Lily smiled at the girl as if they had had the nicest conversation.
“And I will do as I please,” Lily said as the sound of her mother’s heels reverberated through the passageway.
Zoe placarded a smile on her face and turned around as their mothers walked into the living room.
Chapter Sixteen
MALAKAI
When the alarm sounded the next day, Malakai’s first thoughts were of Lily, as they were most of the time lately. He had three classes with her, and the few minutes he got to talk to her before the lectures were grossly inadequate. He just wanted to spend hours with her, not mere minutes.
And she smelled so good. Green tea. He would have to buy some the next time he was at the grocery store.
Still half asleep, Malakai walked out of his room and stopped when he saw his father sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast and reading the newspaper. He was already dressed in his uniform, his hat sitting on the table next to him.
“Sergeant,” Malakai greeted.
“Junior.”
Malakai went to the coffeepot and poured himself a cup.
“When did you come in?” he asked after a sip.
“About two hours ago. I’ll be in town for a few days.”
“Will you be at the game Friday?”
The previous year, his father had attended only four of his games, which had greatly disappointed Malakai.
“Yes, I will. I have to spend today and tomorrow in Austin, but I’ll be back on time. I’ll be leaving first thing Saturday morning, however.”
Malakai smiled. His father wasn’t a warm man by any stretch of the imagination, but he had missed having him around.
“Who will you be playing?” the sergeant asked, folding his newspaper and putting it down.
Malakai gave him the name of the school and all the statistics he knew about the rival team.
“What’s their biggest strength?”
“Their running backs,” Malakai answered.
“And yours?”
“Our offense teamwork.”
“Yes,” the sergeant agreed with a nod of his shaved head. “And don’t you forget it,” he added with a smile.
Malakai smiled back at him, then turned around, and put a couple pieces of bread in the toaster.
“So, South Texas, hey?” his father asked after a few moments of silence.
Malakai turned and looked at him, with his mouth open. He didn’t know the sergeant had received his message. Quickly regaining his composure, Malakai swallowed and nodded.
“Anywhere else?”
The bing of the toaster reminded Malakai of his breakfast, and he turned around to retrieve his toast.
“No, but does it matter?” Malakai asked.
“Well, I was hoping you would consider one of the military academies...”
Malakai’s knife clunked loudly against his plate. He closed his eyes and slowly counted to three.
The sergeant couldn’t seriously think Malakai would go anywhere near anything that had to do with the military. The way his father had run the household and the fact the military had basically stolen him away was enough to convince Malakai he would never, ever consider that lifestyle.
“Dad, the military is your life,” he said so quietly he didn’t know if his father had heard him. “It will never be mine.”
“It’s not all bad.”
Malakai turned around and glared at the sergeant, something he would surely have been reprimanded for has his father seen it, but his father was looking down at a pile of eight-and-a-half-by-eleven envelopes on the table next to him. Slowly, he picked them up and handed them to Malakai. Hesitantly, Malakai took them. They had the logos of different military academies on the upper left corners.
“What’s this?” Malakai asked, keeping his expression as neutral as possible. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.
“Applications. I spoke to the academies and the coaches, and sent them your school records. They all want to talk to you. They all want you to apply.”
“You must be kidding me.”
“Junior, please, consider it.”
Malakai gently deposited the unopened envelopes on the counter and looked at his father, clenching his fists at his side.
“I’m going to be late for school.”
His coffee and toast forgotten, Malakai walked into his room and quietly closed the door behind him.
Chapter Seventeen
MALAKAI
For the fourth time during practice later that day, Wes deliberately threw the pass ridiculously too high for Malakai to catch, and Malakai was getting frustrated. The quarterback had practiced poorly ever since they had fought over Lily, and Malakai didn’t find it amusing in the least.
Coach blew his whistle and called the quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers to him.
“Where’s your head at, Hamilton?”
Wes opened his mouth to reply, but Coach raised a hand to silence him.
“I don’t want to hear it. Every time you throw to Thomas, you do it badly. If you’ve got issues with him, take them outside the field. Here, you have no issues, got it?”
Wes remained quiet.
“Now’s the time to speak, Hamilton!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Good. Now go back and throw like you belong on this team.”
By the end of practice, things had improved, but Malakai was still frustrated. The quarterback was not only ruining practice for himself, but for the team too, and all that because of Zoe.
Malakai was walking out of the locker room after his shower when Wes finally came to him.
“Sorry, dude, I shouldn’t have taken it out on you like this,” he said, falling in step with Malakai.
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Malakai said, as he continued walking toward the school exit. “Like you said, drama needs to stay out of the field.”
“Yeah, I should practice what I preach,” Wes said with a chuckle. “Wanna grab a bite?”
Just like that, Wes was moving on, but Malakai hesitated a moment, debating if he should continue the discussion or let it drop.
“I have to go to the ATM first, then I can meet you somewhere,” he said, dropping it, for now.
