A/N Hello, everyone! I come baring the gift of...dun dun dun dun...a long chapter! Seeing as my other chapters were tiny this is pretty long. Anyways hope you like, since it took a little longer to write. R&R!
Grace walked up to Ray at his locker after breakfast in the cafeteria that morning.
"Hey, honey, how are you," she said leaning in to give him a kiss on the lips. It might have been an accident but when Ray saw the path Grace was going he shifted his face a little so her lips ended up pressing up against his cheek.
"Uh, hi," Ray replied as they looked at each other, both a little confused at the awkward situation. Grace bit her lip, trying to block out the thoughts that automatically filled her head.
"I'm fine Grace, and you," Ray said after a moment of silence. The words seemed to echo, even in the packed hallway, the formality of it ringing in their ears.
"I'm great, I was just wondering, can I borrow your history notes? I want to do some last minute studying and I left mine at home," Grace replied. She waited for an answer, something to tell her if he was listening to her or not, even though she already knew his mind was somewhere else. She looked up and saw a familiar look in Ray's eyes. That same far away look he got when he thought, or talked about Lily.
"Sure, they're in my binder. I won't need it until after lunch so you can take it," Ray said handing her the binder...the same binder that he'd put Lily's letter in. "Anyways, I've got to get to class now," he said. Ray leaned down and was about to kiss her on the cheek but went for her lips instead. As Lily would have said, if she'd been there, "that wasn't a kiss, it was an apology."
And it just so happened that Lily was there. She was standing just a few feet away watching the whole conversation. The same sharp pain shot through her like an electric current as she saw Ray lean down and kiss Grace. She had been getting her hopes up again. Lily had thought that maybe that letter would change things, even though she hadn't been sure if that's what she wanted yet, but apparently they hadn't. A tear slid down her cheek as she stood there, rooted to the spot, even after Ray and Grace were long gone.
The three teenagers went their seperate ways. Each going to their seperate classes. Each unable to concentrate on equations, essays, or much else for that matter.
As Ray sat at the back of the room in history, he contemplated what he would say to Lily. As he thought back through the year he replayed the ups and downs of his nonexistent relationship with the girl he'd been best friends with forever. For once he made himself think about it logically, weighing both options carefully, although in the end he knew he would have to break a heart.
Lily spent her double spare period with Parker and Megan in the music room. Her nervousness showed through her calm exterior when she played her guitar. The raw emotions that it exposed flowed through her and she tried her best to translate her complicated feelings into lyrics, melodies, harmonies, and drum solos.
"Randy, are you sure you're okay," Parker asked her as they took a break.
"I have no idea whatsoever," Lily answered truthfully raking her fingers through her long blonde hair.
"Well what do you want to happen," Parker asked her sitting down beside her friend.
"I love Ray, but there's Grace,...and River," Lily added almost as an after thought.
"As Nanny Haynes once said...," Parker began as Lily leaned back to listen to her friends advice. She had a feeling that she'd need it.
As Grace was searching through Ray's binder she found the letter. She felt a little bit guilty about reading it but if it had been so private then why would Ray have left it in his binder? She thought.
She began to read and after she finished she squeezed her eyes shut for a second, hoping that she wasn't seeing what she was seeing. It was basically a declaration of love written by Lily to Ray and she was almost certain that he'd read it. Grace had always figured there was something going on between those two but now it was really starting to worry her. Something was wrong and she was sure that this letter that she was holding in her hands was the cause of it.
Grace spent the day with Nicole in the art room. Although she participated in the conversations about art with the rest of the "In Crowd" her mind was somewhere else. Mainly on her boyfriend. It had all been a whirlwind for her and now the the dust had finally settled she realized that nothing was perfect, and it hadn't been exactly what it had appeared to be at first. Actually it had, but Grace had blocked it out at first, and made it into the perfect fantasy she'd wanted it to be.
"Grace, are you okay," Nicole asked, waving a manicured hand in front of her friend's face. Grace realized that she hadn't been participating in the conversation for a good five minutes which wasn't like her at all.
"I have no idea whatsoever," Grace said putting her face in her hands.
"It's about Ray isn't it. You always get that same look when you think about him," Nicole said wrapping her arm around her friend.
"It's just, I don't know...do you think he loves Lily," Grace asked looking at the girl beside her.
"I think-I think he likes you-but yeah, I think he does love Lily," Nicole replied after a pause.
"I know, it's just, I think there's more to this then you or I know," Grace said. The beginnings of an idea formed in her head as she said this. She grabbed her purse and got up.
"Where are you going," Nicole asked.
"I want the whole story," Grace said as an explanation and a few seconds later she was gone. She walked down the hall trying to remember where his locker was. She'd seen Ray at his locker before.
"It's by the Cougar Radio booth," Grace muttered to herself as she turned onto that hall. Fortunately, Robbie was standing there already, he was just getting his books for study hall when he heard a voice behind him.
