Take it!"
I rolled my eyes and took the bag off him.
"Look, Lilly, I know things suck right now, all right? But look at it this way, in a few short months, you'll be with me, in New York City, the greatest fucking city in the world! Like we always talked about. Living the adventure together."
I tried to smile at the future that was to come, but I couldn't help but think of the three shitty months that I'd not be spending in Europe.
"Quit worrying, Truscott. That's what the weed is for."
Not longer after that, Gabe's parents brought out his bags and put them in the trunk of the Mustang. Time to say goodbye. I watched with my mom and dad and Gabe's mom as he sped away into the distance, off on some adventure. I knew right there I'd give nothing more than to be with him. Instead I knew I had work to do. I had to find a job.
Easier said than done.
I wasted just a week alone handing in my applications and phoning up places than actually making any money. No-one seemed to want me because I hadn't really had any form of job before. Sure I had work experience for my Journalism course and I'd mowed the neighbors' lawn, but in many employers eyes that wasn't good enough. So I had to settle for work at Malibu pier's very own amusement park, 'Adventureland.'
It helped that I knew the place like the back of my hand. I'd spent many trips with my family as a young girl going on the rides and trying to win prizes from the games stalls. Heck when I mentioned it to mom she felt the need to bring up the fact I'd got concussion on the tea cup ride when I was six. I suppose the upside of it all would be that I'd make some new friends hopefully. Unless they were all assholes…like Jackson.
Jackson was my best friend from my childhood, and to some extent he still was my friend. That is when he's not punching me in the boob every five seconds. It just so happened that Jackson worked at Adventureland controlling the rides, something which was regarded as the better of the two jobs on offer there. The other being manning the game stalls. Guess which one of the two I got. Yep, the game stalls. Leading Jackson to mock me. It's not like I could have done anything about it anyway. Rico, the owner of the park, wouldn't listen to me when I asked to man the rides. Instead he just handed me the faded blue tee that had the word 'games' written on five times in a ladder type pattern, and explained to me that nothing was free. And so here I am walking through the park with him as he shows me the numerous stalls of games that I'll be working at over summer. God this better not be as shit as I think it's gonna be. We arrive to a stall that must be a even shittier version of 'ring toss.' Someone remind me why I ever liked this park in the first place when I was younger? Rico walks up to the dozens of plastic bottles and inspects them.
"One dollar buys five rings." He states holding up a tiny miniature red ring. "If one of the rings lands on one of the red bottles, they win a giant-ass panda."
I look to the large selection of stuffed toy pandas that can be won. The majority of them are no larger than your average teddy bear, except for two very large, mammoth pandas. Holy shit.
"That is a giant-ass panda." I say amazed. The thing is almost as big as me!
"Yeah it's the best prize in the park, and that's because this game is un-winnable." Rico notices my puzzled expressions and motions for me to turn my attention away from the toy to the bottles. Observe. I drop a ring from three inches away…"
His hand did just that. The ring fell and rebounded off the top of the bottle, as obviously it was made too small on purpose. Rico wasn't lying when he said the game was impossible.
"So…nobody ever wins?" I asked.
"Put it this way Lilly, if someone wins a giant-ass panda on your watch you should just go home 'cause you're fired, okay?"
I nodded. I figured he was just kidding at first, but when he stared seriously into my eyes I realized he wasn't kidding. To make matters more awkward, guess who showed up next?
"Truscott! They got you working on games?" Jackson. "What a pussy! What a pussy!" he chanted like a five year old as he ran off.
"You know that demented person?" asked Rico as we watched Jackson continue to make a fool of himself from a 'safe' distance.
"Yeah he used to be my best friend…then I turned four."
…
Just a day later I got forced to work on the shitty ring toss, after my epic fail at trying to man the horse racing game earlier. Yeah basically I wasn't cut out for this kind of job, but then again I needed the money. Luckily I'd made a friend in the form of Oliver Oken, a guy who like me worked in the 'games' section. Oliver wasn't the only one though, there was Sue, Mark and even Rico wasn't too bad.
Summer romances weren't happening anytime soon though. Mind you, there was this one girl who caught my eye. I don't know who she is, and no-one's introduced me to her. But Jesus she is beautiful. I spotted her just after my lunch break finished, two hours ago.
She was sat on the counter of the 'hook a duck' game opposite my stall. She wore skin tight jeans, battered sneakers and of course the park's faded blue t-shirt. Her skin was fairly tanned, and her long brown hair fell down her back in slight curls. But the thing I noticed the most about her, were the two orbs of blue that were her eyes. Even from a good distance I could still see how bright they were.
"Yo! Girl!"
The shouting of a middle aged man, stood by the side of the stall snapped me out of my day-dream. Damn I was well into my own little world there!
"Yeah?" I replied casually.
He looked behind me nervously. Of course I thought nothing of it.
"Give me five."
"Okay."
I bent down and pulled out five red rings out to give to him. As I came back up his gaze was yet again fixed behind me on two other customers. I looked and saw what appeared to be a father and his son.
"Hey…I heard some big fat lady fell off the paratrooper…" the man spat out quickly, making me turn my attention back to him.
"Oh really? I didn't hear about that. Was she okay?" I questioned completely naïve to what was really happening.
"I don't know," he drifted off. Ignoring him I span back round to face the front of the stall, where the father and son were now leaning across the counter. I was about to speak up but got interrupted y customer number one. "You know what? Make it ten! No! Fifteen!"
"Uhh…okay?"
I bet down again and pulled out another ten rings to give to the man as he babbled away. Something was definitely up.
"Yeah, I heard it was this big, fat, slob of a woman…you know?"
