AN: And here is the second chapter of the weekend! I hope you laugh as much as I did while writing it!

Enjoy!

The conversation with Mary was long and confusing. She was still talking to her when her mum finally got home from work, and then still after her mum had finished making dinner for the two of them. It was her own fault because she had told Mary everything, even all of the stuff that she had told herself she wasn't going to tell Mary. But that was always how it went, so Lily didn't know why she bothered pretending that anything else would happen.

And then when she sat down to dinner with her mum, her mum had a whole host of questions for her as well. "You know," Rose started. "I got an interesting call from Mia this morning."

Lily's shoulders slumped. "Yes mum, James and I went to London for the day and spent the entire day together and he bought me chocolate and books and lunch and he wanted it to be a date and I said that I didn't think it was a good idea because he's moving to the other side of the country in a couple of weeks and I have no clue what I'm doing and then he told me that he was going to try and woo me. I just had this conversation with Mary."

Rose blinked at her. "Mia did not have all of that information." She laughed and clapped her hands together and Lily sighed.

"I'm sure she does now." Lily narrowed her brows and took a sip of her iced tea. Her mum's iced tea was the only iced tea that she liked. "Did you know that James fancied me when we were kids?"

Rose shrugged. "Mia and I had our suspicions about the both of you. I told you a few different times that I thought he might fancy you, but you didn't want to hear it." Lily remembered a few occasions where her mum had suggested just that.

"Did you know that I fancied him?"

"Oh yes,"

"Did you tell Mia?"

"No," Rose shook her head. "I mean, I told her when you were seven, but you were too young for it to mean anything then. I didn't tell her when you were older."

She took another deep breath and told her mum about what really happened when James had asked her out in year eleven.

"After James and I worked all that out, he kept going on about how everything would have been different if we had been more honest with each other as kids."

"And then he started talking about wooing you and buying you your favorite things."

"Mum, the bread at that bistro is to die for. We'll have to take gran the next time we visit her."

Rose laughed. "So? What are you going to do now?"

"He's moving across the country in two weeks," Lily repeated. "I'm not going to date him for two weeks."

"I didn't know that people had to live next door to one another to be allowed to date." Rose took a sip of her own iced tea and then picked up her fork to dig into her meal. "Mia said that he'll probably only be an hour away by train."

"Sure- "

"And who knows, maybe you'll end up getting a job that requires an even shorter train ride- "

"Let's not talk about Lily getting a job right now, I'm stressed enough."

"Yes, right. I wasn't trying to stress you out, I just meant that you don't know what could happen."

"Well, that stresses me out."

Rose smiled at her and nodded. "I know that it does, but some of the best things in life require you to let go and trust that someone else is gonna catch you."

Lily shook her head. "I'm quite comfortable in the knowledge that I can catch myself."

"It's a metaphor Lily,"

"I understand that," Lily nodded. "Look, I spent a lot of time fancying James, and this just doesn't seem like it can end well. Because things between James and I have never gone well. There's always some kind of hiccup, something that keeps us apart, or from being friends. Agreeing to go into this, knowing that there is a big thing that will literally keep us apart, seems like I'd be asking for heartbreak."

"There's not a right or wrong answer here," Rose shrugged. "And I'm not going to tell you what to do. At the end of the day, you'll have to decide if you want to take that risk or not."

Lily sighed. "It feels like there is a right choice."

We have nothing to lose.

Then why did it feel like they definitely had something to lose?

She was quiet, and her mum let her get lost in thought while they both ate their meal. "What if it doesn't work out? What happens then?"

"Then you learn something. You grow and you're able to put this behind you. If you try and it doesn't work, then you don't have the 'what ifs' flying through your head for the rest of your life."

"The rest of my life?" Lily blanched. "And people wonder why I'm dramatic."

Rose smiled. "Do you not already have a bunch of 'what ifs' floating around your head?"

