Here's the next chapter.
"So, um, how do you want to do this?" Miley asked nervously as she carefully helped Lily into a standing position. "Do… do you want to keep our relationship a secret or… or do you want to, um…?"
"I think we should tell Oliver before we tell the whole school," Lily said, leaning on her crutches for support. "If he finds out with everyone else, he might freak out just as much. And… I think he still likes me, so that won't really help our cause, either. As long as we tell him first, I'm fine with everything."
"When should we tell him?" Miley asked as they walked back towards the school. The first bell had already rung and they were late for their first class, but they walked slowly anyways, savoring the time with each other. "Do you want to tell him at lunch, or after school, or this weekend…?"
"Maybe we should tell him after school today," Lily said. "I mean, I want to tell him as soon as possible, but this way, we can ensure that our conversation is private and he'll have time to cool off before he has to see us again. And he'll have more time to get used to it before we tell the rest of the school about our relationship. He's our best friend, Miley, I think we owe him that much, at least."
"Okay," Miley said, nodding her head. She opened the door for Lily and followed her into the school. "Now how are we going to get out of getting in trouble for being late for class?"
"I can handle that," someone said from behind them, and Amber held out two passes for them, signed by the principal. "But you'd better get to class quickly. If you're too late, the teachers might go to the principal and find out that those are fakes, and all three of us will get into trouble."
"Why are you doing this for us?" Miley asked.
"Because my school needs to be perfect," Amber said, turning on her heel and walking away.
"What's with her?" Miley asked.
"I don't know, but do you think she heard our conversation?" Lily asked, staring after her until she disappeared around a corner.
"All I know is that she's going to want something later, and we probably won't want to give it to her," Miley said, looking down at the hall passes in her hand. "But we'd better take her advice and get to class. I don't want to get in trouble for this."
They hurried to their first class, handing the passes to the teacher who just glanced at them and threw them away as he usually did with all of the passes they'd ever given them. Breathing a sigh of relief, Lily sat down in her seat, laying her crutches down on the ground and pulling her textbook out of her bag.
The rest of the day went by slowly for Lily, the only part she really enjoyed being lunch because she got to spend time with Miley. She wanted to just talk and talk and talk with her about everything that had happened within the past month, but they couldn't do anything that would make it look like they were together because Oliver was watching them carefully along with the rest of the school.
"So you guys worked everything out," he said once they all sat down at their usual lunch table. Both Lily and Miley had brought their own lunches, but Oliver had bought lunch. Today was meatloaf, made out of mystery meat, and he dug right in to the disgust of both Miley and Lily.
"How can you eat that stuff?" Miley asked. "You don't even know what's in it."
"I don't think you want to know what's in it," Lily said, pulling out pizza wrapped in tin foil, some cookies in a plastic bag, a container of milk, and a bag of chips. "See, this is why I like bringing my own lunch. I know what's in it and it isn't disgusting."
Oliver shrugged. "It tastes just like my mom's meatloaf," he said, spraying sauce and meat all over the table.
"Don't talk with your mouth full!" Miley squealed, wiping her area of the table off with a napkin. "Oliver, that's disgusting. Just… don't talk while you're eating."
"But…"
"No," Lily said, unwrapping her pizza and biting into it. Miley smiled at her and she smiled back, swallowing her pizza with difficulty. They looked away from each other when Oliver cleared his throat and both were suddenly very interested in their food. Oliver looked back and forth between them, an expression of confusion on his face, before shrugging and going back to his meatloaf.
"This is really awkward," he said after a few minutes of silence. Everyone in the cafeteria was still watching them and all three of them were becoming more and more aware of it with every passing moment.
"I'll take care of this," Miley murmured in Lily's ear. She then stood up, crossing her arms over her chest, and started to address the whole cafeteria. "Hi, my name is Miley Stewart," she said. "Obviously you don't know me because you can't seem to take your eyes off my table. That's Oliver Oaken and Lily Truscott. Now I would really appreciate it you would all get a dang life and stop staring at us!"
