'They Say That Good Things Take Time' – Chapter 3
An orange glow formed across the darkness in the blonde girl's mind and stirred her into waking. She moved her limbs slowly through her bed, feeling the warm press of her covers shifting over her as she raised her arms heavily to her face and opened her eyes. Lilly lay for a moment not feeling anything. She was living in the few sweet moments of waking the morning after a life had been thrown into turmoil in which the beneficiary of the ills could remember nothing of the day before. This feeling did not last long for as Lilly blinked her eyes for the first time that day, she felt the stiffness and dryness that could only have come from a night's worth of tears being shed, and as the mounting tide bursts through the dam, her memories came flooding back. Lilly drew in a slow and shaky breath as her heart was once again filled with dread and rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands as if to milk out any more residing tears. Her eyes dampened with the stifling of a yawn yet no more tears came. Lilly did not think that she could cry any more after last night but she resigned herself to the knowledge that she would as she slowly swung her legs out of bed and onto the floor. She dug her feet into the soft sheepskin rug that lay beside her bed and curled her toes into its cloudy comfort before trusting her legs to take her weight and stepped quietly across her bare floor boards to her window.
Lilly glanced out over her family garden which was half bathed in orange sun and the other half in grey light which meant it was only very shortly after dawn. She sighed to herself as she remembered playing in that very garden as a child with her brother and childhood friends. She glanced over the swing in the bottom corner, once a bright cherry red had now succumbed to a crusty brown as the metal had aged and rusted. The garden itself was not in the best condition; the grass was in serious need of mowing and the flower beds which her mother had once been so possessive over were overcome by irregular weedy growths. It seemed to Lilly that her family had outgrown this house, the same way that she had outgrown the swing and could see their yearning for a change. Her father needed this job; he was one of those motivated types that only wanted the best for his family. The last time he did not have a job it was unbearable for all of them. Her parents would argue every night whilst she sat on the landing, cuddling the wooden railings and hoping for something to save them. The worst was when her father would go out to a bar, they never knew where, and he would return in the middle of the night or they would find him passed out in his car the following morning after forgetting to take his keys. Those months had been the worst of her young life and Lilly prayed that they would never have to go back there. She knew that she could be the only one to stand in their way of moving, but after looking at all of the facts and family history she knew that she would not even raise a finger in protest. Of all the selfless deeds she had ever done, this was to be the greatest and the hardest and she knew it was going to change everything. Forever.
Lilly steadily turned herself away from the window and drew the curtains across the picture before her. She did not want to think or even be conscious right now so she walked across the room, half stumbling from the dull throb of torturous grief until she fell back on her bed and closed her eyes against the world and once more sank into restless sleep.
Meanwhile, in a house only a few streets away, Miley Stuart's ocean-blue eyes fluttered open. She turned her head slowly to the right as she puzzled over the sharpness that she felt digging into her cheek before realising that she had fallen asleep whilst writing in her diary. She groaned aloud as she stretched herself out fully with her arms sweeping up in an arch above her head and her toes unfolding into graceful points as she felt her body click into place. Miley sighed happily as she rolled onto her stomach and begin to peruse her diary entry. She smiled to herself as she read what she had written the previous night, it always looked so much more dramatic than how she felt in the brightness of a summer morning after a very content night's sleep.
Dear Diary,
Hey! It's me again. So, in an update to my previous stresses before about whether Lilly would come to London with me, I now have an answer… she said yes! How great is that? Very great. I'm so, so happy that I get to spend my two weeks of working with my adorable best friend. But at the same time I can't help but feel a little frightened by it all. I think it's because I just love her too much. I know I say this every time I write in here and I know that I look back at all my weird little thoughts and poems and doodles… God I'm so retarded… but I just really, really love her. And I just want her to have the best holiday ever! I mean, London. London with Lilly Truscott! Can life really get any better? Well, as long as I don't like jump on her or do anything embarrassing like kiss her I think we'll get along just fine. I do really want to kiss her though, like I've never wanted to kiss anyone before. I almost kissed her today when we were saying goodbye. And when she was talking to me earlier I could barely drag my eyes away from those two beautiful pools of blue… I could stare into her eyes forever. Oh well, I'll get to look at her loads when we're in London! I'm feeling like such a perv already. It'll be a stressful time though with all those concerts but Lilly always finds a way of keeping me cool and collected. But that's probably because when I look at her everything else seems to zone out. I know that every night I'll be singing for her. I mean I really appreciate that Hannah's got so many fans in the U.K., I never thought it would get this big but still… Everything I'll ever do will be about Lilly. Because she is everything.