She had her there. "Maybe. We're going to dinner tomorrow. Just at the diner."

Rose smiled. "It's been a minute since I've been to the diner."

Lily nodded. Her mum had told her that there wasn't a right or wrong choice, but she seemed pretty glad that Lily had agreed to see James again.

Lily was pretty glad about it too; she just wasn't sure how glad she should allow herself to be.

And that just brought her back to feeling dumb, because people did this all the time, they went on dates all the time! And here she was, making a huge deal out of it. Why couldn't she think about this like James was thinking about this? He didn't seem to have a problem realizing that the two of them hanging out and going on dates wasn't a big deal.

Mary didn't seem to understand why Lily thought it was as big a deal as it felt like. "Go on some dates with your childhood crush! See where the feelings lead! Maybe you'll get a few good snogs out of it!" That had been her advice.

"I wish I knew how to turn off my brain," Lily muttered, angrily stabbing a roasted potato.

"If you figure out how to do that, please let me know," Rose grinned.

"Will do." Lily promised.

"Shall we watch a movie when we're done?"

"Which movie did you have in mind?"

"Oh, I was going to let you choose," Rose shrugged.

"Yes, but between which two movies were you going to let me choose from?"

Rose laughed and Lily grinned at her mum. "I'm in the mood for pirates, so you can choose between four movies."

Lily laughed, "Alright, well then let's start with the first one and we'll make our way through them all."

"Not tonight!" Rose shook her head. "I can't stay up past ten without falling asleep wherever I am."

Lily snorted and took another bite. "I didn't mean that we should watch them all tonight, we can watch the second one tomorrow."

Rose nodded. "I'm glad to have you home, Lily." Lily looked down at her plate. "I know this wasn't your plan, but I want you to know that you should still be proud of yourself for everything you've already accomplished. I know I don't need to tell you that I'm proud of you, so that's why I'm telling you that you're allowed to be proud of yourself."

Lily looked up at her mum and gave her a small smile, "Thank you, mum. I know most of this disappointment is just in my head- "

"All of it. The only time I've ever been disappointed in you is when you were six and you got caught putting worms in your grandmother's sugar bowl."

Lily laughed loudly and then shook her head. "I was very upset with her!"

"I wasn't happy with her either. I said I was disappointed that you got caught, not that you had done it in the first place. If you hadn't got caught, she would have blamed it on one of your cousins and my brother wouldn't have given me that smug look of his."

"Smug look?"

"Yes, when you have children, and your mother reprimands one of them, it's like getting reprimanded yourself. So, he was smug. Some things never change."

"Dad thought it was funny."

"Yes," Rose nodded. "He thought everything you did was amusing. I wonder what he'd have to say about you and James."

"Muuuum," Lily groaned and stood up from the table, shoving the last bite of potatoes into her mouth as she walked to the sink. "There is no me and James! We went to lunch- "

"I wasn't implying that you were dating him now! I was only wondering what your father would think about everything."

"Yes, yes, let's just go and watch our movie now."

"You set it up while I put everything away."

"Red or white?"

"Red," She answered, and Lily grabbed two wine glasses and walked over to the wine cabinet.

They were settled in and watching Will and Elizabeth flirt when she felt her phone buzz. She'd put Mary on silent, so she knew that it wasn't her. She pulled it out without thinking much about who it would be if it wasn't Mary. She did have other friends, it could have been Marlene or Emmeline.

But it was James.

And she felt thick for not assuming as much.

James: Hey, I have a question for you

Lily: And what is that question?

James: Are you avoiding your room on purpose?

Lily: why would you think that?

While the thought had crossed her mind, how weird it would be now to go in her room and see James, she hadn't actually been avoiding anything yet. She had been talking to Mary, which required her to have much more space to pace back and forth than her small bedroom had provided. And then she'd been having dinner with her mum.

