“That was the general idea,” Casper said.
“No, he was dead before I fuckin’ got there,” I clarified.
“Say what?” Grease asked, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table.
“Went during the day, saw him walkin’ to a restaurant down the street. Went inside his room to check shit out, and everything was cool. I went back last night, and the motherfucker was dead already.”
“Someone get to him before us?” my dad asked.
“No, dude was just dead. No wounds. Died in his ratty ass hotel bed.” I lifted my hands in confusion. Even after laying awake most of the night, and hours of going over it in my head as I drove, I still couldn’t figure out how the fuck it had happened.
Casper coughed, and then suddenly, every man around the table was roaring with laughter.
“No shit?” Grease gasped.
“No shit,” I replied, a small grin pulling at the corners of my mouth.
My smile got wider as they continued to laugh. “And I did good, too,” I said over the noise. “I was like fuckin’ James Bond.”
That made them laugh even harder.
“In and out, easy.”
“That’s what she said,” Cam muttered.
“Alright,” my dad yelled, lifting his hand for silence. “Alright, enough.” He shook his head and wiped a hand down his beard. “Everyone back to work. I gotta go tell Poet this shit.”
I stayed in my seat as everyone left the room, slapping my shoulders and giving me shit for my botched first kill. Technically, it wasn’t my first, but pre-meditated was different than shooting back at someone trying to take you out.
“You good?” my dad asked, laying his hand on the top of my head.
“Are you kidding?” I asked, scoffing. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Right.” His lips twitched, and he slapped the back of my head lightly as he kept walking. “Take the day off, anyway.”
I leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling as the clubhouse grew quiet through the open door behind me. Now that I was done doing what I needed to, my thoughts went right back to Lily.
Chapter 10
Lily
“What the fuck, Lily?” Rose hissed as she slammed open my bedroom door. “I waited for you for like half-an-hour!”
“Oh, shit,” I said, sitting up in bed. “Sorry, I skipped last period and came home early.”
“You could have told me.” She threw her backpack on the bed and huffed in frustration. “How the hell did you get home?”
“Brent drove me.”
“Say what? Brent, the guy who stood you up at prom last year?”
“He was leaving anyway, so I caught a ride.” I shrugged. I didn’t have to explain myself. I had a few classes with Brent, and he was actually a pretty nice guy. We hadn’t ever talked about the prom disaster, but he really didn’t seem like the type to stand someone up without a good reason. If he was choosing not to tell me why, I wasn’t going to push it. It was obviously private.
“You’re being crazy,” Rose said, looking at me in confusion. “This is like the fourth time you’ve skipped this month.”
“Oh, whatever,” I mumbled. “You skip all the time.”
“Yeah, but you don’t.”
“I’ve already gotten in to most of the schools I applied for,” I said, pushing her bag off my bed with my feet. “And it’s not like I’m going to fail any classes. I’m so far ahead, I could stop going altogether and still pass.”
“You’ve bailed on me a bunch of times,” Rose said darkly, pushing at my feet. “What the fuck?”
“Are you pissed that I skipped today, or are you just feeling left out because I don’t follow you around anymore?” I asked.
Rose jerked like I’d slapped her. “You’re an asshole,” she said tightly. “Fuck you, Lily.”
She quickly picked up her bag and threw it over her shoulder, not even bothering to look at me again before she left my room.
I just sat there like an idiot, resentment not letting me open my mouth to apologize. I was so frustrated that I was pretty much treating everyone around me like crap, and I couldn’t seem to help it.
After years of relying on everyone so much, I wanted to do shit on my own. I wanted to be by myself once in a while. I didn’t want to tell people where I was every second of every day. I didn’t want Rose to wait half-an-hour after school because she just assumed that I’d be riding home with her.
No one asked me what I wanted. No one thought about how I might want to do my own thing. Everyone just acted like I was the same Lily, and I wasn’t. I didn’t need someone to lead me around anymore. I didn’t need help the way I used to, and no one seemed to notice. They just kept helping and hovering and treating me like a little kid.