Michael's Little Problem: Part 3
Chapter 7
Miami, FL
Lily Sizemore's POV
The rest of the weekend went by without incident, and before I knew it I was back at school. I had on a heavy layer of concealer to hide the bruise on my face, and nobody seemed to notice it was there. While it was nice to be able to hide my injuries, I was still feeling like an emotional wreck. I went through the school day on autopilot, and by the end of the day I was ready to get home and be by myself. I couldn't stop thinking about what had happened with Larry and Michael in Strickler's apartment and the images kept replaying in my head. I was proud of myself that I had fought back, but it scared me that Larry had been able to hurt Michael. I always thought of Michael as an invincible person, and it had shocked me to see him lying on the floor unconscious the other day.
Pete and I were pretty quiet when we walked home after school let out. Pete could tell I was upset even though I tried to hide it. I just wanted to get home so I could scrub my face clean of all the makeup. "Lily, are you sure you're okay?" I looked at Pete, suddenly feeling guilty for worrying him so much.
"I'll be fine, Pete. I'm just upset about what happened with my dad. I think I just need some time to get over what happened." Pete nodded and put his arm around my shoulder.
"I wish it would have never happened, Lily." I nodded in agreement and we walked on in silence. Pete probably thought I was cursed or something. I had told him earlier in the day about what I saw in the park, and he seemed shocked that all that could happen to me in one weekend. When we got to my house, Pete said his goodbyes and promised me he would call later to see how I was doing. I walked into the house thinking I had the sweetest boyfriend in Miami, and made my way to my room. Grandma was standing at the top of the stairs.
"How are you doing, sweetie?" She gave me a hug and followed me into my room.
"I'm okay, grandma. I'm still sore, but I think I'll live." I put my backpack on my bed.
"Michael wants you to call him, honey. He's worried about you." I sighed. I didn't feel like sharing my feelings with Michael. How could I tell him it scared me that Larry had been able to take him down? I decided I desperately needed to go for a run to clear my head.
"Okay, grandma. I'm gonna go for a run and then I'll call him when I get back." Grandma looked worried.
"Are you sure you should be exercising?" She followed me out of my room as I made my way to the bathroom.
"It'll be good for my sore muscles. I need to stretch them out. I promise I'll be careful." Grandma just nodded and went downstairs. I scrubbed my face clean of all the makeup and then changed into my running clothes. I had worn a long sleeve shirt to school because I wanted to hide all the bruises on my arms, and now that I was in my workout clothes, I could see that the bruises were really getting dark. I hoped they would fade quickly because it would get really old having to wear long sleeves to school every day.
I grabbed my cell phone and my iPod, and then I was out the door. I received a huge shock when I saw Detective Coughlin standing by his car in the front of our house. Oh crap, I thought to myself. He waved me over, and I knew there was no way I could hide my injuries. I suddenly wished I hadn't washed all the makeup off my face. I walked over to the detective feeling a sense of dread. "I just had a few more questions to ask you about the other night, Lily…" Coughlin trailed off after seeing me up close. "What happened to you?"
I scrambled to think of something to say. "Nothing, I just had a little accident." I said lamely. Detective Coughlin put his hands on his hips, all questions he wanted to ask me forgotten. He stepped closer to me and peered at my injuries.
"Doesn't look like an accident." He waited for me to explain with a scowl on his face. Now I was panicking and I could feel my hands shaking. I knew I couldn't explain any of this without getting Michael in trouble. The detective seemed to notice I was scared. "Look, don't be afraid. I'm just trying to help you."
I shook my head. "I don't need your help. I'll be fine." I wished I could just run away, but that would certainly put up a red flag.
Coughlin put his hand on my shoulder and his expression softened. "I know this wasn't an accident. If someone is hurting you, I need to know about it. It looks like you have a handprint on your face and that doesn't happen by accident."
I didn't even know how to get around this. "You don't understand. I don't have time to answer your questions right now." I needed to change the subject. Coughlin couldn't know what had happened the other day.
The detective's expression became annoyed. "It's fine if you don't wanna answer my questions right now, but that doesn't mean I'm just gonna go away. That woman you saw the other night didn't make it, and now we have to track down the man you saw. He's wanted for murder."
I shrugged and started walking away. "I already told you everything I saw." I wished I had never walked through the park the other night, because now I had a suspicious detective on my hands. I knew this wasn't just about an investigation anymore. He would probably be looking into every detail of my life now.
"Alright, you can't hide forever though. I'm not the kind of person who's just going to let this go. Someone did this to you and I'm gonna figure out who it was." Detective Coughlin got back in his car and drove away after that. Once he was out of sight, I immediately pulled my phone out and called Michael.
"Hey, Lily. How are you today?" Michael said when he answered the phone.
"We have a problem, Michael. The detective came back and wanted to ask more questions. He got sidetracked when he saw what happened to me this weekend. He asked me what happened but I wouldn't tell him. I don't know what to do and I know I can't avoid this."
Michael sighed. "Alright, this is a problem. Coughlin will be looking very closely into our lives, and we can't have that. I'll come over to the house right now so we can talk about how we're gonna deal with this. He'll be back."
The last thing I wanted to do right now was go wait for Michael in the house. "Can I just meet you somewhere? I need to go for a run; I have too much energy right now."
