You've got Problems?

Chapter 7: Discovery


“Alright, throw me a fast one, and watch your head.” Lilly said as she brought the bat up. Myer clutched the softball tightly in his hands as he readied himself for the pitch. They had been at it for almost an hour and the girl showed no sign of quite in her. Not to mention that she was incredibly accurate with her hits. In all of the pitches he had been throwing to her, he could count the times she had missed on one hand. Still, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to try and out do her. Myer tightened the muscles in his shoulder as he reared back. Without any warning to Lilly, he launched the softball at her with all the strength he could muster. He was sure that not even she could hit that one. Apparently he had never bothered to tell Lilly that, because she hit the ball full force and sent it streaking back at him. Not really expecting to have to dodge out of the way, Myer was ill prepared for hit.

If it had been a baseball, Myer most likely would have gotten a hard hit right in the face. But since it was a softball, he was able to jump out of the way just in the nick of time. Lilly dropped the bat and put her hands on her hips.

“Myer, I told you to watch out. I don’t want you hurt.” She said.

Lying on his back on the freshly cut grass, Myer lifted his head to see her. “Well then you shouldn’t hit the ball so hard.”

Lilly strolled over to where he lay. She folded her arms and loomed over him. “Well then you shouldn’t suck so bad at sports.”

Myer grinned at Lilly in the moonlight. “Is that so?”

He lashed out his arm at Lilly and wrapped it around her legs. Startled by the sudden move, Lilly instinctively backed away. Myer pulled her feet towards him as she went back. Unable to keep herself up, Lilly fell flat on her ass. Laughing, Myer scrambled to his knees and scooted towards Lilly. He reached for her arms in an attempt to pin her down. Instead of trying to fend off his hands, Lilly grasped her baseball cap and tossed it in Myer’s face.

The sudden action caught Myer off guard. He lost his momentum and Lilly’s hands slipped away. Before he could center himself again, Lilly tucked her legs in and planted her feet on Myer’s chest. With one quick push, she sent him stumbling away. Landing on his back, Myer tried to get back up before Lilly could do something. As he had found out many times over the course of the evening, he had seriously underestimated Lilly. She leapt on top of him in a semi-football like tackle. The next thing Myer knew, Lilly had her hands and knees pressed down on his arms. Having pinned him, Lilly threw back her head and laughed.

“Geese Myer. Not only are you bad at sports, but you let a girl beat you?”

Myer gave her a sly smile. “And what makes you think that I’m even trying?”

“Excuses, excuses.” Lilly said, leaning closer to him. “You just don’t want to admit that you lost to a girl.”

Myer chose to not say anything. The truth was, if he really did want to get himself out of his current situation, he could. But if he did that, that would probably have him and Lilly in a not so innocent looking position. If her father just happened to look out the door or a window, no amount of words were going to save him.

Now that he was thinking about it, Myer realized that Lilly was sitting on his chest. The thought of his body and hers so close together quickened his pulse fast. Lilly suddenly seemed to realize it too. Just a few short moments before Myer’s body could take full reaction to the situation, Lilly climbed off of him. Myer kept his mouth shut, but deep down he was disappointed. The more primitive, urged side of himself wanted to have her back on top of him.

“Come on Myer,” Lilly said as she turned her back to him and walked away, “I didn’t beat you that badly.”

Feeling both ashamed and stupid about the thoughts he had let into his head about Lilly, Myer jumped to his feet and went after her. This was the second week that since she had moved in, and he was glad to have gotten to know her. Almost every night of the week, when Myer wasn’t forced to stay home by his dad, he was over at her place. A lot of the time, he would help Lilly indulge in her obsessions with sports. ‘You can’t really play a game with only one person.’ She had told him. Myer had always thought that he was alright when it came to sports. But when he matched against Lilly, she ran rings around him every time. Myer was so glad to have found a friend after all the years he had spent with next to no one. Especially one with such a cute smile.

He raced after her, and she lead him to a large trampoline near the far corner of the backyard. Looking over her shoulder at him, Lilly giggled and scrambled onto the trampoline. “Come on up Myer.” She called out to him as she started to bounce. “It’s fun.”

