Chapter 5

Lily awoke with a start—to no sound, but she was startled all the same at something. Where was she? Llanfair? No. La Boulaie? No. After observing her surroundings for a moment, she realized that she was in Starr's room at the penthouse. How the hell did she get there? She strained her mind to recall the events from the previous night, which seemed almost impossible considering she felt as if a hammer had hit her in the head one thousand times. As if she had pulled the right book off the shelf in the library, the memory came back to her.

"Lily! Lily!" Lily heard Starr's faint voice somewhere. She felt as if she was floating away, and someone was calling her back. "Oh my god, Cole, what's wrong with her?"

"I don't know." Cole's voice echoed throughout the blackness. "She's breathing, though. I think she just passed out."

"Let me look at her. My mom's a nurse; I know what to look for—"

"Oh no, Granger," Starr snapped. "You're not getting anywhere near her. Why don't you just go get dressed and get out of here?"

"Granger…" Lily felt herself being pulled forcefully through the dark space of nothing until her eyes fluttered open taking the blurry scene in before her. Granger was nowhere to be seen, but everyone else at the party had gathered around her like a mob of news reporters trying to get their own exclusive story.

"Hey, she's waking up!" someone from the crowd shouted.

"And that's your cue to back up and enjoy the rest of the party!" Markko called trying to shoo the crowd away. As soon as most of the people gradually dispersed, he joined Cole, Starr, and Langston, who were kneeling next to Lily. "Is she okay? I think we should call an ambulance or something."

"I'm fine, Markko!" Lily protested. She tried to muster enough strength to sit up, but she felt too weak to do anything. "I'm not going to a hospital. How did I…?" Her words were slurred as if she was drunk, and it was almost as if her mind was not letting her finish the sentence.

"What are we going to do?" Markko asked. "We can't just walk into her mom's house and be like 'Oh, we were at this party, and she passed out because her boyfriend was fu—"

"Markko!" Langston hissed slapping her hand over her boyfriend's mouth. Suddenly, Lily sat up as if she had just chugged a thousand Red Bulls.

"Granger was what, Markko?" she retorted. With that, her hand flew to her head. Everything was coming back as if a river was breaking forcefully through a beaver's dam. Yes, she remembered it all perfectly: opening the door and finding Granger and Farah…she could not even finish her thought. How? Why? Rage slowly ignited through her, a small spark at first, but it turned into a full force flame.

"WHERE ARE THEY?" she screamed jumping to her feet; Starr, Cole, Langston, and Markko had jumped up with her in fears that she would fall at any moment. "WHERE ARE THEY?" her eyes darted around the crowd trying to find the two offenders who had committed the crime of breaking her heart.

"Lily." Starr took her incensed cousin's wrists, a useless attempt to restrain her. "Listen, they're going now. They're going to be gone really soon, so—" She stopped as Lily burst into tears.

"Why did he have to do that to me?" she sobbed. She was shaking so much that it looked as if she was having seizures. "Why? Why did he have to just drop me like a vase like that? He just let me shatter. He hurt me, he tore me apart, right when I was about to tell him that—" She collapsed then, barely falling into Cole's arms.

"Go to hell," Lily cursed to the air. "You both can just rot in hell." She felt the tears wanting to rush out of her face, but she felt like a dried up sponge that's water had been squeezed out of it. No, Granger would not do that to her. Neither would Farah. Both of them had told her that she was so important to them. Well, obviously she was not important enough that they would think before jumping into bed together.

It was not like she could just forget about Granger either. A part of him was inside of her, literally at that. How ironic was it that Granger cheated on her when she was just about to tell him that they were having a baby. If this was God's way of a joke, then He has a rotten sense of humor.

A squeaking sound caused her to jump, and her eyes searched for the source of the sound that disturbed her peace—if you could call laying around asking questions that could not be answered about her relationship and feeling sorry for herself peace; she saw the door opened to a crack, and Starr and Langston were peering in the room.

"Oh my god, she's awake!" Starr whispered. The two teenaged girls shuffled into the bedroom, gazing at Lily as if she were about to break. Lily held their gaze for a moment before deciding to break the silence.

"What?" she snapped. She knew it was rude, but frankly, she did not care. Hormones from the pregnancy and the shock of Granger and Farah's affair were getting the better of her, and she simply could not handle it.

