Dangerous Desires

CHAPTER ELEVEN

LILY

"West says he won't be available this weekend. He has some stuffs to sort out at college, but he will try to sneak out within the week."

Tiffany and I are laying side by side on my bed with our faces glued to the ceiling. I turn to face her, probing myself on an elbow. "Your boyfriend really loves you."

"Yes. He does Lily. West is the absolute best. I got the pills today!" She squeals and I join her because I know the implication of getting the pills. She's ready to hit it. "Are you ready?" I still ask.

"Duh." Her eyes are full of excitement as she laughs. "I've been ready since I was eight. I was just waiting to find my prince charming. I have bought the smuttiest books of all time, so that I can know what to do and how to do it."

"West really gives you the chills and the burns?"

"Lily, he makes me feel. I feel like I was made from his rib." Tiffany eyes are so dreamy as she talks about West. "He is mine. You know how you just meet someone and you know that he was made for you."

I don't understand. Tiffany must have sensed my confusion because she starts apologizing immediately. "Oh I'm so sorry Lily. I didn't mean to rub it in your face."

I wave her off. "It's fine."

"I mean, we have to find your knight in shining armor soon. You're almost eighteen and you haven't even had your first kiss yet."

"Yes, I haven't." Why am I lying? "What if I'm like those spinsters in historical romance novels that don't even kiss until they are 26." And the lies keep piling up.

Tiffany squeezes my hands in a reassuring manner. "That's rubbish Lily. I won't let you sit as a wallflower and wait for your knight. I will make sure you have your full share of romance before you're even 23."

"Bold of you. I'm already 18." I say dryly.

"Five years is more than enough."

I'm a horrible person, despite everything Tiffany is saying and trying to help me, I'm not listening. Memories of Luca keeps invading my thoughts. His lips. His fingers. What if I never find anyone who electrifies me like him. What if he is my...

Shut up. There's no way he is the man that's made for you. He's the bad guy. The villain of the story. He's not your type of guy.

What if I've been looking for the wrong type? After all, the universe says opposite attract.

No. No. No.

"Tiff."

"Yes." She jumps from the bed. "One sec. I'm pressed." She enters the bathroom.

I carefully stand from my bed and look at Luca's mansion through my window. A silk limousine halts in his yard. A chauffeur opens the door and a woman in a see-through dress that lives nothing to the imagination steps out. And another woman follows her behind. And another. "Four women. Pervert." I mutter under my breath before returning to my spot on the bed and Tiffany returning into the room just in time.

We lay together for a while in silence neither of us talking. It's not an awkward silence, there's never an awkward silence between us.

"Lily, have you talked to your parents again about dancing?"

I sign. "Yes, it's still the same response. My dad wants me to study law but I want to be a dancer. Dancing is my passion."

"I really wish, he will just let you be. We can attend the same music college." She groans and roll on the bed. "If only you could runaway from home to college."

"Who's going to sponsor me? My dad won't give me a dime."

"I was just trying to lighten the mood."

"Actually." I press my finger thoughtfully on my lips.

Tiffany raise herself to a sitting position. "No. You're not considering my suggestion, are you?" Tiffany jumps and her face brightens up. I literally see the light bulb on her head. She has an idea. "college is after our senior year in highschool. You will already be over 18 by then, so you will have access to your trust fund."

"I won't. My dad has already told me that even when I'm 18, if I'm still in school i.e. undergoing training. I will not be allowed to access my trust. It's a valid exception in law."

Tiffany groans. "Why is your old man so smart?"

I stare into nothingness. "I'm tired of my parents dictating my every move. Deciding where I go and where I don't go. Who I'm with and who I'm not with. Who I become. It's f*****g up my head." I look at her desperate for an escape. "I've been locked in this prison for so many years, never dared to peek out or disobey their laws. But not this time Tiffany." I shake my head and start laughing hysterically.

Tiffany hugs me. "I have your back Lily."

Slowly I relax beneath her gentle caress. The moment shifts.

"Lily, after this summer is our last year in highschool and after that it's college." She breaks off and stare down at me. The understanding of what she's yet to say already sinking in.

This may most likely be our last summer together.

I jump from my bed and start pacing. "We have to make it count."

Tiffany jumps down as well. "A forest long list of everything we have to do together before this summer is over." She pickup my journal and pen from my bedside table and sits in front the large pink vanity.

"Adrenaline pumping activity."

She writes it down. "Party still midnight in very revealing outfits and get wasted." She looks at me for approval.

That's too much. "Hell yes. Get laid."

She writes it down. Simultaneously, we shout attend the biggest music and dance festival in Paris."

"Smoke pot."

"No." Smoking is the last thing I can ever do. I'm not a moron. I have seen all the havoc it has wrecked. I can't be so sily to enrich a company at the detriment of my own health.

"Fine." Tiffany rips off the page and lift it high to her eye level. "We have our own summer-to-do-list."