Hey guys, I know it's been a while, but I'm swamped with school work! There is very little Liley in this chapter, but can promise you Miley will be back soon. Just bear with me, Ok?
I stood stock still in front of the paper machine, just staring at it.
"Lil?" Jackson questioned me cautiously. He had come back to my side. "What's wrong?" He leaned in and tried to look at what had captured my attention.
I shoved him away. "You knew, didn't you?" I could hear how dangerous my voice sounded.
"Knew what?" He tried to step close to me again.
"You knew!" I shouted, shoving him again. This time he fell down.
"Lilly!" He sounded hurt. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Look at that, and tell me you didn't know." I pointed at the paper dispenser. He got up and walked over to it, leaning in to read it in the dim light. The silence stretched on and on, and I was determined not to break it.
Jackson finally did. "Lilly, I am so, so sorry."
"How could you? How could you know this and not tell me." My voice trembled a bit, and my mind ran n circles. She was back. She was making a comeback. She was in this city. Jackson had known. Robbie Ray must have known, too. How had this not leaked into the industry? I'm famous now. These kinds of things never stay hidden from us. What the hell?
"I couldn't tell anyone. This was the best kept secret in society. Seriously, the government can't even hide things as well as we did this." Jackson pulled his hood down, running his fingers through his shaggy hair. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I didn't know you'd react like this. I mean, I thought-"
"Jackson!" A high pitched voice screamed. "Jackson Stewart? Is that Lilly?" A girl, probably about seventeen, had spotted us. Jackson tried to silence her, but it was too late. People coming out of the mall swarmed us, begging for autographs, pictures, and for us to sing parts of songs. I plastered a smile on my face, asked names, hugged fans and pretended to be happy. Nothing matters like the fans. But after thirty minutes had passed and the crowd kept getting bigger, it was time to call for reinforcements. Jackson pulled out his phone between pictures with fans and HeyTell'd Robbie Ray.
"Dad, we need help. We're at the Macy's entrance of the mall!"
In less than a minute Robbie Ray's response came over the phone. It was short, and I almost couldn't hear it over the crowd around us. "On our way."
At this point, the paparazzi had arrived. The same people we'd been avoiding at the hotel had found us.
"Lilly, how's the girlfriend?" "Jackson, anyone new in your life?" "Would either of you like to talk about your new album?" The questions came rapid fire. They came so fast, we couldn't have answered them even if we'd wanted to. At that moment, a limo screeched to a halt, and three big burly bodyguards jumped out, pushing through the crowd. They made a path, pulling Jackson and I through the mob and into the limo. I looked out the window after the door slammed, and saw a little girl sitting on the sidewalk crying.
"Wait!" I shouted before the driver could get us moving. "Rob, will you get out with me for a second?" Rob shrugged and got out, keeping the crowd back while I made my way to the little girl. I sat down next to her while the cameras kept flashing and people kept shouting. I was aware that the other two bodyguards were forming a human wall by me.
"What's wrong?" I asked the little girl. She looked up at me with eyes clouded by tears. After a moment recognition cleared her face, and she threw her arms around me. "Lilly, thank goodness it's you. I've been trying to get through the crowd to get to you, but I'm just too little. Someone pushed me, and I fell down, and I scraped my knee, and I needed to see you." I looked down and her knee was bleeding.
"Well here I am. What can I do for you? Do you want an autograph?" She nodded with tears in her eyes.
"My name is Shanaya, but I don't want the autograph for me. It's for my sister."
"Well, where's your sister?" I looked around, expecting someone to claim this little girl.
"She's in the hospital. She's really sick. They say she's going to die, but I know if I can get your autograph she'll live. You're her favorite person ever. If I can get your autograph to her, it will all be better." The childlike innocence in this girl's voice broke my heart. Even here, among this large crowd, the only thing I could focus on was her, and the way she really thought I could save her sister.
