drive (mithzan short story)

chapter four.

Lilah's POV
"I'm just down the street if you ever need anything." Max said, rubbing the back of his neck. He opened the door and stepped out, closing it behind him. I sighed, and I sighed again. I walked back over to my couch and sat myself down, flustered, I sat there blushing and crying and feeling downright wrong. My daddy used to say "When luck isn't with you, it's against you.", and lemme tell you how unlucky I was feeling. Very. As I was sitting there though, I realized how bad it could have really been, Derrick could have gotten past me, he could have sat down and persuaded me to take him back, he could have threatened me, he could have hurt me, had Max not been there.

But Max was there, and he stood up for me, and he made Derrick leave before things got to a place where I couldn't control them, and he, well he seemed pretty lucky. It was such a change, to have someone stand up for you against the one person who never would, and guess what, Max didn't have brown hair.

My theory that all my brown haired exes were evil began to grow.

For one minute, one stupid minute I was feeling down, but I didn't have to be down. My father would have wanted me to be happy, and here I have something to be happy about and gosh darn it I was going to be happy. I wiped the tears from my cheeks. "Here I was feeling sorry for what I've lost." once said a book I read in grade school entitled 'The Bear', "And look at all I've got!"

Another thing my dad used to say was "If you always fake a smile, even you'll start to believe it." So I threw on a smile, not entirely a fake one, but certainly not a real one, and I sat there smiling to myself like an idiot.

I bet my dad was watching me, all the while smiling to himself like an idiot, too.

My smile dissipated at the thought of my father, so many emotions were coursing through my veins. I heard the door open and in walked Serena.
"I saw a guy coming out of your apartment is everything alri-" she said fumbling with her bags of groceries, "Are you okay Lil?" she said, placing the grocery bags on the floor and rushing to me, she sat down right next to me and pulled me to her, I looped my hands under her arms,

"Just dandy, S." I said, smiling into her shoulder.

"What happened while I was gone?" She asked, pulling herself away from me.

"As soon as you left, I got a text from Derrick."

"Oh no,"

"He said he was going to show up and I told him not to but he was ignoring my texts and suddenly one of my new neighbors was at my door holding a casserole and-"

"A casserole? Yum!" she exclaimed,

"Yea, a store-bought casserole," I laughed, "It's on the counter. I told you I didn't need more food, boom a casserole shows up at my door!" I said,

"Okay okay but what about Derrick?"

"Oh right well, he showed up while the neighbor- his name is max by the way,- was here, and he showed up and was trying to get in here to persuade me that cheating was a mistake." Serena was nodding along, seeming into the story. "I was telling him no, he started yelling and he pushed me and I know he would have hit me but it didn't get that far."

"Well thank God, Lil,"

"It didn't get that far because Max grabbed him the shirtfront and told him to-and I quote- 'get the hell out of here.'" Serena threw her hands up to cover her mouth. "It looked like Derrick was going to punch him but Max just started counting down from three and he gave up, he just left."

"I think I oughta meet this Max fella," She said, "But we can worry about that later. You know what you need?"

"What?"

"Boy Meets World and Casserole from the cute neighbor. Stay right here." Serena changed back into her pjs in the kitchen and got us both some casserole, she came back and unpaused the TV.

Thank God for Max, and thank God for Serena.

And thank God for store bought casserole. I was starting to feel better already.

- - -

"Invite him over for dinner!" Serena exclaimed, We were sitting in my bed at midnight talking about Max. Oh how fascinating my life is.

"He did say he has roomies, I don't know how many, but he has some."

"Invite them over for dinner! Tomorrow night, er- tonight I guess." Serena was beaming, she never liked Derrick, or Mike, or even Damion, but I guess since they were all brunets, it makes sense. Not to mention, Damion is the name of the devil's son, in some places. My theory continues to grow.

"Okay okay fine I will." I replied, she practically squealed with excitement.

"I totally wish Cory could be here to witness this." Cory was Serena's high school sweetheart, and her very recent fiancé, they were both very lovely people, but Cory's a bigtime lawyer and he couldn't make the trip.

"Just, how would I ask that, you know I'm very shy." I said, suddenly I felt like we were back in high school again, our biggest worries were our exams and who was going to rent the limo for prom.

"Well, open your mouth and say 'Hey, want to come over for dinner? You can bring your roomies', and he'll be like 'yea ok' and boom there you go." She giggled, and flopped over in my bed.

"Bedtime." She said, sleepily.

"Goodnight, I love you, S" I said,

"Love you too, Lil."

Max's POV

I woke up to Ross knocking on my door. I rolled over and checked my phone. ten twenty three am.
"Ross it's our day off."

"I know but-" I shoved my head in my pillow. He continued to knock.
"Fuck off." I mumbled.

"Max C'mon!" Ugh. I rolled out of bed and unlocked the door.

"What." I said,

"There's a girl at the door, asking for you."

oh. I looked down at my plaid pj pants, "One second." I threw on some jeans and a sweater, and very quickly ran my hand through my hair a couple times before making my way downstairs to the door, where Lilah was standing, fiddling with her hands.

"Hey Lilah," I said,

"Hey" She replied, smiling.

"Want to come in?" I asked,

"I mean I would but I-uh am actually really busy."

Just then I heard footsteps upstairs, and Tim leaned over the banister.

"OOOh, Is this the cute girl Max has been talking about?" I gave him the death glare, but not before sneaking a look at Lilah, she was blushing red.

"Are you kidding me." I said, I then heard Ross coming out of the kitchen,

"The ship is sailing?" he called, before both he and Tim began laughing maniacally.

"I'm so sorry." I said turning back to her,

"I uh-actually came to see if you guys wanted to have dinner at my house- tonight." She said, she was wearing a light blue long sleeve shirt. She was pulling at her left sleeve with her right hand. "I mean, if you want to."

"We'd love to attend, I'm Tim, Behind me in the kitchen there's Ross." Tim called from above me before I could say anything.

"Great I-uh, just come over at like five ish." She said,

"I'll be there"