"But they do know us," Oliver said as Miley sat down.
"Doughnut," Miley and Lily said at the same time, grinning at each other and going back to their food before anyone could catch them staring at each other.
After school, Lily's mom drove into the parking lot to pick her up, and Lily almost laughed at the look of surprise that appeared on her face when she saw Miley standing next to her. She quickly replaced the look with a smile and parked in front of the entrance, getting out and heading over to the two girls.
"You two finally make up?" she asked.
"Yeah," Miley said as she glanced over at Lily. "Do you think you could give me a ride home? My dad was supposed to pick me up today, but he called and asked me to get a ride with Oliver. Oliver's already left…"
"You should know that you don't even have to ask," Mrs. Truscott said, helping Lily into the back seat. "Go ahead and climb into the front seat. Lily's gonna need the whole back seat to stretch out."
"Thanks," Miley said, getting into the front seat as Lily settled in the back. "Hey, um, Mrs. Truscott, would you mind if Lily came over to do homework with me? We haven't hung out in awhile and… well, I kind of miss her, you know?"
"Kind of?" Lily protested from the back.
Mrs. Truscott and Miley laughed. "Sure," Mrs. Truscott said. "When do you want me to pick her up?"
"We'll drop her off," Miley said. "Does eleven o'clock sound good?"
"How about she just sleeps over?" Mrs. Truscott suggested. "I have a feeling you girls have a lot to talk about. Lily, just give me a call before you go to bed tonight, no matter how late it is, before school tomorrow, and then after school. If you want to come over after school, Miley, you're more than welcome."
"Thanks again, Mrs. Truscott," Miley said as they pulled into the driveway of her house. "And I'll make sure Lily calls you since she always forgets."
"You know, I'm sitting right here," Lily complained. "I can hear every single word you're saying. And you can ask me my opinion on stuff, too. What if I hadn't wanted to sleep over tonight?"
"But you do," Miley said pointedly, unbuckling and getting out of the car. Mrs. Truscott helped Lily out of the car.
"That isn't the point," Lily said.
"Lily, I'm going to drop off your stuff later, okay?" Mrs. Truscott said, accompanying the two girls to the door. "I'll call before I come so I'm not interrupting something, okay?"
"I have pajamas she can borrow, and clothes she can wear to school tomorrow," Miley said, getting both of their book bags out of the car.
"She needs her medication," Mrs. Truscott said, and Miley blushed in embarrassment. "Hopefully she won't need it soon, though. She has an appointment on Monday with the doctor and he'll be telling us if she can walk without the crutches."
"Really, I love how you guys talk about me when I'm right here," Lily said sarcastically. "It really makes me feel loved. Thanks guys."
"And I love how people say they love something when they really hate it," Miley retorted, smiling.
"You're doing the same thing," Lily said grumpily, slowly heading up the stairs and to the door. "Okay, mom, you can go now. I'm pretty sure I don't need you to hover two inches away from me every step to the house. I can manage by myself. Besides, I'll be seeing you later so you can check up on me, okay?"
Mrs. Truscott hesitated. "Okay, then," she said, reluctantly heading back to her car. "I guess I'll see you in a few hours, then. Call me if you need anything, okay?"
"Fine," Lily called over her shoulder as Miley opened the door and let her in.
"I'm going to go dump these in my room, make yourself at home," Miley said, racing up the stairs to her room as Lily headed for the couch and the TV remote. Miley walked back in just as she sat down and turned on the TV, which was turned to the local news channel.
"…And more recently and worrying, where has Hannah Montana gone?" the news reporter was asking, standing in front of an image of said pop star. Lily's eyes were glued to the TV, her mouth hanging open in astonishment. "She hasn't been seen in over a month, missing several concerts, CD signings, and interviews. Fans are being refunded for their tickets and Hannah's manager has said that she is, quote, '…Going through a period in her life that needs some getting used to. I'm sure she'll be back on track before we know it and all of this will be forgotten.' Well, until she reappears to the public eye, we'll still be wondering where she's gone. Now for the local news…"
Lily turned off the TV and turned to look at Miley, who was biting her lip nervously. "What's happened to Hannah?" Lily whispered after a moment.
