Ok then, so now we're onto the second chapter of my attempt at a Liley fanfiction. Now I know there were concerns over my grammar... and I'm really sorry for that! I use this as a release from my essay writing and presentations which I'm meant to be preparing and I am trying to be as careful as poss but it's quite difficult. Also I apologise to any readers from the US because I'm trying to cross the language barrier and use similar words to you... but at the same time British spelling... hmm. So I hope you enjoy part two as much as I enjoyed writing it :)
'They Say That Good Things Take Time' - Chapter 2
It was with a heavy heart that Lilly Truscott declined the Stuarts' kindly offer of a share in Robbie Ray's homemade steak pie for dinner, but she had promised her parents that she would be home to eat with them for the first night that week.
"See you later Mr Stuart! Thanks again for the ice-cream. I swear I have never tasted a sweeter apple pie flavoured frozen desert in all my seventeen years on this earth!" She cheerily called from the front door.
"Thanks Lilly, you really are too kind. Now hurry home and go bother your parents for once, I'm sure they haven't even set eyes on you all week." Mr Stuart jovially replied.
"Aaaw… shucks Mr S. Are you saying you don't want me around here anymore?" Lilly asked in a sad voice and once again made her trademark misfortunate face which caused Miley who was watching the scene to choke on a laugh.
"Ha! Well it's because of you my daughter is reduced to fits of the giggles every five seconds and I have to re-stock my refrigerator every other day! Now get out of here kiddo! Oh, and I'll see you tomorrow, I've got a new meatball recipe I need your valuable opinion on."
"Ooooh," Lilly gasped, "I can't wait! See you then, bye!" Lilly called and waved erratically as Miley ushered her out of the front door and onto the porch where she quietly closed the door behind them.
"Thanks for having me Miles I had an awesome time as always." Lilly smiled at her friend.
"That's no problem Lil. Our door is always open for you, you know that right?"
"Yeah, and it always will be. I know where you keep the spare key you see. Your privacy went out the window a long time ago!"
Miley couldn't help but laugh at Lilly's disposition to come across as her own private stalker. She secretly loved reflecting on returning home one day to find Lilly happily seated flicking through the sports channels on the couch, or waiting for her in her room. She started to dream about the way Lilly's face would light up on Miley's return, the way a smile would form on her mouth and spread slowly across her face when Miley walked across her bedroom floor and into her waiting arms. Miley's skin began to tingle as she lost herself in her thoughts and she slowly felt that terrible longing that always tugged at her insides when she knew it was time to say goodbye to Lilly again. She knew that it was the most ridiculous reaction in the world as the two of them were only going to be parted for the night, but still, it was no small feeling.
"Earth to Miley," Lilly's handed started waving obnoxiously in front of her nose, "wakey, wakey before I have to buy a taser…"
"Ow!" Miley doubled over gasping and clutched at her side as Lilly's finger retracted from where she had severely prodded her friend just below the ribs.
"Miley, what is wrong with you at the moment?" Lilly asked in a mock indignant tone, "You're just so spaced out. I feel like I need to carry a water-pistol around with me all the time at the moment to keep you awake, although that could work out to be quite a fun idea." A devilish grin began to creep across Lilly's face whilst Miley furiously fought for a way out of this muddled conversation.
"Lilly, it's nothing. You know I've just got a lot on my mind at the moment. There's a lot that goes into a Hannah tour ya know? It's not all just about singing and prancing around on stage looking good." Miley tossed her hair over one shoulder and stuck her nose in the air for emphasis before she marched away from Lilly. "I've got to think about new choreography, organise my dancers, think of suitable answers for press conferences… And on top of all that, I have to deal with my awkward best friend who insists on using electro and hydrotherapy on me at every chance she gets for her own sick amusement!" Now it was Miley's chance to play with Lilly's guilt when she stuck out her own bottom lip and widened her eyes in helplessness.
Lilly chuckled at Miley's attempt at making her feel remorseful before sighing and taking a few steps closer to where Miley had stopped after her dramatic outburst.
