After Grace gathered her things and left while Lillian waited for her to go from upstairs, where Dakota and Jessica (Jess after mournfully saying bye to Grace) got the whole story out of her, all the girls tired their best to pretend nothing had happened so they could enjoy the rest of their night. They also unanimously decided to skip any official, group secret-sharing for that night.

     At some point before 11pm that night, she'd hid in her sleeping bag while everyone else watched Thor: Ragnarok and spammed Timothy all her stories and regrets and angers. Somehow, though, he calmed her down pretty quickly, like he always did, softening her guilt and correcting her anger politely. He was such a good listener...

Before she put away her phone for the night to pay attention to her friends and the movie, Lilly got one last message from Timothy, and a video. The message was their now-routine good night, and the video was their song: Only Us. It was the perfect way to more-or-less end the night.

The next morning after a surprisingly cheerful breakfast, Lillian's mom picked her up, and she was back home, she couldn't help it anymore, so she gave in to the urge to call Timmy and beg him to come over. She needed emotional support, no matter how awkward it would be.

After making the call and learning his only plans for that day were binging YouTube and Wattpad (therefore, he was free, in case that needed clarification), she played with her hair, trying not to think deep or sappy thoughts, until she heard a car pull up who knew how much later, and a door slam.

     She didn't even bother getting up to go downstairs and greet him; her mom would let him in, and it was always fun to have him walk in when she was all cozy on her bed.
(SkyeAlnamar , don't even, okay? That's not what I meant XD )

     A few minutes later, and still no Timothy. And then, to make matters worse, her cat she'd been cuddling (Pie) jumped out of her arms and out the cracked-open door. Lilly couldn't help but feel depressed, until she heard purring a few seconds later right outside her door, which spiked her curiosity and had her slowly moving to get up.

    Before she got far, though, Timmy burst through the door with a crazy grin on on his face and dove onto the bed next to her like and adorable MANIAC.

     "Don't SCARE me like that!" Lilly squealed, giggling in the sort of girlish way that was super cringe-worthy.

     His response to this was a sarcastic "Suuure, never again" and a goofy smile that melted her heart waaay too easily. To hide her blush, she buried most of her face — save her eyes — into a pillow.

     When she did this, she noticed his face soften in a way that was SO Adrien Agreste (she tried to pretend she hadn't just compared her boyfriend to a model in Miraculous Ladybug). He slowly reached for her face and gently lifted her chin, brushing some loose blond locks behind her ears, and gave her a sickeningly sweet kiss.

     When they finally pulled apart a blissful eternity later, he whispered in her ear, "I've been wanting to do that all week."

     She could actually feel the heat radiating off his cheeks because their faces were still so close — when he lingered for the whisper, Lilly had gently taken his head into her hands and cradled it against the side of hers — as she replied with a shy smile he could only feel against his cheek, "Really? Is that so? Then... why didn't you?"

     "I'm a wimp," he said with a shrug and a laugh.

     "You are not!" Lillian retorted, also laughing, and removed her right hand from his chin to slap him lightly on the shoulder.

     She paused a moment, then said teasingly, "...You caught that sarcasm, right?"

     "Yeees...?" he tried with a half smile.

     "Liar," Lilly said with a giggle, slapping him lightly on the shoulder again for his sin.

     A few seconds later, Timothy quirked up an eyebrow. "Was there a reason you wanted me to come over? Not that I need one. Just curious."

     "Ah, curiosity. Your secret-but-nor-so-secret best friend."

     He gave her a quizzical smile that clearly meant, "Huh?"

     "Never mind," Lilly mumbled, laughing to cover up her momentary embarrassment at her word-stumble. This happened way too often...

     Recovering momentarily from the brief awkward silence that followed, Lillian said pretty smugly, "Well, if there was a reason I asked you over here, maybe I'd want you to figure it out."

     Timothy rolled his eyes and smiled, sighing as he said, "Lill..."

     "What? Don't you like games?" she said brightly as she removed from her former position to curl into his side, and he instinctively wrapped his arm around her shoulders, causing her whole being to feel pleasantly warm like the feeling of the warm spring sun after a long winter soaking straight to her core.

     "Normal games, yes. This game? Nah. I like knowing things. You know this," he said with another half smile. "Sooo tell me?"

     "But that ruins all the fun!"

     "Fine, I'll guess once or twice. Then you" —he bopped her on the nose with his free pointer finger (the other was playing with her hair from around her shoulder)— "are telling me."

