in that way. I had just hoped.” Malaya stretched her legs out as far as they would go, and wiggled her feet clearly ready to move on with life. Malaya didn’t dwell on things.
“Oh, good,” Lily said letting out a sigh of relief. “I only started liking him recently, and I never would have done anything about it because I knew you liked him. I wouldn’t have brought it up at all if he hadn’t told me he liked me.”
“I knew that he had a thing for you from day one. The way he looks at you is totally different from the way he looks at me. It always has been.” While Lily hadn’t noticed the difference before, in hindsight she could see that it was true. How could she not have seen his admiration for her? Was she just too inexperienced in the boy arena to know the signs that seemed so apparent to everyone else, or was she just too preoccupied with her bizarre set of circumstances that she didn’t have any room left for the intricacies of romance? Maybe it was a little of both.
***
After her talk with Malaya, Lily felt tremendously relieved, but as the day wore on she felt increasingly worried about her situation. Throughout the day she felt waves of fear rush over her entire body whenever the worst possible outcomes popped into her head. She didn’t know what that strange man wanted. Clearly he wanted to kidnap her, and he wanted to use her gift somehow, but she still had no clue as to what he would want her to do and for how long. If he did succeed in kidnapping her, how long would he keep her? Would it be for a month, a year, or for the rest of her life? That was probably what scared her the most. Not knowing. Every day she tried to clear her mind in an attempt to hear his thoughts, but she was never successful. She knew that he had found a way to evade her, but she always tried anyway. She had also attempted numerous times to hear Dean’s thoughts, hoping that she might prevent some of the physical and emotional damage he inflicted almost daily. She hadn’t had much success with that either, because most of his harassment was unplanned, and it was nearly impossible for Lily to get there in time to do anything. At first she felt like a failure. Lily wanted to use her gift for good, but she couldn’t seem to intervene in even the simplest issues.
“Lily?” Lily jumped slightly as her English teacher, Ms. Moore, called her name. “Lily, what are your thoughts on the poem?” Clearly her teacher had noticed she hadn’t been paying attention.
“I… I thought it was good, and was a perfect example of….typical American literature.” Normally Ms. Moore wouldn’t have let her off the hook with such a vague answer, but luckily that day she must have been feeling generous because she didn’t question her any further. For the remainder of class Lily doodled Landon’s name across a page in her blue spiral notebook. She wanted to pay attention, but between her thoughts of her relationship with Landon, and the man who wanted to kidnap her, she just couldn’t. After class Ms. Moore pulled her aside.
“Lily, you are one of my best students in this class, but I’ve noticed you’ve been a little distracted lately. Is there anything wrong?” What could Lily say to her? She certainly couldn’t say anything about her gift or the man who wanted to throw her in the back of his black sedan.
“I’ve had a lot on my mind,” she said hoping it would suffice.
“This isn’t normal behavior for you. Is there anything I can do? Are you having problems at home? Is the situation with your aunt not working out very well?”
“No, it’s nothing like that.”
“Well what is it then,” she said staring at Lily over her silvery rimmed glasses. She wasn’t going to give up.
“Um, I seem to have my first boyfriend. Well, maybe I have a boyfriend. I’m not entirely sure we’re official yet, but it’s headed in that direction I think,” Lily replied hoping Landon was okay with revealing their relationship to her teacher. It wasn’t like she was announcing it over the intercom for the whole school to hear, and it was an emergency. Sort of.
“Oh, that’s wonderful dear,” Ms. Moore exclaimed grinning excitedly. “Is he someone I know?”