A/N: So, the beach party… I was inspired by Lilly's line in WIDLAY when she shows Miley a picture on her cell phone. "And, that one day, it almost rained… but it didn't, and I took pictures." I decided that day was more important than Lilly led Miley to believe, and it gave me the idea for this story. It's completely written, I just have to go through and edit the rest, so it shouldn't be too long before it's all up. It does mention a few things from my interruptions series, but you don't have to read those to read this. Enjoy!

A Change in the Weather

Part One

***

Time: 9:00 AM

Forecast: Mostly sunny, slight chance of scattered showers, increasing temperature toward the afternoon hours.

***

Through half slitted eyes, Lilly splashed some milk over the cereal in front of her. The blue bowl was bright against the white of the counter top, but the glare she usually got from the morning sun was suspiciously absent. Rubbing those same eyes that were refusing to fully wake up, she picked up the bowl, headed over to the window and spooned a bit of the crunchy clusters, complete with nuts and banana flavor, into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed on auto pilot, not wanting to use any precious energy right now. It wasn't exactly a good idea to focus on the taste anyway, not when the banana flavor was being combined with the residue of her mouth wash. When her gaze raked across the sky, she wasn't sure if she should be relieved or annoyed at the weather.

A strange shade of grey painted the sky, clouds moving along like molasses spilling across a table. Except they were thin clouds, a few dark wisps here and there, having not gathered enough moisture for a good down pour yet. The skyline in the direction of the beach was clear, but the clouds appeared to be taking their sweet time to travel in that direction.

Lilly weighed her options. A: No rain meant the party tonight would proceed as scheduled and she could spend her evening hanging out with Oliver and various other people. B: Rain insured that she would not be walking around down at the beach, so no party and no Oliver, so no danger of her doing or saying something stupid. C: In spite of the rain, she could still hang out with Oliver at one of their houses, which would mean a confined space, and the increased likelihood of something stupid. D: None of the above, some sort of option she hadn't yet considered.

She wasn't sure which one she was hoping for at this point. Of course, staying up until almost five o'clock in the morning trading text messages with the person you were both excited to see and dreading being close to could do that to you. What had they even been talking about? The home shopping network. She remembered texts about some sort of giant cupcake making pan. God, she hadn't even cared what they were talking about, she just kept responding until she couldn't keep her eyes open.

She was doomed.

Doomed.

Then again, he had kept up the conversation too.

"Hey, honey." Heather's voice bounced around the kitchen. It was too loud and too perky, and Lilly wished that her mom was not a morning person. "I'm heading into work, so make sure you finish the garage for me, okay?"

Lilly nodded mutely, not really processing what her mother was saying until she had already grabbed a banana from the counter and got half way through the dining room.

"Wait… it's Saturday," Lilly called after her, turning from her spot by the window to do her best to hurry after the disappearing blond hair and bright purple button down top that accompanied the clacking of heels on the tiled floor.

"I know, but there's a problem with one of the lipstick lines, and a couple of the print ads might be pulled, so we're having a meeting…" Heather trailed off, smoothing out her skirt, noticing that Lilly was dragging her feet to meet up with her. "I told you all of this last night. If you didn't stay up so late, you wouldn't have all of these short term memory problems."

She gave Lilly a "mom" look, and Lilly opened her mouth to explain, then shut it again when she realized there really was no good explanation to give her mother. "I spent the whole night talking to Oliver about the shopping network because I couldn't sleep and I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about him" didn't seem like a good thing to bring up this early in the morning. Neither did lying and saying she went to bed at a decent hour. She settled for asking, "what about the garage?"

" Lilly, I told you," Heather started to remind her, then shook her head, "those boxes of your old sports stuff, I need you to figure out what you want to keep. Whatever can go, put those boxes on the porch. Oh, and could you throw in a load of your brother's laundry for me later too? I'll put it in the dryer when I get back, and I'll pick your brother up from whatever-that-kid's-name-is on the way home." Heather was starting to ramble now as she grabbed her purse and her keys. "And don't forget, we've got dinner tonight with-"

"The executive. I know, Mom. I remember that." Lilly rolled her eyes and ate another bite of her breakfast. The cereal was beginning to lose its crunch.

