"Hey Miley, sorry to hear about Lilly." Sarah said when she came up to Miley at the start of the school day. It was like déjà-vu.
"How'd you hear about that so fast?"
"Oliver told me."
"Oh." She deflated. "Did he tell you anything else?"
"Yes, but I personally believe that that is none of our business." Sarah said confidently.
"Just to be clear," she narrowed her eyes at the freckled girl, "what was it that he said."
"That you and Lilly are together. I'm not surprised. I've actually been rooting for this to happen since shortly after I met you."
"Really?" She was dumbfounded.
"Yeah. Though it didn't really sound like Oliver felt the same way."
"No duh."
"Is she up for visitors today?"
"Yeah, she's in a pretty stable condition. I'm going over there today after school."
"Cool. Maybe I'll drop by before my shift at the animal shelter starts."
"I hope you can."
The bell rang and they said goodbye before heading to their classes.
The school day went by slowly. Way slower than normal. Miley was sure by third period that someone had found a way to rig all the clocks to run twice as slow. Lunch came around eventually and, when she went to the line for food her path was blocked by a flowery scented human barricade.
Miley sighed. "What do you two want?"
"I suspect the rumors are true." Amber said to her scathingly.
"Yes. Lilly's in the hospital."
"Not that one. We don't care about that. About how you two freaks are being disgusting together."
Miley felt her blood boil. "We're not freaks. We're in love."
"Right. Freaks in love." Ashley said, rolling her eyes.
"It's like some sick sad little play." Amber added. "But we'll be sure to pop in and pay a visit to Lillian." She laughed malevolently.
"You stay away from her." Miley got up in her face. Her eyes narrowed in seriousness.
"And what if I don't?"
"You'll have to deal with me."
"I'm serious, Addison."
"So what? Are you the butch one in the relationship?"
"You don't know anything! You're just jealous that no one will love you!"
Amber reeled back. "You take that back, Stewart."
"How can I if it's the truth."
"Oh, you are gonna get it!" Amber dug her manicured claws into Miley's arm and dragged her out of the room.
"What are you doing? Let me go!" Miley shrieked.
Everyone just watched, not even lifting a finger in an attempt to help.
The two bullies pushed her against the bathroom door, opening it. They pushed her into a stall.
Miley knew what was going on as soon as she saw the toilet in front of her. She thrashed around, trying to escape.
Two against one proved to be too much as her head was dunked in. The toilet flushed.
"oooh-tsss." The two girls touched their index fingers before leaving.
Miley coughed out water that she had breathed in while she was struggling. She rushed to the sink and washed her mouth out for several minutes, even using soap that she discovered quickly was a bad idea.
The bell rang while she was ringing out her hair and she groaned
The rest of the day went by quicker, as she spent most of her time plotting a way to get back at those two. The other part of her time was spent worrying about Lilly. She didn't pay attention to any of her classes and had no idea what was going on in any of them. Her teachers didn't bother her like they normally would, as the rumors hit the teachers' lounge as well. She just collected their homework in each class, and went home at the end of the day.
"Hey bud! How was school?" Mr. Stewart asked as she came in. He gave her a hug. "What's that smell?"
"You don't want to know." She said cryptically. "I'm gonna take a shower, then we can go to the hospital, kay?"
"Alright, Mile!"
She showered as quickly as possible considering she used up her shampoo bottle to wash and rewash her hair many times. She scrubbed herself with soap, withering the bar down to nothing, and rinsed out her mouth again and again and again.
She still couldn't believe that they actually gave her a swirly. It was in the normal bully repertoire but they weren't really those kinds of bullies.
She stepped out of the shower a while later and got dressed, grabbed their homework and rushed downstairs.
"All ready, daddy!"
"Alright bud, but you know we can't stay long. So don't be disappointed when we have to leave."
"Okay." Just as long as she got to see Lilly she'd be okay. It surprised her how much she missed her especially since it hasn't even been a whole day.