This was where Miley had finished writing her entry for that night; in fact it was the first entry she had written all week. Her entries into her diary were sporadic but they were always at a time of a great emotional high or low. She was not entirely sure why she kept a diary if it was only for such times, yet she knew that in future years when she had grown into who she was a bit more she could at least look back on the journey she had taken. Her teenage years had been distressing at times; realising that she was, and had always been, in love with her best friend almost two years ago was a great revelation and one which always seemed to play on her mind. Miley sighed and placed her hand to her cheek where she could feel the moulded line of the corner of the diary set into her cheek. She vaguely remembered writing her last sentence before lying down with her hand on the page only for a minute and she must have fallen asleep.
Miley rolled over and looked at the clock next to her bed, it was only seven a.m. but this was to be expected. There was a lot playing on Miley's mind and she only had two weeks before she had to leave for England. There was so much to arrange and she knew that she had to count herself lucky that she had her father on her side as he would deal with most of the details for her. In comparison her responsibilities were minor, but that did not mean that they were few or at all easy on her. She had to have dance rehearsals, costume fittings, interview preparation and make sure that she was emotionally and physically ready for this. During her time as Hannah Montana Miley Stuart had felt herself grow radically in both respects. Physically her body had changed, her stamina was phenomenal and where she passed it off to others as adrenaline, everyone who could see her knew that she took great care of herself. She allowed herself the treats of her father's precious desserts yet her diet was perfectly balanced and her work-out schedule well suited to her. She had the body of a dancer, which seemed to clash somewhat with her clumsy disposition and it saddened Miley to think that over the past three years as Hannah Montana she could not be rid of this trait. Yet it was not only her physique which had changed, Miley Stuart had to cope with so much emotional trauma that no one out of her family and friends knew how she did it. She had two identities which protected her from the prying eyes of the media who would make her life a very different and dangerous place in terms of her well being if they knew who she really was. Her strength, however, began at where these two identities collided. It could not be said that Miley had an identity crisis, which was the exact opposite as she relished in being Hannah but was glad for the disguise; it was that she had so much on her in that she was living the lives of two people. Miley Stuart had to deal with being an international pop star whilst keeping her own identity a secret to protect herself. On top of this Miley had to deal with growing up through high school and being one of the invisibles treated poorly by the more popular girls. Her strength came from keeping those lives separate and remaining grounded as a 'normal' person, not that Miley would call herself that as she thought of herself as a very strange person indeed.
After musing over her hastened writings and smiling inwardly at her anxious nature, yet excitement when it came to Lilly Truscott and their future holiday, Miley felt all desire to sleep leave her and she was twitching to get motivated. With a bounce in her step she slipped out of bed and threw the old t-shirt she was wearing to bed that night into her laundry hamper before slipping off her underwear and skipping into her ensuite. Miley turned on the shower and stepped into the origin of the rising steam. She braced herself as she walked forward into the water and delighted in the hot touch of millions of tiny droplets. She turned her back to the showerhead and felt her long, brown hair slick slowly down her back as the water took her over. Miley raised her head to the ceiling and closed her eyes, there was nothing quite like a hot shower to chase the blues of the night before away.
"Morning Miles," her father greeted her as she wandered downstairs, now fully dressed in a light linen skirt and a pretty, yet casual, t-shirt, "I made you pancakes for breakfast." Miley smiled and graciously accepted her father's offer as she seated herself on a stool around the kitchen island. She delicately began to pick away at the soft, creamy textured dough on her plate and happily unearthed the blueberries that her father had added for good measure. Smiling to herself she took her time to enjoy everything about this hearty breakfast.