"I want you to look nice," Heather added as she clacked on out of the front door.

"Bye," Lilly responded, not entirely sure what her mother meant by that. Trudging back to the kitchen, she slowly finished her cereal, adding her dishes to the rows of the dirty ones already in the dishwasher, and being the good daughter that she was, she went ahead and ran it as well.

In fact, Lilly spent a good ten minutes standing there listening to the sound of the water pumping through the pipes and into the dishwasher, the pressure spraying it against the plates and glasses. It almost sounded like the washing machine. That same swirling, swishing sound, but it was magnified ten fold. And there was a little bit of rattling too. It could have been the silverware, or it could have been loose parts in there somewhere. Maybe they needed a new dishwasher.

Sighing, she gave in to her mother's request, deciding there was no point in changing from her pajama shorts and tank top if she was just going to get all sweaty in the garage. She was going to have to shower after going through the boxes anyway. Lilly pulled her hair back into a pony tail, and made sure her phone was still in the back pocket of her shorts. She'd always wondered why they had a back pocket, but short of being surgically attached to her cell phone, it was a good thing to have. Slipping on a pair of flip flops she had left next to the kitchen door, she headed outside, meeting the wall of hot and sticky air head on. It was times like this she really wished they had a door straight from the garage to the kitchen like Oliver's house did. Their garage used to, but it was one of those things that had been walled off when her dad lived with them and her parents were thinking about converting the garage into an extra apartment of some kind. That had obviously never happened.

Lilly reached down when she got to the driveway, retrieving the key from underneath a potted cactus plant. Everyone in the neighborhood likely knew they kept the spare key there, so probably not the best place to put it, but her mom was a creature of habit. She slid the key into the slot near the bottom of the door, turned it with a resounding click, then returned it to it's place under the cactus before pulling the door up, the metal rattling along the track, and scraping against more metal. It clanked to a stop when it reached a spot level with her shoulders, and Lilly ducked down to head into the dark room her family rarely used anymore.

The garage must have acted like some sort of heat vacuum, because after only one box of knee pads, shin guards, and helmets that no longer fit her, the cotton tank top she was wearing acted like a second skin.

"I can't believe I'm spending my Saturday morning doing this… I might as well be at the gym," Lilly groaned, shoving the first box toward the entrance to the garage before grabbing another from the section where all the old athletic gear had accumulated. "At least there are no spiders so far."

"What are you doing?" A voice piped up from the corner of the entrance.

Whirling around, and almost dropping the box in her hands, Lilly saw Oliver ducking under the garage door to look inside.

"Oliver?"

"You expecting someone else?"

"I was hoping you were the spring cleaning fairy," Lilly joked, bending slightly to drop the box on the ground in front of her and wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

As soon as she straightened up, Oliver took a step back, his eyes wide, and the back of his head collided with the bottom of the door.

"Are you okay?" Lilly called, rushing over to him following his yelp, and what may have been a swift curse word.

"I'm fine," Oliver tried to tell her nonchalantly, but one of his hands was rubbing the back of his head when he looked down at her.

"You sure?"

She went up on her toes, trying to peer around him to check, but Oliver stepped out of her grasp, nodding vigorously. As he took another step away, his eyes traveled all the way down her form without him really thinking about it, a slightly dazed expression on his face. Crossing her arms in front of her, Lilly remembered that the sweat was causing her clothing to stick to her, not to mention the dust was probably coating most of her exposed skin. She probably looked disgusting. The thought made her uncross her arms and hastily straighten the straps of her tank top before brushing her hands along her shorts in an attempt to make herself look a little bit more presentable. She pulled awkwardly at her pony tail as well, trying to unstuck the hair from the back of her neck.

"So," Oliver started, clearing his throat when his eyes met hers, "what's up?"

"My mom asked me to go through some of my old stuff…." she trailed off, gesturing to the open box near them with little girl sized protective gear for skate boarding and soccer.

Oliver chuckled, bending at the waist to pull out an elbow pad that was bright pink, saying, "are you sure this doesn't still fit you? You're pretty tiny."

"I'm not that small!" Lilly protested, snatching it from his hand. "I think I wore that when I was five or something."

"Six," He corrected, his eyes widening when his brain caught up with his mouth.

"Oh."

