"LILLY! Finally!" Dakota said with a laugh as she gave Lillian a big bear hug and guided her into Jessica's house. The other first arrivals and Jessica quickly ran in to join the hug.

"CAN'T... BREATHE," Lillian managed to choke out. The girls immediately let go, but all burst into a fit of giggles. How could sleepovers do this to a girl? It was like some magic spell to make everyone go crazy.

Real quick, Lilly mentally checked off who'd already arrived; Dakota (of course), Sophia, and Maddie. Jessica, of course, was present as well, and her twin brother Calvin ("It's Cal," he always corrected. "Calvin makes me sound like some old loon." Jessica would always agree with a smirk and say that's exactly what he was).

Calvin only stood their squealy get-togethers because he had a massive, obvious crush on one of them, Jessica said. Which one of them, she wasn't sure in the slightest. But that wasn't a matter begging for attention. There was something else that everyone wanted to talk about much more.

"Why didn't you tell poor Maddie and Soph about Tim?" Jessica asked, working her annoyingly believable gift of puppy eyes.

     "What about Timmy Tim Tim?" Sophia asked, flashing a curious, conniving smirk. "Has Lill Lill professed her undying love for him?"

     "Actually," she spat out before she could change her mind but felt her cheeks flush red anyway, "yeah...?"

     She hadn't meant it to come out sounding like a question, but her voice had become so unsteady it came out that way against her will.

     Sophia and Maddie both squealed.

     "NO WAY. NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY!" Maddie said through her squeals.

     "I knew it! I always did! No one can deny it. I so called it. I said something about it to Lilly last year before I left, I think. Right?" she asked, looking to Lillian for confirmation of her win.

     Lilly wracked her brain, then snapped her fingers and said, "Yup! I remember that. It was right. In. Front. Of. Him."

     Sophia sighed happily. "Ah yes. Good times."

     "So," Maddie said excitedly, "what'd he say?!"

     "Actually," Lillian said to the wall, "he said it first."

     "WHAT?!" Maddie squealed again. "THAT'S SO INSANE AND AMAZING AND SINCE WHEN HAS HE LOVED YOU?!"

     "Hang on," Dakota said, "Lilly's forgetting the catch."

     "Oh no," Maddie groaned. "There's a catch?"

     "Yup," Jess jumped in. "He's broken her heart like a billion times."

     "I thought it was only once? But hey, I only knew they said they liked each-other, so I guess I've been missing a lot," Maddie commented.

     "It HAS only been once," Lillian clarified, shooting Jessica a dirty look to which she shrugged and mouthed an oh-so-not-sorry "Sorry."

     "What's only been once?" Ria asked from the still-open-from-Lilly's-arrival door. She glared playfully as she sauntered inside and plopped down on the sofa where everyone had sat down after she shut the door. "Did someone start swapping secrets without me?"

     "It was THEIR FAULTS," Lillian said, gesturing at everyone else. "I wanted to wait for you. But did they listen? Nooo."

     Jessica and Maddie feigned hurt, innocent gasps while Dakota and Sophia rolled their eyes and laughed.

     Ria seemed totally unfazed as she flopped over, her head landing in Lilly's lap, and said with a sly smirk as she brushed her hair out of her face, "Let's hear that secret thou is hiding from me!"

     Lillian rolled her eyes but couldn't help a grin at Ria's cheesy Yorkshire accent she'd been toying around with recently. Still, she shoved her friend off her with a laugh. "No!"

     "Oooooo, I'll tell her!" Sophia said, flashing Lilly a smug grin.

As Sophia told the story she was sure she'd repeat again and again and ruin her life, Lillian buried her face in her hands as she always did whenever someone so much as mentioned Timmy and failed to suppress a few embarrassed giggles.

When Sophia finished with a dramatic "and so, my ship has become reality!" Ria look at Lilly and said, "Oooo, Lilly has a boyfriend!"

Lillian felt heat flare in her cheeks but tried to ignore it as she said casually, "Yeah, so?"

Dakota reacted immediately with a look that said clearly, "Really? Seriously?" while the others exchanged a look and echoed Ria's "oooooo." Lilly responded to all with an embarrassed eye roll, hiding her face in her hands as she loved so much to do.

Saving the day, Dakota laughed and said, "Girls, girls, I thought we had a whole fun thing planned? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm up for teasing my bestie any day" —she flashed a mischievous smile at Lilly— "but... my pizza is my life. I live for my pizza. And how much pizza have I gotten? NONE."