"So, when do you expect Lilly to be getting here today bud? I'm gonna get started on that old meatball recipe at around four. I thought that we could have them for dinner rather than lunch. Although I should probably be doing a bigger lunch as you need to re-schedule your appetite ready for London. What do you think?"
Miley smiled at her father's concerns before shrugging her shoulders and answering, "I don't know daddy, Lilly hasn't messaged me yet, she's probably still surfing as it's a good day for it. I'll just check up on what she's up to before I go making any rash decisions."
"Okay bud. Bit late for Lilly to be surfing though isn't it? It's nine-thirty now, she likes to catch the morning waves." Robbie looked like he was considering something for a moment, "Knowing that girl she's probably sniffed out a pie on a window-sill or some poor kid trying to enjoy a bagel."
"Yeah you're right but who knows, she might have overslept?" Miley was not really concerned about her best friend, she knew that she was likely to become more disorganised into the holidays and often preferred to sleep more the first day that they were allowed a decent lie-in. Miley did know that they had plans for the morning though so she picked up her phone and sent Lilly a message anyway.
It took the period of time in which Miley slowly finished consuming her pancakes, loaded the dish-washer and sat down to flick precariously through the television channels for Lilly to reply. Miley raised an eyebrow as she picked up her phone to read the message; it was not like her best friend to leave her waiting for so long. She glanced quickly at the clock, it was now half past ten and Miley felt a little poke of disappointment in losing some important Lilly-time.
Soz! Was surfing… will be with u this afternoon, k? xox
Miley's eyebrows rose towards her hairline in slight shock at Lilly's reply when she knew that the blonde had been the one to make the plans with her in the first place. She felt the need to send an interrogating reply and make her frustration known to the hopeless surfer, yet stopped herself halfway through the text rant. The annoyance that she was directing at her friend was hopeless and she knew that if her feelings towards Lilly were just based on normal friendliness this would not be an issue. The anger was actually meant for herself, she was selfishly expecting to spend every minute possible with Lilly when she should be more sympathetic to Lilly's personal commitments. Miley sighed and shook her head at her own shameful disposition towards Lilly; she needed to stop allowing her world to revolve around the tricksy surfer.
Ok… will be in all day, see ya later! xox
Miley rolled her eyes as she sent the reply and decided to put herself down as a lost cause. Unable to decide what to do without her best friend to amuse her and after much gazing hopelessly out of the windows, around the room and at the stairs, she finally took up a seat at the piano in the corner and put her fingers to the keys.
Lilly Truscott, however, was doing anything but surfing. After an awkward breakfast with her mother and the sharing of tense looks and half-hearted good mornings with her father, she spent a good hour sitting on her bed twisting her fingers together. She felt her mind racing with thoughts and excuses, the beginnings to conversations which she knew would never come to a completion in her mind. The ending of her story was too painful to speak at this point in time and she knew that by delaying she was only denying the inevitable truth to both her best friends and herself. It was with a great strength of mind that Lilly pulled herself out of her mental stupor, sunk her feet into a pair of old shoes lying nearby before hurtling down the stairs and out of the front door. Lilly felt the sudden compulsion to run and get as far away as she could from the cage that she used to call home. As she pumped her legs harder, and moved her arms faster at her sides, she felt a sudden rush of freedom that she knew would be harder to find during the upcoming weeks. By the time she reached her destination, Lilly's legs were trembling from the unexpected effort and she gasped for breath whilst doubled over, her hands squeezing her sides in an attempt to recover. After a couple of long minutes, Lilly was able to look up and fix her gaze on the house before her. She took a moment to steady her resolve before walking steadily up to the front door and ringing the doorbell.
"Good morning Lilly."
"Morning Mrs Oken, is Oliver in?"
"Lilly!" her friend's voice reached her ear, although slightly muffled from a bite of toaster pastry which was half-falling out of his mouth when he greeted her. With a swallow Oliver was able to welcome her properly, "What are you doing here? I thought you were spending the morning at Miley's?"
