Chapter 8 – Jump
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Today was the day. If you're wondering what day then obviously you haven't been paying attention. I'll tell you anyways. April 16th, Lilly's Sweet Sixteen had finally arrived. I sat on her bed impatiently flipping through some teen magazine. I couldn't take the hundreds of pictures of Jake, Mikayla, or myself in a blonde wig. "Lilly! Aren't you done yet?" I called to the door that separated me from her bathroom. Her party was in one hour and she'd done every thing to put off dressing up so I forced her into the bathroom with her clothes.
She had accepted to wear the wedges and so with that opportunity I added a whole bunch of other accessories to the outfit. I couldn't wait to see what she'd look like. "Gosh what have you done to me? I look like a bad version of you," she whined from inside the bathroom.
"Hey!"
"No offense." She moaned, "I'd really rather not come out."
I laughed. "So you're going to spend your birthday in your bathroom. Okay then, I'll tell everyone who's been waiting fro this very special day to just go home, and I'll eat that delicious cake all by myself. Happy birthday," I said sarcastically.
"Fine, I'm coming out. Hold back your laughter…" With that she opened the door and stepped out. My mouth practically dropped to the ground. "See I told you," she started to walk back into the bathroom.
I leaped off her bed and dragged her back out. "Are you kidding Lilly you look great! Wow, I-I'm speechless." She had on the silver halter dress and even though it went to right above her knees, she wore black thigh-long leggings under. She had on her short white and black striped hoodie and a black sweatband around her wrist. Her hair was pulled back by a black headband, and she stood tall in the gray slip-on wedges. I let out a cheerful shriek—my job was done.
She shrugged, "If you say so."
The doorbell rang. "It's party time!" I smiled and motioned her to go downstairs.
She shook her head, "No, you go."
"It's your party!"
"So?" The doorbell rang again.
"So get your butt down there."
"Not looking like this."
"You look great Lils."
A rock flew in from her window and we heard someone call from outside, "Hey you guys wanna open the door?"
"Oh my gosh, it's Oliver!" She shook her head vigorously, "No way am I coming down."
I looked back and forth between her and the window. "Okay you know what, I'll let Oliver in, but you better be down there, in that dress, in the next 5 minutes. Got it?" I didn't suggest it; it was a command. She quietly nodded and I hopped down the stairs. I heard Lilly collapse on her bed. Lovely.
"Hey, where's Lilly?" Oliver said while giving me a quick hug after opening the door.
"Upstairs. She's a little nervous about her outfit," I explained.
"Ah the dress," Oliver chuckled as he played with one of the balloons.
"Don't you laugh! That's exactly why she's—Hey! There's an idea! You go upstairs, tell her she looks alright and she'll come down."
Oliver frowned, "Why me?"
"Because she cares about what you have to say. Remember yesterday?"
Yesterday Oliver had managed to talk Lilly out of smacking Carmen because she had stood Oliver up for a date with Eric. Ironic much? "That was pretty funny," Oliver chuckled, "I would have let her if Lilly wasn't…Lilly."
As I set up the cake and Oliver ordered the pizza, Lilly came down. I grinned, and she shyly smiled back.
Oliver dropped the phone and his mouth. I'm not even kidding. Lilly looked absolutely terrified. "Lil—You—Wow…" Oliver stammered. I covered my mouth to hold back my very hard laughter.
Lilly bit her lip, "Ya think so?"
Oliver nodded like an idiot, "You look beautiful."
Lilly smiled, "Well, don't get used to it." She came down the rest of the stairs.
"To what?" Oliver asked.
"The so-called 'beauty'" Lilly rolled her eyes.
"What? Lies, you're always a beauty," Oliver said as he pulled her into a tight hug, "Happy Sweet 16th!!"
The doorbell rang. I cleared my throat. "I'll get that for ya, since you're, uh, busy," I winked at her as she stuck out her tongue at me from the other side of Oliver's shoulder. My point is made.