Lily: I mean, I might later now that I know you're stalking me

James: I'm not stalking you, I'm just in my room, and it's very noticeable that you are not in your room

Lily: I think I might have to get my window boarded up

James: What are you up to? Is that a better question?

Lily: Mum and I just finished dinner and we're watching a movie now

Lily: And yes, that is a much better question.

James: Right, I don't know what I was thinking before

James: But again, I feel that it is necessary to remind you that I was raised by a pair of spies

Lily: yes, I understand that, but it's still weird

James: I apologize

Lily: Don't do that either because that is even weirder.

James: …

James: then I think we're at a stalemate.

Lily: You understand that I can't text you much longer without my mum becoming suspicious, right?

James: Does that mean you told her about spending the day with me in a non-date capacity?

Lily: I tell my mum everything, but she and your mum were gossiping earlier. Apparently, your mum called to let my mum know that we'd gone to London for the day

James: Funny. My mum failed to mention that to me. I'll have to have a talk with her about boundaries and privacy and it will most definitely fall on deaf ears.

Lily: It's fine. It's not like I was going to keep any of it a secret anyway. There's nothing to keep a secret.

James: Right.

Lily: Why does everyone have to be weird about this?

James: About what?

James: You haven't agreed to anything

James: Unless you're about to tell me that you've changed your mind and that you think dating me sounds like a brilliant idea

Lily: no

James: ouch. You could have softened the blow just a little bit

Lily: It's not a good idea.

James: mainly because I'm moving to the other side of the world though, right? Not because I'm not handsome and funny and charming and smart

Lily snorted out loud and her mum looked over at her. "Don't say anything," Lily said, sinking further into the couch. "He's just ridiculous is all."

"I didn't say anything," Rose grinned though, and it seemed an awful lot like she was saying something.

Lily: You made me snort and now my mum knows I'm texting you

James: I like that she just assumes that you're texting me because you were laughing

Lily: No, I just cracked immediately when she looked up at my offending sound

James: I like your snort

Lily: stop

James: nah

James: I told you that I was going to start wooing you once we got back home

Lily: My mum and Mary both laughed when I told them that you keep using that word

James: So, you really are just telling them everything

Lily: I never learned how to keep things to myself

Lily: If someone looks at me too long, I just start speaking to fill the silence

James: Okay, but you didn't have to tell them that I called it wooing

James: How am I going to look your mum in the eye now?

And so, Lily asked Rose what she should say.

Lily: Mum says not to be too embarrassed because she's known you your entire life and she's not surprised anymore

James: You just asked her?

James: Well tell her I said hullo

Lily: She says hullo back

Lily clicked her phone off and took a sip of her wine, turning her attention back to the movie, just in time to see Will and Jack sword fighting in the blacksmith shop. Of course, then her phone buzzed again, and she could hardly pay any attention to the movie.

"The two of you live next door to one another," Her mum was looking at the screen, but smiling still. "If you want to talk to each other, you could just step outside. You don't have to pretend that you don't want to talk to him just because we're watching a movie that we've seen a hundred times."

"We really do have a thing for pirates, don't we?"

"We need to diversify our movies though."

"We could have watched Stardust."

"Oo! We should watch that tomorrow instead of the second one."

Lily nodded, tapping her fingers on her phone.

"You know I'm not judging you, right? I'm not going to give you a hard time. You're the only one giving you a hard time."

Lily scoffed, "Mary MacDonald would love to disagree with you."

"Okay, but you know that Mary isn't being serious. She loves you and that's why she teases you so much."

"Of course, I know that, and I know that if the situation was reversed, I would be teasing the hell out of her. I'm not mad about it. But I also don't know how I'm supposed to feel about all of this right now."

"I understand that. But maybe you don't have to have it all figured out right now."

"I told you, that stresses me out."

"I know. But still," She shrugged and took a sip of her wine.

They were quiet for a few minutes and then Lily went back to her phone.

AN: Don't forget to leave a review!