"I-" my voice choked up, and I had to clear my throat. "Can I meet your sister?"
"She would love that!" The pure joy in her face was almost enough to make me cry.
"Where is she?"
"She's in a hospital room." I tried to think of ways we could make this happen.
"Where's your mom?"
The girl's face fell. "She's with my sister. She's always with my sister."
"What about your dad?"
"I don't have a dad."
"Well then, who's home with you?"
"No one. I stay home alone."
To me, everything was wrong with that. Even if her sister is sick, this girl is maybe eight. Maybe. "Well, where do we go to see your sister?
"I can show you!"
"Would you like to ride in the limo?" She jumped up, grabbed my arm, and pulled me towards the limo. The photographers kept shouting and taking pictures. We quickly jumped into the limo while the bodyguards held the crowd back, and then followed us in. I sat on the seat closest to the driver's window. "Hey, we're going to-" I paused and looked down at Shanaya. "Which hospital?"
She whispered to me, "The Philadelphia Children's Hospital."
I relayed that to the driver, and he said, "Yes, Miss Truscott."
I moved over to the long bench next to Jackson. The little girl at on my other side, holding my arm close to her and hiding behind my shoulder. "Don't be scared Shanaya. This is Jackson. You know him right?" She looked at Jackson and nodded. "And this is Robbie Ray, our manager." She looked at him, then looked away. "And these are our bodyguards. They keep us safe." I turned t Jackson and Robbie Ray. "Shanaya's sister is sick, and we're going to visit her."
"Lilly…" Robbie Ray started in on me with his 'dad voice.'
"Robbie Ray, her sister is sick. We are her favorite band. Please."
He looked at me, then pulled out his phone. "Yeah, it's me. We're on our way to the Children's Hospital. Meet us by the front door, and don't get caught. Hurry." He hung up the phone. If we're gonna do this, we might as well bring the whole band."
"Thanks Robbie."
There was a moment of silence, and Jackson leaned forward. "Shanaya, what's your sister's name?"
"Lauren." She peeked out from behind my arm. "She loves you guys. You can make her feel better, I know it." Everyone was silenced by the pureness in her voice, which I couldn't help but smile at.
We pulled up to the front door of the hospital, where Jake, Matt, and Oliver were already waiting.
"Hey guys!" Jake greeted us. "Why are we here?"
"You know, it doesn't really matter. I love any chance to sneak past the paparazzi." Oliver laughed.
"Guys, this is Shanaya. Her sister Lauren is in this hospital, and she's one of our biggest fans. We're here to surprise her."
Shanaya grabbed my hand and dragged me through the doors. "Coem on, we need to hurry. She'll be so happy."
Shanaya led us through hallway after hallway, until we reached the elevator, which we took to the sixth floor. It was obvious Shanaya had spent a lot of time in the hospital. She knew exactly where she was going. The elevator doors opened, and she led our little group to a desk with a receptionist.
A large woman leaned over the desk and looked at Shanaya, who was standing on her tippy toes at the desk. "Shanaya," she said sternly. "What are you doing here so lat? Didn't your mom send you home?"
"Marge, I had to come back. I ound friends! Can we go see Lauren?"
"Visiting hours are over Shanaya. I can't let all these people in." She sounded honestly sorry.
Robbie stepped up. "Excuse me ma'am. I know it's let and that this is quite the imposition. But is there any way just the kids could go in? They'll be quiet, and the rest of us will wait out here. Please."
She looked unsure, but she relented anyways. "Well, alright. You kids can go ahead. But please please be quiet. Some of the patients are sleeping." Shanaya started to drag us away. "I mean it young ones!"
We hurried down a hall and around a corner, and Shanaya disappeared into the room on the corner. I could hear her almost shout. "Lauren, you will never guess who I brought you!"
A weak voice answered, "Who is it?"
I paused outside the door for a moment, looking at the hand decorated sign that said, 'Jones, Lauren, Rm 605' before the five of us walked in.