They just stood there looking at one another, Lilly smiling a little bit, Oliver turning a little red.

"What are you doing tomorrow night?" he asked suddenly, tossing the elbow pad back into the box.

"Tomorrow?"

"Yeah… I mean, I already know what you're doing tonight…"

"Uh, I don't know, why?"

"I was thinking we could do a movie night or something…" Oliver mumbled, looking away from her, his eyes scanning the contents of the box again.

"Okay," Lilly immediately agreed, her smile even wider when she saw Oliver nervously turning to run one of his hands through his hair, then over the edge of the garage door. "I think that new Orlando Bloom movie's out now."

"No! No Bloom. Anything but him."

"What? You love action movies!" Lilly protested, surprised to see Oliver's posture stiffen, his jaw working at grinding his teeth to a fine powder when he looked at her. Lilly cocked her head to the side, watching his face while he struggled to respond.

"It's just, I don't, I'm not really a fan of him. He kind of annoys me." Oliver nodded his head swiftly, the hand on the edge of the garage door gripping it tightly. His eyes glanced away again, and when he looked back at her, his gaze followed a bead of sweat as it dropped from her temple to her neck. He swallowed when it reached the fabric of her tank top and his eyes snapped back up to meet hers.

Lilly took this all in, then made a small step closer to him, leaning her head back a little further to look him in the eyes. "Oliver Oken, are you maybe a tiny bit jealous of Mr. Bloom?" She held her thumb and forefinger a small distance apart just in front of him, her tone teasing, not at all serious, so she was surprised again to see his eyes widen and him swallow even more nervously. She dropped her arm to her side, still watching.

He recovered quickly though, leaning forward and meeting her gaze head on. "Why would I be jealous?" He asked softly, not wanting to answer the question out loud, the tips of his fingers on the garage door turning a stark white with the effort of holding on to it.

"I don't know," Lilly responded evenly, ignoring the blood pounding in her ears that she wished she could fool herself into thinking was because of the heat outside, but she knew was a result of their close proximity, "you just seem to hold this grudge for no reason." She took another step forward, the fingers on her left hand curling around the hem of her shorts, hoping the grip there would act as a hold on reality as well, keeping her from launching herself at him. She could smell his tooth paste and feel the cotton of his shirt brush against her arm.

"Lilly," Oliver breathed softly, his gaze dropping to her mouth and his body leaning toward her with no instruction from him, before he quickly blinked and started, "I need to-"

"Oliver Oscar Oken, how long does it take you to take the garbage out? You were only supposed to put the bag in the can, not go next door and flirt with Lilly," a female voice that the two of them knew well called out from the strip of grass next to the driveway.

Oliver made a noise that sounded almost like a growl at the intrusion, and Lilly immediately took a step away from him, sighing before she dipped under the garage door and stepped onto the cement. She couldn't catch a break. "Hi, Mrs. Oken."

"I was just saying hello," Oliver added, ducking under the garage door as well, reluctantly walking out into the sunlight that was now peaking around the thin cloud cover.

"Hi, Lilly," Nancy Oken said before turning on Oliver. "You're supposed to be doing your chores and finishing your homework. You don't finish, you don't go anywhere tonight." She pointed a finger in his direction and Oliver gave a small shrug.

"I'll see you later, Lils."

"Yeah," she agreed, watching him follow his mom back to his own house. She bit her lip as her eyes trailed him to the front of the building, then forced herself to return to the task at hand. There were still six boxes to check, and thoughts of Oliver were not going to help her get them done any faster. In fact, they were likely to slow her down to a snail's pace.

"Right, Truscott. Get to work."

It was only three boxes later though that Lilly found herself seated on the cool floor where a normal family would have parked a car, surrounded by odds and ends from the boxes, trying to figure out just why her mother had decided to keep any of this stuff for the last few years. There were those inflatable swim fins for toddlers, goggles that wouldn't have fit on her brother's head since he was about four, a set of plastic golf clubs that weren't even as tall as her knees, and a couple of fishing reels in the current box. No one in her family even fished. She had found a pair of bowling shoes earlier that were too big to have belonged to anyone that lived in her house. She was beginning to wonder how exactly any of this qualified as her athletic equipment.

