he felt this way about his work family, Lily wondered how much more he actually cared for his real family.
“I know what you mean,” she said watching his kind, loving face morph back into his business face.
“I guess my biggest concern is how much the job would affect my normal life. I don’t want to eat, sleep, and breathe it. That might be alright for you, but it’s not for me.” Growing up Lily had never been good at asserting herself, but somehow ever since she had woken up from the coma she had become more courageous and wasn’t as afraid to say what she thought. The gift she had been given was molding her into a new, better version of Lily. A version she had never thought was possible. She was finally beginning to believe in herself, and to care about herself enough to know that she was worth standing up for.
“I understand,” he said clearly disappointed. “Would you be interested in working for me over the summers and possibly holiday breaks?”
“I think I might be able to manage that.”
“Wonderful,” Mr. Turner said happily. “I would love to have you go on every job over the summer, but I’m sure you will want to spend time with your friends and family, so I will let you know which ones are most important, and we will go from there. How does that sound?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Chapter 27
Lily slammed her locker door shut. She was back to her normal life just as she had wanted. The first several days back to school were almost torture for her after her New York adventure. How had she ever thought that she would want to come back to this? Half her classes were boring or made absolutely no sense to her, and she was realizing more than ever how dumb some of the other students at school were. All they cared about was looking good, being popular or making the football team. These things all seemed so superficial to her now. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with wanting those things, but it was as if that was all they lived for. She was realizing that there were so many more important things in life.
When school was finally over Lily needed to unload her restless thoughts and went to find Malaya at their lockers, but she wasn’t there. Lily waited a few minutes and decided that she must have gotten held up by a teacher. Lily made her way down the hall to see if Landon was ready to go home. Even though she no longer needed protection from her psycho stalker, the pattern they had established still stood. Monday was a Landon day. Tomorrow she would ride home with Malaya.
“Hi,” she said approaching his locker.
“Hey,” he replied happily. His mood had improved considerably since they had left New York. It had gotten better after their talk in the breakfast room, but he still had had a dark cloud hanging over him that didn’t fully go away until he was back in Texas. “Ready to go?”
“Yep,” she smiled and he kissed her quickly before they ambled down the hallway. They were halfway to the exit when Lily caught sight of a familiar pink shirt. It looked exactly like the one Malaya had just bought in New York.
“Wait,” she said and then backtracked to where she had seen the shirt from around the corner. As she rounded the corner she saw Malaya in the arms of Robert the gorgeous nerd.
“What?” Lily couldn’t manage to get anything else out. When had this happened?
“Oh,” Malaya said in surprise. She looked just as shocked as Lily was. Embarrassment flooded her face. “Hi, um, Lily, you know Robert don’t you?”
“Yeah, hi” Lily said still in shock.
“Nice to see you again,” Robert said with a gorgeous smile spreading across his face. “How’s algebra going?”
“Alright, I guess,” Lily smiled back.
“This is Lily’s boyfriend Landon.” Malaya said proud that she was able to get the introduction out.
“Hi,” Robert said cautiously.
“Hey man,” Landon said extending his hand for a friendly handshake. At first Lily was surprised at Robert’s reaction to Landon, but then remembered that Landon had been involved in tormenting Robert throughout high school.
Robert reluctantly shook Landon’s hand
The four of them stood in silence not knowing what to say next.
“We should be going,” Landon smiled beginning to gently pull Lily after him
“It was nice to see you,” Lily said as they retreated down the hallway.
“See you later,” Malaya called after them.
“When