Chapter 2

Lily woke up the next morning feeling tired and cranky and quickly decided that the words "Lily" and "morning" do not belong in the same sentence. Pulling on her robe, she quickly tiptoed out of her room and was not surprised that David and Dorian's bedroom door was closed tightly after keeping her up half the night. "La Boulaie's walls are too thin." Today she had felt substantially better; she did not wake up with the need to throw up. Instead, she was starving and decided to raid the fridge before anyone else got up.

She silently made her way down the stairs looking around the large but rather empty house. It seemed so lifeless with everyone gone: Kelly and Zane had moved to Asa's with Kevin; Adriana was living with Rex; and Blair, Starr, and Jack had moved back into the penthouse with Todd. No one was around to talk to or hang out with. David was great, but after a few games of winning Scrabble against him, he was known to become a sore loser.

Dorian, on the other hand, was just not pleasant to be with at all. Ever since she and David said "I do," Lily had nicknamed her affectionately "The Wicked Stepmother." Since Tina was not really the "maternal type," Dorian stepped up to the plate and assumed all of the responsibilities.

"Did you take your vitamins this morning?"

"Don't eat that. It will spoil your appetite for dinner."

"It's ten after eleven! You know that your curfew is eleven!"

Lily sighed; it never stopped. As if that were not enough, she would always have to fall asleep to the sound of her father and stepmother giggling although they were all the way across the hall. You never won at the game of living at La Boulaie.

She finally got back to the kitchen practically on her tiptoes, but to her surprise, she could already smell food cooking.

"Jade!"

Sure enough, Jade was at the stove wearing Dorian's lace apron and David's chef hat cooking what seemed to be some sort of omelet. He had on the goofy grin that he always wore as he waved gaily to Lily. "Hiya, Lily!" he greeted waving the steam away from his eyes. "Are you in the mood for breakfast?"

Lily smiled gratefully. "My hero!" she sat down at the counter (but not too close because Blair and Kelly have told her stories about David and Dorian involving "said counter") and shook her head. "How did you get in?" she asked.

"Jack left his house key when he was over my house playing with Matthew. Umm, technically, I was supposed to give it back, but I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd stop by and brighten up your day."

"Well, you did a good job."

"Are you feeling better?"

"How do you know that I was sick?"

"I stopped by the gallery to see if you wanted to hang out after work, but Chris was there, and he told me that Lindsay brought you home because you were sick."

"Oh. Yeah, I'm feeling better. I'm just starving." She went to the refrigerator to pour herself a glass of orange juice.

"Don't worry, I almost have breakfast ready. Aunt Nora tells me that I can be the next Iron Chef if I wanted to. I would, but I want to become a rock star."

Lily raised her eyebrow. "A rock star?" she said trying to conceal her giggles. "Okay, I'm sorry. If you want to be a rock star, you go out there and be a rock star…just don't do it in front of me because I might just throw up this delicious breakfast that you're making for me."

"Good morning!" Dorian strode into the kitchen straightening her green business suit. She took a deep, cleansing yoga sigh. "I had the most wonderful night's sleep, and now I'm fresh and ready to go!"

"Yeah, a good night's sleep," Lily thought to herself. "Right."

"Oh, hello, Jake," Dorian greeted taking Jade's hand briefly. "I didn't know you were coming over."

"I called him last night," Lily said quickly, elbowing Jade under the counter almost knocking the spatula out of his hand. "We might go to that…thing today."

"Oh yes, I remember reading about that in the paper yesterday," Dorian replied absent-mindedly taking a sip of coffee. Lily giggled; whatever she and David were doing last night, it sure made her a space cadet. Unfortunately, Lily's chuckles pulled Dorian back into Earth's orbit. "What's so funny?" she asked glaring at her stepdaughter.

"Nothing. I…remembered something funny that Lindsay mentioned at work yesterday."

"And about Lindsay; she left me a note last night that you didn't feel well. Are you eating enough? Are you taking all of your vitamins?"

"Here we go again."

"I'm fine, Dorian. I just caught a bug, and now I'm fine. I just needed a good night sleep."

"I told you not to stay up late every night to watch reality TV. Next time you get yourself sick, don't come crying to me!"

"Who said I was going to?" Lily muttered under her breath. She glanced at Jade, who was trying to avoid eye contact with both Lily and Dorian as he slid pieces of bacon onto a plate.