I opened the door to Lilly's parents and her 20-year-old brother Geoffrey. Lilly shrieked with joy because her brother went to college up at UC Davis and since he'd started his sophomore year it was an extremely rare occasion to see him in Malibu.
"Geoffrey!!" Lilly leaped into his arms.
"Hey Lil Helmet head," he glanced at her, "oh wow, or can I not call you that anymore?"
Lilly giggled, "Nah this is just Miley's doing for the day. But I'm still me hence the hoodie and sweatband. Helmet head for life!"
Who proclaims these things? Oh that's right, Lilly does.
"Oken! Helmet head's life companion," Geoffrey gave Oliver props, "Wow you're hair's almost as wild as mine." With that he shook his blonde mane. I must say, for being Lilly's brother, he never ceased to give me tingles. Gosh, I love blond guys. "Hey Miley, the normal one out of you three. I'm sorry you have to hang with these two." I giggled as he gave me hug. Did I always act like this much of an idiot around him? I think I even twirled my hair at some point during this conversation. Goodness Miley, he's 20 and Lilly's brother. And he has some hot girlfriend waiting for him up in Davis. Ugh.
The party basically went on from there as a couple more of Lilly's buds came. When it was time to cut the cake I didn't see Lilly in the room so I guessed she was outside which wasn't a bad idea considering how hot it had become inside with all the bodies dancing and moving around. I made my way to the balcony and was about to call out to her but stopped myself short at the scene I got to witness.
Oliver was standing behind Lilly and he attached a necklace around her neck. I couldn't catch exactly what it looked like but it was shiny. Lilly turned around, "Thank you so much Oliver! It's lovely." She hugged him tightly and never let go. I'm not even kidding.
They stood there in the same hugging position for about ten minutes until Oliver decided to speak up. "Lilly did you fall asleep?" he said jokingly.
She lightly chuckled, "No, I'm staring at the stars. They're pretty tonight."
Oliver separated enough to be able to see Lilly's face, "Not the only ones."
Lilly bit her lip and looked down, and as she looked back up Geoffrey jumped out of nowhere and scared the living crap out of me. After I shooed the laughing blondie away I noticed that Lilly and Oliver were separated and looking my way. Great. "Uh, hey guys, nice seeing you out here," I flubbed, "The, uh, the cake needs cutting. But you take your sweet time; I'll tell them all to hold their horses."
Lilly sighed, "No, it's alright, we're coming."
Dang it, I had ruined what seemed like a very nice moment. I officially disliked Geoffrey. As we walked back inside I caught his eye and he flashed me a smile. I felt tingles again--you can scratch my previous statement.
After the whole blowing the candles ceremony, Lilly secluded herself behind her couch while everybody else enjoyed the cake. As I approached her I noticed that she had a tears rolling down her cheeks and was heavily sighing every other second. I sat down beside her, "What's wrong?"
She sighed. Again. "If this is what you've been looking forward to you are a wicked lady." And with that she cupped her face with her hands and sighed yet again.
I frowned, "Am I supposed to know what you're referring to?"
"Yes."
"Well…I don't."
She gave me a look through her teary eyes that told me I was really supposed to know what she was talking about. I racked my brain for something that would currently make her cry yet make me happy. She's my best friend--there is no such thing.
"You know what my second nature is?" She asked.
I knew she knew that I didn't know the answer, so I waited for her to answer herself. When she didn't say anything more though, I had to ask, "What's that?"
She sighed (oh big surprise there), "Falling for him every time he does something sweet even though I know I shouldn't." Somehow I immediately figured out who the 'him' she was referring to was. I couldn't get myself to respond. She continued, "Except this time I think I've fallen hard and for good."
I was pretty positive I knew who she was talking about but I had to make sure, "Are we talking about…Oliver?" I said this carefully just in case I was wrong.
She sighed again (good gracious), "Yeah."
