Okay, I'll admit, after I was raped, I still did look at men. But my standards were over the roof. I guess I never looked at Oliver because he was my best friend. And when Alyssa was born, my standards went as high as the stars.
I wiped another tear as it rolled down my cheek. I hadn't heard from Oliver in days since he told me that he loved me.
"Mommy, where's daddy?" Alyssa said walking up to me. She wiped a tear that was strolled down my cheek. "Why are you crying?"
"I don't know where daddy is," I said. "And I'm not sure why I'm crying."
"Mommy do you love daddy?" Alyssa asked.
"Of course I love him. I've known him my whole life," I said picking her up and setting her on my lap.
"But do you love him like Cinderella loves Prince Charming?" she asked. How could a two year old little girl be such a genius at love? She didn't even know her ABC's!
"I'm not sure," I said stroking her blonde hair. I looked into her blue eyes. Oliver may not have been her biological father, but he was definitely a father to her.
Ever since Oliver left a couple of days ago, memories of him and me flooded my mind.
"Okay, I'll let you use my crayon sharpener, but only if I can hold you hand."
"You're out of your mind you donut!"
"Fine then, I guess you don't get to use them," a four year old little brown haired boy said.
"Fine," a blonde haired, blue eyed girl said. She reluctantly grabbed the little boy's hand.
"Eww! Lilly and Oliver are holding hands," a boy said.
The pre-school teacher walked over to them. "Lilly, Oliver, you two need to let go of each other's hands."
"Fine," Lilly and Oliver both said reluctantly. Lilly wouldn't admit it, but she liked holding Oliver's hand.
Lilly laughed. Even back in pre-school, he was a goofy flirt.
"Oliver, I can't believe Lucas cheated on me," Lilly said crying. "You're a guy. Am I really that bad?"
Oliver looked at his best friend. People accused him of being jealous when Lilly and Lucas started going out, but he persuaded himself that she was like a little sister to him, and he was just acting like an older protective brother. He wanted to beat Lucas up.
"Lilly, Lucas is an idiot. Any guy would be lucky to have you. You're sweet, pretty; you can pretty much kick any guy's butt at school. You're not like most girls. You're funny, a great athlete. Lilly, I could go on and on, but it's a short life. I don't have enough time to go and list it all," Oliver said wrapping his arms around her. Lilly giggled. "See there's that famous Lilly Truscott giggle."
"Thanks Oliver. You really are a great friend," Lilly said smiling. She gave him a kiss on his cheek. Oliver put his hand where she kissed him. He had the look of a little boy who just got kissed by a famous female celebrity. He had the look that said, 'I'm never washing this cheek.'
I had been looking for that one special guy so hard, that I didn't realize that he had been here all along right in front of me. I hopped up with Alyssa in my arms from the couch in my living room.
I grabbed Alyssa's jacket and put it on her. "Come on, we're gonna go see daddy."
"Yay, I've missed him," Alyssa said.
I ran to my car and quickly put Alyssa in her car seat. I started up the car not bothering to even turn the heat on. I'd never realized it, but Oliver had been there all along.
"Oliver, what am I going to do?" Lilly asked lying down in a hospital bed with a baby in her arms.
"Well, what are we going to do?" Oliver asked.
"We?" Lilly asked.
"Yes, we're in this together. I'm going to help you with this little beautiful baby Alyssa, who looks just like her lovely mom," Oliver said.
"Awe, thank you," Lilly said.
"Lilly, you're going to be just fine, and I have your back," Oliver said.
I pulled up to Oliver's apartment building. I quickly unbuckled myself and unstrapped Alyssa from her car seat. I pulled my little girl in my arms.
"Listen, I can beat you in skateboarding any day, you evil little kite cutter," Lilly said to her arch nemesis Joanie. (AN- I don't know her last name)
"Yeah, go Lilly!" Oliver cheered.
"Okay, fine, how about we have a competition right here and right now," Joanie said.
"You're on," Lilly said. She hopped onto her skateboard and slid down the railing of the staircase. Lilly had just started skateboarding down a ramp. She hadn't practiced a whole lot. Pretty soon she lost control and fell off her skateboard. "Ow! My ankle!"
"Lilly!" Oliver screamed. "Are you okay?"
"Oh yeah, the screaming is just excitement! Of course I'm not okay!" Lilly yelled.
"Oh man, this looks bad," Oliver said. He got his cell phone out and dialed 911. "Hello, I think my best friend just broke her ankle. She was skateboarding, and she fell off her skateboard. We're at Malibu Skateboard Park." Oliver helped Lilly up. He put her arm around his shoulders.
