NOVEL NEXT Chapter 22: Home Date
It was Saturday and Lady was sitting at home waiting to be picked up. He had talked with Lily a bit more on Friday and she had agreed to pick him up at 12:00 today. Well, it was more accurate to say that her mom was picking Lady up. As he was looking out the window and waiting for her to arrive, he felt a tinge of nervousness. This would mark the first time that Lady would be visiting a friend's house.
The honk of a car shook him from his thoughts. Lady glanced out the window and noticed that a red SUV had pulled up in front of the apartment. Lady walked outside and locked the door behind him. He descended the stairs and approached the car. There was a young lady with long dark black hair and piercing green eyes. She smiled as Lady grew closer, he opened the car's rear door and sat in the back on the passenger's side. "Lady right?" The woman asked.
"Yes miss.." Lady paused, realizing he didn't know the woman's name. "Abigail, Abigail Hill" she said. It was the first time he had heard Lily's last name. "Thank you for picking me up, Miss Hill." He said as she pulled out and began driving back to her house. Renee, who was curious about the boy Lily had suddenly invited over, began to question him. "How did you and my daughter meet?" Lady tensed up as he remembered, he had promised to keep her condition a secret so he couldn’t outright tell Lily’s mom about how they had met. "I just happened to meet her when I was walking to school. She was very nice to me and we just happened to hit it off."
"I see. I was so surprised when she asked if she could invite over a friend, and what's more, a boy." She smiled as the next words she spoke slipped out of her mouth, "she initially asked if her friend could stay the night but I thought that would be a little much. Of course, it’s not that I don’t trust you or anything. Rather, I’m more worried about my daughter. She can be a bit rough around the edges.” Lady began to imagine staying the night at Lily’s house but quickly swatted the thoughts out of his head. “Not at all Miss Hill, Lily is very nice, I don’t think she’s rough.” As he spoke, the boy began to remember when she had tackled him in the gym. Well not intentionally rough, he thought.
Abigail navigated them through a nice suburban neighborhood before pulling into the driveway in front of a nice home. Their one story looked rather quaint flanked by large oak trees surrounded by similarly shaped suburban homes. Abigail and Lady exited the car and walked down the small stone path that led to the front door. She opened the door and beaconed for Lady to enter. “Lily’s probably holed up in her room. It’s the last door on the left. Just hollow if you need anything ok Lady” The boy nodded and thanked her before venturing down the hallway. There were two doors on the left, the first had a colorful sign hanging with the name Cory. Lady assumed that it belonged to her younger brother.
The second and last door on the left was closed and unmarked. Lady knocked on the door hesitantly before taking a step back. The door swung open rather violently and Lily said “Geez dad I told you I’ll clean up before he…. Get’s ….. Here.” It was at that point that both Lady realized and Lily remembered the state she was in. Shirtless, wearing only a plain bra and pajama bottoms. A hydrating sheet mask which had been hastily applied several minutes earlier could be seen clinging to the girl's face. Her hair was unkempt and messy though the hair brush in her left hand implied she had intended to style it. It was truly the last state a girl her age would want to be seen in by her crush. The door was slammed shut after what seemed like ages to the two young teens and it felt like nearly a millennia before it was opened again.
After standing in the hall for roughly a minute or two, Lily opened the door and invited Lady into her room. In that span of time, she had practically transformed visually and been completely destroyed emotionally. “I’m sorry about that, I guess I lost track of time” she muttered as she sat down on her bed and patted the spot next to her. Her room was rather plain and not as colorful or flowery as Lady had imagined a girls room would be. There was a shelf of books that also sported several trophies of various sizes. A desk and dresser sat against the wall opposite the bookshelf and were surrounded by various framed photos hung on the wall.
“Are those all from track competitions?” Lady asked as he pointed at the trophies. “Yea. Nothing recent though. High School is a bit tougher. We almost made it to state last year though.” Lady admired people with high athleticism as much as he envied them. “I still think it’s cool.” Lady said as he smiled. “Maybe I could go to your next competition?” Lily was ecstatic to hear his remark but replied. “No way, that would be way too embarrassing.” “Embarrassing for me to be there?” Lady asked, disheartened. Lily jumped up from the bed shaking her hands as she said. “No, that’s not what I meant. I just thought it would be embarrassing if I didn’t do well and you saw.”