"Okay, okay, I'm really sorry for threatening you Miley. You have to admit though, it would be kinda funny?" Miley merely raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, adapting a 'don't mess with me' stance in response to Lilly's supposed apology. Lilly cocked her head to one side for a moment in contemplation before drawing a little closer to Miley and reaching out for one of her hands. Miley let her take it although she could not help but feel the rush of goose bumps surge up her arms as Lilly's soft warm hand closed around her own.
"Miley Ray Stuart, I, Lillian Truscott, hereby formally apologise to you, by the light of the setting sun, on the porch of your house for threatening you in any way, shape or form this evening." Miley slowly began to feel her face soften and her feet shifted as her body began to relax to Lilly's exaggerated, yet sentimental, apology. Lilly's eyes were looking into her own so clearly that she could see her reflection in them. Miley realised that she was subconsciously fighting to keep her knees from buckling and from casting her eyes across Lilly's lips. The desire to place her mouth over Lilly's own was growing stronger as the girls shared this moment on the deck. Miley began to feel a despairing emotion rising up through her chest, her throat and into the back of her mouth where she knew it would burst forward in a scream if something did not happen soon.
Lilly fell onto her knees and started rocking backwards and forwards, gasping and whining. Miley felt her cheeks grow hot as she came back into her right mind and looked down at her stricken friend.
"Miley, please, please still take me with you! You didn't say anything. Does that still mean I can come? Please let me come with you to London! Please? I said I'm sorry!"
Miley let the breath she did not realise she had been holding out of her chest in one heavy sigh before glancing down at her desperate companion and adopting a strict tone to use on her.
"Lilly, do you absolutely swear that I won't come to any harm by your hands this holiday?"
"Yes."
"Do you promise to me that you will not purchase any form of offensive or projectile device such as a taser or water-squirter that could be used against me?"
"I promise."
"Hmmm… I can't think of anything else, which is probably going to be my downfall seeing as you seem to excel in finding ways to torment me." Miley huffed as she helped Lilly to her feet.
"Don't worry Miley, me and Lola will have your back in London. I'll be the one looking out for you. I mean it's the least I can do for you after promising me the best holiday ever!"
"Well, you sure do owe me that." Miley joked.
"Yeah." Lilly smiled warmly at her friend as she looked her steadily in the eyes. She seemed to be reflecting on something.
"What is it Lilly?" Miley asked.
"Oh, nothing really. I was just thinking about what a great time we're going to have is all. But anyway, I really should get going now. It's actually getting quite late! My parents are probably going to be annoyed that I never seem to eat with them anymore." Lilly looked down at the floor and said in a smaller voice, "It's because they're always busy with work stuff though. Hardly my fault."
"Come here Lilly." Miley walked forward and gently wrapped her arms around her friend's body. She pressed her mouth to the side of Lilly's head and kissed her through her hair whilst drawing in the sweet smell of Lilly's favourite shampoo. She could not help but notice that she was breathing in another smell mingled with the perfumed hair product; it was purely essence of Lilly. Miley's lips curved into a smile. Slowly she pulled her lips away whilst Lilly folded herself into Miley's arms and snuggled up closer to her.
"Thanks Miley." Lilly said softly before detaching herself slowly from her best friend and taking a step backward. "I'll see you tomorrow though right? Bright and early!"
"You betcha." Miley said with a smile. "Have a good evening kay? Say hi to your mum and dad from me."
"I will. Bye!"
"Bye."
Miley watched as Lilly gathered her things together for the last time this school year to leave from Miley's house. She watched Lilly head off the porch and drop her skateboard on the pavement before she took one final glance up, waved at Miley and began her coast down the street to her house. Miley sighed, wrapped her arms tightly around herself and made sure that Lilly was out of her sight before wandering back inside to join her father and brother for the first night of the week without her best friend.