Myer watched as Lilly’s slender body lifted gracefully in the air. For someone that was supposed to be from a big city, she sure could out do him in nearly everything. Laughing, she jumped around a few times as she waved him to come up. Myer watched her go but stayed right at the edge.

Lilly frowned at him. “What Myer? Don’t like having fun?”

“This was fun.” Myer answered, working his eyes over the trampoline. “Back in the third grade.”

Lilly stopped bouncing and walked over to him. “You know what your problem is Myer?” Before he could answer, she shook a finger at him matter of fact like. “You always dismiss everything before you even try it.”

Myer frowned at what she told him. “Do I really do that?”

Lilly nodded her head. Standing at the edge of the trampoline, she dropped onto her butt and crossed her legs. A concerned look was on her face. “Another problem that you have Myer, is that you seem to worry too damn much about what other people think of you. Take this for example,” she waved her hand around the backyard, “All night, in fact almost every night that we’ve hanged out, you keep trying to put on this calm and cool act because you’re afraid that you’ll make an ass of yourself in front of me.” Myer gulped when he heard that. He backed away as he felt terror of having been caught red handed by Lilly. Embarrassment flooded his cheeks, and he knew that he had no chance of trying to hide it.

“What you need to realize Myer,” she said as if he had done nothing at all, “is that it’s much better to just be yourself. If you’re really true to yourself, then the people who spend time with you are the kind that you can trust.”

“Take me for example.” Lilly said, brushing a hand through her hair. “I can either worry about how strange I look to other people, or I can just go with my life and let people think what they want of me. Which do you think I do?”

Myer folded his arms. “Lilly, you’ve got to have the biggest amount of self esteem that I’ve ever seen in a person.”

Lilly grinned and held her hand out to him. “That’s right. Now how about it Myer. Let’s have some fun.”

He couldn’t argue with that. Slipping out of his shoes, Myer took her hand and climbed onto the trampoline. It was strange only at first, doing stuff that he hadn’t done since he was a kid. Before too long though, Myer was jumping around with Lilly, and surprised himself as he really began to enjoy it. When she wasn’t looking at him, Myer watched her. There was almost no way that he could describe how majestic her spectral hair danced about in the moonlight. Without putting much thought into it, Myer caught Lilly in mid-air and playfully slammed her into the trampoline. Slightly winded, they lay side by side, both of them chuckling as if they were five again. Their laughter slowly subsided, and a static kind of silence came between them. Myer didn’t know what to say, and he certainly was far too afraid to try and touch her. Not now, not in such a moment. As he felt his heart beat loudly in his chest, a part of him wished that the moment would never end. Regardless of what else happened, he knew that this moment, lying next to her in the dark, would stay with him for the rest of his life.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Lilly said in a dreamy voice.

Myer looked over at her, and saw that she was staring up. “What do you mean?” he asked.

Lilly pointed up. “The sky, the moon, the stars, the night.” Myer looked at the sky, and was overcome with the full magnitude of it. The vast expanse of darkness with the sprinkling of twinkling lights seemed to call out to him. It felt almost like falling into a dream. It dawned on Myer that of all the countless night skies he had seen, this one some how had an unexplainable, almost mystical feeling that fell upon him.

“Wow.” He whispered as his eyes moved from one constellation to another.

“Never really stared at the stars, huh?” Lilly said. “It’s amazing that something so vast and magnificent could be right in front of us, and we never even notice it. So many people shun the night without ever realizing how beautiful it really is.”

Myer cautiously glanced over at Lilly as she kept staring up at the stars. A warm sensation, a deep tingling that he had never before experienced flowed into him. Even if he had tried, there was no way that Myer could possibly pull his eyes away from how the moonlight glistened across Lilly’s face.

Man, she’s really beautiful.

“What was that?” Lilly asked, rolling over to look at him. Myer felt as if his eyes had nearly popped out of his skull and he could have sworn that he had died for a moment. The terrible fear of knowing that he had just whispered his deepest thoughts of Lilly petrified him.

“Uh…nothing.” He said quickly.

Lilly kept her eyes on him, as if she were practically begging him to tell her what he had said. Despite the captivating look she gave him, Myer just couldn’t summon up the courage to say what he felt. Lilly kept staring at him for a few more moments, then she flopped on her back again and closed her eyes.

