YAY! You guys really love me! Or...the story, at least. nervous grin
"Okay, this thing looks lethal," Lilly declared, cautiously stepping into the boat. Willy followed her. "Do you have a license?"
Willy frowned as he helped Lilly into a seat at the back. "A license for what?"
Lilly blanched. "I'll take that as a no…."
Willy smirked. "I don't drive this thing, by the way." He gestured towards the front. "They do."
Lilly turned and saw dozens of tiny men in seats at the front, holding oars in their hands and looking determined. They appeared to be waiting for Willy to tell them to do something.
As Willy sat down beside her, Lilly asked, "Are they the Oompa-Loompas?"
Willy nodded briskly and clapped once. "That they are. Forward!"
The boat started to move with a small lurch, and Lilly found herself gripping Willy's arm very tightly.
"Oh dear," Willy mused aloud, "I did forget that you don't like boats…."
Before he could say another word, however, they had already headed down a series of drops and whirls, and when they came to level height, Lilly had fallen over and across Willy's lap, her eyes shut tightly.
"Er," Willy said, poking the side of Lilly's head, "I'm very sorry."
Lilly opened her eyes and looked straight up at him. "It's…not a problem. Just…make sure we take the elevator that I saw on the way down here instead of this next time, alright!"
Willy looked as if he could slap himself. "I keep forgetting about that!"
Lilly sat up, thankful that the dark light hid her reddening face. "I was wrong," she said in mock disgust. "You haven't changed."
Willy kept looking ahead, but he grinned ever-so-slightly, and not to mention smugly. "You really haven't forgotten anything about us, have you?"
"How can one forget, exactly, a time when a girl's best friend makes her run around the entire town looking for a small little object such as a chain when the store she was looking for was right next door, hmm?"
Willy burst out into laughter. "But it was funny!"
"Not to me, it wasn't. It was a small chain, and it was to hold up the little charm I had given you. I bet you didn't even keep that thing."
Willy looked at her directly. "On the contrary." He reached into his collar and brought out a thin, gold chain, and on that chain held a small heart with the words, "Best Friend" engraved into it in fancy letters.
Lilly stared at the charm, then looked up and right into Willy's eyes. "You…kept it."
Willy nodded and said quietly, "You really didn't think you meant anything to me, did you? And…from the looks of it…you still don't."
Lilly had vaguely noticed the boat had stopped moving, but she was too distracted. She felt the depression of the past several years lift off her shoulders as if someone—Willy, to be specific—had taken the huge weight off her shoulders.
She laughed for the first time in years.