X
"Sarah knows?" Lilly asked Miley when she entered the room. "Please don't tell me that everyone in school knows!"
"Sorry Lil. It's not my fault, Oliver –"
"I'm not blaming you." She said, toning back her anger. She wasn't mad at Miley, just at the situation. "I hope you didn't go through too much. I wish I was there today."
"Actually everyone was pretty cool with it. Except for Amber and Ashley, of course." She shivered as she remembered what they did to her.
"What did they do?" Lilly asked, sensing she wasn't getting the whole story.
"Nothing permanent."
"Miley!"
"They gave me a swirly."
"A swir- people still do that? I thought that was reserved for clichés on TV."
Miley shrugged her shoulders. "It doesn't matter now. How are you feeling?"
She was very sore but she didn't want to worry Miley. "Fine. A little bored."
"Well lucky for you I have a present!"
Lilly's face lighted up until she saw the papers come out of Miley's backpack. "Thanks." She said sarcastically. "So besides this," she motioned to the papers, "did I miss anything important?"
"I don't know. I wasn't really paying attention."
"Miley! One of us has to!"
"Hard to do when your girlfriend is in the hospital."
"Girlfriend?"
"Yeah, why? You don't think we're - ?"
"Of course I do! It's just the first time you said it."
"It is?"
"At least to me, yes."
"Oh. Sorry."
"Don't be, girlfriend."
"You're a strange one, Lil." Miley smiled.
"You're the one who's dating me!" She grinned up at the brunette.
"That I am." Miley agreed wholeheartedly.
"Miles, time to go." Mr. Stewart said after knocking on the door.
X
The next few days were the same. Miley went to school, got swirlied by Amber and Ashley, and visited Lilly for only a few minutes. Just long enough to drop off her homework and catch up for a moment. When Miley visited Lilly on Friday she was surprised to see the blonde's room empty.
"Where's Lilly?" She asked a nurse who was passing by, one who she's seen tend to Lilly quite often.
"She's outside getting some fresh air. Here, I'll take you to her."
She followed the nurse out a set of doors out the back of the hospital. She saw Lilly's bright smiling face as soon as she stepped out there.
Lilly looked to her right and her smile got wider when she saw her girlfriend walking towards her.
"Hey Lil." Miley greeted, wrapping the wheelchair bound girl in a quick hug.
"Hi Miley! Guess what?" She said, looking excited.
"What?"
"I got to walk today! I haven't walked since Saturday and it felt weird. I almost couldn't but I made it across the room!" She sounded proud of her accomplishment.
Miley just smiled. "I'm proud of you, Lil." She almost leaned down to place a kiss on the top of her head but remembered not to.
"Has Oliver talked to you yet?" Lilly asked.
"No. He keeps avoiding me. Even when we had to be paired up in class he faked some sort of food poisoning and left."
"Oh. Well he came to talk to me yesterday, after you left."
"Really? What'd he say?" Miley was surprised.
"He said that he was sorry about the way he acted and that he still didn't understand it. He's been talking to a lot of people, Mile, and he wants to try and understand. He misses being our friend."
Miley smiled sadly. "I miss him too. Especially since I have no one at school now."
"I'll be outta here in a little while, I think."
"What have they said about your progress?"
"They said that I'm stable. The machines are no longer in control of beating my heart and that my own heart seems to be doing well."
"That's great news Lil."
"Yeah, but… I still don't get why it happened."
"Me neither." The cops had visited her the other day to talk about the incident but they were as clueless as she was. They figured it was just a stray bullet and were still trying to calculate where it came from.
"It's time to go back to your room Lillian." The nurse not too far away said.
Miley followed them and watched as Lilly got out of the chair and back onto her bed. She was re-hooked up to the monitors in the room. Her heart beat was steady and the nurse left with a promise to see her later with dinner.
"Not as much today," Miley said as she pulled out their homework and handed it to the blonde. She sat down in her normal seat next to the bed.
"Yippee!" Lilly said sarcastically.