“Just listen to it Myer.” She said. “It’s a world of gentleness, of peace. A world free of the harshness of the sun.”

Myer sat up, not really sure if he heard the last bit of what Lilly had said. “What did you say?” Lilly pressed a finger to her lips and motioned for Myer to lay back down. Feeling slightly uncomfortable, he eased himself back down and closed his eyes. At first, Myer wasn’t sure exactly what it was he trying to listen for. But it soon dawned on him what Lilly had been talking about. A soft breeze blew over the trampoline, and Myer felt goosebumps dot his skin that was exposed. As he listened to the air flowing over him and rustled the leaves of the trees surrounding them, the sounds of a multitude of crickets mixed in, and it created a sort of natural melody that he had never before realized existed. For a time, Myer lost himself in this new discovery. He was stirred from his semi-slumber with a light shaking of his shoulder.

His mind returned to him as if it had come out of a very deep slumber. When he blinked his eyes, the first thing that he saw looming over him was Lilly’s gentle face. “Quite an experience, huh?”

“Damn.” Myer whispered, sitting up. Lilly had been right. There was so much around him, and he had never even realized that it was there. As he thought on that, a great yawn escaped his lips.

“Quitting on me already, are you?” Lilly teased, poking his side.

An involuntary spasm went through him and Myer’s legs kicked wildly in the air for a few moments. Lilly giggled at the sight. When Myer collected himself, it became apparent to him just how tired he was when another great yawn came upon him. “Alright, that’s it.” Lilly said, jumping off of the trampoline. She pointed over to house and spoke in a motherly tone. “You march yourself right off to bed mister and get a good night’s rest.”

Myer couldn’t help but laugh at Lilly’s antics. All the same, he did know that he was very tired. It had been a very long Friday with two tests and the preparations of three more that he had next week. However, as Lilly lead him out to the gate along the side of her house, Myer realized that tomorrow was Saturday. Dad’s fun night.

“Hey Lilly,” he said as she swung the gate open. “Would you mind if I can come over tomorrow night. I mean for while.”

Lilly smiled at him. “Why would you even ask me a dumb question like that Myer, of course you can come over.”

“Thanks.” He said as he looked at her. Their eyes locked, and time itself seemed to stop all around them. At leas that’s the way Myer felt. He loved the mysterious way that her eyes seemed to sparkle with wonder at him, but at the same time he hated it because he didn’t know what she was really thinking. As he stood there still as a statue, he became aware just how close he was to Lilly, and how easy it would be for him to just lean forward a little and kiss her. His eyes darted to her ruby red lips, and nearly felt himself melt when he noticed how tender and moist they appeared to be.

Feeling his weight begin to collapse under his buckling knees, Myer broke from Lilly’s gaze. “Good night Lilly. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He moved away from her as fast as he could as waves of guilt began to rise up in his chest.

“Good night, Myer.” Lilly called out to him.

Her words stung him more than his own feelings. There was no mystery to him that there had been a hint of sadness in Lilly’s voice. As Myer slipped back inside his house, he felt as if he could have punched himself for being such a coward. Sleep didn’t come easy for him that night. Thoughts of Lilly plagued his mind as well as questions of what she meant to him. Lying in his bed with closed eyes, Myer knew that what was happening was something that he had never experienced before. Whether that was a good or bad thing, he didn’t know, but he suspected that he would find out soon enough.

The subsequent day following his wonderful evening was quite a bore. Myer lounged about his house, keeping himself only mildly entertained with television and video games. As the hours ticked by, he felt the level of energy in him rise. Each chiming of the old clock in the living room reminded him that he was closer to seeing her again. Resting on the couch, just staring up at the ceiling, Myer wondered if he would manage to work up the courage to do the one thing that he now found more terrifying than any nightmare he had experienced lately. He found it nearly impossible to believe that something as so simple as a kiss could be so hard to do.

Myer retreated to his room near sundown. Knowing that soon enough his dad would be getting himself ready for another night of wild fun for himself, he didn’t want to even see him. That didn’t mean that he couldn’t hear him wonder all around the house, despite his best efforts to tune his dad out. The best thing Myer heard since his dad came home was the slamming of the front door around 9 o’clock. And thus began another Saturday night. This time though, Myer wasn’t going to just lay around in misery.

