Chapter 9--- Truth Hurts
The next three days passed quickly for Lily. She enjoyed every moment she spent with Valon. Her and Serenity cooked up a plan to get Joey and Mai together. Lily was going to be singing again at Dragonfly and she was going to call Yugi and invite the gang. Lily was going to let Yugi in on the plan and tell everyone except for Joey to be there at 7:30 instead of 7:00 so Joey and Mai had some "quality time". But first, Lily needed to call Yugi. So she dialed his number.
"Hello?"
"Hi this is Lily, is Yugi there?"
"Yeah, this is him. Hey Lily what's up?"
'Okay, I was calling to invite you to the Dragonfly tomorrow night cause I'm singing."
"Oh of course. I'll invite the rest of the gang."
"Okay cool. Only…" Lily trailed off.
"Only what?" Yugi asked knowingly.
"When you call Joey tell him to be there at 7:00 but tell everyone else to be there at 7:30."
"And why should I do this? Come on Lily, you're up to something."
"Okay fine. Serenity and I are planning to get Mai and Joey together because we all know that they like each other, but are to hesitant to admit it. So, do you think it'll work?"
"Actually, it just might. Joey can't stand to be alone, so I'm sure he'll go talk to Mai."
"Okay. Well then, I'll see you tomorrow night."
"All right. Bye."
Lily hung up. Now, I just need to call Valon, so I'll have to find his file in Mai's room. Lily snuck into Mai's room and fished it out. Lily was proud of herself for putting everything together. Maybe Joey and Mai will get married! And then, Serenity would be like my sister…ish…ness or whatever. Lily shook her head. Okay first, I need to just get them dating. She heard a car door shut so Lily quickly got out of Mai's room and into her own. The downstairs door opened. "Hey Lil! Do you want to go out to eat?" Out to eat? "Uh yeah," Lily called. "Hold on."
"So Lily," Mai said as they got into her light blue mustang convertible. "How was your day?" Lily rolled her eyes. "Mai, sometimes you treat me like you're mom."
"No I do not!"
"Yes, you really do."
"Do I really?"
"Honestly? Yes, a lot."
"Wow. I'm sorry. That's the last person I want to sound like."
Lily thought for a moment. "You don't like Mom do you?"
"Not at all."
"Why?"
Mai sighed. "Well, before I before I left when I was 16, Mom said that I was not to come back because she didn't want you to turn out like me."
"And how would that be?"
"Well, Mom had this idea that I would become some sort of exotic dancer."
"Eww, are you serious?"
"Oh yeah. She used to say hurtful things to me every day. She told me I was a waste of air, and that if my dad didn't have all that money, she would've never married him. After dad died and left her all that money, she kicked me out. Of course, she didn't bother to tell me that half of the money was mine. About a year later though, I got it."
"Well, how come you never bothered to call me or write me letters?"
Mai was bewildered. "What are you talking about? I wrote you letters as often as I could."
"Oh really? Well that's odd, cause I remember distinctly writing you and never getting a reply."
"When I called, Mom said that you hated me and that there was no point in calling."
"Well, when I saw you on the news with Dartz's people, Mom said that she always knew you'd be a criminal."
Mai was still puzzled. "Why didn't we get each other's letters though? I wrote you for a year and finally gave up."
"I wrote for a year too and Mom said you didn't care."
"Mom," Mai growled. "Lily give me my phone." Lily handed it to her. "That's it Lily," she said as she punched in the number. "We're going to get this cleared up once and for all!" She put it on speaker and camera so she could see her. Lily reached for the phone. "Let me talk to her first." Mai nodded. They waited.
"Lily! How are you sweetie? I miss you so much."
"Mom, what happened to my letters and Mai's?"
"Honey, what are you talking about? What letters?"
"Mom, cut the crap," Mai cut in. "You know exactly what Lily's talking about."
The woman's face grew cold. Her eyes looked with disdain at Mai. "Oh hello Mai, not pregnant yet are you?"
