Payback [ON HOLD]

Chapter 4

"So, how'd it go?" Jessica and Grace prompted in unison, wearing the same curious grins.

"There's really not much to tell," Lillian tried to tell them. "All we did was talk about books and play a few board games."

"And?" Jessica prompted again with a sly smirk. "Oh Lilly, don't try to hide it from me. I can tell there's more. What'd he do, tell you he's madly in love with you?"

Lillian knew it was a joke (mostly because Jessica and Grace had both started giggling), but the words still hit a nerve. Despite this, Lilly was still able to genuinely laugh at the joke.

The three girls were hanging out in Jessica's room, supposedly to plan a sleepover, but now Lilly could tell there must be a few ulterior motives.

When the three were able to control their laughter and put a stop to it, Grace said, "But seriously, I'm glad I ended things with that creep before it even started. I don't know why I even agreed to go out with him in the first place. I guess I had a weak moment?"

Even after hearing about how Lilly and Timothy had made up, Grace had decided to end their their romantic relationship, saying anyone who hurt her best friend was stupid and not worthy of anyone's attentions. This made Lillian giddily happy, and yet sad at the same time. What if she'd had to break up with Timothy because he and Grace were destined to be soulmates and fall in love and get married have ten kids and—

Lillian stopped the train of thought. She smiled to herself. Her mind had, yet again, raced ahead many years to events that may never happen.

While Lilly was zoned out, Jessica and Grace had continued talking. They had her full attention back though when Jessica said, "Don't talk like that. You'll get Olivia back somehow."

"What happened to Olivia?!" Lilly cried. Olivia was Grace's cat, and only joy at home. That cat meant everything to her friend.

"Weren't you listening?" Grace asked, a hint of hurt in her tone.

"No," Lillian admitted in a mumble. "Sorry."

Grace waved it off. "That's okay. I was just saying that" —she curled her fists up in tight balls and looked away— "my mom is taking Olivia away from me."

"What? Why?!" Lilly demanded, hoping Mrs. Marla—Grace's mother—had a good reason for such a tragic, unfeeling decision.

Grace shrugged, continuing to face the other way. The body language was clear: Grace didn't want to talk about it. And, of course, Lillian wasn't going to push her. Her friend was going through enough already. Olivia getting taken away was a punishment connected to a much larger, sad, ugly picture that Lilly didn't even want to think about in that moment.

"Anyway," Jessica said, cutting through the brief silence and saving everyone, "I believe we were deciding what to actually do about poor Olivia."

"I'll take her for you," Lilly jumped in immediately. "You'd be able to come over any time you want to see her, y'know? And if your parents ever cool off about it, you can always take her back home. Really, I think this plan is genius."

Grace was opening her mouth to reply, but her voice was drowned out by a car horn out front. Grace groaned. "That'd be my mom. I gotta go, guys."

Jessica wrapped her in a goodbye hug, which Lilly quickly got in on. But it was rather short lived, because Mrs. Marla honked the horn again, showing her impatience.

"Keep faith," Jessica whispered with a smile as she let go. The smiled turned into a grin as she said, "When it gets rough, just think about throwing Tim over the side of the Grand Canyon after beating him with a snake-whip." She gasped. "I just thought of another nickname to annoy him to death! Tim Tam. It was staring us in the face this whole time."

Lilly grinned at the idea. Sure, Timothy did love the delicious, chocolate-covered Australian cookie, but he'd probably dislike the nickname itself. "Jess, that's genius!"

"Thank you!" Jessica said brightly, popping up to do a few curtsies.

Grace glanced out the window at the driveway. "I've really gotta go. My mom's starting to look angry, and I don't want her to come in here and take it out on you."

"Oh yeah, you go ahead. I don't want you getting in trouble or anything," Lilly said hurriedly, feeling ashamed for keeping her in the first place.

Jessica and Lillian walked their best friend to the door waving for a second as she made her way to the car. When she got in, the two ducked back inside, shut the door, and ran back upstairs to the bedroom.

A half hour later, the plan was more-or-less complete. No solid activities were decided—in that area, it was more fun to be spontaneous—just things like food and where everyone would sleep, which now seemed so easy and quick to plan after it was all said and done.

"So," Lilly said with a smirk, "now that that's over, you owe me something."

"No no, you've got it mixed up," Jessica corrected with a laugh. "I believe it is you that owes me for not spilling your secret to Grace by accident."

Lillian had been the first to get to the house, and before Grace could get there, Lilly had felt she needed to tell someone her secret besides Dakota. It'd only been two days, and already she was feeling guilty for withholding secrets from her beloved Jess.

The secret in question was...

     "Ugh, so what if you didn't tell Grace I almost kissed Timmy? That I still love him?" Lillian asked miserably, burying her face in her hands. "She's going to figure it out sooner or later, if she hasn't already, and it's going to break her heart to hear he says he still feels the same way. That he said he'll love me forever, even after what he said when he broke up with me." Now, she began to tear up. A lump rose in her throat.

"This is such a mess," Lilly cried, her voice choked up. "I don't know what to do. My mom told me it was wise to just be friends, but..." At first, she was too upset and ashamed to even say it, but finally she choked it out. "I have such a traitorous soft spot for that boy with his deep brown eyes and his sweet smile and..."

She quickly shut down the train of thought. This wasn't helping, it was only making her feel worse. But the tears were unstoppable now. Fortunately, she didn't have to face them alone.

Jessica wrapped Lilly in a tight hug, letting her friend cry into her curly brown hair. "Don't stress yourself about it. I'm sure it'll all work out just right." She pulled back to look into Lilly's face with a slight smirk. "But if you do get back with him, you tell him if he hurts you again he's dead. I'm sure Mary will help us arrange something."

Mary—Timothy's two-year-younger sister—was a great friend to have when it came to revenge on her brother. When Lillian had texted her after the break-up, Mary had immediately gone and slapped her brother hard in the face. Sure, she'd gotten in trouble for it, but that was only because Timothy had been alive to snitch. Lilly would be sure not to make that mistake twice.

Jessica came up with several death plans for Timothy when Lillian saw her mom's car pull up out of the corner of her eye. At the precise moment, Jess had been gushing over the Leave Timothy to Rot at the Bottom of the Grand Canyon After Pushing him Off the Edge Strapped to a Chair with Dirty Underwear over his Eyes plan at the time, and as much as Lilly was sincerely enjoying it, she was ready to go home and chill in her room, gazing off into space, thinking about nothing.

"Oh," Jessica said, sounding less than pleased, "is that your mum?"

"Yeah," Lilly said with a sigh. She gave her dear friend a quick hug, and as she dashed for the door, she said, "See you for the sleepover on Friday?"

Jessica grinned and shouted after her, "You know it!"