He took a shower and cleaned himself up as best as he knew how. But having never gone out on dates before, he wasn’t exactly sure how he was supposed to make himself look. Still, he had enough sense to comb his wily hair down. Reasonably satisfied with his look, Myer practically ran out of his house.

Myer was so looking forward to seeing Lilly again, he was actually a little surprised when she answered the door. “Where’s your dad?” he asked, cautiously looking over her shoulder. Normally her dad was always the first one to the front door, each time with a new set of daggers to glare at him.

“He’s not here. Neither is my mother.” She answered with joy in her voice.

It took Myer a second to process what she had just told him. “How did that happen?” he asked, a little stunned by the surprise of the situation.

Lilly chuckled under her breath. “My mom said she was going out of her mind. She wanted to get out for a while.”

Myer walked past Lilly as she shut the door. “And you’re dad doesn’t mind me being here, alone with you?”

“It took a while to convince him.” Lilly said with a roll of her eyes. “My mom and I had to tell him that I’m a big girl now. Besides, you’re a nice boy.”

Myer laughed softly and rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“You guess so?” Lilly repeated, tagging him lightly in the ribs. Myer gave a half hearted cry of pain which sounded all too fake. The two of them exchanged a few laughs.

“So….” Myer said as he tried to clear his throat while not thinking about being alone in the house with Lilly. “What’s on the menu for tonight? Not some more sports. I’m getting tired of getting beaten by a girl.”

“Aw.” Lilly joked. “You just need to humble yourself a little more.”

Myer smiled at her. “Seriously, what are we doing?”

“It’s Saturday, movie night.” Lilly answered. She jabbed him in the shoulder. “Myer, you can’t tell me that you’re not looking forward to taking some down time with me. You get it easy tonight. Come on.”

She bolted up the stairs before he could say anything. Myer knew where she was going, and he felt his legs losing their strength. With his feet trembling, the climb going up the steps felt more like scaling up the side of a mountain. He wasn’t sure how long it took him to reach the top, he just hoped that it didn’t take too long. When he reached the top, he found Lilly standing in the doorway of what was obviously her room. She leaned against the edge with her arms folded.

“That took long enough.” She teased. Lilly motioned with her head to the room’s interior. “Come and help me pick one out.”

Myer gulp and bit his lip. Wishing that he wasn’t sweating so much, Myer walked into Lilly’s room. He literally stopped two feet inside. Covering almost every square inch of the walls were paintings and pictures. Myer looked closer at them and noticed that almost all of them were of bright sunny fields covered with flowers. Some were of the ocean, with the light of the sun reflecting off the top of the crashing waves. Most of the paintings were of waterfalls with glistening rainbows captured in the rising mist. When Myer looked at the ceiling, he whistled softly. A picture of enormous size was pinned to the surface, one of sunlight reflecting down through layers of clouds. Myer looked at Lilly with puzzlement.

She was hunched over a large collection of DVD’s. She seemed to notice the look Myer knew he had on his face. “Sorry if this bothers you.”

“Well…” Myer said, searching for the right words. “It’s quite a lot, don’t you think?”

“I like nature.” Lilly answered quickly, as if cutting him off before he could ask anything else. “I’ve never even been in the woods until just a few days ago. There isn’t much of anything in the city except asphalt and concrete.”

“Ok.” Myer said. There were other reasons for why Lilly had all these pictures everywhere. Despite his curiosity, Myer could just tell from the look in Lilly’s eyes that she wasn’t going to tell him. Finding himself at one dead end, Myer busied himself with looking at next to anything else he could find around her room that didn’t relate to the pictures.

He noticed that she had a stuffed polar bear sitting on her pillows. It almost seemed to be staring at him from behind those lifeless eyes, and its sowed smile looked more like a sinister smirk. Feeling very creeped out by the teddy bear, Myer looked away.

“Ah cool.” He said as he noticed the small refrigerator in the far corner of Lilly’s room. “You’ve got a fridge in your room.”