Lilly glided down the street on the slight incline that made returning home from the Stuart household virtually effortless. She revelled in the sensations of the cooling summer evening on her naked arms and face and the minute vibrations, caused by the steady rise and fall of the grain of the pavement below, rising up from her skateboard into her feet. The resisting air put up a small fight against her, pushing back her long blond hair until it streamed behind her whilst the last rays of the darkening sun made her hair blaze more vividly in the growing dusk. Lilly hummed to herself, one of Hannah Montana's songs, which transformed into a mixture of medleys where song after song would overlap and interweave until she subconsciously forgot where she began and never had time to finish when she skidded to a halt in her driveway. Lilly shook her hair back into place before picking up her skateboard and dragging her feet up to the front door.
"Lillian Truscott, what a pleasure to have your company for dinner tonight." Her father's teasing began as soon as she entered the door although Lilly could not fail to notice the serious note in his voice.
"Hello sweetie, how was your last day at school?"
"Hey mum. Yeah, it was alright thanks."
"Is that the only answer I'm going to get out of you?" Her mother did not seem to mind though, she was smiling warmly at her daughter but there seemed to be an expression of something else playing across her face. Lilly shrugged it off and decided not to notice. This was the first night she was going to sit down to dinner with both her parents in over two weeks so she was not about to start complaining or asking pointless questions.
"Well, it was just standard school really, you know? Last cheerleading session for this year but I'm not sure why though. It just seemed a bit pointless, especially because I've decided I don't want to do it next year."
"Really? Oh well that's good honey. I know you were beginning to resent it and those girls were not really very welcoming at first."
"Yeah, they're not really the type of people I would hang out with normally. It all just got a bit too claustrophobic I guess. Everyone just talked about each other all the time."
"Yes, of course." Her mother said distractedly. "Well, you'd better come and sit down then Lilly, dinner will get cold otherwise."
Lilly sat herself down at the table opposite her mother whilst her father took his seat at the head of the table. They ate their meal mostly in silence, a practice which would have been unusual on any other night of this week but Lilly just did not know what to say to her parents. There seemed to be a tension in the room and something was being left unspoken but Lilly could not quite place her finger on what it was. Eventually they finished their first course and Lilly eagerly helped her mother clear the table.
"Would you like anything for pudding?" her mother asked, "We've got vanilla ice-cream."
"Yeah sure, that sounds good." Lilly replied with a smile. This store-bought product would never match up to the pudding she had earlier but her parents were always too business orientated to have the time to improve their culinary skills. As they all settled back down at the table and picked up their spoons for the second course, Lilly decided that she had had enough of the silence and braved her summer plans with her parents.
"Okay," she began, "so, I was over at Miley's earlier and…"
"Oh Miley," her mother interrupted, "I'm so sorry Lilly. I completely forgot to ask how she is. How is she?" Heather Truscott had always been a fan of Lilly's polite and well-mannered best friend.
"Oh, don't worry about it mum. Yeah she's fine. Actually, that's what I was going to ask you guys about. Miley has invited me to go to London with her for two weeks this summer." Lilly's parents did not reply. "Erm… is it okay if I go? Please?"
Her parents shared a look and Lilly began to feel nervous, she had already told Miley that she could go and had never really entertained the idea that her parents would say no. After a long moment they turned their attention back to their daughter with their reply.
"Of course you can go Lilly dear." Her mother replied gently. "We really want you to enjoy this summer and I can't think of anything nicer for you than a trip abroad with your best friend."
"Yay! Thanks mum, thanks dad." Lilly was beaming, finally the summer could start and she could hardly believe it, they were going to have the best summer of their lives. Lilly did not think that anything could wipe the smile off her face, that is, until she looked back over at her parents.
"Mum, dad, is everything alright?"
Her parents were once again sharing a look but Lilly could definitely read something wrong in her mother's expression. Usually Heather Truscott would be the centre of the action at a family dinner and enthusiastic about every aspect of their lives, particularly as her father had been working such long hours recently. Tonight was different though. Lilly watched as her mother's brow furrowed into a frown and the lines across her forehead combined with the sadness in her eyes made Lilly's heart begin to sink like a stone in her chest.
"Lilly." Her mother began in a remorseful tone.
"Oh god," Lilly began to feel her heart race a little faster, "it's not Matt is it?" Matt was her elder brother currently studying pre-med at university in Kansas.