“Okay. See you at seven? Our usual place?”
Malakai nodded, then walked out of the school and to his jeep. He didn’t really want to go out, but Wes had tried to bury the hatchet in his own way, and Malakai owed it to him to make an effort.
Half an hour later, he pulled into the parking lot of their usual burger joint and walked into the restaurant. He looked around and spotted Wes with Zoe and Andrea, sitting at a table along the window. He should have known this was a setup, especially since he was now showing interest in someone Zoe didn’t approve of.
He considered leaving, but before he could, Andrea looked up and smiled. With no other choice, Malakai slowly made his way to them. The girl must have a sixth sense; she always seemed to know when he was around.
“Hi, Malakai,” Andrea said bubbly, waving her hand in greeting as he approached.
Malakai took the empty seat next to her. Andrea was pretty tonight, and her shirt ran low to show some cleavage. Any guy would be blind not to see how cute she was, but something wasn’t clicking with her.
“Hi,” he said, then turned and looked pointedly at Wes across the table.
Wes was grinning. “Zoe and Andrea wanted to join. I couldn’t say no.”
Déjà vu all over again.
Of course you couldn’t, Malakai thought.
All throughout dinner, Andrea was her usual self: bubbly and fun again, but Malakai wished Lily was the one sitting next to him instead, and David sitting across from him. He wondered for a moment which girl would be sitting next to the friendly and uncomplicated junior.
Once dinner was over, Malakai walked Andrea to her car. Again, he knew the news of their going out would be all over school by tomorrow. He only hoped when Lily heard, she wouldn’t th
ink anything of it. Because he was certain she would hear. Someone would make sure she did.
Once they got to Andrea’s car, she opened the driver’s side door and turned to face him.
“I had a great time,” she said.
“Good,” Malakai said, at a lack of what else to say.
He couldn’t very well say he had a great time too as it would have been a lie, especially since all throughout dinner, he had thought of Lily.
“Maybe we should go by ourselves some time.”
Before Malakai could formulate a response, Andrea did something he had not expected. She stood on her tiptoes, put her arms around his neck, and pulled him toward her. In the next moment, her lips were on his, and Malakai was too surprised to pull away. She did smell good, strawberries and cream, but she didn’t smell right.
He liked green tea.
As thoughts of Lily crossed his mind, he pulled away, grabbing Andrea’s arms and removing them from around his neck. And just in time because Andrea’s tongue had touched his lips in an attempt to deepen the kiss.
Malakai took a step back and looked at the girl. She was nice, she was more than all right, but she was all wrong for him. Her kissing him hadn’t done anything for him while a simple touch from Lily set him on fire.
Lily.
It was all about Lily.
“Listen, Andrea, you’re nice and all, and pretty too, but I don’t think I’m the guy for you,” he said, trying to let her off as easily as he could.
“I thought you liked me.”
“Well, I do. As a friend.”
“Okay,” Andrea said, looking away.
“I’ll see you tomorrow at school,” he said, turning around and taking a step to leave.
“It’s that band girl, isn’t it? Lily?” Andrea asked, her voice cracking.
Malakai stopped and sighed. He didn’t know how to answer that, and he felt like a loser for making Andrea cry.
Slowly, he turned around. “Andrea, go home,” he said gently, instead of answering.
As he walked away, his thoughts returned to Lily, the girl he wanted to get to know more, the one he wanted to talk to, the one who was able to chase the loneliness away. But he didn’t even have her phone number. He hadn’t dared ask her, and to be honest with himself, he didn’t know how. One would think walking up to someone and saying “I want your phone number” would be easy, but with Lily, it was the hardest thing in the world. She was so much better than him, and she confused him in more ways than one. He didn’t know if she would really care for him to begin with.
And what would she see in him? Her life looked so perfect, so easy. Why would she burden herself with a guy like him?
As Malakai got to his jeep, his phone pinged. He retrieved it from his back pocket and looked at it. It was a message from Andrea.
I’m sorry.
Malakai decided the best thing to do was to ignore it. As he got in the driver’s seat, he threw his phone on the dashboard.
Chapter Eighteen
LILY
All evening while she tried to do her homework, Lily was constantly distracted by Beatrice’s disapproval permeating the house.
Beatrice was having a function again the following Friday and required Lily to attend. Lily had no interest in being paraded in front of anyone anymore, and for once in her life, she had refused to attend. After all, she was not a girl on display for the highest bidder to marry, and that’s exactly how Beatrice treated her.
“You ungrateful child,” Beatrice had hissed. “I give you everything you want. I house you. I clothe you. I pay for your activities…”
“Really, Beatrice?” Lily had asked with a raised eyebrow. “I’m sorry to inform you that I own the house. I pay for my clothes. I paid for band. All you paid was for me to join the dancers, and I want nothing to do with them. And oh, by the way, I paid for my last laptop and my phone. So you don’t really have a hold on me, whether you like it or not.”
