Here's the next chapter.
"You tell him," Miley whispered urgently as they sat down at a table by Rico's snack shack, smoothies clutched tightly in their hands. Oliver was standing at the snack shack arguing with Rico about the prices of the nachos while his new employee, Mark, stood back and watched helplessly. Lilly felt bad for the poor guy, he hadn't known what he was getting into and Jackson had been more than happy to quit because of college.
"No, you tell him," Lilly shot back, glancing back away from the snack shack and taking a long slurp out of her strawberry smoothie.
"It was your idea," Miley said, looking over at Oliver worriedly. "You tell him."
"I came up with the idea, so you can tell him," Lilly said.
"Does that even make sense?" Miley asked, scrunching up her eyebrows in confusion.
"To me it does," Lilly said, shrugging her shoulders and taking another slurp out of her smoothie.
"Of course it does," Miley said, rolling her eyes. "Just tell him."
"Tell me what?"
They both looked up see Oliver standing above them, two orders of nachos held in his hands. He set them down and sat down in a third chair, looking expectantly from Miley to Lilly as he picked a nacho up from one of the containers, dipped it in cheese, and proceeded to stuff it in his mouth.
"Who said that we were talking about you?" Lilly shot back, grabbing one of the containers of nachos and pulling it towards her and Miley. "And don't touch our nachos; I don't want all of your germs all over them."
"But who else would you be talking about?" Oliver asked, chomping down on the second half of his nachos, the first half already gone.
"We were just…talking about boys!" Miley said.
"You were?" Oliver asked, raising his eyebrows.
"We were?" Lilly asked in a small voice.
"Yes, we were," Miley said firmly. "I was just saying how cute I thought Mark and Lilly was telling me that I should come and ask him to sit with us on his break."
Lilly stood up abruptly, tears in her eyes as she accidentally knocked her smoothie over, spilling the red liquid all over the table. She ran away from the table, leaving a confused Oliver and a stunned Miley behind. People stared as her as she ran up the beach, tears streaming down her face, until she finally collapsed on an abandoned strip of sand far enough away from the crowded areas that no one would see that she was there unless that person was looking for her specifically.
There were quick footsteps and loud breathing and Lilly was aware that someone had just run up to her and was now trying to catch her breath. "Lilly."
She didn't respond.
"Lilly, look, I'm sorry, I…I wasn't thinking and I didn't realize it would have that much of an effect on you."
The blonde still didn't respond.
"Look, Lilly, I love you and I'll go tell Oliver that we're dating. Heck, I'll announce it to the whole beach if you'll just look at me."
Lilly turned, looking at Miley with tear-filled eyes. "Are you really so ashamed of me that you'll do anything to hide our relationship?" she whispered.
"No, Lilly…" Miley started.
"Miley, I like you," Lilly said. "I really, really like you, but…but if this is how it's going to be, you pretending that…that we aren't something, even when we're just around our best friends or our family then…then I think we should just stay friends. Because I like you too much and if I see you doing that, or hear you doing that, then it's going to hurt me. And I don't want to get hurt. I've been hurt so much…I can't stand it one more time."
"What are you talking about?" Miley asked in confusion.
"Every single time I saw you with a boy, every single time you talked about boys, every single time you were staring at boys, even when boys were staring at you, I felt…I felt like someone was cutting my heart out as slowly as they possibly could," Lilly said, tears in her eyes. "I've been hoping, dreaming, wishing that you would look at me and see that I was hurting, that I didn't want the boys you were setting me up with, but just you. And then you admit to me that…that was all fake. That you love me. Then you…you pretend like it never happened. Do you know how much that hurts?"
"Lilly, I'm sorry," Miley said, sitting down next to Lilly. "I…I honestly didn't know that it would upset you. If I had known, I would have just told Oliver to wait until we were somewhere private. I just…feel really uncomfortable with telling him something like this in a public place cause I don't want him freaking out on us and everyone looking at us weird and I…I didn't want you getting upset."
"Why didn't you just do that then?" Lilly asked. "I mean, I would have been a little upset, but once you explained to me, I would have been totally fine."
"I wasn't thinking," Miley said.
"We need to talk stuff out together if we're going to make this a lasting relationship," Lilly said. "Unless…unless you don't want a lasting relationship."