Pretty soon the ambulance truck arrived at the skate park. Oliver carried Lilly to the ambulance truck.
Oliver held Lilly's hand the whole ride to the hospital.
"Thanks Oliver," Lilly said.
"Is Oliver Oken here?" I asked a bald headed man with a beer belly.
"No ma'am. I think he went to the train station. Something about moving to Boston," the man said sheepishly rubbing his hand on the back of his head.
I felt my heart skip a beat. Oliver can't be moving to Boston. Now? Why? I ran as if I was running from something to save my life. Oliver couldn't leave me. Not when I had to tell him the most important thing. I nervously unlocked my car. With my hand shaking, I started up the car.
"Why do you care if I'm dating your brother?" Lilly asked a red faced Oliver. "Are you jealous?"
"Pssh, me jealous? I always did like that sense of humor of yours," Oliver said tapping his finger on her nose.
---
"You cannot seriously think Carrie Underwood is better than Taylor Swift," Oliver said.
"Yeah!" Lilly said putting her arms on her hips. "Taylor Swift is good, but she can't sing like Carrie Underwood."
---
Lilly and Oliver were on their class field trip to Philadelphia making up their first rap.
"This is Smokin' Oken and chilly Lilly," Oliver said starting one of his raps.
"Comin' from little Philly," Lilly said.
"We're riding bus number three."
"And pretty soon, the teachers are gonna set us free."
"Freaky, freaky fresh word!"
---
"Lilly, how did we get in Home Ec.?" Oliver asked trying to make some pizza.
"I don't know. Man, why does the school get to choose our classes? How come we can't choose our own classes?" Lilly asked.
"I don't know," Oliver said. He saw that they needed some more sauce. He walked over to Sarah's, the saint, table. "Hey Sarah, Lilly and I need some sauce. Do you have any extra that we can use?"
"Yeah, I don't need anymore of the sauce, so you can have the rest," Sarah said.
"Thanks," Oliver said. He walked back over to Lilly's table not watching where he was stepping. That's not a good trait for clumsy people like Oliver. He tripped over someone's book bag, and the bowl with the sauce flew into the air and landed on Lilly's head.
"Oliver!" she screamed. She threw some mushrooms at him. A couple landed in his mouth.
"Eww, Lilly you know I hate mushrooms!" Oliver said. He grabbed some cheese and threw it at Lilly. In response, she grabbed some bread and threw it at Oliver.
"Oliver Oken and Lilly Truscott," the teacher, Mrs. Clayton yelled. "You two know the rules of fights. I'm going to have to take you two to the princlepal's office. Plus, did you all realize that you were fighting each other?"
I ran as fast as I could through the train station with a child in my arms.
"Oliver! Oliver!" I yelled. I finally saw a shaggy brunette that I would recognize anywhere.
The figure turned around. I was right. It was my Smokin' Oken.
"Lilly what are you doing here?" he asked.
"You can't move to Boston," I said.
"I'm not moving---"
I didn't let him finish. "You can't move to Boston. You know that expression that says: 'Sometimes the one you're looking for is right in front of you'. Oliver, I've been searching for years for that one special guy, but I never realized that he was right in front of me. You've been here all along. We have a history together. The sixty-four crayon pack with the pencil sharpener, our first rap when we went on our class field trip to Philadelphia. You bought me my first skateboard. Everyday we spent together at Rico's. And you can't move to Boston."
"Lilly," Oliver said with a smile.
"I won't let you move to Boston," I said sternly.
"LILLY!" Oliver yelled.
"Because I love you!" I said looking at him.
"I'm not moving to Boston," he said with a smile.
"You're not?" I asked with a smile. "But you're neighbor said something about you moving to Boston?"
"My mom is going to go visit my brother," he said. "I was just dropping her off."
"Oh," I said.
He started to lean closer his head closer to mine where our lips were nearly inches apart.
"Wait!" I commanded stopping him. "We have a child in the room."
Oliver laughed. "I can take care of that." He covered Alyssa's eyes and leaned his head toward mine. Our lips met.
It was just like a movie until, "Mommy, daddy, can we turn on the lights now?"
"Ha-ha," I said breaking apart from Oliver. Oliver uncovered his hand from Alyssa's eyes. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and we walked off.
How could I have not seen that Oliver had been here all along?
Well that's the end of that. So what did you think? Oh also, the rap is pretty lame, but I'm not a rapper. Review please! :}