"You heard the news reporter," Miley said, looking down at her feet. "She's going through a period in her life that needs some getting used to. You didn't think I could go to all of that Hannah stuff without you did you? I mean, yeah, I've done it before, but I couldn't do it while we were fighting. It just… wouldn't be right."
"This is all because of me?" Lily asked, eyes wide.
Miley shrugged. "I couldn't go without your support," she said, still looking down at her feet. "Even if you couldn't go to a concert, you would call before and tell me that you were cheering me on."
"But you have hundreds of thousands of fans out there wondering where you are," Lily said. "Maybe even millions! And you just abandoned them all because of me?"
"Not because of you. For you. I would do anything for you," Miley whispered, smiling nervously at Lily. "I wasn't going to take a chance that you would be watching my concerts. I didn't want you to think that not being friends with you wasn't really affecting me."
"You should have kept going to all of your Hannah stuff," Lily said.
"It wasn't just that, though," Miley said quickly. "Whenever I tried singing, I kept getting the notes wrong, forgetting the lyrics, or just breaking down in the middle of the song. True Friend was the worst. I couldn't even sing that song. I've been practicing with the band, but they haven't been good practices. They probably all think that this is the end of Hannah Montana."
"When's the next scheduled concert?" Lily asked.
"Tomorrow night," Miley whispered.
"You're going," Lily said with finality. "No arguing. And I'm going, too. You're going to get back out on that stage and sing your heart out and you're going to wonder why you ever stopped because it's going to be so good."
"My dad was already planning on cancelling it," Miley protested. "And what about going over to your house after school? Your mom will…"
"I think it's time we told my mom about Hannah Montana and Lola Luftnagle," Lily said cautiously, watching Miley's face for her reaction. "She deserves to know where I am, especially since I got hurt. She worries about me a lot more than she used to and I don't want to go behind her back anymore."
Miley sighed. "Do you think she'll get mad?" she asked after a moment.
"No, I don't think so," Lily said. "She might ask for you autograph and stuff, and then she'll go on and on about why I stopped going ballistic every time Hannah Montana came on TV like I used to…"
"Define ballistic," Miley said.
"To become overwrought or become irrational," Lily said automatically.
"I meant for you to tell me what you did every time you went ballistic," Miley said, rolling her eyes.
"Um, I ran into the living room, turned up the volume as loud as it could go, stayed glued to the TV until a commercial break or something, and then I would beg my mom to take me to a Hannah Montana concert," Lily mumbled, looking down as her face got redder and redder.
"Who knew that my girlfriend would be obsessed with me before she even met me," Miley laughed, sitting down next to Lily.
"Yeah, um, we have to talk about that, too," Lily said.
"What do we have to talk about?" Miley asked, confused.
"Who we're going to tell before we announce our relationship to the whole school," Lily said. "And when we're going to tell them."
"I can call Oliver and invite him over really quick," Miley said. "I think the sooner we tell him, the better, because he's going to have more time to recover before tomorrow."
"Okay, what about our parents and your brother?" Lily asked.
"Um, we can tell my dad any time, but I think we should tell him just before we go to school tomorrow so we don't have to deal with the whole dating rules thing tonight," Miley said. "That would be really awkward. And I would probably be sleeping on the couch with my dad sleeping in the hallway to make sure I don't try to sneak back into my room to be with you."
"We wouldn't be doing anything, though," Lily protested, her cheeks blushing a deep red again.
"I know, but try to convince my dad," Miley said.
"It's not like either of us would get pregnant, anyways," Lily muttered, making Miley blush an even deeper red than Lily.
"That's definitely a plus," she murmured. "I'm going to have to remember to bring that up with my dad."
"And what about your brother?" Lily asked.
"Same time," Miley said easily, obviously relieved to have the subject changed. "And what about your mom?"