For a second I felt like doing a cartwheel, but then I realized she was right. I wanted to do a cartwheel about something that was making her cry. Super. "Wow, so…what do you plan on doing about it? That is, besides ruining your party for yourself," I said as nicely as possible. This was very difficult to do because inside I was ecstatic. She's finally admitted to liking Oliver!!
She looked at me and crunched her face, "I have to do something?"
I was baffled, "Well yeah you have to do something! As a matter of fact you ought to march right up to him and let him know."
"You want me to destroy our friendship right now?"
"Do not start with me Lilly. This secret love for each other that your both keeping to yourselves is what is destroying your friendship. If you finally confess, you'll date and live happily ever after." Okay maybe that wasn't completely true, but it was the only way to convince the girl.
"Miley, I'm sure that plan worked out well between you and Jake, or Josh, or Trey, or—"
"Get to the point Lils."
"My point is this is Oliver we're talking about."
"So?"
"So I doubt he likes me too."
Suddenly Oliver came leaping over the couch, "I heard my name. You're sitting back here instead of partying over there. And this cake is amazing."
Lilly hurriedly hid her face in her arms to dry her eyes. I rolled my eyes, "Nice to know, Oliver. Now move on."
He acted like he was hurt, and began to walk away when Lilly suddenly stood up and grabbed his wrist. "Do you want to get out of here?"
He locked eyes with her, "Totally. Balcony?"
A small smirk made its way across Lilly's face, "Nah, I have a better idea." With that she dragged him to her backyard and I saw them jump the fence. On the other side of Lilly's backyard was a path that led directly to the beach, so I'm guessing that's where she was headed.
Before following them I quickly found Geoffrey, "Lilly and Oliver are gone. And so am I."
"Okay," he slowly nodded but then started shaking his head, "Wait Lils can't be gone isn't this like…her birthday?"
He became such an idiot when he had a bit to drink. He ran his hand through his blond locks—a cute idiot. "Yes Jeff. This is why I'm following her. Goodbye now."
He laughed to himself, "Only my ex has ever called me Jeff."
I raised my eyebrow, "You guys broke up?"
"Uh-huh, like for a month now."
I grinned. Now how to fix the 5-year difference? Giggling to myself I ran after Lilly and Oliver.
When I got there they were on the other side of the beach and on one of the lower cliffs. I found a palm tree not to far from them and sad under it. It was dark so they wouldn't be able to see me anyways.
As Lilly kicked off her shoes, took off her sweatshirt, and pushed up her leggings, she said, "Remember the last time we were up here?"
Oliver stared at her wondering what she was doing (and I was too), but answered, "Yeah it was in elementary. You told me about this movie you saw where these two people who loved each other jumped off together and thought it'd be super cool to try. But you didn't want to jump off with me," he chuckled," because you said that'd mean you loved me."
Lilly laughed, "Right." She took off her hair band and sweatband and tied her hair back. "So you ready?" From that point I knew exactly where she was going with it.
"To?" Oliver asked.
After a second or two, Lilly put her hand in his and said, "Jump."
Oliver looked at her and she stared straight back at him sincerely. I felt like I was watching a movie it was so cute. He let go of her hand to take off his quickly shirt and then held back to it. With a nod they jumped off yelling at the top of their lungs. And I heard them splash right in. I ran to the beach just in time to see them resurface and then what I thought I would never live to see happen—they kissed. Not just a peck either, but a full on romantic kiss. I had to say something, "You guys are crazy…for each other!"
They glanced my direction grinning and Lilly gave me a thumbs up as they went back underwater.
I don't know if this was in any way my doing, but they're happy, I'm happy. It's all good. Another job well done by Cupid.
This is in fact the last chapter! Crazy right? I hope you've enjoyed this story. BUT, I know I've said this before but this time it's for real because I've started it already, there's a short epilogue coming up in a few days. Wooh. Love you all for reading and reviewing my stuff and a final thank you to acoldsky woot woot xoxCamy. P.S. Laur(AColdSky) says hi, cause she uploaded this.