     She was tempted to affectionately call him a flirt and ask him how he could be that sweet and play her head games at the same time, but afraid of embarrassment, she refrained for the moment.

     While she was thinking about that, he'd apparently come up with guess number one.

     "Is it because you missed me?" he asked with a smirk.

     Lilly shoved him lightly, laughing as she said, "Shut up!"

     "Nah," he replied with a grin. He thought for a second, then voiced guess two: "Is it because you wanted to talk about what happened last night? I have no clue. Now, tell me."

     "Honestly?" she said after a second. "Both."

     He smiled the sort of smile that lit up a person's whole face, and ducked his head like he always did when she paid him any kind of compliment.

     Just because she could, she tickled him under the chin until it was tilted back back up to face her, a questioning smile on his face that she dodged answering to by removing her hand, her cheeks warming slightly, hopefully not actually turning red. But Lillian knew better than to hope.

     "So, I guess that's my cue to start talking," Lilly said with a laugh, a feeble attempt to cover up and forget her embarrassment.

     "Yep!" Timothy informed her with a smirk. "I do too much of the talking  when we're together. It's definitely your turn to fumble with trying to form coherent words."

     "Yes, yes, we've been over this," Lilly said, rolling her eyes and trying to remind herself that she wasn't mad at him: she was mad at the fact that he was challenging her to verbally discuss her deep feelings, and mad at how scared she was to do so.

     Trying her best to fight off the weight on her soul, Lilly gently rested her head half against his shoulder, half against his chest, to which she felt his breath hitch as he led the hand that had been previously playing with her hair to caress the back of her head lightly in a way that made Lillian feel both infinitely relaxed and fluttery, and had her closing her eyes in seconds.

     "Don't stop," she mumbled half into his chest. "I really, really needed this."

     That's when tears pricked her eyes out of nowhere. She tried to make it stop before it hit Timmy's shirt, but this just made her gasp in a way that had her hand flying up to her mouth, because she knew what was coming next: the quiet sobs.

     "What's wrong?!" Timothy asked, naturally alarmed at the fact that his girlfriend was crying, and probably unsure of what to do but what he did: wrap his free arm around her tightly, protectively.

     "You h-have n-no idea how... how much I needed you," she finally managed to choke out past the sobs, nuzzling her face against him both for the simple pleasure she'd formerly been unable to have, and to wipe away some of her tears.

     Lillian and her friends never talked about it, because Lilly preferred to forget it, but when Timothy had moved into town in 7th Grade and she'd seen him for the first time — it'd been September 12th — Lilly had taken an immediate interest in him. At the time, because he'd been the cute, mysterious new boy.

     Within a few months, however, when they'd found they were both addictive readers and were pretty good friends for the short span of time and both being slightly introverted, she'd gotten a crush on him.

     Just when she started hoping he might, just MIGHT like her back, he'd informed her bitterly that his parents were moving again for his father's job. So they exchanged contact information, and... he left. She thought it'd be forever. They started texting on a regular basis during the year that followed (probably getting each-other unhealthily addicted), when finally, right before summer break of 8th Grade, he admitted he had a crush on her. Naturally, she'd been overjoyed. But she couldn't possibly have foreseen the pain that would follow.

     Sure, there were many immensely happy moments, such as the first time he told her he loved her. But that was the problem. The closer they got, the bigger the physical distance felt. And it crushed her. Every. Single. Day. Until, finally, Timothy had triumphantly announced over video chat that his father was getting transferred back into town just in time for the beginning of the new school year, and their first year of high school.

     The rest of the week after glorious day one of his arrival didn't go quite as they'd wanted it to, though. They were both so swamped with homework and intimidated by opposing schedules that they'd barely seen each-other. Lilly clearly remembered, since it hadn't even been a month ago, that she'd felt the stress weighing down on both of them. The pressure.
   
     And that's when he'd left her for one of her best friends. Grace.

     But, even after that drama, they'd never really touched quite this way before. And to Lilly, it was absolutely worth the wait. And that? That was why she was crying right now. For all those months — years — of waiting, for all that pain... that could and was suddenly being set free. Lillian was crying for joy.

     And so she told him that. Told him everything, including her private burdens about Grace she'd never fully describe to anyone else. And all he did was sit there, holding her close... Listening.

     This was everything she'd been praying for. And so much more. No one could possibly comprehend it... unless they'd been in love.