"That's fine, but I don't want you running too far, Lil. Your muscles are still strained. Why don't you run to the beach and I'll meet you there. I'll give you a ride home afterwards." I knew Michael would be worried about my injuries.
"Okay, I'll probably be there in a half hour then."
"Okay, remember to take it easy." Michael hung up and I put my cell phone back in my pocket. Once I began running I felt much better. Sure, I had all kinds of problems to deal with right now, but at this moment I was happy to be by myself doing something I loved.
I arrived at the beach about thirty minutes later, and Michael was leaning on the hood of the Charger waiting for me. "Hey." I said when I walked up to him. I was still out of breath from running and I wanted to sit down and stretch. Michael took one look at my face and shook his head.
"The bruise on your face is really dark, Lily. Have you been putting ice on it?"
I rolled my eyes, self-consciously touching my face. "Of course I have, it just keeps getting worse."
"Hopefully it'll fade quickly. How did the run go?" Michael asked. We walked over to the sand and plopped down on the ground.
"Great, I feel a lot better." I started stretching and I could feel Michael's eyes on the bruises on my arms. I wished would have worn long sleeves. "Stop staring at me like that." I snapped out of annoyance.
Michael raised his eyebrows and I looked away. "Like what? I'm just worried about you, Lily."
"Well you don't have to worry. What should I do about Detective Coughlin?" I asked, trying to change the subject.
"Well, we don't really have a lot of options. He'll probably come back with a bunch of information on you and the family." Michael didn't seem to have any idea what to do.
I huffed in frustration. "Why can't he just do his investigation and leave me alone?"
Michael smiled at me. "This is his job, Lily. If he sees something strange, then he wants to figure out what happened. A lot of detectives are like that." Michael paused and then added, "Spies are like that too. We're too curious for our own good."
I wiped away some sweat on my forehead and stared out into the water. "So should I just tell him the truth?"
Michael shook his head. "I think we should see what he comes up with first. I don't think there would be any problems if we blamed this on Larry. After all, he was the one who hurt you; you'll just have to make the detective believe a different story than what really happened."
I smiled, suddenly having a funny thought. "Wouldn't it be crazy if the police caught Larry after all these years? He wouldn't be able to hurt us anymore."
Michael immediately gave me a serious look. "I really wish I could have stopped him before he hurt you again, Lil."
I shrugged. "Me too."
Michael put his arm around my shoulders. "Something else on your mind?"
I sighed and shrugged his arm off of my shoulders so I could turn to face him. "It's just, you never lose a fight…"
"I know it may seem like that, but I've lost plenty of fights before. I have scars to prove it, just like you. Like I said, Larry just got me with a cheap shot and to tell you the truth I wasn't all there that day. I was worried sick about you and Fiona, and it's hard to admit that I let my emotions get the best of me because I know that could have cost both of us our lives that day." Michael looked down and shook his head.
"I'm not trying to blame you, Michael. I have been thinking about this a lot lately and it really scares me that Larry can get to me this easily. I mean, it was dumb luck that you showed up at Strickler's in time. Next time you might not be there in time…" I trailed off because I felt like I was going to start crying.
Michael put his arm around me again. "Oh Lily, I'm sorry you feel scared, but you can't think like that. I know it's easy to think like that, but you just have to be optimistic about it. You can't live your life in fear, all we can do is take precautions so this doesn't happen again."
I put my head on Michael's shoulder and thought about what he had said for a couple minutes. I just needed to accept that Larry wasn't going away anytime soon, and hope that I was ready for him the next time he came around. I picked my head up off Michael's shoulder when I had a sudden desperate thought. "There's still a chance that the police got him though, right?"
Michael laughed. "It would be nothing short of a miracle if that happened. Remember though, Lily, nobody can know what happened at Strickler's apartment the other day."
I nodded, my thoughts straying back to the detective again. "I know. Coughlin is so intimidating though. It might be hard for me…"
"This isn't going to be easy, Lily. You just have to stick to your story and then go from there. I just know if we try to avoid this, it's going to get worse. If you confront Coughlin now, then he'll stop digging into our lives." Michael waited for me to respond.
"This is going to be embarrassing." Michael gave me a sharp look.
"Why would it be embarrassing? You shouldn't be ashamed of what happened to you, Lily." I sighed and nervously piled sand by my feet.
"Well, I can't help it. This isn't exactly a normal occurrence, Michael. And look at me! I'm a wreck." I said, pointing at my bruises. I didn't think it was a very common thing for people to get attacked by their estranged fathers multiple times.
"I know it's not normal, but you should be proud you were able to fight back, Lily. I always wished I could have fought back when my dad was around." Michael never talked about Mr. Westen, and I didn't have very many memories of him at all. I just remembered a quick temper.
I took a deep breath. "I guess I just have to bite the bullet and get this over with. Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll never come back."
Michael stood up and held a hand out to help me off the ground. My muscles were back to their sore state from sitting on the ground and I wished the soreness would just go away. "I don't think you'll be that lucky, Lily."
I smiled as we got in the car. "I don't think so either."
…
A/N: Hello Readers! I was encouraged to know people are still reading this story! Thanks for the wonderful comments!
