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“You need to stop obsessing over him. And it’s plainly obvious that you like Derek. You need a reality check. I am just so-“ Lily cut Katie off before she could continue.
“Shut up. I am not obsessing over him; he hurt me deeper than he ever hurt you because you aren’t like me. You don’t have the same instability that I do okay? So shut up about that because you know nothing. Your hurt is nothing compared to what he did to me. And yes it is obvious that I like him, do I care? No because every single girl in this class flirts with him so no one thinks anything different.” Lily took a chance to breathe and let her words sink into Katie. The class was standing outside the airport waiting to go in and wait for their plane. “Katie the only one who needs a reality check is you okay? I am not you. I can’t be the perfect little goody-two-shoes girl like you. I am blunt, rude at times, and independent as hell. The only thing this has given me by the way is that I realized that you like to go back on your word.” Lily turned to walk away when Katie stopped her.
“And how do I go back on my word huh?” Katie turned into a 5’1” sized ball of anger.
“You told me at one point that you would never judge me and always be there for me. These past few months all you’ve done is judge me. And where were you when I really needed you huh? Oh yeah ignoring me and going for him. Because you knew that he hated me so you thought, ‘oh well why don’t I get in there because now I actually have a chance with him.’ Katie I’m done with this game okay? Talk to me again when you’ve finished having your reality check.” Lily turned and walked away from Katie and over to Derek.
“Well that looked like it was fun.” He chuckled. Lily took note of how when he smiled the skin around his eyes crinkled.
“Oh yeah. Just realizing that people are not what I thought they were.” Lily shrugged and smiled back.
“Well don’t lose too many people by doing what you just did. I think you may have hurt her a bit.” Derek looked over Lily’s shoulder to Katie and Lily looked with. Katie was in fact looking a bit bummed out.
“Well she hurt me a long time ago so this is karma.” Derek just chuckled as the class filed into the airport.
While sitting in the San Francisco airport during the 3 hour layover Lily found herself sitting next to Derek while some of the classmates were eating dinner.
“So, Lily, are you looking forward to being a junior next year? I mean us idiotic seniors will be gone so.” Eddie, one of the seniors, asked her out of the blue.
“Um honestly, I’m not looking forward to it that much. And most of you guys aren’t complete idiots. You just have your moments.” Lily didn’t make eye contact with anyone sitting at the table; she got a few laughs from the guys sitting at the table. One of them was Derek’s. She could feel it in through the booth she was sitting in.
“Eh, it’ll be easy as long as you do your work.” Eddie said.
“Don’t fill her with lies now Ed. You know damn well that it wasn’t easy.” Derek chuckled as he put his arm around the back of the booth with his fingers brushing Lily’s shoulder. Eddie just waved him off.
“Yeah but you don’t wanna scare the poor girl now do you? Seeing as how you have built up a fondness for her.” Eddie smirked as Lily saw Derek flush next to her. She herself also flushed a good amount. “Whatever, tell her what you want, I’m gonna go get some more pizza and go find Mike. See ya later.” Eddie grabbed his plate and left; leaving Derek and Lily to themselves.
“Have you finished?” Derek asked after a couple of moments. Lily nodded and he moved to get up. “You should see some of the weird shops I found here.” He grabbed his trash and hers as well and put them in the garbage.
“Alright, well we have time to do so.” Lily checked her phone as she spoke and Derek placed his arm around her shoulders to guide her in the right direction. Lily leaned into him ever so slightly. The smell of his body spray washed over her and made her have to calm herself.
“There’s this one here and a couple over there.” Derek pointed out the shops as they came down the hall opposite the one they walked down when they landed. Lily scanned over all the shops when her eye was caught by one that looked different from the rest. Most of the shops were brightly lit in whites, blues, and golds. But this one was lit in deep red and was older than the rest.
“What’s that one?” Lily pointed to it as they got closer.
“I think it’s a book store. It looks really old.” Derek almost went to point at another store but before he could Lily took off for the book store. Books were her favourite thing in the world. Derek had to look a bit to find her again. She was standing among the rare books that came with strange smells.
“Sorry about taking off, I just really like old books. Especially ones like these.” Lily’s voice became quiet as she lost herself among the titles.
“It’s quite alright. I just didn’t know you liked to read that much.” Derek chuckled as Lily picked up book after book to read random bits of them. Some of them being in different languages. “These all have a weird smell.”
“It’s because of the age of some of them. Like the ones in glass are much older than the ones on the shelves. The old papers, ink, glue, sometimes thread. It all creates this wonderful smell.” Derek noticed Lily’s eyes had lit up like a child in a candy shop. It was nothing he had ever seen before.
He gently pulled her into a hug. “What’s this for?” She asked into his chest.
“I just felt like doing it. Ed is right, I have developed a fondness for you.” She fit almost perfectly under his chin. He felt Lily nuzzle deeper into him at his confession. “We should head back to the gate soon.” Derek said into her hair.
“Yeah probably, but there’s so many books here.” Lily looked around her but didn’t remove herself from the embrace.
“Well let’s at least check in over there so that people know we’re still around. And if we have time we can come back.”
“You don’t have to come back with me if you don’t want to.” Lily mumbled as she realized how close Derek’s face was to hers.
“I know.” Derek whispered and moved closer. Lily hesitated but then also moved her face towards his. She felt his breath on her face and felt the tip of his nose brush hers.
There was something sweet about the way Derek pressed his lips to Lily’s. Being a senior in high school he knew more about kissing then Lily did but he never tried to make her uncomfortable. Derek took the lead and slowly moved his lips against hers and Lily mimicked once she figured out what to do. It was a little awkward at times but Derek guided her as best he could. His hands stayed resting upon her hips and hers rested on his shoulders. They pulled apart after a moment. Lily’s face was flushed from nerves of the situation and Derek just smiled at her.
“Now I really think we should head back. There may be some things to talk about.” He whispered. Lily nodded dumbly and Derek released her but grabbed her hand.
“Can I ask that if we do decide to actually move forward with this, how are we going to make this work? You will be going to college next year and I’m just a sophomore. And don’t you have Audrey?” Lily asked quickly as they left.
“Yeah her and I broke up before we left for this trip. She said that I’d be to tempted to sleep around.” Derek’s face became very somber as he spoke.
“Oh I’m sorry.” Lily squeezed his hand.
“It’s alright. But would you like to move forward with this?” He asked her.
“I would; but you just recently broke up with Audrey. Don’t you think you should wait a bit longer before you get back into a relationship?”
“Yeah, you’re right. I don’t think it’s very right to do that sort of thing. Well now I have time to think up a good way to ask you out properly.” Lily smiled and Derek put his arm around her shoulders in a way that could be passed off as friendly.