"Oh, umm," Starr started as if trying to find a place to begin. "Do you remember anything at all about the party last night?"

Lily inhaled as if gathering enough strength to explain something complicated to a five year old. "Yes, Starr, I remember walking in on Granger and Farah with no clothes on rolling around on a bed with their tongues down each other's larynxes." She surprised herself with how patient she sounded, but it was all she could do to keep herself from breaking down.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Langston asked cautiously.

"No," Lily replied bluntly. "I'm David Vickers and Tina Lord's daughter. I should know how to handle this. I mean, this…relationship was just a rest area, right? If the apple does not fall far from the tree, then I will probably be married at least five times and have thousands of more boyfriends at that. Throw in a few bouncing babies, and I'm good to go." She was about to add "I'm getting a head start in that category" but she stopped herself. She wanted no one, not even Starr, to find out that she was pregnant, and even if they knew, she really did not want to get into that right now.

"Look," she continued looking up at her friends, "I appreciate that you want to help me, but please don't get yourselves involved with this. I don't know if you ever had a guy cheat on you, but it sucks, and I really don't want to share the wealth of that with you." She slowly climbed out of the bed. Apparently, she had regained some of her strength over the night. "Hey, I was supposed to stay at Llanfair last night. Did you call Aunt Viki?"

"Yeah," Starr replied. "We told her that we were watching movies here, and you totally crashed on the couch, and we could not get you up."

"What about getting me here though? Did Todd and Blair see?"

"No, they were at some benefit dinner for 'The Sun'. They got home hours after we did, and we told them the same story."

"Oh, okay." Lily inched towards the door. "Thank you so much for taking care of me, but I really need to take care of myself right now." "And this kid that's going to pop out in nine months," she thought under her breath. "I'll call you guys…eventually." Without saying good-bye, she hurried downstairs and out of the penthouse.

"Hi, honey, it's Mom. Whenever you can, I think you should come back to Llanfair. There's someone here who I want you to see!"

"Lily, it's Lindsay. Are you coming into work today? Maybe I got the scheduling mixed up. Anyway, even if you did, you don't need to come into the gallery, it's pretty slow today."

"Hey, Lily, it's Paige. I just wanted to check up on you and what we discussed yesterday. Call me if you need anything."

"Lil, it's Jade. Starr called me and told me what happened last night. Well, it was hard to miss, everyone's blogs talked about it, but you don't want to hear about that. Call me back, okay? I need to hear that you're okay."

Out of all of the messages that Lily had received that morning, all she really cared about was Jade's. Her three true friends were Granger, Farah, and Jade, and now, she only had Jade left. She did not even feel like calling him back; she had to see him in person. Not really thinking, she allowed herself to walk to the Buchanan mansion.

Though it took awhile to walk from the penthouse to Asa's house, Lily found the walk somewhat refreshing. It was a nice morning that most people would take advantage of and drive to the shore, so nobody seemed to be around to stop and make small talk with her. How long did it take her to walk there? Hours, minutes? All she knew was that she wanted to see Jade's face as soon as possible.

Eventually, she had made it to the mansion. She felt somewhat invigorated that she had walked all that way but emotionally weak. Needless to say, she was relieved when her thumb pressed that doorbell. A moment later, the door opened, and Matthew had answered the door.

"Are you okay?" he asked brusquely as soon as he had caught glimpse of his cousin.

"Hello to you too, Matthew," she replied under her breath. "Yes, I'm fine. Why would you ask?" Did news of Granger cheating on her really reach the middle school students?

"Oh, I don't know. You just look a little tired. That's all, really."

"Oh." Lily did not know how to respond. "Well, I just walked here from Todd's, actually. It was a long walk. Listen, is Jade here? I really need to talk to him."

"Yeah. He's watching T.V."

"Thanks, Matthew. I'll see you around." Desperately wanting to see Jade, she pushed past Matthew and hurried into the house, hoping to not run into Nora, Clint, or Asa. Nora would clearly sense that something was wrong, Asa would want to talk about recruiting her into an internship at Buchanan Enterprises, and Clint would just want to talk about her upcoming sophomore year. No, it would just be better if she got to Jade right away.