Miley looked at Lilly with wide eyes. "No, Lilly, don't you dare let yourself think that," she said, cupping Lilly's face gently in her hands and tilting her head up so they were looking in each other's eyes. "Don't think that at all. Of course I want a lasting relationship. Don't think that I wouldn't want that for us."
"I just…I'm just really stressed out because of this," Lilly whispered, bowing her head and leaning her forehead on Miley's shoulder. "I'm so afraid that if people start teasing, we'll grow apart and all of this will have been for nothing."
"You have nothing to be afraid of," Miley whispered, wrapping her arms around the blonde's shivering body. "Hey, hey, it's going to be okay. How about we head back to my house, get changed into something warmer, then invite Oliver over for a movie night? We can tell him then, okay?"
Lilly nodded into Miley's shoulder and eventually pulled herself away, giving the brunette a chaste kiss on the cheek. "Thank you," she whispered. She stood up and reached down to help Miley up and leaned into her touch as they walked up the beach towards Miley's house.
"There's something you two are going to tell me," Oliver said almost conversationally as they all sat down on the couch in front of Miley's TV. "I can tell, the way you two are looking at each other every few seconds. You might as well tell me now and get it over with."
Miley and Lilly looked at each other in surprise. "Oliver, we…you have to promise that you won't get mad," Lilly said quietly.
"Why would I get mad at you?" Oliver asked.
"We're dating," Miley said quickly.
Oliver stared at them for a moment. "And?" he asked, obviously missing what Miley was saying. "You guys date all the time, this isn't news. Is that what you were planning this whole afternoon when Lilly ran off? Do both of you like Mark or something?"
"No, Oliver, we're dating each other," Lilly said. "We're…we're gay."
The bowl of popcorn dropped from his hands onto his lap, rolling down his legs to crash to the floor, glass shattering and buttered popcorn scattering across the carpet. His eyes were wide and suddenly he was standing up, running to the door, and rushing outside. Lilly immediately looked down at the shattered bowl and scrambled to her knees, trying to gather the shards of sharp glass and the pieces of popcorn. Tears started to stream down her face and she grabbed one of the pieces of glass tightly, the shard cutting into her skin.
"Lilly, Lilly, stop," Miley said, immediately kneeling next to her and pulling her away from the mess. "Don't do this. Here, open your hand." She gently pried Lilly's hand open, carefully taking the piece of glass away from her and setting it on the nearby coffee table. Lilly started to sob and Miley gathered her up in her arms, picking her up and carrying her up the stairs to the bathroom where she set her on the counter.
"No, this is all my fault, I need to go clean that up," Lilly sobbed, tears streaming down her face. "I need…"
"What you need is to get your hand cleaned up so you don't bleed to death," Miley said, taking a firm, but gentle, hold of her wrist and pulling Lilly's hand toward her. "Look at me, honey. Lilly, look at me." The blonde stopped crying and stared into Miley's eyes. "You need to calm down and take a deep breath. You're getting worked up. It's been a stressful day. We can relax after I get your hand bandaged up, you can rest for a few moments while I get some things straightened out, then we can watch our movie, okay?"
Lilly nodded and watched as Miley got a first aid kit out, gently cleaning her hand off and bandaging it tightly. She could feel the blood throbbing through her hand but, surprisingly, there was no pain. Miley helped her get down off the counter and she leaned into the brunette. "I feel so weak," she whispered. "Usually I can just pretend stuff like this doesn't bother me, but…I just don't have any control over my emotions today. It's like…whenever I'm around you, I get so excited and happy and I want you to be excited and happy, too, and if something goes wrong…it's my fault that you aren't as happy as you could be."
"This isn't your fault," Miley whispered, kissing her gently on the nose. "You aren't the one who reacted badly. Okay, maybe we could have told him a little better, and maybe you didn't have to stick a shard of broken glass halfway through your hand, but Oliver didn't need to run out of the room like that. You aren't responsible for how he reacts to the two of us dating."
"I'm sorry, I just…I feel like I don't have much time left with you," Lilly whispered.
Miley smiled slightly. "We have all the time in the world."
Lilly wiped the tears from her eyes as the words on the paper blurred. "You were right," she read, choking back a sob. "We didn't have all the time in the world."
Hope you liked it! Thanks for the reviews from karleen3863 and Sophi20. I really appreciate you guys telling me what you think. You have no idea what this means to me. Really, people, review. I need to get reviews so I know what people think about the story and what I can do to improve it. I really value everyone's input, so please REVIEW!!!! Thanks!
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