"No, no Lilly. It's not your brother. He's very well and has had a very good year."
Lilly felt a great sense of relief. Her brother, although he made her life a misery sometimes, meant the world to her and she did not know how she would cope if something were to have happened to him, particularly as he was so far away.
"What is it then?"
"Lilly, I don't know how to tell you this, especially as it came about so suddenly. Your father only found out about it two weeks ago and that's why we've been spending even less time together recently as a family." Heather paused to study her daughter's face which Lilly kept decidedly blank from expression. She could see her mother mentally bracing herself before she continued. "Basically, your father's company is branching out and they threatened to make him redundant."
"What?! No way!" Lilly was indignant. She could not understand how they could do this to him as he was such a crucial player in the business and had won a lot of important contracts for his company.
"That's not it Lilly." Her mother sighed and prepared to break her daughter's heart. "Your father has been offered a new, better job at another branch. In St Louis."
Lilly could not believe what she was hearing or whether she understood correctly. A roaring noise seemed to be swelling up in her ears and a raging tumult of emotions rolled around in her chest, the waves rising and crashing and made her want to sob and wail aloud. Instead she drew in a long shaky breath and prepared to ask the horrible question.
"What does this mean?"
Heather sighed and looked at Lilly's father who had stayed silent through this. For a moment neither of them spoke and Lilly watched her mother open and close her mouth before leaning back in her seat to rest her chin on her hand in defeat. Lilly's father blinked slowly, took one final glance at her mother before leaning in towards his daughter and taking her hand.
"It means we're moving."
Lilly felt the rush of hot sickness overcome her when her emotions surged through her body. She started to shake from the waist upwards and her heart fluttered like a crazed bird in a cage whilst sobs racked their way up through her throat and tears burst from her eyes. It was too much to contain and almost without realising she let out a wail of anguish as she slammed her fists on the table.
Her mother, expecting a similar reaction, hastened to her daughter's side and began to slowly stroke her back as the tears trickled out onto the table-top and Lilly's body convulsed from the shock. Heather began to feel her daughter's body slow down after a few minutes had passed and drew her daughter closer to her, stroking her long hair back from her face and pushing away the damp strands which had gathered there. Lilly's face was covered with red blotches and her eyes had swollen with crying so much that the normally bright sky-blue of her irises were barely distinguishable, clouded over with misery.
"What about school?" Lilly let out in a small moan, not eager to bring herself to asking the bigger questions.
"Well," her father was the first to reply this time, "we've looked at high schools in the area and we've found a very good school. It's highly focused on sports as well as humanity subjects rather than maths or technology."
Lilly listened but did not really understand what he was saying. There was nothing wrong with her school in Malibu. She knew that it appreciated students more gifted towards science; she had learnt that long ago from doing, seemingly pointless, tests on all the bones in the body, something she would not have been able to get through if it wasn't for…
"Miley." Lilly mumbled.
"What's that Lilly?" her mother asked.
"Miley. What about Miley and Oliver? And grandpa and grandma? And Mr Stuart's food testing? And what about the skate park? And the beach? They don't have a beach in St Louis. I know that. We looked at it once in geography."
Lilly's face was paler now and her eyes had widened. The skin underneath her eyes was beginning to darken into shadows. She was talking quietly and softly, as if all the tears and crying had choked her voice out of herself. She sounded hollow and she felt even emptier. Heather raised her eyebrows at her husband, which he met with a look of pity and regret.
"Lilly," he said, "I'm sorry. I really, truly am sorry that this had to happen. We have no other choice. This is a brilliant opportunity and it means that we can afford to put you through college and even fly you back here over holidays to be with your friends if you want."
"I don't want to leave dad." Lilly said quietly.
"I know. I just don't have any other choice. I can't give up the good future of my family which this job promises in its security. You remember the problems that we had in the past?"
