Miley's first reaction was to pull out her phone and press the #2 speed dial to call Lilly's cell. She stood at the table where she had left Lilly and tried to calm herself as she listened to the ringing in her ear, hoping and praying that there would be an answer.
To her dissatisfaction, the phone went to voicemail after a series of rings. Miley had heard the recorded greeting more than enough times to have memorized it, but this was the first time that hearing it had caused her stomach to lurch in a panic.
Hey! It's Lilly's voicemail! Leave a message and I'll try and get back to you as soon as I can, but I'm not making any promises!
There was a pause and then a beep.
"Lilly!" Miley knew her voice was frantic and worried, "Where are you? Call me back, I'm starting to freak out! It's Miley..." She habitually said her name, though she knew Lilly would know who it was her even if she hadn't. Aggravated, she didn't know what else to say and hung up the phone.
Almost immediately as the call was over, she dialed #3 on her speed dial to try and get a hold of Oliver. It rang a few times, and to Miley's relief, Oliver answered.
"Hey Miley," He greeted. "What's up? Where you at?"
Miley wasted no time getting to the point. "Is Lilly with you?"
There was a strained pause over the phone. "Lilly?" Oliver sounded confused. "No, she's not. I thought she was with you."
"She was," Miley blurted out, frustrated. "I turned around to get us some lemonade for like, 2 minutes, and then she was gone. Is David still with you?"
"Yeah, he's here," Oliver spoke slowly, mostly to try to calm Miley down. "She might've gone to the bathroom or something. Did you try calling her?"
Miley was growing more and more anxious by the second. "Yes, and she didn't pick up."
"Okay. Well, we'll look around and see if we can find her. Keep trying to call her, she might pick up eventually. If we have to we'll ask someone up front to help us." Oliver was starting to sound worried now. He realized how out of character this was for Lilly. Especially when Miley had been with her.
Miley exhaled slowly. "Okay. I'll start looking too. Call me right away if you find her." She lowered her voice. "Keep your eye on David at all times."
"Will do." Oliver tried to sound nonchalant. "We'll find her, don't worry, Miles."
"Yeah," Miley didn't sound relieved. "Keep me updated. Talk to you soon."
They both hung up.
David turned to Oliver after listening in on what he could hear of the conversation. "What's up? Something wrong?"
"Ah, I don't think it's anything seriously life threatening.. Miley can't find Lilly, she said she just disappeared." Oliver was trying to assume the best, for his own sanity. "Hopefully she just stepped away for a minute and will be right back, but we should look around just in case."
David arched his eyebrows with an intrigued expression. "Oh? Huh, that's weird. I wonder where she went off to. Guess we should start investigating."
Oliver nodded and the two of them set off.
Miley tried calling Lilly again as she began walking around the garden and looking for her. She got the same voicemail greeting.
"Lilly, it's Miley. We're all looking for you, so if you get this please call me back." Miley hung up. She was very aware of the tremor in her voice but there was nothing she could do to change that.
After briskly walking around the main entrance and scanning the face of every person she saw, Miley made her way to the garden, hoping to have more luck there. The aroma of flowers that drifted to her nose was able to calm her after a few moments, and she slowed her pace, knowing that rushing around wasn't going to find Lilly any faster.
Miley decided it would be in her best interests to take a minute to calm her racing mind in order to think. Lilly had to be somewhere, she knew that she wouldn't have left by herself. After finding a spot in the shade next to the large body of water that stretched across the garden, Miley closed her eyes, focused on her breathing, and trusted her senses. In her head and her heart, she called out to Lilly silently.
Several minutes passed, and Miley felt that she had cleared her head enough to start looking again. A strong sudden urge led her towards the bronze statue of a man sitting against the rocks near the front. She couldn't see anyone by it, but she hadn't looked on the other side. Something was telling her she was close, and with every step she became more and more confidant that she would find Lilly there. Miley decided not to question what was causing this strange phenomenon at this time. It would be something she could think about later, once she knew Lilly was safe.
As she approached the statue, Miley continued to walk right past it, and even before she saw Lilly, she knew she was there. Once Miley did actually physically see Lilly sitting, ironically almost imitating the statue, her heart did cartwheels of joy and relief. Lilly didn't seem to see Miley, her head was down and seemed to be deep in thought. Miley made sure to move slowly, so she wouldn't surprise her. Lilly still wasn't looking up, so Miley decided to carefully sit down beside her.