"Erm, well, I came round because I wanted to talk to you about something. Is that alright?"
Oliver's face drifted into a vague look of confusion as he looked his friend slowly up and down before replying, "Yeah, sure you can." And then after a moment's hesitation, "Is everything alright?"
Lilly found a lump form in her throat and she looked down at her feet before slowly shaking her head at the floor. Oliver shared a brief glance with his mother who slowly inclined her head towards the defeated looking girl on the doorstep before turning her attention back to her coffee and paper in the kitchen.
"Come in." Oliver said in a gentle tone while Lilly stepped through the threshold and shrunk herself into the end of the Okens' particularly comfortable couch by the window at the back of the living room. "Now, do you want to tell me what's wrong?"
After a couple of short moments where Lilly found her mouth opening and closing several times in the attempt of beginning the story of the end of her life as they knew it, she finally found her voice and unravelled everything to Oliver that had happened the previous evening. Oliver sat in silence, his big brown eyes widening in shock when Lilly finally came to telling him that she was moving away. After a moment he slid across the small distance between them and wrapped an arm around his oldest friend. Lilly felt her throat swallow involuntarily and her voice cracked from the tears that threatened to overcome her once more. Oliver cuddled Lilly's face into his shoulder and rested his chin on top of her head. His heart was beating more rapidly and his eyes were dangerously prickling as he held the trembling girl in his arms. Through all of his senses during that moment, Oliver found himself remembering back to the first time he found his plucky blonde friend crying. This had been after an androgynous bully called Robin stole her cookie and pushed her over in the third grade. Since then he had taken it as his duty to protect Lilly, though he had not needed to as she was the feistiest girl he had ever met, but when it came to her heart breaking, he knew that he could do little more than hold her as he was now.
"It'll be okay Lilly."
"No it won't. It's all over and ruined. Everything is gone and I just don't know what to do." The tears ran down Lilly's cheeks as she buried her face in her hands.
"Hey, it's not ruined okay?" Oliver softly replied before handing her a tissue from the box his mother kept on the coffee table due to her disposition to cry over failing relationships in her daily soap opera. "And since when was anything over? Lilly, you and I have been best friends forever. A distance of a few hundred miles isn't about to stop that."
"Well it's all going to change. We're going to fall apart and rarely see each other any more and then it'll all be over."
"No way José, you know that neither of us will let that happen even if we tried. Heck Lilly, you won't give up messaging me if we only spend a couple of days apart! Like that time when you went camping with the Stuarts and you had to tell me all about how you tricked Miley into thinking a bear had stolen her honey sandwiches?"
"I tried to quit you," Lilly recited one of their favourite movie lines before responding, "and yeah, I know about the whole sandwich thing. I blame it all on the belly and the fact that it will just never be full. I thought Miley would understand that. Besides she was so finicky about eating those freaking sandwiches anyway! Now, there's something that girl and I will never agree on; proper food conduct. I mean, how can you go a whole morning without giving in to Mr S's wonderfully moist, home-made bread with country store bought, finest quality honey…?" Lilly paused for a moment to reminisce on these pleasant recollections whilst Oliver chuckled at his abnormal friend.
"Lilly, you've got a little drool there."
Lilly laughed and swiped her hand good-humouredly at Oliver's head. The boy was a doughnut but he knew how to cheer her up with his simplistic good nature, yet Lilly's elation was quickly shaken and she turned to Oliver again.
"What am I going to do about Miley?"