Myer started to walk over to see what was inside. He had hardly even started to walk when Lilly practically leapt in his way. “It’s empty right now.” She blurted out. Myer noticed a break in her voice. Despite her apparent fear of him being near it, she quickly threw up a smile at him and waved a DVD in his face. “Besides, I’ve got the movie.”

She didn’t even give him a chance to ask about the fridge. She took his hand and lead him out of the room in a hustle. Myer felt almost as if he were being dragged out. He glanced over his shoulder at the fridge one last time before he was nearly tumbling down the steps after Lilly. Myer didn’t know exactly what it was, but he was certain there was a lot more to that fridge than Lilly was trying to make it seem.

His curiosity for the sudden mystery vanished over the next few minutes as he found himself sitting beside Lilly on the comfortable couch with a large bowl of popcorn between them.

“What are we watching anyway?” Myer asked as the movie began.

She looked at him with a slight smile on her face. “Carrie.”

“Carrie?” Myer repeated, not really believing that they were about to watch that. Lilly just nodded her head and looked at the television. Why they were watching that, Myer didn’t know. Still, spending the length of a movie sitting next to her made it bearable.

They watched the movie in silence, though Myer felt his embarrassment rise at the shower scene. He didn’t even look at Lilly, but he could tell that she just had to know what was going on in his head. As the film progressed onward, Myer felt himself becoming increasingly detracted from the screen. More and more often, he kept stealing glances at Lilly.

As the prom night portion of the movie began to roll, Lilly leaned her head against his shoulder. Myer’s entire body stiffened at the contact, but it quickly relaxed at the feel of her touch. He thought of telling her something, but instead he chose to keep on with the silent act. Staring at the screen without really looking at it, Myer tried to swallow a near choking lump in his throat as he slowly slide his arm around Lilly. To his much needed relief, she only pulled herself closer to him as he wrapped his arm around her. His day dreams ended when the climax of the movie came. He literally felt himself getting nauseous as a bucket of pig’s blood was dumped all over Carrie. The blood rattled his nerves, and made him think of his mother.

The memories vanished when Myer felt his shoulder getting wet. He also heard a few light sobs from Lilly. He glanced down at her, and couldn’t believe that he saw her crying.

“Lilly,” he whispered. “Why are you crying?”

“The movie.” She said in tiny voice. “It’s so sad.”

Myer was perplexed by Lilly’s statement. He looked again at the movie, and cringed at the sight of Carrie’s rampage. “How can you possibly say that’s sad.” He asked, pointing at the television. “She’s killing everyone. It’s horrible.”

Lilly hit a button on the remote in her lap and the screen went blank. She looked up at him. “Didn’t you ever think about it?” she asked, blinking away a few tears.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, how it would feel to be like that.” Lilly said with a sniffle. “To not have anyone at all in the world to care about you, not even your own mother. And then when you finally believe that there’s someone who does care, you’re world is shattered apart. Don’t you see, Carrie wasn’t a monster because of what she could do. People made her like that, by treating her like dirt. Just because she was different.”

It then dawned on Myer what Lilly was getting at. “You mean you see yourself in Carrie.”

Lilly pulled away from him and sat up. “Myer, look at me. I’m not like anyone else. When people look at me, they don’t see a girl, they see a freak.”

“I thought you said you didn’t care what other people thought of you.” Myer said.

“It’s easy to say that, when you don’t have to deal with the torment. The kids of my neighborhood used to egg my window, they would call me all kinds of things. And they always ran away whenever they saw me.”

As Myer sat there watching her, he saw fresh tears begin to pour out. Lilly looked down at her lap as a few droplets fell to her legs.

Seeing her suffer like that, Myer found a strength that he never knew he had. He lifted Lilly’s chin so she could look at him. “Hey.” He said, whipping away the tears with his thumb. “Lilly, there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re fine just the way you are.”

A sparkle filled her eyes. “You mean it. Do you really mean that Myer?”

“Really really.” He replied with a genuine smile. Their eyes locked. Myer had seen enough movies about that crap of time stopping that he thought it was a redicoulous pile of fictional trash. But as he sat there, staring into the captivating grey eyes of Lilly, time unbelievably did feel as if it had stopped. With his heart pounding, Myer leaned towards her. Lilly’s eyes appeared to have read into his very soul, for she closed her eyes and parted her lips slightly. When he was just inches away, he could feel her breath escape her lips and brush over his own. With his veins pumping, Myer shut his eyes and braced himself for his very first kiss.