"Jade!" she cried as she almost fell into the living room. Jade turned around with a start. As soon as he saw Lily, he turned off the T.V. (which was broadcasting his and David's favorite, "Girly Home Economics")

"Lily," he replied as he stood up. "I don't know if you got my message, but I heard—"

"He left me," Lily finished in an empty, hollow voice as she closed the doors to the room. "He left me, and I am nothing without him." She clutched the doorknob as if she were holding onto her life and started sliding down against the door. Jade made his way to Lily and wrapped his arms around his best friend.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered into her ear. "I really am sorry."

"Farah!" Granger knocked on the door of Farah's condo. "Farah, I know you're home! Open the door!" Granger was still unable to call Lily and explain what happened, but he had to talk to someone, and that was Farah. They had not talked after they had gotten dressed and discreetly left the party the previous night, but he still had to talk to her about it. "Farah, if you don't open this door, I'm going to break it down!"

On that threatening note, the door had opened. "About time—oh, Ginny. What's up?" Of course, Farah's sister had answered the door, and of course, she looked mad at Granger.

"Don't 'what's up' me, Granger," she snapped. "I knew my sister has been after you for awhile, but that doesn't mean you had to get her hopes up by jumping into bed with her."

"So you don't feel bad for Lily," Granger shot back coolly. "Just Farah because I made her 'hopeful.'"

"Of course I feel bad for Lily," Ginny replied. "I still consider her my friend although we have grown apart. You hurt her so much, Granger. You hurt everyone involved, including yourself."

"I know," Granger replied heavily, "I just…I couldn't fight my feelings."

"Starr and Langston convinced me to go to Gabe's party last night," Lily explained. She was lounging on the couch in Asa's living room and felt as if she were talking to Dr. Phil instead of Jade. "I invited Granger, and he said that he would meet me there. I had to tell him something important, so as soon as I got to the party, I went off looking for him. That's when I ran into Sandy, and she told me that he was in this bedroom doing something that I wouldn't like. I didn't believe her, so I opened the door, and—"

"There they were," Jade finished. He got off of the armchair that he was sitting in and took Lily's hand. "I'm sorry, honey. You deserve so much better."

"Jade, you really have nothing to be sorry about. I just let myself get sucked in. That's all. You really don't have to feel bad for me. I'm fine. I always am."

"You always will be. I have no doubt about that. But you can't keep it all bottled up. You can cry. You can scream. You can do anything you want to get your feelings out." He looked into Lily's eyes: they were sparkling like diamonds. They are always diamonds.

"I can't," Lily protested. "Everyone will think I'm a basket case."

"Nobody's here but me," Jade insisted, "and you know that I won't tell anyone that you were crying."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Jade let Lily fall onto him. Emotion was overcoming both of them. How could it not? Granger was Jade's friend, and he had hurt Jade by hurting Lily. As if they were cars on cruise control, Lily and Jade lifted their heads…and slowly but tenderly pressed their lips together.

"Farah isn't home, by the way," Ginny continued motioning for Granger to sit down, "but you can wait for her, if you want. She went to the store."

"Okay. I'll try not to get in your way," Granger replied leaning back in the armchair that he was sitting in. Why was he feeling so uncomfortable around Ginny? The two of them used to be best friends…the group; the original group. He remembered when Jade introduced Lily to all of them and set him and her up.

"Anyway!" Jade continued. "Lily these are my friends. This is Sandy."

The giggling blonde girl, who was still thinking about David, just raised her hand in reply.

"Aiden, Sandy's boyfriend."

"Sup," replied a boy with sand colored hair and piercing blue eyes.

"Leigh."

The girl with the long, black hair gave a wave.

"Enrique, Leigh's boyfriend."

A Latino boyfriend grinned at Lily.

"Connie, one of my, umm, good friends."

"Hey," a red haired girl greeted before grinning up at Jade. Lily already guessed that this girl was the same girl that Jade had a crush on.

"Ginny."

"Hi," the girl with the brown bob smiled warmly.

"Steve, Ginny's boyfriend."

The boy with his arm around Ginny's shoulders wiggled his fingers.

"Farah, Ginny's sister."

A girl with short, golden hair and a lot of makeup smiled briefly.

"And Granger."

Sure, over the last year, the group had dissolved, but Granger absolutely killed it when he slept with Farah. He lost the most precious thing in his life, and that was Lily.