"I just don't know." Oliver looked away from his friend and down at his mother's immaculately polished oak coffee table where his eyes traced a dark knot residing in the wooden surface. He looked up again and met Lilly's eyes but the expression he gave her showed a degree of hopelessness and of the great pity that he felt towards them. Lilly and Miley were virtually inseparable, everyone who met them could see before they were introduced, before the girls had even had a chance to explain, that they had sworn themselves to each other as best friends forever. The girls laughed together and they cried together. The very greatest and worst moments of both of their lives throughout the time they had known one another had been spent in each other's presence, either in the forms of sharing in their jubilation or consoling the other at their lowest; this was to be the heaviest blow of all. Oliver shook his head when he pictured the moment that Lilly would tell Miley, he could imagine the splintering of her heart and silently cursed the wretchedness of the situation. Miley was going to be broken and he knew that after the moment that Lilly told her she was no longer going to be a fundamental part of her life, Miley's life would be turned upside-down in a way that Lilly could not even begin to fathom. Oliver saw the coveted gazes Miley would pass admiringly over Lilly, the very second the blonde girl turned her head away and Miley believed that no one was looking. He had seen her tearing herself apart over a boy that Lilly befriended at the skate park for a few months over the previous summer. Miley was in every way subtle but to such a close outsider of the two girls' relationship, Oliver was the perfect witness to Miley's suffering. Her jealousy became very clear to him in the clenching of whitening fists on the table top and the slight edge in her voice which naïve Lilly failed to notice when she discussed her new friend over cheesy fries and strawberry milkshakes. He thought it was foolish to even consider feeling slighted in the way that he knew Miley would choose Lilly's happiness slyly over all other aspects of their shared lives. Oliver gladly never begrudged the pair an afternoon spent together in hopeless girly chatter and giggles. He loved them both dearly and it was thanks to the intensity of their close friendship that he had found some guy friends to hang out with! But in all seriousness, Oliver knew that the famous trio were never going to be the same again.
"So, when are you going to tell her?" Oliver knew he had to voice the question at some point and the silence was making him restless, yet he knew the answer before Lilly even had the chance to answer.
"I don't know." Lilly sighed and considered for a moment. "I don't want to ruin her tour of London. You know how hard she works and I don't want to stress her out anymore than I have to."
"You have to tell her sometime Lil."
"I know, I know that Oliver. I will tell her but I'll have to do it when we get back."
"Won't she think it suspicious what with your parents cleaning out the house and everything?"
"I just don't know okay." Lilly's tone was abrupt but that quickly subsided and she arched her neck backwards and squeezed her eyes tightly shut with her hands clasped across her stomach. "Sorry Oliver. I just don't know what to do. Miley's going to be devastated."
"It'll be okay, you know?"
"No, no it won't. It'll never be okay again and now I'm going to have to spend the next month pretending like my world isn't falling apart and prancing about all over the place like Mary Freaking Poppins so that my best friend won't know I'm about to ruin everything."
"Miley will understand and she'll be upset but you guys can make it work. We can all make it work! And besides, you know I'll take good care of her."
"Yeah, I know that Oliver. I'm so glad she's got you here to fall back on. You'll keep an eye on her, won't you?"
"I'm sure I could spare one every once in a while," Oliver winked at Lilly, "that is, when I'm not spotting out possible candidates for the future Mrs Oliver Smoken Oken." Oliver smirked and this time Lilly did not hesitate to drive her fist playfully into Oliver's shoulder.
"Ouch!" Oliver's squeak was somewhat more high-pitched than he had intended, which caused Lilly to giggle a little at her male friend's aptitude for unleashing his repressed femininity on occasion. "Alright, alright, you made me squeal like a girl. Ha. Ha. I just love how you girls find that so amusing." Oliver retorted in his campest voice with an attempt at a suggestive hand flick and Lilly laughed openly.
"Cool it Olly Trolley, although I'm sure certain future Oken candidates of yours would find these traits endearing." Lilly replied with a smug look in a mockery of her normally girl-crazed, yet secretly sensitive, doughnut. Oliver merely smiled.
"You kids keep me young."
Lilly rolled her eyes in bewilderment and exaggeratedly stretched out her arms in front of her, "Now, what's that supposed to mean?"
"No idea," Oliver replied with a hopeless shrug and a merry grin, "now, if I'm not mistaken, it is now approximately noon? And you know what that means?"
"Bring on the Olly special!" Lilly shrieked with delight, finally feeling a small return of her usual cheerful nature which she seemed to have left behind her yesterday. Oliver leapt off the couch and hurried into the kitchen, hustled by the blonde on his heels eager for some four-cheese, tomato and special store cupboard ingredients, toasty action.