In the last split second of his sentence I caught the sound of shuffling footsteps and I whipped my head round to see he father holding his son over the bottles, who placed one right on. The fucking cheaters!
"He won! Check it out! Way to go Dom! Way to go! We got a winner!" yelled the father who'd set his son back down as if nothing had ever happened.
"Okay sir, actually, I saw you holding him over the bottles. That's cheating."
The man's faced turned red with anger as I accused him. The little boy however was smirking evily.
"Oh no he won fair and square! You gotta give him a prize!" he blared at me.
He was so close I felt the tiny droplets of his spit hit my face. Yuck.
"Yeah I saw him throw it." Piped up the man I had been serving minutes ago.
Before I knew it, they were both cornering and hurling abuse at me as I tried to make confess to cheating. I tried pleading with them even, saying it'd cost my job if I gave away the giant-ass panda but they didn't listen. Instead they called me a faggot, a very low blow by the way, and kicked up even more commotion.
Just as I thought they were about to kill me, a girl pops out of nowhere and hands the little boy one of the two pandas.
"Here ya go, here's your panda." She drawled in something that didn't sound like a Californian accent.
The men muttered something about the boy just being a 'kid,' before they walked away. The girl who had possibly cost me my job turned around to face me. All my anger faded away though as I recognized it to be the brunette girl. She grinned at me somewhat cheekily.
"L-look," I stuttered. "Am I gonna get in trouble? No-one's ever supposed to lose a giant-ass panda."
"Is it worth getting' knifed over?" she said again in what I realized was a southern accent.
And what? A knife? Shit I've only been here two days and already almost got mugged and stabbed for a fucking stuffed animal.
"I guess not. Hey I'm Lilly Truscott, I just started." I greeted.
The girl hoisted herself up onto my counter and sat in a similar position as when I'd seen her before. I tried hard not to stare at her long tanned legs in those denim hot-pants that she was wearing.
"Cool name. I'm Miley." She said simply as she put on a pair of black Ray-Ban Wayfarers. "Sucks you're gonna lose your job on your second day Lilly."
"No shit. I need this job."
She laughed and I found myself mesmerized by her.
"I'm just kidding. You're okay. I'll tell Rico you lost the panda at knifepoint."
I stumbled out a quick apology as I cleared away the hoops that I'd brought out for the mugger. Miley sat playing with her fingernails watching me intently. Oliver came over a few seconds later and began smoking a pipe. Weird guy…but he is cool. Suddenly though he spat it out and hollered to some guy a few yards away dressed in rocker-ish clothes.
"YO JESSE! ROCK ON!"
"Who's that?" I questioned.
Miley shifted uncomfortably in her space on the counter as Oliver explained.
"Jesse. He's the maintenance guy." Oliver took a puff of his pipe and blew out the smoke a few seconds later. "You know about Jesse and Lou Reed don't you Lilly?"
"No. Should I?"
"Whoa time out!" he said shocked like as if he'd just discovered 'Pong' for the first time. "Miley he doesn't know about the legend!"
"Oh my god!" she said with fake enthusiasm, something Oliver didn't pick up on. I flashed her a smile as we both secretly laughed at him.
"Tell him then Miles!" he ordered.
"Jesse once jammed with Lou Reed."
"Really?" I asked, but now with genuine interest. Miley nodded. "So Jesse's a real musician?"
"Yeah! He got his own band and everything. Tell you what Lilly he got a lot of pussy with them!" he gushed in my ear with that typical boy related attitude.
Miley gave him a hard shove that made him lose his balance and fall over.
"He's married you perv!" she snapped.
Okay maybe that reaction was a tad too over the top? Maybe, I dunno, she's just being a typical girly girl and hates talking about sex. Hey she might be a virgin too! Hmmm…uh no! Lilly get those thoughts out of your head. You barely know the girl. Whatever. Just then Jackson chose to walk past and be…well, Jackson.
"PANTY STAIN! PANTY STAIN!"
"Oh fuck…" I muttered under my breath.
"HEY LILLY, YOU'RE THE PANTY STAIN!"
Just shut the hell up Jackson.
"You know Jackson?" asked Miley who was quite amused.
"Unfortunately yes…WHAT DO YOU WANT JACKSON?" I answered before shouting back.
"I'M STILL GIVING YOU A RIDE HOME TONIGHT, YEAH?"
I groaned. I hated getting in a car with Jackson, he was just so…annoying. He played shit music like all this 'pop' crap and no alternative rock. That and he'd probably try to hit me in the boob as many times as he possibly could without taking his eyes off the road.
"I could give you a ride if you want."
I snapped my head up to face Miley with wide eyes.
"Really?"
"Yeah of course, I don't mind." She stated before giving me a smile.
"YO, PANTY STAIN, YOU GONNA ANSWER ME OR WHAT?"
Fucks sake Jackson, way to ruin a moment.
"I GOT A RIDE, IT'S COOL!" I hollered back.
He nodded and walked off, but not before running up to the stall and smacking me in the boob so hard that a doubled over in pain. I heard Miley briefly ask Oliver if they should help me, but he just waved it off, saying Jackson had already done this to me twenty times in the space of two days. As the pain began to subside, Oliver left to return to his stall and Miley jumped off the counter back onto the dusty ground.
"Ouch. That looked like it hurt, but at least you're getting a ride off me now not Jackson." She laughed.
"I s-suppose…" I whimpered.
"See you later Lil."
I couldn't help but noticed the way her hips moved as she wandered don't know what it was but there was something about Miley. Of course it was still early days, and heck I didn't even know if she swung that way. But somehow it didn't matter 'cause I was getting in a car with her later on and she already had a nickname for me.
Finally, things were looking up.
~To be continued ~
Adventureland: Chapter 1