Finally, as Miley's leg brushed against Lilly's, Lilly looked up and saw Miley beside her. She appeared slightly surprised, but was unable to say anything and looked back down at her feet.
"Hey Lil," Miley could sense something was obviously troubling her. "You had us all worried. We didn't know where you went and you weren't picking up your phone,"
"Sorry," Was all that Lilly could manage to say.
Miley glanced over at her. The look on Lilly's face made her almost want to cry.
"Are you okay?" Miley scooted closer so that their knees were touching and reached to hold Lilly's hand. "What's going on? Talk to me."
Lilly exhaled shakily, seemingly overcome with a sudden wave of emotion. She took a moment to steady herself. Miley could feel Lilly's emotions jumping all over the place and gave her hand a squeeze. Lilly sighed and relaxed enough to allow herself to lean into Miley a bit more.
"I'm sorry, Miles," There were already hints of tears in her voice, but she was doing her best to fight them away. "I'm really sorry."
Miley frowned, seeing how hard Lilly was trying not to cry. "Why are you sorry, Lil? What's wrong?"
"I didn't think coming here would be this hard." Lilly closed her eyes, causing a tear to escape and roll down her cheek. Miley watched the teardrop fall from Lilly's chin and land just inches away from their intertwined hands.
"Why is it hard, Lilly?" Miley wasn't sure she understood what was troubling Lilly so much, and needed to know what she could do to help. "Is it because of David?"
Lilly shook her head before sighing heavily and finally allowed herself to bury her face into Miley's shoulder. Miley's strong, familiar scent surrounded her and she instantly felt safe. "I was really little. My parents were still together, but things were starting to get ugly between them. I didn't understand any of it at the time, I just thought they were fighting a lot,"
Lilly paused to take another deep breath. Miley stroked Lilly's hand with her thumb in attempts to comfort her. "We came here one day, and it was the last time I can remember being with them together, as a family. They were already arguing in the car on the way here, and it just got worse when we got here. They started yelling at each other in the middle of the museum. I started crying and ran away. I sat here for hours, until they finally realized I was gone. My mom blamed my dad for losing track of me, and my dad said it was her fault for making a scene in the first place. My dad slept on the couch that night, and then the next day, he was already moving out."
As Lilly finished talking, Miley could tell she was much more upset than she was letting on by the way her hands shook.
"You could have said something," Miley spoke softly, "About coming here, I mean. We could have found something else to do. If I had known, I never would have suggested coming here in the first place."
"It's okay, Miles," Lilly seemed exhausted but she was starting to relax. "I thought it wouldn't be such a big deal, but with everything that's been going on with David visiting, I just got freaked out as soon as we got here. I didn't mean to scare you by disappearing but I was starting to get flashbacks of that day and I didn't want to freak out in front of everyone."
Miley sighed and leaned her head to rest on Lilly's. "You scared the shit out of me, I'm not going to lie. I was scared something had happened with David."
A look of guilt crossed Lilly's face "I'm so sorry, Miley."
Miley hated seeing Lilly so distraught. "It's okay, Lil, really. Next time, can you just try telling me when something's going on? I'd like to try and help however I can."
Lilly nodded weakly. "I will. I'm sorry, I just didn't know what to do."
"As long as you're okay, everything's fine," Miley pressed her lips to the top of Lilly's head.
"Hey, lookie there!" A voice startled them and they looked up to find Oliver and David standing in front of them.
"You found her!" Oliver seemed relieved, but noticed the mood was not a happy one. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah," Miley felt Lilly pulling away and noticed her discomfort when her eyes darted in David's direction. "Just some bad vibes here. I was thinking we could leave soon?"
Oliver nodded. "Sure! Is there anywhere else we wanna go?"
"I'm getting kinda hungry," David stated, looking pretty annoyed for whatever reason.
"Why don't we get some food and find a good place to chill out?" Oliver suggested. "We've had a lot happen in the last few days, so I'm totally down for taking in easy. I think there's a mini carnival starting up at Rico's tonight, we could swing by there. It's nothing fancy but there'll be some game booths and a ferris wheel at least. Rico's been bragging about it all week."
"Anywhere where there's food," David answered curtly.
Miley could tell he was getting fed up with things not going the way he wanted them to. The tone in his voice almost scared her, and she noticed Lilly flinch.