It was approximately three hours later when Miley Stuart found herself opening her front door to a very anxious blonde waiting on the doorstep with her hands behind her back.
"Hey Miley," Lilly mumbled sheepishly and attempted a smile.
"Uh-huh." Miley looked the blonde up and down and tried to look cross.
"I'm really, really sorry. I know I said that we would meet this morning and I know that I was the one who made the plans…" Lilly trailed off, Miley was not actually mad at her, was she?
Miley stood still looking the other girl up and down. Lilly looked strangely dishevelled today, her hair needed brushing and her skin was unusually pale. Dark shadows had formed underneath her eyes and when Miley eventually looked into them, she saw a host of emotions playing inside which she was certain Lilly was struggling to repress.
"Come in Lilly." Miley said softly and at her best friend's words, Lilly's face seemed to lighten up a little and some colour filled her cheeks.
"Wait a sec." Lilly said and winced a little as she shuffled with her hands behind her back. Very slowly she brought her hands forward to reveal the two ice-cream cones she had been clutching, which had started to melt and drip slowly down her hands, onto her wrists and down to the floor. Miley's heart warmed and she smiled as she took one of the offerings from Lilly's hand, quickly lapping up any vanilla cream that threatened to escape her. She inclined her head towards the lounge and they both wandered in, pleasantly slurping at the melting goodness before taking their usual places on the couch.
"Wow." Miley said when she was certain that she had had dealt with all the worryingly melted ice-cream.
"What?" Lilly looked confused and still nervous over the fact that she had let Miley down.
"I'm just surprised, that's all." Miley replied and when Lilly looked at her questioningly Miley giggled, "I'm surprised that these even made it anywhere near my house without you deciding that they would probably be completely melted and scoffing them for yourself." Miley smirked at Lilly as she teased her friend whose cheeks were flushing slightly pinker.
"Ha. Ha," Lilly commented drily, "I am capable of some self-restraint, you know?"
"Nope, I know that when it comes to you and your stomach I will always be sloppy seconds." Miley pouted at her friend and Lilly argued back.
"Yeah well, I've decided to turn over a new leaf. I've come to realise that sometimes your appetite has got to count for something too. Besides," Lilly paused for a moment and gathered her face into a more serious expression, "I'm really sorry that I let you down this morning Miles."
Miley was slightly taken aback by Lilly's repentant response and she feared that she came across as too demanding on Lilly's time.
"No Lilly, you've got nothing to worry about," Miley smiled, "I understand how fuzzy things get inside that old head of yours and how crazy you get at the thought of a long summer vacation."
"Yeah." Lilly found herself smiling slightly as she looked up at Miley who was once again happily lapping away at her ice-cream. Lilly began tentatively licking her own and felt a slight relief at her well-chosen apology going down so well with the other girl.
"So, what have you been up to this morning then?" Miley cheerily asked of her best friend, all issues forgotten between them as her insides buzzed with the joy that she always felt when she knew she would be spending time with Lilly.
"Well, I guess I overslept, but then I headed down to the beach anyway and caught some waves. Then there was this little kid on the beach…"
"…And you stole his breakfast?" Miley cut in, fearing that her father's earlier prediction had come true.
"No! Of course not!" Lilly laughed at Miley's fear of the lengths Lilly's appetite would go to in order to be satisfied. "I helped him finish off his sandcastle."
"Aw, that's sweet Lil."
"Yeah, he was a pretty sweet little kid too." Lilly lied and tried to avoid making eye-contact, but Miley was too busy crunching the last few bites of her wafer cone to notice. "And then I wandered home and had a really long shower. Then mum wanted me to tidy my room and put my books away, and that's about it really."
"Oh, okay, that's cool." Miley checked her hands to see if she was ice-cream free before lowering them onto her lap and looking at Lilly seriously causing Lilly to gulp and hurriedly shovel the remains of her frozen treat into her mouth. Miley cleared her throat as she watched her friend finish her mouthful. "Lilly, are you okay?"
