The Missing Tales

Chapter - IV

One of the things I love about the town I live in is the landscape, this entire place is surrounded by incredibly tall trees, green fields, and beautiful lakes. The weather is chilly most of the time because Ankou is by the seaside, so seeing the big blue veil every day was something I grew accustomed to.

I remember I used to love the sea when I was younger. My parents used to take me and my brother to the beach every summer, we only went to the beach in that season because the sea tends to get colder and dangerous on the others. Noah and I absolutely loved to play on the water, we had all kinds of fun in there, it was great.

It made us feel like we were free from all evil.

At one point I considered the sea a friend of mine, he became my confidant, I would always go there when I needed a peace of mind. The water helped me to relax, to reflect, I would share with her every thought that went through my mind.

I trusted the sea like I trusted my brother, I would lay my back on it and float with my eyes closed, letting him take me to wherever he felt like it. I think that was a huge flaw of mine, I always trusted my life, my heart, my soul to the worst people. Just like I did with my former friends, I learned not to trust the sea the hard way, because soon, I found my calm and trustworthy friend change into something I have never seen before.

One day I went to the beach to see the sea, and as I usually did, I was letting his waters guide me with my eyes closed. Suddenly I started to feel everything around me change, my friend was not calm anymore he was... different. The currents who gracefully carried me were now pushing me around with force, I was staggered by this sudden change of pace.

Huge wind blows began to appear helping push the massive waves around, drowning me to oblivion, and to cap it off a loud thunder followed by the rain could be heard from the sky, at this point I was terrified.

I was in the middle of a storm in the worst place of all, a place who I once trusted with my eyes closed, became my worst nightmare. And that’s how it felt when I was around, Fiona Harris, Stanley Jackson, Patricia Pennington (Patty) and Thomas Elliot(Tom).

The end of the school year was approaching, and I couldn’t be more grateful for it. Finally, the stupid pranks and the constant harassments were going to have an end, at least for a while.

In the previous week, my colleagues “accidentally”, dumped a bucket full of mud on top of Amy and I, while we were entering the classroom. The teacher was mad at us when she came in because the faulty smell was unbearable. Amy and I had to endure the awful pig jokes for the rest of that week.

And guess who was the architect of that ridiculous prank, Stan, since my friends and I broke ties, Stan has been a pain in the ass. He would bump on the shoulder every time he saw me, never forgetting to insult me while doing it. What hurt the most was seeing Fiona encourage him by laughing and giving him pecks on the cheek every time he behaved like an asshole.

The grass wasn’t greener on Amy’s side of the fence either, Fiona and Patty never seized to make her life a living hell at every chance they got. But that day Fiona, Patty and Stan seemed pretty calm, they were chatting and laughing with one another. To this day it still angers me how they look so unbothered after all the s**t they put me and Amy through.

Seeing them all like that made me a little worried about what they could possibly be chatting about because every time they did something awful to me and Amy they would always behave like that. I could not stop my mind from getting filled with paranoid thoughts of what they could possibly scheming, but thankfully someone was able to.

“Hey... earth to Lilly, are you there?” Amy asked me while snapping her fingers close to my ears.

“Yeah... sure, where else I would be” I lied, my mind was way out off space, I was deeply concerned with how our relationship would survive through all this madness. Our classmates were relentlessly picking on us the past few weeks.

“No... You’re not smoothing your way out this little weasel... tell me, Lilly, what’s happening?” she asked me while shaking her head at my attempt to dismiss the subject as she helped me put my books inside my locker.

Little weasel was the nickname she gave me because I would always convince the ice-cream seller into giving us ice-cream for half the price.

“Its nothing Amy, really. I’m just... a little worried that’s all” she immediately grabbed both of my cheeks with her hands, making me look right at those beautiful hazel eyes.

“Worried about what Lilly, you can talk to me. You know that right?” I nodded in response, getting myself ready to confide in her.

“Its...I don’t know... I’m getting tired Amy. Everyone around this place treats us like crap, a-and it so frustrating because they are doing it out of the blue. We never did anything to them.“I was starting to get emotional, so Amy gently pulled me towards her giving me a hug.

“And I don’t feel like I deserve to be called an i***t every five seconds, getting my locker painted or filled with all kinds of nasty things every week. I don’t deserve that Amy and neither do you” I was trying so hard to push my tears away and not raise my voice, afraid of raising attention to myself.

“I know little weasel, I know... but they’re not going to change any time soon. Trust me it hurts me just as much as it does to you being bullied every day, but I have to be bigger than that... I have no choice, I refuse to let them take my happiness away ” I knew Amy was just as fed up as me, but she managed to mask it so well, out of the two of us she was by far the strongest.

“How are you able to ?” her whole demeanor changed after my question, she went form a sad and concerned face, to a wide smile and bright mood. And just like that, I knew her answer would make me the happiest girl in the world.