"Mom leave Mai alone!" Lily said with a ferocity she didn't know she had. "Mai told me everything about all the stuff you said to her and how you kicked her out. So why don't you stop lying and tell me the truth!"
"Well, it doesn't matter anyway. Lily, when you sent your letters to your horrid sister, I kept them in a bag before the mail would get there. Mai, same with yours."
Lily's eyes filled with tears. "Mom, you deprived me of a relationship with my sister. How could you do that to me? To us? Why did you keep me?"
"You were better off without her. It was easy to do it to Mai. But Lily, I've always shown you love and have loved you."
Mai suddenly realized something as she drove into a gas station. "Until when?"
Mom looked at her. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me," Mai said angrily. "What caused you to send Lily to me? I'm sure you didn't just get a warm heart and decide to re-unite us. There must have been an incentive for you."
Mom laughed. "Though, I couldn't stand you Mai, you are smart. Okay then I'll tell you. It began when I met Brad. See after Mai left, I was planning to kick Lily out the same way. But then I met Brad."
"Who's Brad?" Lily asked disgustedly as tears flowed down her cheeks. Mai put her arm around her.
"Brad is my new boyfriend. He wanted to move in, but didn't want to be bothered with you. So, I knew Mai would be more than happy to take you in."
"So basically," Lily said between sobs, "you dumped me with Mai so you could be with your stupid boyfriend!"
Mom smiled. "Pretty much yeah. "
"Mom I hate you!" Lily screamed and hung up. She thrust herself into Mai's arms and they both cried. "I love you so much Lily. I'm sorry you had to go through the same thing I did." Lily wiped her eyes. "I love you too." Mai had an idea. "Lily, do you remember what my dad used to do when we were sad?" Lily thought. "Take us to the mall?"
"That's right. You up for it?"
"Shopping? Of course," Lily smiled. They drove to Domino Mall.
When they got home, Lily went upstairs to admire her new clothes. She got a hot-pink Hawaiian print, silk, halter top (but modest, didn't show any cleavage) dress. The other outfit was a green lacy skirt and a lacy top to go with. She also bought earrings and purse to go with each. Plus a bunch more outfits. After all, they spent 4 hours shopping! Scraps! I forgot to call Valon! Lily picked up the phone and called him.
"Hello?"
"Hey Valon, its your student."
"What's up Lily? You need help with homework or something?"
"Or somethin. I was calling to invite you to come hear me sing tomorrow night."
On the other end of the receiver, Valon smiled. "Yeah I'll come. Wouldn't miss it."
"Really? You'll come?" Lily asked astounded.
"That's what I said."
"Oh yeah. Okay, I guess I'll see ya at 7:30."
"I'll be there. I'm looking forward to it."
"Me too." Oh crap, did that seem like I'm too eager to see him? "Well, then I'll see you there, okay I gotta go bye." Lily said this all very quickly and hung up.
Valon heard the dial tone in his ear. "Okay…" He laughed and hung up.
After Lily got over the shock of sounding like a dork to Valon, she got a case of goosebumps. Lily always got goosebumps when she was remembering something, reading something about love, or being around or talking to a cute guy. It had to be the last one. So what if he was Catholic-turned-murderer-turned- evil biker- soul-stealer-turned good guy. The past doesn't matter, Lily thought. I'd be pretty upset if someone killed my mom. Or would I? "Bad Lily!" she scolded herself. "I have to forgive her or God won't forgive me." Lily glanced at the clock. It was almost 10. She jumped on her bed and turned on her TV just in time to watch Buffy.
I made it through! It wasn't so bad! I love Buffy! Spike is so cute! Okay get ready, cuz from here on out, ACITW is gonna be great!!!!!!!!!
Disclaimer: I don't own the songs, "You Make me Feel Like a Star," or "Just a Dream" , or "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You". Those belong to the Beu Sisters ( , Jump5 ( and ATeens ( . I do not own "Blind Date" either.