Lilly's eyes widened a little bit and she felt her heart begin to beat faster in anticipation of what was to come next and she forced a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine Miley. Why wouldn't I be?"
"I dunno. Just when I opened the door you looked a bit off. I just thought you looked sad." Miley glanced down at her hands and wondered whether she was just reading into things. She silently cursed her nature to care too much for Lilly's well-being to the extent that she imagined problems, which she would intend to help Lilly resolve.
"Nah, you don't have to worry about a thing. I'm right as rain." Lilly smiled again and Miley looked up to meet her eyes, "I talked to my mum last night and she's pretty thrilled that I get to go on holiday to London with you." Miley grinned as she heard Lilly's words, there had been doubt growing in her mind after seeing Lilly's expression earlier of whether she could come, but now Miley was delighted.
"Oh Lilly, that's really awesome!" Miley did not even bother to consider containing herself and threw her arms around Lilly who laughed and reciprocated the embrace. Miley turned her face into Lilly's hair and relished in the other girl's smell as she always did in her secretive manner. Lilly closed her eyes and grimaced against the lie that she was beginning to tell to protect her best friend. This was not going to last very long and she was glad for the procrastination. She hoped that when the time came to tell Miley that she was going to ruin everything for them, that she would at least know what to say.
Slowly Miley released her best friend from her clutches, selfishly revelling in the press of chest on chest and the clash of their hair; curly brown on straight blonde. Disappointment filled her as her hands completed the withdrawal of their touches and slid off Lilly's shoulders, but Miley was quick to brush off the anxious feeling and breezed through with preparing Lilly for the trip. Lilly sat and listened quietly as Miley talked about everything that Lilly would need as a necessity to take to London, before Miley excused herself briefly to fetch a notepad and pen for her disorganised friend. Lilly sat and made notes about the future shopping trip they were going to take as Lola and Hannah to select their outfits for the tour. She jotted down all of the details Miley thought it would be vital for her to remember, including how many pairs of underwear she would need. Miley laughed whilst Lilly rolled her eyes, rebuking her southern friend on the fact that she would remember to pack spare pants and that she only forgot that one time, but that was several years ago. Miley continued to tease and banter backwards and forwards with her dippy friend for the next half hour. Her father returned at this point and summoned Lilly's attention to the kitchen where he needed her opinion on his famous meat ball recipe. Miley sighed and shook her head in fake annoyance at this moment but took it into her own interest to finish writing Lilly's list for her. Secret joy filled Miley as she made a note of a few joke options that she prayed Lilly would pack in failure to notice, only for Miley to laugh at her later when they unpacked. She stole secret glances to check to see if Lilly was fine working with her father in the kitchen, only to remind herself of how brightly Lilly's eyes sparkled when she was laughing. Miley could not help but notice the way the apron Lilly had tied to herself showed off the smallness of her waist and Miley willed herself with a great effort to stop hungrily eyeing the perfection of Lilly's curves.
Eventually the list was complete and Miley was ready to join the troublesome pair in the kitchen where Robbie Ray had been mocking Lilly's inability to mould the perfect spheres that he required for his dish. Laughing along with him, Miley let herself get stuck into the project, working side-by-side with, and occasionally tormenting Lilly. A sense of pure elation coursed through Miley as their arms would nudge together and their hands would brush as they prepared the mince. Lilly laughed and despaired, throwing her head into her arms on the work surface in this melodramatic show she put on for her friend. It seemed to both girls that things had gone back to normal, Lilly was her usual jester-like self, keen to keep Miley satisfied that nothing was wrong as well as revelling in the happiness she always felt in Miley's company. This allowed Lilly to push the dread she felt towards the back of her mind, at least for while the two were together. Miley, meanwhile, was just as oblivious as she always was to the rest of the world when Lilly was in a similar mood and paying her full attention. She failed to notice the curtain of sadness and dread that would occasionally fall over Lilly's eyes as she unwillingly remembered what she was going to have to do at the end of the summer. For now all was well between them as laughter filled the house, rising up and around them, taking Miley soaring with it, whilst Lilly suppressed the undermining despair that was going turn their whole world around.