“Simple... I have you, Lillian. You are my life, my love and long as I have you, they will never be able to take my happiness away” It took all the might in the world to stop me from kissing her senseless on the spot. Amy was indeed the biggest love of my life, and it saddens me to know that in the end they succeeded in taking her life away, and hurts me, even more, to know that I helped them accomplish that.

Amy took a look inside my locker who was open throughout our whole conversation, and suddenly she started pouting.

“Hey beautiful what’s wrong?” I asked her concerned about her sudden change of humor.

“Oh, It’s not there” my eyebrows frowned in confusion at her words.

“What’s not there Amy?” I asked her now looking tentatively at the inside of my locker.

“The cupcake. I-I thought I left you a cupcake and a letter inside your locker this morning before history class” As soon as I went to check if the cupcake was really there the bell rung signaling us to go back to class.

“You probably forgot about it. Let’s go, I want to avoid the disgusting stares and possible pranks they might have for us if we come in late” At times it felt like they knew Amy and I were secretly dating. We tried our best to be discreet by maintaining our compliments and physical interactions to a bare minimum, but still, something in me felt like they knew.

Math class was extremely boring that day, I could not concentrate even if I tried. I glanced at Amy to see if she was bored as well but she wasn’t, she enjoyed math way too much for my liking.

I began to wander my eyes around the classroom to distract myself from the boredom, I saw some of my classmates not paying attention as well, at least I wasn’t alone. At the back of the classroom, I caught Stan and his cousin Bobby eating something that looked like a cake, their faces looked ridiculously funny, full of frosting a the corner of their mouths.

I adverted my sight form the silly shenanigans around the back of the room and looked at the far right form my seat.

And there she was...

Fiona looked beautiful as always, she could be everything I’ve learned to despise over the years after Amy’s death, but my 13-year-old and present self could not deny that she was and still is, beautiful. However, I couldn’t help but o realize that she looked sad, I wasn’t sure, but whatever was making her feel that way had to be in the piece of paper she had in hands.

Fiona rarely cried in public, hell she rarely cried at all, she was known as the ice queen at school, but that day she could not disguise her watery eyes as she was reading what was in that little piece of paper.

Whatever was written there was taking a toll on her, because she immediately stormed out of the classroom without even saying a word to the teacher. Everyone looked dumbfounded after her act, I looked back at her boyfriend to see if he would go after her but Stan stayed glued to his seat.

Seeing how Fiona looked after storming off the classroom pained me a little, I hated seeing her in tears, even after all she did to me and Amy, she was still at times, that fragile 5-year-old girl I became friends with. It took me a lot to not go after her as soon as she took off, and for the rest of the day, Fiona couldn’t be found anywhere at school.

Soon the last period had come to an end and I was at home resting in my bedroom. I wanted to hang out with Amy but she and her mother went to do volunteer work for the church they go to. To distract myself, I started to go through the little album I made with letters and pictures I took of me and Amy together when suddenly I heard a knock on my door.

My mom’s head peeked through the door telling me that someone was here to see me. I knew immediately that it wasn’t Amy because mom would simply allow her to come in unannounced.

I asked my mom who wanted to see me but she remained quiet, only telling me that whoever was behind the door had something important to say to me.

And to my surprise the person behind the door was Fiona.

“Fiona...” I mumbled.

What could possibly bring her here was the question that went through my mind multiple times until she broke the awkward silence between us.

“Hey Lilly” her voice was weak, she looked weak, her trademark confidence wasn’t there, she wasn’t even able to look me in the eyes anymore. But I looked at hers, They were puffy and her nose was red, she must have been crying before she came here.

“Hey... What are you doing here?” I asked her, getting even more confused about all this, my deepest desire was to scream at her and kick her out but I couldn’t, she was Fiona and deep down I still had an affection towards her.

She dismissed my question and began to wander around my bedroom glancing at every little detail. I knew my bedroom looked very different from what she was used to, after our split, I took everything that resembled our friendship away, replacing it with everything that made me happy, things that reminded me of Amy.

“Your room looks... different” she muttered.

I chose to remain quiet as she was looking through my things. It’s crazy, even looking defeated and weak she could still exert some dominance over me. Quickly her eyes landed on the album on top of my desk, and my heart began to race in panic but my body was frozen in place. She flipped through the pages that undoubtedly had nothing but pictures of me and Amy, thankfully I hid our letters after my mom knocked on the door, I always did that because I was afraid of her finding out that we were dating.

Fiona’s quickly removed one of the pictures of the last page and held it carefully on her hands as she showed it to me.

“You still have this...” I simply nodded in response and she mustered to give me a weak smile. That picture was of the first time I went to a birthday party of hers, we were hugging each other under the tree of her backyard while she was kissing me on the cheek.

I did not know what she was trying to do but I had to shut whatever was happening down because she was making me feel a little uncomfortable.

“Fiona what are you d...” she immediately interrupted me by saying those infamous words.

“I miss you Lilly” This could not be happening, not now, she couldn’t possibly be serious about this. She had been nothing but the worse person possible to me and Amy, since the beginning of the school year.