"Well, I don't really want to drop the Hannah bomb on her at the same time as this," Lily said. "That might be a bit of an overload. She might explode from all that information. I say tomorrow after school. We can go over to my house and do homework for awhile, and then head back over here to get ready for the Hannah concert."
"That works," Miley said, nodding. "Now we have to tell Oliver. Should I call him or text him?"
"Text him, he never picks up his phone," Lily said, turning the TV back on and flipping through the channels. "And tell him to text back when he starts heading over. I don't want him just barging in."
"Hey, it's my house," Miley joked, pulling out her phone.
"Yeah, but I'm the injured one," Lily said absently, still changing the channels. "There's nothing good on."
"Do you want me to put a movie in?" Miley asked, putting her phone back in her pocket after she pressed the send button. "Just pick something, you know what we have."
"Um… I don't know, you choose," Lily said.
Miley picked a random DVD and stuck it in the DVD player, sitting down next to Lily who changed the channel so they could watch the movie. She leaned her head on Miley's shoulder, smiling when Miley put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer.
"How do you think Oliver's going to react?" Lily murmured after a moment.
"I don't know," Miley said. "I just hope we're still friends after this. He still has a crush on you, you know. He's never gotten over you."
"How do you know that?" Lily asked, lifting her head and looking at Miley.
"He told me," Miley said, shrugging. Lily glared at her and she sighed. "It was when we weren't talking. We hung out a lot at school because you weren't there. He said he wished that you two hadn't broken up. How did you break up? You never told me and he didn't say anything."
"Yeah, I can understand why he wouldn't say anything about that," Lily said, grimacing. "It wasn't exactly very… manly for him. I broke up with him, which isn't the worst part. I told him that I just didn't feel that way about him anymore and I didn't want to lie to him and carry on a fake relationship. He started crying and begging me not to break up with me. Actually, he did a lot of things, like promising to take me out more and buy me more things. It didn't work out too well. He was pretty hurt."
"I can see why he didn't say anything," Miley said. "That would be pretty embarrassing for the Smokin' Oaken."
They both smiled at Oliver's nickname for himself and Miley's cell phone started ringing in her pocket. She took it out and opened it, typing out a quick text, and sending it before putting it back in her pocket. "Oliver's coming right now," she said.
"Yikes," Lily said, leaning back into Miley. "I'm actually kind of nervous about this. What the heck are we watching?"
"Um, Finding Nemo I think," Miley said.
"Of all the movies…"
"I just picked something and stuck it in cause I wanted to hurry up and sit next to my beautiful girlfriend," Miley said.
"Flattery will get you everywhere," Lily said, smiling.
There was a knock on the door and the girls shot apart, Lily suddenly focused on the movie and Miley turning around to see Oliver standing at the door. "Come on in, it's unlocked!" she yelled.
"What's up?" Oliver asked, walking in and sitting down between the two girls. Miley and Lily glanced at each other, giving each other a look that said 'as if this wasn't going to be hard enough.'
"Um, me and Lily…"
"Lily and I," Lily automatically corrected, biting on her fingernails nervously.
"Well, Lily and I, then. Are you happy?" Miley snapped.
"Hey, guys, if you want to tell me something, just tell me," Oliver said. "No need to be nervous. I won't freak out."
"How do you know that we're nervous?" Miley asked defensively.
"Um, Lily's biting her nails and correcting you, and you're snapping at her and getting all defensive," Oliver said. "I know my two best friends well enough, thank you very much. Now what do you want to tell me?"
"Yeah, um…" Lily trailed off.
"Oliver, uh, Lily and I are… we're… oh, how do I put this?" Miley muttered.
"Dating?" Lily offered.
Oliver glanced between the two of them, his jaw dropping open and his eyes getting wide. "This is why you broke up with me, isn't it?" he asked Lily.
"Um, yeah," she whispered.
Thank you all for sticking with me, even after I messed up the story by leaving a chapter out. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter:
itmeansnothing
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And thank you to everyone else who reviewed. I'll be getting the next chapter up as soon as possible, so please REVIEW. Thank you all again!
ReallyObsessiveWriter