Then Lily had noticed a deep red stain on Beatrice’s white blouse. Fighting a frown, she had looked up; Beatrice’s nose was bleeding.
“So you know, your nose is bleeding, and you’re making an embarrassment of yourself,” she had added, pointing to the blouse.
Lily had hit a nerve. Beatrice worked hard to make sure she would never embarrass herself, regardless of whom she was with. Quickly, she had put a finger to her nose and pulled it away, red with blood. She had thrown a murderous glare at Lily before storming out to her room.
“Don’t worry, Beatrice, your secret is safe with me,” Lily had said flippantly to Beatrice’s retreating back.
The entire episode had been strange. Lily had never known her mother’s nose to bleed before.
Without adding a word, Lily had gone to her room, exhausted from her afternoon of band practice and in no mood to have any further discussions.
Doing homework now was a total waste of time. She couldn’t get Malakai out of her head long enough to read two sentences. Add to that Beatrice’s hostility, and it was impossible for her to concentrate at all.
And she was getting hungry.
Lily took her phone and texted Sandra.
Need to go out. Feel caged. Wanna go eat?
The response came a moment later.
Same as usual. You drive. Be out in five.
Lily smiled and went to her bathroom to see if she was presentable. Once she was satisfied, she grabbed her purse, her phone, and her keys from the dresser, and went down the stairs.
As Lily walked outside, Sandra was crossing the street. “You’re lucky,” Sandra said, as she got to the passenger door.
They both got into the car, and Lily started the engine.
“I was about to sit at the table when you texted. Mom excused me, of course.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have bothered you.”
“You didn’t bother us. If you text me last minute like this, it’s because you need me. Mom knows you’re not prone to spontaneity without reasons.”
“That’s what she said, isn’t it?” Lily asked with an amused smile, backing the car out of the driveway.
“Yeah, her exact words,” Sandra answered with a grin. “David almost asked to tag along, but I think Mom must have thrown him a glare ‘coz he just opened his mouth and didn’t say anything. It was funny, really. He looked like a fish.”
“I wish I had a brother like yours,” Lily said, driving down the street.
“No, you don’t!”
But what Lily felt from Sandra belied what she had just said. Sandra and David bickered all the time, but they loved each other deeply. Sandra could always count on her little brother to have her back, and David could rely on Sandra to have his.
“Zoe came over last night,” Lily said, breaking the silence.
“What? And you didn’t tell me that this morning? What did she want? Drown herself in your pool, I hope.”
“She said Malakai was seeing Andrea.”
“Yeah, right! I’ve never seen Malakai with Andrea. Besides, he likes you.”
“How can you tell? I mean, I’m the empath, and even I can’t tell.”
“Because of the way he looks at you.”
“You’ve never seen him with me.”
“Oh, but I know things,” Sandra said, mysteriously.
Lily rolled her eyes. Sandra was reading way too much into this.
A few minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot of a popular franchise restaurant in the area. They were about to get out of the car when Lily saw them.
“Isn’t that Malakai and Andrea? With Wes and Zoe?” Sandra asked next to her.
A redhead was talking to Malakai. Lily recognized her as Andrea. She didn’t know her personally, but from what she heard, the cheerleader was a nice enough girl who never made fun of band members.
“Looks like it.”
Lily and Sandra remained in the car, observing them. Wes and Zoe went their separate ways while Malakai and Andrea walked toward a car. They talked for a
moment, then Andrea put her arms around Malakai’s neck.
Horror struck Lily.
They were kissing.
What Zoe had said was true, well at least for this part; Malakai was dating Andrea.
Lily believed the ground had suddenly opened underneath her, and she quickly looked away, staring pointedly out of her side window.
“You know what, I’m not hungry after all,” she said after a few awkward moments of silence.
She started the car.
“Lily, it’s not what you think. I’m sure. Malakai likes you.”
“Sure he does,” she said, putting the car in reverse. “In fact, he likes me so much he has his tongue down Andrea’s throat,” she added, shifting the car into drive and getting out of the parking lot.
Lily’s heart broke into thousands of pieces. She should have seen it coming. After all, rumors rarely flew around without a bit of truth behind them.
“There must be an explanation,” Sandra said.
“Sure there is,” Lily said, flippantly. In reality all she wanted to do was cry.
“We’ll find out,” Sandra said, crossing her arms.
Even though her house was only ten minutes away, the drive felt like an hour to Lily. Once there, she got out of her car and ran inside her house before Sandra had time to say anything. She ran up the stairs, got into her bedroom, and, after locking the door, curled up on her bed and let the tears fall from her eyes.
Letting herself like him had been such a big mistake.
Chapter Nineteen
LILY
When Lily made her way to school with Sandra the next morning, she was surprised to see some of the cheerleaders and Zoe’s circle of friends close to the door. They usually hung out in the front lobby where it was cooler and the pedestrian traffic was higher. Rarely were they outside by the back door where it was stuffy and humid.
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