I woke up the next morning alone. I looked frantically around my room, but Lilly was nowhere to be found. I knew that I had pushed her too far. Do you mind if I cuddle with you? Am I an idiot? I'd moved too fast, and now she was gone. I pulled myself out of bed, heading downstairs. Jackson's door was wide open, and no one was in there, so I hoped Sarah had left early too. Then he wouldn't be so arrogant about Lilly leaving. I slowly made my way down the stairs, hanging my head. I was surprised to be greeted by Lilly when I reached the bottom of the stairs. "Good morning sunshine. Pancakes?"

I was stunned, first by the fact that she was still here, and second by the happy way she said hello. She had played it cool with me since we'd met. She also seemed to recognize her mistake. I watched her face cloud over. "So, you cook?" I asked her, taking the seat next to her at the island, which happened to be the only empty one.

"Nope. Sarah does." She smiled appreciatively at Sarah, avoiding looking at me. I ran my hand through my hair while she was looking away, quickly straightening it up. Lilly already looked like she'd spent hours doing her hair, though I doubted that she did. I put my hand down on the table, trying to appear indifferent. Jackson put a plate full of food in front of me.

"Thanks," I muttered, eating as much as I could without looking like a pig or eating too much. I was starving. I ignored the fact that my elbow was touching Lilly's, and that she didn't move it away. Her leg grazed mine, and I gasped quietly. Her head turned towards me the slightest bit, and I was convinced she'd heard me. But the moment passed, and we all finished eating in silence.

"So…" Jackson said, breaking the silence. "What are you two up to today?" He said in a very perverted way while wiggling his eyebrows. Honestly, I was going to kill that boy.

I looked at Lilly. "You wanna hang out today? Or you could go home…?"

"Do you want me to go home?" She asked slyly.

I laughed. "No. Whatever you want."

"Hem, hem." Jackson did a fake cough. "If you two would like to acknowledge that you're not the only ones in the room…" He laughed.

I punched his shoulder. "Shut up Jackson. Go somewhere else." He obliged, leading Sarah away by the hand.

"So," Lilly said, reclining, "What are we doing today?"

"Let's go down to the beach. It should be fun."

"Alright." She looked away from me, so she missed the mischievious smile on my face.

Walked together down to the beach. Lilly said she knew a great spot on the beach to go to, so we were heading that way, and had just passed Rico's when Oliver bounded up. He put his arm around Lilly, and a fire burned in my stomach. "Hey Lils." He turned his attention to me, looking me over. I was only wearing shorts and a bikini top. "And who's this?"

"That's Miley you donut." She said tonelessly. "You've already met her." I guess having Oliver around meant she was going to keep being distant. Somehow, I was going to change that today.

Oliver's eyes ran me over again, pausing somewhere below my shoulders. "It's nice to meet you Miley." He said in an overly nice voice. "I don't believe we've been formally introduced." He dragged out the word formally. "I'm smokin' Oaken, at your service." He let go of Lilly, moving to walk between us. He was closer than I would have liked. I vaguely wished I had worn a shirt or something. Lilly hadn't looked at me since I'd changed anyway. "So," he asked, keeping up the pretense that he didn't know me. "You new?"

"You know she's new Oliver. She sits with us at lunch!"

"Oh yea!" He looked at me again. "She just looks so different…"

"Get out of here Oliver." She grabbed his shirt and swung him away from us.

He laughed as he walked away. "What? I'm just trying to make more friends."

"I think you have enough of those kinds of 'friends.' Go find one."

"Alright Lilly-pop." He laughed. "Call me later, and we'll hang out."

"Ok Ollie. See you." He sauntered away. "He is such a ham." She said to me. I gave her a skeptical look. She looked at me just in time to catch it. "What? He's my best friend."

The fire burned in my stomach again. Jealousy, I realized. "Why?"

"That's just how it's always been. Like, this weird thing happened in preschool."

"What?" I asked, curiously.

"Well," She suddenly seemed nervous, and that was something I couldn't comprehend. She was always so sure of herself. When I was four Oliver and I went to the same preschool. And, during naptime the teacher left the room. And this girl and I were still awake. Her name was Lauren, I think. Lauren James." She had said 'I think,' but to me, she sounded completely sure. "And that day, we were kissing during nap time. Just little kid kisses. But this one boy was awake, and he told everyone. Lauren and I were tortured. Lauren moved, but I couldn't. So the kids kept picking on me, until on day during class, Oliver stood up for me, and pushed down the biggest bully in the class. He got in trouble, but we've been best friends ever since." She finished, with the air of a person who was telling a story for the first time.

"Wow. Kids are cruel."

"No kidding."

"So…" I smiled to myself. "You kissed a girl?"

"Oh shut up." She hit me with her towel. "I didn't know any better."

"And do you know better now?" I knew I was pushing it, but next time she might not be so open.

"Well yeah." She looked me in the eyes. "Do you?"

"Do I what?" I asked, though obviously I knew what she was talking about.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Do you kiss girls?"

My heart skipped into overtime. I totally set this trap for myself. "No, I don't." Of course, I'd never met a girl I wanted to kiss as badly as Lilly. I wished she would look at me for more than a second. I was beginning to think she was just being my friend out of pity.

"We're here." She pulled me out of my thoughts. I hadn't realized we were walking so far, but now we were far enough out that there was no one on the part of the beach we were on. She threw down her towel, and I dropped my bag. She pulled off her tank top, exposing her bare stomach and her bikini underneath.

My breath caught in my throat, and it seemed as if she was moving in slow motion, as each of her abs tightened and flexed while she pulled her shirt over her head. Her skin was perfectly tan, and disrupted only by a dark shape near her pants.

"What are you looking at?" She asked self consciously, jerking me from my mindless staring.

"Nothing." I dropped my eyes, but quickly brought them up again, taking a step closer to her. "What is that?"

"My tattoo."

"Can I?" I asked, gesturing towards her pants. She gave me a curt nod, and I took it as a yes. I reached towards the waist of her sweatpants, pulling the stretchy band down a little at a time. My one finger went slowly down her skin. Slowly it revealed a tattoo that started on her lower stomach, and went down below her pants. It was a bright red rose with a dark green stem, and the thorns on it appeared to be piercing her skin. There was more to it, but it was getting really low. I looked at her, but she wouldn't meet my eye. "Can I?" I murmured again.

"Sure." She exhaled breathless.

I pulled it down just a little more, and to the side, under the stem, was a black, elegant cursive 'Lilly.' With my other hand I traced over the entire tattoo. I felt goodbumps erupt on her skin, even though it was at least ninety degrees out. She lifted her hand, touched my arm at the elbow, and dragged it down my arm until her hand was over mine. Goosebumps came up all over my arm too. I looked up into her eyes. They were on fire. It was like I could see into her sould. I started to lean in, but then it happened. She closed up again.

Her eyes clouded, and she tensed up. She dropped my hand and took a step back. "Let's just swim." She stepped out of her cutoff sweatpants, and I slipped off my shoes and my shorts. She didn't look at me before she ran and dove into the water. I laid out a towel on the sand, and laid on it. I shut my eyes, conjuring the feel of her skin again and again.