"Does that sound good to you, Lil?" She wanted to make sure Lilly was up for it, though she wasn't certain Lilly would be able to respond honestly now that David was standing there.
"Y-yeah, sounds good," She wasn't convincing at all.
Before Miley could think of something to say, Oliver spoke."Alright then, let's get going,"
They all started walking towards the exit in silence, making their way to the car. Once they got out into the parking lot, the four of them took their designated seats. The air was thick with tension, and finally Oliver attempted to break the awkward silence.
"So what'd everybody think of the exhibit?" He spoke without directing his attention away from the road in front of him.
Miley found herself jumping to answer. Her mind was jumbled, and any chance to distract herself was exactly what she needed. "I liked it. I didn't see all of the art and sculptures, but a guy who worked there told me a myth about Aphrodite..." She trailed off as she remembered his tale.
After a short pause, she realized she wasn't in any mental state to sum it up to them on the spot, and fumbled for a way to finish her thought. "The entire mythology behind it was just really strong. It made me realize just how complicated it would be to be a goddess."
Everyone in the car was kind of confused by what Miley had meant, but Miley didn't really feel up for trying to explain herself. Luckily, Oliver had her back, and tried to keep the conversation going by working with what she'd given him. "Totally, it really opened my eyes about how many myths and legends there are about different gods and goddesses. The garden was badass too."
"The building itself was pretty cool," David decided to try and join their attempts to end the awkwardness. "I read it's suppose to be a replica of some original building."
"Yeah," A silence followed. Oliver glanced in the rear view mirror, noticing how quiet Lilly still was. He caught Miley's worried eye in the mirror as she turned to glance anxiously at Lilly too. Miley looked back into the mirror and gave Oliver a nervous expression when Lilly failed to look anywhere other than out the window. "I'm pretty excited about the ferris wheel. It's been a long time since I've been on one. I bet we'll get to see a great view at the top."
David seemed to be in a better mood all of a sudden. "You guys ever hear that saying if you kiss someone at the top of a ferris wheel you'll be together with that person forever?"
Miley's glared in David's direction. She couldn't believe how obvious he was, or how he managed to piss her off anytime he opened his mouth. She glanced over at Lilly again who shifted where she sat, uncomfortable from David's question.
"I've heard something like that." Oliver nodded briefly. "Those kind of things are usually just old wives tales, but you gotta admit, it sounds pretty romantic."
"Yeah. Makes you wonder how many times it actually ends up working for the people who try it." David didn't bother to hide the grin on his face.
Miley rolled her eyes. She didn't know how much more of this she could take. Luckily, they had arrived, and were pulling into the parking lot. Oliver found a place to park, and they all got out of the car.
"I'll go buy the wristbands passes for the rides." Oliver said as he shut his car door and locked the car up. "You guys wanna go stake out what kind of food to get?"
Miley nodded. "Okay. You want me to chip in some money for the wristbands?"
"Naw, it's cool." Oliver grinned. "My treat."
Miley smiled, remembering how grateful she was to Oliver for everything he'd been doing. "Thanks, Oliver. We'll meet you in the food court then."
"Sounds good." With that, Oliver smiled and walked over to get in line.
After an awkward pause, Miley, Lilly, and David walked over to where the food stands were.
"So," Miley said as they all three stopped to look around. "What looks good?" She was mostly talking to Lilly. She could care less about what David wanted.
David, of course, was first to answer. "Those chilidogs look tasty. I'll probably get one of those."
Miley looked at Lilly, who still seemed uncomfortable. Lilly realized that Miley was waiting for an answer and she cleared her throat awkwardly. "I'm not that hungry yet. I'll get something later."
Miley frowned, giving Lilly a look that let her know how worried she was. "Are you sure? We can share something if you want."
"It's okay." Lilly tried to reassure Miley she was fine, but her body language said otherwise. "Don't worry, I'll eat in a little bit."
Sighing Miley decided not to make a big deal about it, as long as she made sure that Lilly got something in her stomach eventually. "Okay. I know Oliver always gets a chilidog when he come to these things, so I might as well get one too. Can you go grab us a table, Lil?" Miley wouldn't have asked Lilly to do this unless she had seen Oliver buying the wristbands from across the food court. She knew he would be there soon, and that David wouldn't have a chance for any sort of funny business. She had the strong feeling that she wanted Lilly to sit down, based on how drained Lilly looked.
"Yeah," Lilly answered after a brief panic that Miley was able to read on her face.