“I’m sure you would do really well.” the boy said as his eyes sparkled. “ You practice every morning by running in the park right?” “Thank you Lady” She said as she pulled him into an unexpected hug. She released him as she said. “Let’s head to the living room and watch something. I mean, that’s the whole reason you came over right.”
“Ok” Lady replied as he followed her out of the room and back down the hall. The two sat next to each other on the couch and Lily grabbed the remote from the coffee table in front of her. She opened a streaming service application and began browsing through the selection of anime. “What do you want to watch?” She asked him as she scrolled over various thumbnails.” “We can watch whatever you want. I haven't seen many sports anime. I mostly watch fantasy anime.” She decided on a basketball shonen series and clicked on the first episode.
It was somewhat embarrassing showing what was admittedly one of her favorite shows to Lady. Her gaze kept drifting from the television screen to him. The smile plastered on his face indicated that he was enjoying the show. She pulled herself closer to him. Her face was inches from the side of his head. Their thighs were touching. Lily’s breath hastened.
Lady suddenly began to turn his head. Lily pulled back, turning away from him and pressing her back into the couch. Did he notice she thought as she began to panic. “The first episode was pretty good, do you want to watch the next one?” Lady asked. Lily finally looked at the screen and realized that the episode had indeed ended. She queued up the next one of the remote and hit play while breathing a slight sigh of relief. “It gets way better later on. The arc where they face off against the panthers is the best part.”
“Hey no spoilers,” Lady said as the next episode began playing. “My bad, I’m just really excited for us to get to that part. It’s not till the second season though.” “We’ll get there eventually,” Lady reassured her. “Let's see how far we can get through the first season today.” The two watched several more episodes as the time flew by. Lily eventually was able to pull her attention away from Lady and focus on the show. She quickly became invested again and found herself constantly on the edge of her seat.
Even though she consciously tried to avoid it, Lily still found herself occasionally glancing at Lady. Lady also seemed to be heavily invested in the show and was noticeable when expressing his emotions. He was smiling throughout and would often clench his fists when he was excited or put his left hand in front of his mouth when he was nervous.
After the show had finished, the two collapsed back into the couch, emotionally exhausted from having binged the entire first season. Lily invited Lady back to her room at which point she also grabbed snacks and drinks for the two of them. Lady sat on the chair at her desk while Lily sat on her bed. Lady investigated the myriad of novels on her bookshelf and inquired about several volumes of manga she had. They were of course, sports manga that though Lily's collection was rather small as she much preferred watching anime over reading manga.
Lady recommended several series which she tried to take mental notes of. As he was running through the series in his head, Lady’s hand accidentally bumped into the cup of soda sitting on Lily’s desk that he had been sipping from. It toppled over and fizzy brown spilled out before splashing onto Lady’s shirt and arms. “Oh.. where's the restroom?” He asked somewhat embarrassedly. “The door on the left. Me and my brother share a Jack and Jill bathroom” Lily replied, “I can get you a spare shirt if you want? you look like you're about my brothers size so his stuff should fit you.”
“Yea if you don’t mind.” he said as he stood up and turned to her right. She realized at that moment that she had forgotten to specify it was the door on her left. The door to his left was the closet. The very same closet where she had quickly stashed the hoodie and clothes she had taken from him. She tried to yell “Wait” but his hand was already on the doorknob. Before he swung it fully open, she grabbed him from behind and pulled him back.
The action caused the two to spin around and Lady fell back onto her bed. Lily fell on top of him but caught herself, just enough for her face to hover a few inches above his while her arms pinned him down. The unexpected moment caused the two teens' hearts to beat loudly as they stayed suspended in the intimate state for what seemed like an eternity. “Lily, can I have a word with you?” A familiar voice called out. Both Lady and Lily turned their heads and recognized the person standing in the doorway. Lily’s mom.