The sound of the front door unlocking snapped his eyes open. So did Lilly’s. Her cheeks turned a deep shade of red and she pulled away from him in startled fright. So did Myer.

Dammit! Why did you have to come home now? His mind screamed louder than he had ever known.

Lilly was fast to recover. She was on her feet and moving before Myer could even straighten himself out. When her parents walked in, Myer felt as if he had been put before a firing squad. Her father glared at him without so much as a word. On the other hand, Lilly’s mother was far more trusting.

“Hi sweety.” She said, kissing Lilly’s cheek. When her mother looked his way, she had nothing but smiles for him. “Hello Myer. Did you two have a fun evening?”

“It was pretty good.” Lilly answered for him.

Lilly’s dad walked over to the couch and loomed over him. “What exactly did you two do?”

Myer licked his lips as he tried to find the strength to answer. The courage he had found less than a minute ago had drained out of him completely. Much to his needed relief, Lilly scooted herself between the two of them. “Dad!” she said in a high voice. “Stop scaring Myer. All we did was watch a movie.”

Her dad looked as if he was going to say something, but her mother cut him off. “Honey,” she said as she placed a delicate hand on his shoulder, “can’t you just trust your own daughter?”

The way his face was contorted, Myer doubted very much that her father wanted to give either of them the benefit of trust. Still, he submitted to his wife’s pleas and turned away. “I’m going to bed.” He said flatly.

Lilly and her mother watched him go up stairs and disappear into the room. Lilly’s mother faced Myer. “You’re a very brave boy to keep putting up with that.”

“Thanks.” Myer replied, looking at the wall as he felt his cheeks grow hot.

“Lilly,” her mother said, turning to her, “I think it’s about time that Myer went home. It is getting pretty late.” Myer glanced at the clock on the wall. It was only eleven. He thought that was very odd, considering he had stayed out later with Lilly than that. Myer noticed from the corner of his vision that Lilly and her mother were looking at each other dead on. There was some kind of understanding that was silently passing between their gazes. But for the life of Myer, there was no way that he could figure out what it was.

“I’m sorry Myer.” Lilly said. She had a very genuine look of regret in her eyes, but there was definitely something else. “My mom’s right, it is getting late.”

“Alright.” Myer said with regret of his own. “I don’t want to impose myself.”

As he went to leave, Lilly moved to his side. “I’ll walk you out.”

“Mind if I go out the back?” he asked. Lilly nodded. That was good. Myer had no intention of going out the front, and seeing another mystery car in the driveway. In fact, he decided that he would just crawl up the tree and go through his window, bypassing any more hurtful nonsense that his dad could inflict on him. Lilly kept true to her word and walked him out to the back porch.

“Thanks for having me over.” Myer said as he stared into her eyes. “I can’t tell you how much it meant to me.”

“You know I was glad to have you here.” She answered.

Myer thought about trying to work up the courage to do something, but somehow could find the lost nerve. Before he dared to even try anything, Lilly moved up to him and wrapped her arms around him. Stunned for only a moment, Myer recovered and brought his arms around Lilly in a gentle embrace. It felt like an eternity with them standing out there in the darkness, with their bodies pressed against each other. All fear and worry left Myer, and the only thing that was left was the thudding of his own heart and the alien tingle that spread throughout his chest.

It wasn’t long before Lilly pulled away. As she moved away, Myer could have almost kissed her. But when she looked up at him, he lost his nerve again. “Goodnight Myer.” Lilly whispered. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, Lilly.” Myer said in a soft voice as he brushed back a few stands of her otherworldly hair so he could see all of her delicate face. He took a step towards this girl that had completely captured his mind, indeed he now also believed his heart as well, hoping to express to her how he really felt. She backed away, sliding halfway into the door.

“I’m sorry Myer, but you really have to go.” Myer was hurt by her words. Thoughts of himself faded when he noticed that Lilly seemed a little ill. Impossible as it may have seemed, her skin was actually paler than he remembered it and he could see perspiration dotting her forehead.