"Hey Robbie, wait up," Grace yelled down the hall. She frowned and bit her lip as he didn't turn around. Was that him? She wondered, it wasn't as if she'd really taken much time to get to know him...or any of Ray's other friends in the two or three weeks they'd been dating. Well, she had learned alot about Lily. Only because Ray talked about her so much. A tiny part of her brain added.
"Robbie, I need to talk to you," Grace shouted again. She called louder this time but it was the hint of desperation in the her voice that made Robbie turn around instead of deciding to keep on walking.
"Uuh, okay, whatsup," Robbie said moving to the side of the hallway and out of the busy pathway of Roscoe students. As he sat down on a bench opposite Grace, he couldn't help but think that this had something to do with...
"Ray's in love with her isn't he," Grace asked, the words flowing out of her mouth almost automatically. It felt so weird to say it out loud and even weirder about the fact that there was no hint of doubt in the accusation. It was true, but she wanted some background information first, to kill that hope completely.
"I-Grace-it's just that-," Robbie began. He had had a bad feeling about this from the start but he knew that he had to say something. Grace deserved to know, she didn't deserve to be kept in the dark forever. Nobody deserved that. But then again he knew she wasn't stupid...she knew...to some extent at least. He could tell by the sad look in her eyes that she was only looking for someone elses opinion and it was understandable why she'd come to him. Robbie was sure she'd tried talking to Ray. He'd been there when Grace had talked to Lily, but Lily denied it all. Lily was still in complete denial, and had probably made the situation worse...unintentionally.
"Robbie, you know the whole story here," Grace said snapping Robbie out of his train of thought.
"Okay, I'll tell you...but Ray's my friend so please don't hurt him," Robbie said after another pause. A smirk formed on Grace's face as she absorbed the words.
"Ray hurt me, but somehow I don't think I'm cabable of hurting him much at this point," Grace said with a hint of bitterness in her voice.
"Ray and Lily have known each other since birth...," Robbie began. He sat there and told Grace about all of it. All the events involved in the saga that had lead up to this conversation. As he talked everything fell into place for Grace. She slowly began to look past the pain and see the answers she'd been looking for yet dreading since she'd begun to fall for Ray Brennan. Grace listened to every little painful detail of, whipped cream fights, unrequited love, mixed signals, punches on the arm, meaningful lyrics, talent contests, jealousy, and so much more and realized for the first time that maybe she'd played a part in this. Without meaning to she'd let herself get swept up in it all and caused other people a little bit of the same pain she was feeling.
Grace thanked Robbie for his help and he left, leaving Grace sitting alone. As he walked off Grace pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her bag and reread it.
"It all makes sense," Grace muttered under her breath. She made up her mind to deal with this once and for all and pulled out her phone and quickly dialed Ray's number. It was time to do what she should have done a long time ago.
"This is Radio Free Roscoe signing off," Lily said at the end of that day's broadcast. It had been slightly awkward, filled with stolen glances and some interesting comments on first love and now that it was over Lily didn't move. She stayed in her chair fiddling with a bit of chipped plastic on her headphones refusing to look up. Ray stayed too, tossing a hackey sack from hand to hand, neither of them dared to look at each other.
"This is stupid, we've known each other our whole lives and now we can barely look at each other," Ray said after the long hand of the clock on the wall came to the fifteen minute mark.
"Well I'm not the one who decided to read that stupid letter," Lily said looking up and meeting Ray's eyes. For some reason both of them decided it would be easier to be mad rather then face the confusion.
"You're the one who wrote it in the first place," Ray shot back.
"Well can I have it back then, before it causes anymore damage," Lily said, exasperated.
"Here-," Ray started to say but stopped a look of realization slowly filtering onto his face.
"Ray what's the matter," Lily asked, a little worried.
"This isn't good, this is so not good," Ray muttered as he looked madly through his bag in vain. He knew it wasn't there. It was in his history binder, which he'd given to Grace.
"Ray, tell me," Lily said frustrated. She grabbed his arm to stop him from going through his bag.
"Well...promise you won't get mad Lil," Ray asked.
"Promise," Lily replied, this was making her a little uneasy.
"See, I lent Grace one of my binders and I think it might have been in there," Ray said, all in one breath. Lily took a deep breath and absorbed this information.
"Well I'm sure she wouldn't have-," Lily started to say. But was interupted by Ray's cell phone. The cheerful ringtone seemed very out of place now, although it still made Lily smile weakly when she heard it.
Ray picked up the phone and looked at the caller id.
"It's Grace."
A/N Well that was kind of cliff hangerish dontcha think? Yeah, well if you feel like reviewing this and begging for me to update sooner then by all means. lol :p Can't wait to see what you guys think of this.
Keeley aka Dreamy