"Thanks," Miley was hit with guilt, and immediately regretted asking Lilly to do this. She could see Oliver on his way over, and knew it would be okay. As Lilly turned to leave, David followed her towards the tables. Apparently, Miley was in charge of buying his food. She didn't mind getting Oliver's, but the way David assumed she would get his too make her blood boil.
Sighing, Miley got in line and made sure to glance over at Lilly and David every few seconds. By the time she saw them sit down at a table, Lilly looked terrified, and David was saying something to her. He leaned forward over the table, and looked like he was trying to be secretive with whatever he was saying. She saw Lilly nod, obviously panicked, and wished she knew what he had said to her. Just as David sat back in his chair, Oliver approached and joined them at the table.
"What can I get you?" The voice surprised Miley, she turned around to face the food stand and realized she was next. She ordered 3 chilidogs, paid, and then brought them over to the table.
Oliver had left the seat on the other side of Lilly open for Miley when he saw that David had already claimed his seat next to Lilly. He was the first to look at Miley as she sat down, due to the fact that Lilly seemed petrified from having David next to her. Miley gave Oliver an aggravated look that was easily interpreted as discomfort about David.
"Thanks for getting the food, Miles," Oliver smiled sheepishly, unsure of how else to address the tension that both Miley and he knew was going on.
Miley set the chilidogs down on the table and David and Oliver took theirs. "No problem. It's the least I could do with you buying the wristbands." She glanced at Lilly again, finding herself in an equal loss of what to do.
"You're not eating, Lil?" Oliver said after taking a bite of his food.
Lilly shook her head. "Not right now. I'm not hungry. I will later."
Another exchange of worried looks between Miley and Oliver occurred, and they sat in silence as they finished eating.
Oliver stood up once everyone was done and collected the trash. "I'll go throw these away. You guys wanna go check out the game booths?"
"Sure," Miley blinked, after no one else offered to answered. "We'll meet you by the ring toss."
Miley stood up from the table. Lilly looked at her, and then stood up as well. David waited until Lilly had moved to decide to follow. Oliver took off towards the trash cans, and Miley led Lilly and David to the game booths.
"Step right up! Give it a toss!" The man behind the booth grinned as they approached. "Get a ring on the pin and win!"
"I'll give it a try," David spoke up and stepped up to the booth. The man handed him three rings and David took a minute to aim. He tossed the first ring and missed. Grunting in slight frustration, he tried again, and missed. At that point he gave up and didn't even aim when he threw the third ring.
"So close!" The man turned to Miley and Lilly who closely stood next to each other. "Would either of your girls like to try?"
Miley looked at Lilly. "Do you want to try Lil?"
Lilly shook her head and didn't say anything. She still looked on edge.
Miley frowned, but her eyes rested on a stuffed rabbit with hearts sitting on the second shelve in the booth. "I'll try, just for the heck of it."
David moved out of the way and Miley stepped up to take three rings from the man. She tossed the first one without even thinking about it and to her surprise hooked the ring around one of the pins.
"Nice! You already got your pick of prizes on the bottom shelf. Make one more and you get your pick from the second shelf."
Miley was still surprised she had made the first one, but now she was determined and took a minute to concentrate. She tossed the second ring and just barely missed.
"You can do it! One more shot!" The man at the booth encouraged her.
Miley paused and took a deep breath. She tossed the third ring and made it.
"Alright!" The man at the booth collected the rings. "You can choose anything on the second shelf!"
"I'll take the rabbit with hearts on it." Miley pointed.
The man grabbed the rabbit down with a smile and handed it to her. "Here you go!"
Miley couldn't help but smile to herself. She turned to face Lilly and David, but when she did, she didn't see either of them standing behind her. She turned back to the man behind the booth, unable to hide her panicked expression. "Did you see where my friends went?"
The man frowned and shook his head. "No, I wasn't watching. Sorry. They're probably not far."
Miley held the stuffed rabbit in her arms tightly and tried not to look anxious. "Okay. Well, thank you!" She walked away, frantically scanning the crowd for a sign of Lilly and David.
"Miley!" Miley turned and saw Oliver jogging towards her. His eyes rested on the rabbit she clung to. "Nice, you won something, huh?"
"Y-yeah," Miley said nervously.
Oliver glanced around, noticing something wasn't right. "Wait, where's Lilly and David?" He saw the expression on Miley's face become more worried as soon as he asked this.