The first thing I saw when I walked in the room was a seemingly empty bed. But, upon recognizing us, the girl in the bed sat up. At first, she didn't say anything. She just cried a little it. So I spoke first. "Hi Lauren. We heard you were sick, so we wanted to come visit you. You have a really special little sister here."
Lauren turned to Shanaya, who climbed up on to the bed to give her a quick hug. "Thank you so much." Lauren was just a little girl. She was incredibly skinny, and she had no hair. Her cheek bones were sunken in, and there were bags under her eyes. It was hard to tell, but she might have been fifteen or sixteen. In this state though, she looked twelve. "How could you guys be here right now?" Lauren asked us.
Oliver answered her. "We kind of snuck in. We sort of do things like that sometimes." He smiled mischievously.
"I brought them here so you could get better Lauren. I thought if you had their autograph, you'd get better."
"Thank you Shanaya. Can you go find mom? I think she's in the cafeteria."
"Yeah, I'll go get her." Shanaya hopped up off the bed to go find her mom.
As soon as Shanaya was out of the room, Lauren had more to say. "Thank you so much for being here. My sister, she's little. She doesn't understand that soon, I'm not gonna be here anymore. But it means more to me than anything that you guys would do something like this for a fan. Meeting you guys, just once, is actually on the top of my bucket list."
Matt sat down in one of the chairs in the room. "Is there anything we can do? Is there any way we can help you?"
Lauren wiped away a tear. "There's nothing anyone can do for me. And I've come to accept it. I have stage Leukemia. This is the fourth time it's come back. I've gone into remission three times, but this time it's different. My dad left, and my little sister doesn't understand that this is the last time. I can't do this anymore. My mom is broken. She's a sad woman, who has made fighting for me her whole life." She wiped away a tear, and I did too. "The thing is, the money is gone. And it's ok, you know? I mean, I made it to eighteen. I got to see my little sister grow up a little bit. The first time I was diagnosed, she was one year old. Now she's a rambunctious little ten year old that finds famous bands and sneaks them into hospitals after hours." She started to cry a little more. "I'm sorry. I'm so happy that you're here. It just never gets any easier saying it: I'm going to die."
I looked around, and there wasn't a dry face in the room. All the boys were crying a bit. There had to be something we could do for her. "Lauren, is there anything you want? Anything we can give you?"
"I would love to go to one of your concerts, but I'm too sick. I can't even leave the hospital anymore."
We all looked down at the ground, trying to figure out how what we could do for her. "Wait!" Jake yelled. "I know how we can fix this!"
"How?" I asked.
Jake explained his plan to us, and Lauren got more and more animated as he got farther into it. At some point, Lauren's mother came in, and after getting over the initial shock of having five strangers in her daughter's room, she listened to us and agreed with our plan. We had to leave to get everything set up, but we promised Lauren that we'd be back the next day. I took down Lauren and her mom's cell phone number, and then said goodbye to Shanaya, promising to come back tomorrow. She seemed guarded, almost like she couldn't trust me, but we convinced her we wouldn't let her down.
After leaving the hospital the five of us worked hard to obtain the technology we needed to make our plan work. After putting in calls to all our technical guys, who were not happy about being woken up at 1 am, we finally managed to get everything into place. Sometime around 3 am I crawled into bed next to Sarah, who rolled over and put her arm around my waist.
"Where have you been?" She mumbled sleepily.
"I'm sorry, I had to visit a sick fan."
"Is everything ok?"
"Yeah. Hopefully, everything will be fine."
"Good, good…" She fell quickly back to sleep.
And it was lying there quietly in the dark, in that last moment before I fell asleep, that a lone thought crept into my mind.
'You're lying in this bed while Miley is in the same city.'
Doesn't Lilly have a heart of Gold? Oh, and props to Strawberrylicious, who told me they loved me, which encouraged me to crank out this chapter I'd been working on. I love the love!