Lilly remembered very well. She remembered she could not afford good fashionable clothes when she first came to high school and how her mother had to dress her in some of her brother's old t-shirts. She remembered how all of the popular girls had laughed at her, except for one girl. Miley Stuart had always been kind to Lilly right from the start and she took her under her wing and let her borrow her nice clothes until Lilly's father managed to find the job which he currently held. Miley was the closest thing she would ever have to a sister and although she had not known her all her life, she felt like there was nothing that would have ever kept them apart, that they would know each other forever. Lilly felt shattered when she thought of leaving Malibu. She thought of her love for the sand and the sea but mostly she thought of her friends, family and other loved ones. Smiley Miley and Smoken Oken the doughnut. Her grandparents and her little cousins on her mother's side who she had promised to teach how to skateboard this summer. She was going to lose so much from moving away but she knew that her family stood to gain so much. They would fall apart if they stayed here and her father did not have a job, she knew that she should consider herself lucky that they were still together in the first place.
"Yes, I know dad. I remember." Lilly paused. She no longer had any idea what to say to her parents tonight. It was all just too much and the upheaval had left her emotionally drained. "I think I'm going to go to bed now."
Lilly's mother quickly stood up to let her daughter slip out from underneath her arm. Lilly rose slowly and she noticed that her body was still shaking. She could not quite comprehend what was happening to her and the room seemed so blurry, although that was probably due to the fresh tears filling her eyes. Her mother drew her into a quick embrace before Lilly nodded at her father and stumbled towards the stairs. She did not know how she made it into her bedroom but she closed the door and heaved a deep sigh when she breathed in the sea air from her open window. Lilly slowly trudged her heavy feet to her bed where she fell forward and dug her face into her pillow.
Slowly the tears came out, as the first falling of raindrops on a sloped roof trickle down to the edge before falling into the abyss, Lilly let out her misery. Her throat was cracking with her sobs and sighs and she found it hard to draw in air through the tightness of her throat. She buried her face deeper and deeper into her pillow until she had to come up for air again. Her face was wet from both her nose and eyes and the more she wiped herself dry, the more the tears came.
Eventually the tears subsided and she found herself at a loss of what to do. She found her eyes casting around her room looking at everything and absorbing the familiarity as if she was going to see if for the last time. She took in her white and blue striped bed linen, the posters on the walls and her skateboarding trophies. She looked at the photo-frames, pictures of her and Oliver having a hotdog eating competition at Rico's. A picture of her and her brother making a fort out of the furniture in the lounge when she was ten, one in black and white with all of her nuclear family around the tree at Christmas. A picture of her and Miley at the beach, Miley was holding her ice-cream and smiling at the camera whilst Lilly was sneakily licking it as she had finished hers already. Miley did not realise that was happening until the photo was developed. She said that Lilly could keep it to remind her of what a greedy pig she truly is, but she could hardly contain her laughter as she told Lilly off.
Lilly sighed again and lay back down on her bed and gazed at her ceiling. It was dark now outside and the plastic stars she had bought last year to put on her ceiling were beginning to glow. She reached across to her bedside table to pick up her ipod and listen to some of her random music in an attempt to just forget the world. As she pressed the ear pieces into her ears she froze in recognition of the song. It was 'Right Here' by her own best friend's alter ego Hannah Montana.
I'll be right here where you need me
Anytime just keep believing
And I'll be right here...
If you ever need a friend
Someone to care and understand
I'll be right here
All you have to do is call my name
No matter how close or far away
Ask me once and I'll come, I'll come running
And when I can't be with you, dream me near
Keep me in your heart and I'll appear
All you gotta do is turn around
Close your eyes, look inside
I'm right here
Isn't it great that you know that
I'm ready to go wherever you're at
Anywhere, I'll be there…
Lilly had to switch off the ipod at that moment. Tears had fallen fast and slickly down her cheeks and sunk into her already damp pillow. She could barely stand to listen to the lyrics without feeling an awful surge of remorse filling her up until she wanted to be sick. She wanted Miley to be there to comfort her, like the song said she would, but she knew that she was truly alone. Lilly wrenched the ear pieces out of her hears and slammed the ipod down onto her bedside table, breathing heavily. She knew that she would have to tell everyone and soon.
She would start tomorrow. Everything would be clearer in the morning.