Just as she was preparing to toss an infant sized life jacket back into the box, her phone began to vibrate, alerting her to a new text message. Thinking it was Oliver, she whipped it out of her pocket, flipping it open and scanning the screen.

From: Miley

Message: OMG! Just finished shooting 1st scene w/ Chace. He told me 2 call him Chace! So cute!

She knew she should have been happy that her best friend was getting to film a movie with one of the world's cutest TV stars, but she couldn't muster up enough interest to care. Miley was always getting to travel, meet new people, talk to cute boys… Besides, Chace Crawford was too old for her anyway. Lilly did the best friend thing and sent her back a smiley face and an OMG of her own, hoping that would be enough to satisfy Miley, but knowing her, she was going to be getting text messages from her at least once a day about how amazing her costar was.

Lilly sat there, staring at her phone, fingers tapping on the edge of the box, and she sent off a new message almost without even being conscious of her actions.

To: Oliver

Message: What movie did u want 2 see 2mrw?

After hitting the send button, she stared at the screen a little while longer, then set it on the ground, throwing the sports gear haphazardly into its assigned box. A buzzing on the concrete let her know when she received a reply.

From: Oliver

Message: idk. U pick.

She chuckled to herself, knowing she probably shouldn't antagonize him, but she couldn't help it, responding almost immediately.

To: Oliver

Message: Lord of the Rings?

A few minutes went by, long enough for her to shove the latest box towards the garage entrance and get to work sifting through the next.

From: Oliver

Message: No Bloom!

Lilly giggled at the use of the exclamation point. He really didn't like Orlando. She could relate. She had been harboring some resentment for Taylor Swift for a while now too. Oliver admired her "song writing abilities" a little too much for her liking. Lilly knew what he really admired was the long blond hair and her supermodel height.

To: Oliver

Message: OK! I'll think about it, let u know l8r.

She smiled to herself, flipping the phone shut and sliding it back into her pocket. It wasn't a good idea to get him all riled up anyway. They'd be trading angry text messages before too long, and she didn't want to get him distracted from whatever it was his mom was making him do. Then, he wouldn't be allowed to go to the beach tonight. Then again, maybe that wasn't a bad thing. Lilly shook her head, letting every possible scenario for the night play out in her mind while she sorted.

In one version of events, she spilled everything to him, her hatred for his ex girlfriend, why she stole his clothes, all of it, before they got to the party… and then he laughed at her, thinking she was trying to prank him. She knew, of course, that wouldn't actually happen, so the next version had her telling him everything and then him freaking out, complete with him pretending to be sick and fainting to avoid telling her he didn't feel the same way about her.

Then again, she reasoned as another box joined the ones near the entrance to the garage, maybe he would actually be mature about the whole thing, telling her exactly why it wouldn't work out, being reasonable and mature, and everything could go back to normal. Except that this was Oliver and reasonable and mature were not in his vocabulary. Which was one of the things she loved about him. His freak outs were always entertaining. She just didn't want one aimed at her.

He could try to lie to her. Use the whole "it's not you, it's me" thing. But, Oliver was never a really good liar, and he knew he could never keep anything from her. And anyway, she probably wasn't going to get up the courage to actually say anything. Not tonight. Not at a party in front of all those people. Maybe tomorrow.

There was always another possibility. One that Lilly didn't want to place too much stock in. She didn't want to get her hopes too high. He could, possibly, feel the same way about her. Maybe, just maybe, he didn't want things to stay the same anymore either, but was just as afraid of the change as she was. After all, he had tried to kiss her too. And he had issued the strip poker challenge. And he was obviously at least somewhat attracted to her. Lilly had eyes. She knew when he was checking her out.

She kept telling herself though, as yet another box joined ranks with the completed ones, that this could all just be teenage hormones. He was a sixteen year old boy. And he had never been very subtle when it came to girls. Besides, they were thrown together so often, it was normal to be attracted to someone that you were often in close quarters with, someone who was funny, who shared your interests, and wasn't exactly hard on the eyes. If that someone just happened to be one of your best friends, well, that was just a bridge you didn't really have to cross, right? She didn't have to say anything. Not really.

There was one problem though. If she didn't say something soon, she was going to explode. And it wouldn't be pretty. It would be downright messy.

***