“No Fiona, No... You do not get to waltz back into my life by coming here saying that you missed me, it doesn’t work like that” my eyes started to get watery, I could not contain my hurt anymore, so I exposed how weak I was by her presence and her words by letting my tears fall free.

And that was the green light she needed because she immediately started to take a few steps forward into my direction closing her eyes and touching her forehead on mine.

“Lilly, please I miss you, I miss my best friend” she whispered to me.

“I thought Patty was your best friend, Fiona, at least is what you claim every time we’re in school.” I said to her as I took a step back separating our foreheads from each other.

“She doesn’t make me laugh the way you do, she doesn’t hold me the way you do, she doesn’t make me smile the way you do Lilly. None of them can.”

“THEN WHY DID YOU CHOSE THEM OVER ME FIONA, WHY? I was nothing but a great friend to you, I was always there when you needed me to, I admired you, I loved ...” I had to stop myself from exploding on her because I would end up reviving feelings I didn’t want to.

“I was just defending what I believed when I stood up for Amy that day, I wasn’t betraying you, I never wanted to. So tell me, why did you choose to kick me out the way that you did?” I was crying hard, I was determined to end this matter once and for all and to do that I needed an answer from her.

But all I’ve got was silence, Fiona refused to look me in the eyes because just like me she was crying too, but still, her reaction to my question gave me the answer I needed.

“You may not know but I do... You never valued me. For you, I was a minion, I was just someone you would run to when you needed a shoulder to cry or someone to listen to your problems because you did not want the cool kids to see you when you were frail. In your eyes, I was just a nobody, a piece of trash you could discard whenever you wanted to. And you did just that in front of everyone”

“That’s not true Lilly you were important to me, I loved you like a sister” she said.

“NO, YOU DIDN’T! You turned your back on me, Fiona. The fact you chose Stan, everybody, over me says it all, you and everyone else treated me like I was nothing but the former Fionas lap dog. Amy was the only who saw me as someone different, she gave me everything you chose not to, she stood by me when everyone left, she held my hand every day, she helped me go through the hell you and everyone put me through, she...” Fiona immediately interrupted me.

“Loves you... right. You two are together” she said while holding close to my face the piece of paper with the words, “For the best girlfriend in the world – Amy. Ps: I love you Lilly”, written on it.

I immediately realized that paper was the one in her hands before she stormed off the classroom. And soon dawn on me that that the piece of paper she was holding was the one Amy claimed to have put inside my locker along with the cupcake.

“Where did you get that?” I asked, but I did not have to think much of how Fiona managed to get a hold of that letter because I remembered that we used to know each other’s locker code.

But still, she dismissed my question.

“That was the type of love you wanted from me, wasn’t it?” I turned my back to her afraid of looking into her eyes and answering her question. But she did not allow me to stay quiet without something in return.

“Answer me Lilly” she demanded and I could not say anything but to nod in response.

Out of nowhere Fiona came up and hugged me from behind, snuggling her head at the crook of my neck. I immediately tensed up at her touch, but soon relaxed in her embrace, I shouldn’t feel that way but that was the Fiona I craved her touch for so long.

“Lilly, I want you to come back to me” she whispered into my right ear sending shivers down my spine. I wanted to push her back but my body would not let me because it craved hers just as much as my feelings for her did.

“I want you by my side again” and this time she started to trail kissed up and down my neck, my body began to heat up, I did not know what type of game she was playing but she was definitely winning.

“But what about Amy, I-I can’t just leave her I-I...” I muttered but she shut me up quickly.

“Shhhhh, Lilly listen to me, what you think you feel for her doesn’t exist. She used you, she saw how hurt you were after our split and she took advantage of that, she manipulated you”.

I felt so stupid that day, I was being played like an i***t, Fiona knew what button to push and she did, flawlessly turning me against Amy in a matter of seconds.

“But I lov...”

“Lover her” she interrupted again, gently tracing circles with her fingers around my belly. “Truthfully Lilly do you really love Amy or you were simply projecting the feelings you had for me to her” she got me confused right there, I knew what I felt for Amy was real but what Fiona said made sense to my stupid 13-year-old heart at the time.

“I-I... I don’t know, maybe”

She gently placed a kiss on my cheek and made her final play to get me back to her in grasps again.

“You see Lilly I’m right. Is it worth it to be with someone you don’t have feelings for and endure humiliation, or be with me, the person you really love and is right here to get you back”

I was silent for a while but she knew she had won me over with that line because she wasn’t afraid to request me what she did after.

Fiona turned me around and made me face those deep blue eyes who held nothing but dominance and power, turning me immediately submissive to her demands. They erased everything that happened to me before we split, they took away every tender moment I had with Amy, they took my real love away. I was back to square one, I was back into being Lilly the lap dog.

“Lillian I want you to break things off with Amy. It is the only way you can have me back, the only way we can be truly together. Do you want us to be together again?”

I simply nodded yes in response like a robot.

“Than beak up with Amy” she commanded me, and being the great lap dog that I was I said.

“I will”

And after those words, I found myself back into the storm again.