A knock on the door made both of their hearts sink as they knew what was coming. Mr. Stewart opened the door. "Bout time to get goin', bud."
"But dad, it's Friday. And Lilly's doing a lot better!"
He looked over at Lilly and thought about it. "You are looking a lot better, Lilly. Feelin' okay?"
She nodded her head. "Yep! And I'd feel even better if Miley could stay longer!" She used her puppy-dog pout for further persuasion.
"Alright, alright." He conceded and then left the room.
They talked for a little while longer until Lilly fell asleep, as this day wore her out more than some of the others.
Miley fell asleep not too long after, her hand in Lilly's and her head resting on her bed.
Mr. Stewart came in to get Miley but saw them both sleeping peacefully and smiled, leaving them in peace.
X
Miley woke up when sunlight was shining on her face. She looked up to see Lilly still slumbering. After watching her for a while and noting how adorable she was she got up. She resisted Lilly's offer of kissing her while she was asleep and, instead, went to look for her dad.
She found him asleep in the waiting room, a magazine on his lap.
She sat down next to him and poked him gently. After a few pokes he shifted and opened his eyes. "Mile?"
"Thanks for letting me stay here all night. I know you have more important things to be doing than babysitting me here."
"Yeah, I do have a few things I need to get done today." He stretched. "Tell ya what, I'll take care of them and you stay here, when I'm done I'll pick you up. Deal?"
"Sounds good to me!"
They both stood up. He gave her a hug goodbye.
"Take your time!" She yelled after him before heading back to Lilly's room. The only occupant was still asleep.
It took a while for Lilly to wake up. When she did they chatted about school and their insecurities about being there and out. Eventually they just decided that, as long as they had each other, they'd be okay.
Days passed and Lilly seemed to be getting better and better. The promised 'week' went by with the doctor wanting to keep her for just a bit longer just to be sure, which disappointed the two girls immensely. But, within a few days, Lilly was released from the hospital just in time to make it to school.
"L – Lilly?" Miley couldn't believe it. There she was, at their lockers like how it was before all this happened. She felt like she was in a dream and reached to pinch herself before Lilly turned around.
"Hey Miley! The doctors gave me the 'okay' this morning! Isn't it great!"
Miley didn't say anything. She just walked forward, grabbed the sides of Lilly's face, and crushed their lips together. Their mouths moved in tandem, and a shiver shot down each their spines simultaneously. Miley's tongue ran along Lilly's bottom lip. Lilly gasped, granting entrance.
"No PDA!" A teacher walking by shouted, causing them to pull back.
They looked around and saw nearly half the school staring at them.
"What? Never seen someone kiss their girlfriend before?" Lilly yelled before leaning in for another kiss.
The teacher just had to clear her throat to get them to move away again.
Everyone there didn't seem to mind, and even seemed kind of happy. Except for Amber and Ashley who were making gagging noises.
They just ignored them and went to their first class.
"Hey guys." Oliver said shyly as he walked up to them. "Sorry about the other day. I guess I just didn't really know what I was talking about. I hope you can forgive me."
"Do you think we're disgusting now?" Miley asked.
"No. You're my friends and I love you guys."
"Then we forgive you, right Lilly?"
Lilly responded by leaping on Oliver and giving him a hug. "Good to have you back Ollie."
It didn't take long for them to get caught up with their school work, especially now since they had Oliver back, who had been studying secretly with a tutor after school. He had a crush on her so it wasn't hard for him to get stuff now.
Amber and Ashley still gave them trouble but it was now three against two so they went back to verbal abuse, which Miley was extremely grateful for. She didn't want to explain to her dad why she needed so much shampoo lately.
The police picked up a teenager down the street from Lilly's house who was messing around with a gun but didn't have enough evidence to prove it was him who was responsible for the stray bullet that hit Lilly, even though they were sure it was him.
The girls finished high school happily and lived each day to the fullest, knowing that something could happen to either one of them. It didn't take very long for each girl to have a drawer at the other's house and, much to their parent's dismay, they rarely spent a night apart.