Myer meant to ask her about it, but she closed the door and was off before he so much as uttered a word. Sighing, Myer slumped his shoulders and walked towards the large tree at the edge of the fence. He began to wonder just how long it was going to take before his dad’s wild night of fun ended, and how badly it would hurt his feelings. But as he walked off the porch, a twinkle of light caught his attention.

Looking to the source of the glitter, Myer shook his head. “Lilly, you dope.” He went over to the table and scooped up the small wrist watch that Lilly always seemed to carry on her. Myer didn’t know how much it was worth, but he took a wild guess by the look of it that it was a lot. Myer hated the thought of just walking back into a house he just had to leave, but he knew that he didn’t want to just leave it outside. Besides, he was only going to be a minute. It was just as simple as going in, giving her the watch, and leaving.

Convincing himself that it wasn’t as bad as his conscious made it seem, Myer gripped the watch tightly in his hand and went back in. He only had a foot in the door when he noticed that the whole house was strangely silent. He looked around the entire downstairs, but there was no one to be found. That’s when he heard the noises coming from upstairs.

Myer briskly walked up the steps without much thought. He could see that the door to Lilly’s room was opened a crack. As he reached for the knob, he could hear Lilly’s voice and her mother’s.

“Are you ready sweetie?”

“Yes, momma. I just want to get this over with.”

Myer heard a tiny whimper of pain. Unable to stop himself, he pushed the door open and stepped in.

“Hey, Lilly, you forgot your…” Those words died in Myer’s throat when he saw what was going on inside the room and his eyes widened.

Lilly was lying on her bed. Her mother was standing beside her bed. There was a long pole with a large bag of red liquid dangling from a hook right next to her. A tiny tube ran down from the bag, right into an IV in Lilly’s arm. He couldn’t help but notice that the tube was filled with the liquid from the bag. For a moment, there was nothing but stunned silence between the three of them.

“Get out.” Lilly said in a barely audible voice. Myer didn’t move, he was too shocked by what he was seeing to even think about moving. “Get out!” Lilly screamed this time. The sudden ferocity in her voice made Myer jump. He took a step back, with his whole body trembling. “GET OUT!” Lilly shouted at the top of her lungs. She snatched up a large book lying at her side and flung it at Myer.

The large volume buzzed by Myer’s head, causing him to drop the watch. When it smashed against the wall with a heavy thud, Myer suddenly found the strength he had lost to move. He dashed from the room, down the steps, and out the door. He didn’t even hesitate to fling the back door open in a blind panic, even as he heard Lilly’s father screaming from upstairs about what was going on.

Myer didn’t even think about going up the tree. He practically leapt over the fence, and tumbled into a painful heap on the other side. The pain was numbed by the surging of panic that was overwhelming him. Heedless of what his dad would do, indeed disturbing his father was the last thing on his mind, Myer rushed into his house and up to his room with a racket that could have waked the dead. He thought he heard his father scream something from behind his closed door, but he wasn’t very aware of anything around him. Myer slammed his door shut and locked it, leaning his body against the frame. After a few tattered breaths, he ran over to his window, latched it shut, and dropped the blinds. Falling back on the bed, with his body shaking and sweat pouring out from his cold skin, Myer tried desperately to piece together what he had just seen.

It had all happened so fast that he almost couldn’t remember anything. Except that bag of red liquid that was running into Lilly’s arm. The answer came to him as if an invisible hand had snapped its fingers next to his ear. “It was blood.” He gasped, hardly able to believe his own words. Myer was no expert in medicine, but he had remembered seeing IV bags of blood on the T.V. several times. The similarities were undeniable. Fear gripping every part of him, Myer dared to peek out of the blinds only once. Lilly’s house seemed so dark and empty, a sudden turnaround from the homely place he had just been.

“What…the hell is she?” he asked himself without really expecting an answer. The more he thought about it, the more all the little clues he had experienced over the past two weeks seemed to just come together for him. Not once in all that time had he ever seen Lilly outside of her house during the day. She was so pale that she always looked half dead. And now this bit with the blood. Myer tried to find some other explanation, some other way of reasoning for why things seemed the way they were. Despite all of his attempts, he kept returning to the same answer.

“Can…can she really be a….a vampire?” he asked himself again, but was too terrified to try to answer.