"Top of the morning to you all!" Everyone turned to see David coming into the kitchen dressed in Dorian's white bathrobe. He pecked Dorian on the cheek beaming. "Hello, my little potato. I haven't been able to look at your beautiful face all night while I was drifting off to dreamland."

Lily rolled her eyes as she tried not to catch David and Dorian's cooing on the peripheral. "So, Jade!" she said loudly trying to alert her father that he and Dorian should stop flirting with each other. David looked at her abruptly and took the message.

"Good morning, squirt," he greeted kissing her on the top of her head. He looked from his daughter to her friend who was spooning home fries onto four different plates. "Jade my man!" he shouted holding his hand up for a high five. "Hit me up high!" Jade met his hand.

"Dude, did you see that new episode of Girly Home Economics?" Jade asked, his eyes wide with excitement. Lily thought that he was kidding at first, but she then saw the same excitement in David's eyes.

"Yeah, I know! I never knew how to crochet until I saw that show!"

"You know, I hate to interrupt this fabulous conversation about knitting or whatever the hell it is, but Dad, you and Dorian have to go to work, don't you?" She glared at David.

"Oh, umm, right. We'll be back around eight. Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, Dorian told me that Lindsay left that note-"

"Of course she did."

"And I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Dad, I'm fine. Dorian is overreacting like she always is."

"Are you sure?"

"Dad! I'm not your little girl anymore, okay? I'm not that same distraught girl who wandered into Llanview a year ago. I'm sixteen, and I can take care of myself!"

"Lily." David looked like he wanted to reach out to his daughter, but he immediately stiffened. Instead, he turned to his wife and said, "Let's go."

Dorian opened her mouth to protest, but she took notice of David's stone cold expression. Without saying another word, the two of them walked out of La Boulaie leaving Lily and Jade alone.

Lily looked at Jade, who was raising his eyebrow at her. "What?" she snapped shaking her head as if Jade were a waste of her time.

Jade shrugged. "That was a little harsh."

"My God, Jade, please don't take their side on this!"

"I'm not. I'm on your side. Lily why do you want to treat your family like they're not important all of the sudden?"

"Dorian is not my family!"

"But David is. Lily, a year ago, you were jumping at the chance to spend time with your new family. Now it seems like you can't stand them. What changed?"

"Hmm…I don't know," Lily said sarcastically rolling her eyes. "A few weeks ago, Granger and I had sex for the first time, and now all he wants to do is spend time with Farah! What changed there?" She covered her mouth, realizing what she had said. She had not meant for anyone to find out; not yet at least. Jade's accusing expression dropped to that of sympathy.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know." That's all he could say; he could not wrap his mind around it. Did Lily and Granger really have sex? Not that it was uncommon in their school; all of the kids were "doing it," but he did not think Lily would. "Correction," he told himself, "Last year Lily wouldn't have done it. So much can change in a year."

"Look, I'm sorry Jade, but right now I really should be alone."

"Fine." Jade turned off the stove and took off the apron and chef hat. "I have to give Jack his house key back anyway." He opened the door to let himself out.

"Thanks for the breakfast!" Lily called after him. SLAM! She felt a pang of guilt; maybe Jade was right. David never did anything to cause her to snap at him; neither did Jade. Why was she having sudden mood swings like this? If she did not know any better, she would have thought she was…

"That was the most fun I have ever done in my life!" Lily breathed snuggling up to Granger. Granger put his arms around Lily and pulled her close.

"I love you, Babe."

"I love you too. And I'm gonna love our baby."

Granger's eyes popped open. "Baby?"

"Yeah, after all that, you wouldn't be surprised if there was a little baby growing inside of me, would you? We're going to be parents!" She looked at her boyfriend shift around nervously. "I'm kidding!"

"And I love a girl with a sense of humor."

"Oh my god!" Lily ran up to her bedroom to find her purse. After about ten minutes of knocking everything around, she found her bag in the most obvious place; on top of her dresser. She fumbled through it until she found her cell phone. As if her fingers were on fire, she quickly dialed those seven numbers on her phone, jammed it against her ear, and waited as the haunting ringing sound echoed over and over until someone finally picked up.

"Hello?"

"Paige, it's Lily," she said quickly. "I'm at my dad's house. I really need you to come over right away…I think I might be pregnant."