"I-I don't know, when I turned around from the booth, they were gone." She was starting to cry. Fear and panic overwhelmed her and she hugged the stuffed animal tighter. "I wasn't even turned around for more than a minute!"
Oliver looked incredibly anxious upon hearing this news as well. "Dammit. Okay. I'll try calling Lilly, let's walk around and try to find them."
Miley wiped a tear away from each cheek and nodded.
David had guided Lilly away by grabbing the hand while Miley was turned around and started leading her away, quietly. He kept a quick pace, trying to get as much distance from Miley and Oliver as possible. Lilly said nothing, completely petrified with fear. Her hand hung limply in David's tight grasp.
Once David thought they were in the clear, he slowed down, but he still didn't let go of Lilly's hand. "That was a rush! I thought we were never going to get a chance to ditch them." He turned to Lilly and grinned. Lilly glanced at him briefly and made a small noise with her throat. Her voice wasn't working.
"So, let's head over to the ferris wheel. I really want to ride it with you." David let go of Lilly's hand, just to put his arm around her as they walked. Lilly wanted to cry, to scream, to run away. Her body seemed to be on autopilot, and she had no control over getting away from David.
David held Lilly as close to his body as he could. Lilly simply stared down at the ground. There was nothing else she could do.
After walking for a few minutes, they reached the line for the ferris wheel. David stopped at the end of the line, still holding Lilly with his arm. "Almost there!" He sang.
It took a few more minutes until they were at the front of the line. David made sure to glance around and make sure Miley or Oliver weren't getting close.
"What a cute couple!" the woman in charge of the ride smiled as they stepped up to get into the box. Lilly tried to give her a desperate look, but it went unnoticed. "Make sure not to rock your carriage, and to be safe!" She shut the door behind them once they were inside.
David led Lilly to sit down. His arm was still around her. As the carriage started to move, they rocked a little and David tightened his grasp around her. "We better hold on!" He was noticeably excited.
As they rose higher on the ferris wheel, the ground became further and further away. The higher they got, the more Lilly started to panic. They would be at the top soon. She had a pretty good idea what that meant.
Suddenly, without warning, David jerked her towards him, forgetting her hurt shoulder, and pressed his wet lips against hers. Lilly cringed in pain and displeasure but was too overcome by fear to try and get away.
David continued the kiss, becoming more heated as they continued rising to the top. He slipped his hands beneath the waist of Lilly's pants and under her underwear. Lilly was completely frozen now. Nothing could save her from this situation now, and she knew this. A tear fell from her eye as she gazed out the window down at the carnival below where she knew Miley and Oliver were probably frantically looking for her.
David began roughly pressing his hands deeper into Lilly's pants, undoing the button and zipper while still kissing her sloppily. He grabbed her ass and squeezed it, pressing himself against her. Lilly felt sick.
Down below on the ground, Miley had a strong gut feeling something horrible was happening. She struggled to remain calm, still hugging the rabbit in her arms, as Oliver and she briskly walked towards the ferris wheel. It was predictable that David had taken her there.
Once they had reached the ferris wheel, Miley gazed up at it, searching each box for a sign of the two. It was too far up for her to see anything clearly.
"Should we hang here for a minute and see if they come off?" Oliver sounded nervous, and Miley cringed, knowing that if they were already on it, Lilly was in danger. Unfortunately, she was almost certain that that was the case.
Like clockwork, the ferris wheel rotated, and stopped to open the doors for the people inside each carriage to exit, and then let others on. Miley's heart sank as she saw David step out of the opening doors with a content grin on his face.
As Lilly stepped out from behind David, Miley's heart might as well have been shattered into pieces when she saw the expression on her face.
"There they are." Oliver didn't like how the situation felt, but didn't know what to do. As soon as he spoke, Miley found herself moving without even thinking. She walked towards David and Lilly with aggravation painted on her face and tears threatening to pour from her eyes.
David saw Miley first, Miley could see him shift nervously. She glared at him as she approached, and he almost looked frightened. Miley coldly walked past him without saying a word, it was then that Lilly looked up to see Miley.
Lilly face was wracked with emotion that looked ready to burst. Her tears were evident, even if they weren't visible. She didn't know how to respond when she locked eyes with Miley, who she could tell was obviously upset as well.
