A/N: Sorry for the uber-long wait between updates. Chapter 8 wil follow shortly. Enjoy.

Circus

Chapter 7

The sunburn Lillian received on Monday had faded almost completely by Friday, which was turning out to be a not-so-horrible day.

She had met with Vanessa and "one of her girls," a pretty Greek girl named Eve Argyros, for lunch. Eve turned out to be fairly normal rather than the rebellious, crazy girl Lillian had been expecting.

The two were in the kitchen cooking dinner for themselves and Collin when he got home from work when the phone rang.

"Hello?" Lillian answered the phone.

"Hey, uh, Lillian?" A familiar, deep voice asked.

"Speaking."

"It's Gregory." Lillian dropped the spoon she had been using to stir the sauce with a loud clatter. She hadn't heard from Gregory or Elizabeth since Monday.

"Oh, um, hi."

"Yeah, you said that already. How you doing?"

"Fine, fine. How are you?"

Eve caught Lillian's eye and gave her a questioning look. "Guy?" she mouthed, and Lillian answered with a sharp nod.

"I'm good; I'm good. I'm actually going to a party tonight."

"Oh, well that sounds fun."

"Yeah, my man Brian's dating this girl Shamira who lives in this banging house in the Hills; she's always throwing parties when her parents are outta town."

"That's cool. . ." Lillian frowned. "Um, so. . . did you want to talk to my dad or. . .?

"No! No, I wanted to talk to you. See, Elizabeth's complaining about going to the party because she kinda hates Shamira, and since she said you weren't the worst person she'd ever met – and trust me, comin' from Lizzy that's a compliment – I figured maybe you could come with and keep her from going crazy."

Her heart sank. So he only wanted her to come so she could hang out with Elizabeth. "Well, I can't. Sorry. My friend Eve is staying the night – "

"Oh, awesome, so I'll pick you both up around 10?"

"Um. . ." Lillian looked Eve and mouthed, "party?" She nodded fervently. "Ten sounds great!" she replied unenthusiastically.

"Awesome! See you then." He hung up without waiting for a goodbye.

"Party tonight in the Hills, apparently."

"The Hills?" Eve looked down at her clothes. "I'm not really dressed for a party there."

"We can go to your place – "

"No, that's okay. I'm sure other girls'll be in jeans."

Lillian regarded her a moment; she had forgotten that Eve was probably like most girls known for running away and didn't have a very good home to go to. Unlike Lillian, Eve actually had a figure, but she was probably about the same size. "I have some party clothes that might fit you."

Eve's mouth stretched into thankful grin.

An hour later they sat at the kitchen table with Collin.

"So what kind of crazy trouble are you girls planning on getting into tonight?" he asked between bites.

"Actually, Gregory is going to pick us up around 10 so we can go to a party with him and Elizabeth."

"Elizabeth? Elizabeth Shah?" he asked.

"Um… I don't know her last name."

"Half-Indian? Friends with Gregory."

"Yeah, that sounds like her."

He nodded to himself. "Good, good, getting out, that's good," he mumbled. Lillian and Eve looked at each other with raised eyebrows. "Well, I hope you girls have fun. I'll do the dishes tonight. Why don't you go get ready? If I remember correctly, it'll take a few hours."

"Thanks, Dad."

They left the kitchen and made their way up stairs, when a sudden sense of foreboding overcame Lillian. Something was going to happen that night. Something big. Something from one of her dreams.