"Well, I'll be a horse's uncle, Lily! You and Jake here are as cozy stallion and its mare during mating season!" Lily and Jade broke apart abruptly to see Asa, Renee, Nora, Clint, and Matthew standing in the doorway of the living room.

"Are you two together?" Matthew added eagerly. "Wouldn't that be so cool? My cousin from my mom's side is dating my cousin from my dad's side?"

"Wouldn't be the first time that that's happened in this town," Clint observed.

Lily looked at Jade as if begging for help. They did not mean to kiss. It just…happened. Of course with Lily's luck, that's when her family walked in. Karma would not have it any other way.

"No. Jade and I aren't…together," Lily managed to say getting up from the couch (which was hard when all of the embarrassment inside of her was weighing her down). "We were, umm…uh—"

"Lily's auditioning for 'Romeo and Juliet' at school this year, and she asked me if she was a good kisser, because you know they have a lot of kissing scenes," Jade finished rambling on.

"Oh, and you're kissing Jade instead of your own boyfriend because…" Matthew started. His face looked genuinely confused.

"Matthew!" Nora scolded. She glanced at the two teenagers in apology. "Look, you two really don't need any explanation for whatever you were doing; we all just wanted to watch the news—"

"Conveniently everyone in this house wanted to watch it at the same time," Jade muttered.

"It's okay, Nora," Lily replied with a sigh. She looked over at Matthew. "Granger and I broke up."

"So the rumors on Myspace are true! Did Granger really cheat on you with Farah?" Matthew gasped. His eyes widened with horror as soon as he finished that statement. "Oh, I'm sorry, Lily, I didn't mean to—"

"It's fine, Matthew." Lily held her hand up. She was through listening to other people's sympathy. She could hardly stomach it at all. "Yes, it's true, and that's really all I want to say about that matter." After taking a moment to compose herself (while feeling the watchful eyes of everyone in the room on her), she looked up at Asa. "What's new at B.E., Grandpa?"

"Funny you should mention that," Asa grinned with pride; he always did while talking about Buchanan Enterprises. "It just so happens that I did the principal at your high school a nice little favor, Lily, and he's going to get B.E. some publicity."

"What did you do?" Jade asked looking genuinely interested. Lily secretly knew that one day Jade would work at Buchanan Enterprises.

"I really don't think that I should say it," Asa replied winking at the teenagers, "but let's just say that I helped the school board save a nice portion of their wallet. Anyway, to get B.E. some extra publicity, there is going to be a beginning-of-school dance next week." He beamed as if it were the proudest accomplishment of his life as Jade and Lily just stared at him.

"And?" they both spat out at the same time.

"And it will be a lot of fun for you and your posse."

Jade snorted into his palm. "Where does B.E. come in?" Lily inquired.

"Oh, well, umm…I think the B.E. logo is going to be on the napkins next to the punch bowl."

"I designed them!" Renee chimed in cheerfully.

"Right. I'll just pretend that I understand why this is going to help B.E." Lily raised her eyebrows. "Well, if this dance is in honor of my family, then I will be happy to go."

"Well, we had a board meeting today," Clint explained. "Mr. Randolph was very thankful that we helped out the school, and I think he is thanking us more than putting out logo on the napkins."

"Mr. Randolph?" Jade and Lily repeated in unison.

"Yes, he's the president of the school board. Why, do you know him?"

"Not really," Jade replied, his face twisted up as if he had swallowed something that made him sick. "Our fri—well, someone we know and not really like, let's say, has the last name Randolph." He turned to Lily as if he was afraid that she was going to pounce on him like a hungry lioness. "I think he's Farah's father."

"He is," Lily replied glumly. "I think Farah mentioned before that her dad had some position with the school." She groaned. "So if he has something to do with this that probably means that Farah will be at this dance. As if I need another reminder about what happened last night."

"Do you want to talk about this, sweetie?" Nora asked, quickly switching to psychologist mode. Lily did not doubt her abilities. After all, Nora's best friend was Marty Saybrooke, and since they hang out so much, she knew that Nora had picked up some of the shrink's skills.

"No, thanks. I think Jade took care of that."

"Well, if you don't want to go to this dance, I understand," Asa said quickly.

"No," Lily interrupted. She grinned to herself. "I'm going. Farah is going to get just as she deserves next week."