Still, without saying a single word, Miley grabbed Lilly's wrist and pulled her back towards the line for the ferris wheel. There was no line at that time, and she briskly walked on through into the carriage with Lilly behind her after flashing the woman in charge of the ride the wristbands.
The woman (not to mention David and Oliver) was left confused by the strange nature of these actions, but she shut the door behind them and started the ride.
Miley sat down, bringing Lilly with her, and they both waited for the ride to move as tension and silence hung in the air. Miley realized she was still holding Lilly's wrist tightly, and finally let go, suddenly realizing her actions.
Lilly began to weep quietly as the ride got higher and higher, burying her face in her hands. Miley was finding it difficult to say or do anything due to her heightened emotions. She pressed her lips together and inhaled deeply through her nose, knowing she had to calm herself. She reached to gently rest her hand on Lilly's thigh.
"Lilly?" Her voice shook. "Are you okay?"
Lilly stifled a sob, trying to fight her tears and fell into Miley's arms. Miley tried not to panic and scooped Lilly up as she cried. The weight behind Lilly's reaction led Miley to believe something horrible had indeed happened.
"I- he- I couldn't-!" Lilly tried tot speak but her sobs were too great. She wailed as she clung to Miley. Miley's head was painting a devastating picture of what might have happened. She was really read to kill David now.
"Shhh," Miley tried to lull Lilly as well as herself into a calm state as she rocked her back and forth. "Just breathe." She didn't want to push Lilly to answer about what had happened right now. Lilly was far too upset.
Lilly sniffed and moaned through her tears. The stuffed rabbit, which Miley had carried with her all this time was already stained wet.
"I'm so sorry, Lilly," Miley was starting to cry now too. "I shouldn't have turned around. I didn't think he would do something like that. I'm so sorry." She hugged Lilly closer as her own tears fell onto the rabbit.
Lilly inhaled sharply, still trying to subside her sobs. "It's not y-your fault." She managed to get out that much of a sentence.
"Did he hurt you?" Miley didn't want to be too specific with her question, mostly because she didn't know if she could handle details at the moment.
Lilly flinched remembering what had happened with David. "H-he just started kissing me, and p-putting his hands down my pants... and..."
Miley exhaled heavily, trying not to explode in anger. "That piece of shit. I'm so done with dealing with him. He's not getting off easy this time, this is too much!"
Unable to speak again, Lilly shook her head and tried to catch her breath. A silence hung as both girl worked on calming their emotions. After a few moments, Lilly had mostly stopped crying and sat up a bit. She felt safe now, with Miley. She could leave the realities that waited for her on the ground behind until the ride was over.
"Look," Miley's voice was soft. She still held Lilly lovingly in her arms. "We're almost at the top."
They both gazed out at the horizon, emotionally drained and exhausted. After a few moment of this, Miley cleared her throat. Her thoughts seemed uncontrollable at this point.
"Hey Lilly?" She sat up a bit, and Lilly did too in order to look at Miley.
"Yeah?" They held each others gaze, staring into the others eyes. An unspoken conversation was occurring with just their eye contact.
Right as the ferris wheel reached the highest point, Miley felt herself lean forwards and kiss Lilly's lips deeply. Her head was terrified by her actions, but she couldn't stop herself.
Miley's terror almost instantly disappeared as she felt Lilly engage in the kiss and move closer. A wave of excitement and arousal rushed through Miley head, and she felt the same emanating from Lilly as they both wrapped their arms around each other. Their heartbeats throbbed in their chests.
After a few more moments of this, they simultaneously pulled away, out of breath and blushing as they stared into each others eyes. Both of them were trying to figure out how the other one felt after experiencing that.
"J-just in case," Miley nervously blurted out. "I don't want you ending up with him forever because of some stupid old wives tale." She didn't know what she was saying, or why she said it that way. She started kicking herself in her head for making it sound like it was nothing, but to her relief, Lilly rested her head on Miley's shoulder and snuggled closer.
"Th-thanks," Lilly sounded just as tormented about how to express what she had just felt.
Sighing, Miley told herself to just relax and focus on holding Lilly in her arms. She knew they would soon be back on the ground, and had no idea what was going to happen, or if she was going to keep her cool around David.
Lilly sighed too as she closed her eyes and scooted closer into Miley arms. Miley could tell that Lilly was thinking of the same anxieties that waited for them on the ground. They mutually decided, without using words, to just enjoy the safety and warmth they had with each other at that moment until the ride was over.