Sophia shook her head in disapproval. "Tsk tsk tsk, now that is just unacceptable. Jess, we need to fix this tragedy!"

Five minutes later, all seven girls laid on the couch, groaning but oh so happy.

"Ahhh, that was so good. But girls, we had a plan! I have seen no ice cream. What's up with that?!" Dakota demanded to know.

"I'm stuffed," Ria groaned.

"Ice cream," Sophia murmured dreamily from her flopped-out pose on the couch.

"We shalt go forth to the kitchen to bringeth back ice cream," Lillian declared. Then a ridiculous smile broke out as she said, "Yummy!"

Giggles floated around the room, but all went silent as the lights began to flicker and the door burst open with a loud SLAM! There was a dark silhouette, then the lights flickered back on at their fullest brightness, to which Lilly rolled her eyes. She knew perfectly well who the drama queen was.

"People, people! You were gonna eat ice cream without me?!" Lizzy shouted accusingly with an exaggerated Southern accent. Lilly wished her little sister would be a little less dramatic. It was getting far too extravagant when she simply entered a room.

"How did you even know we were gonna have some ice cream? Did Calvin spill? Because I swear, if he's been listening in—"

"Lilly, calm down," Jessica said with a cheery laugh. "Of course it was Calvin. But we have an agreement."

     She said the last part with such a smug smile that Lillian just had to ask, no matter how awkward, "What? Did you threaten to tell Lizzy he likes her if he tells anything important or something...?"

     To no one's surprise, Lilly was sure, Jess nodded with a guilty sort of victorious vibe about it.

     "Um, ice cream?" Lizzy interrupted in her exaggerated Southern accent with a tiny smile. Knowing she'd leave as soon as she got her ice cream, Lilly clapped her hands in anticipation. "YES."

     It wasn't that she disliked her sister (most of the time). Quite the opposite. They were really close. But kind of polar opposites. Lizzy was the awesome, funny go-getter. Lillian was the overly-cautious, anti-social one.

     The present snapped back into focus when Jessica's mum brought out a big container of ice cream for then to dish out amongst themselves. Everyone was all too happy to carry that out.

     A minute or so later, all the girls ate happily, giggling at how the majority had all chosen chocolate. And, for quite a while, no one spoke, too busy enjoying the life-changing treat.

     Grace—who'd arrived just before everyone went ahead and ate the pizza—was the first to break the silence with her awesome giggle-snort.

     "What?" Jess asked, a rather confused-looking smile appearing on her lips.

     "Nothing. I was just thinking about Raelynn's Tik Tok where she jumped through her own leg. Like, why didn't we invite her?! She's so fun!"

     At the part about the Tik Tok, snickers drifted around the room. Because Raelynn, their popular, gorgeous classmate, so deserved it.

     Raelynn had been a transfer student in September last year. Lilly remembered it so well because the beautiful girl had come right over to their group and said, "Oh my gosh, I love your 'Team Keefe' T-shirt SO MUCH. Where'd you get it?!"

     Lillian grinned back on that moment now. She'd been the one wearing the T-shirt, and that simple compliment had been the start of great friendships with her amongst the group. She had especially grown close to Grace, and Grace to her. They referred to one-another as their twin now.

     Jessica sighed. "Rae was busy tonight. Something about a thingy called Comic Con...? I think...?"

     Lillian wasn't quite sure what that was, being the sweet sheltered child, but everyone else immediately expressed what a good excuse that was for missing a group sleepover.

     By and by, there was not a speck of ice cream left, and everyone settled in a circle when Jessica demanded a game of truth or dare, backed up by Sophia. And, in that totally (not) perfect moment, Lillian's phone dinged from her pocket.

     Jessica groaned as she scrambled to pull it out. "You brought your phone to a sleepover?"

     Lilly shrugged as she typed in the password and went into her messages app. Timothy. She smiled, not caring if anyone noticed whatsoever, or that she'd seen his name on the lock screen. She'd begun to smile because of what he'd said. The gist was "Hey, just checking in to make sure sleepover activities haven't destroyed you" with a sweet goodnight paragraph. She typed up a reply in a matter of seconds, only pausing to decide on the best wording, and sent it.

     Little did she know what drama was about to happen.

- - -

Everyone give a special thanks to PoisonEmbers for convincing and driving me to update! You owe this update to her.