Lily was a plain looking girl of whom people
either adored or ignored, it was difficult o feel any other way. The only
person, who rose to the challenge, was Maryann Winters, and even she was only
indifferent to her younger. Lily Travers was part of a tightly knit group of
friends that often screwed around with the lives of other people within their
larger circle friends. Lily’s best friends were Ramone Glass,
It was actually a the weekly dinner the five always shared that Ramone said one of the first things to hush everyone into silence.
“Did you guys know that we have been coming to this restaurant every Thursday and sitting at this table for four years?”
After a minute Larken said: “I’m sure they’ve switched around the tables.” But that wasn’t close to banishing the topic.
“I’m not sure restaurants do that,” Lily reasoned.
“Nonetheless,” Ramone continued, “Does that seem odd to anyone else?”
“No,” said Maryann, “It seems perfectly logical to me seeing as we’ve been friends for four years.”
“I agree with Maryann,” Larken interjected, “What’s odd is that we’ve been friends for four years.”
“Four years,” Lily mused, looking straight at Chris, “That’s a long time. It doesn’t feel that long.”
“Feels like just yesterday?” Chris offered.
“No, feels like last month.”
“Why last month? Feels to me like yesterday,” Larken said.
“A month is about how long it takes to start caring about someone,” Lily explained.
“We love each other in that new, fresh way,” Chris continue, not having taken his eyes off Lily’s since she’d looked at him, “We aren’t tired of each other yet.”
“Well I’m tired of some of you,” Larken joked.
“Enough of this seriousness,” Ramone said loudly as he flagged down a waitress that wasn’t responsible for their table, “Another round!” he ordered.
“So,” Larken said as she and Ramone got into her car out of the drizzling rain, “What should we do about Lily and Chris?”
“What do you mean?”
“They need to be together and since they haven’t made strides towards that is four years, I think it falls to us.”
“I’m sure Maryann will love that.”
“Screw Maryann!”
“You do remember Maryann, right?” Ramone asked, “Chris’s wife?”
“I know who she is.”
“She’s kind of important.”
“She hasn’t been important for years,” Larken argued.
“What makes you think we have any right to mess in those three’s lives?”
“There’s only two of them.”
“Maryann is important.”
“The five of us mess with people all the time,” Larken reminded, “we have the right.”
“No,” Ramone corrected, “Chris and Lily mess with people’s lives, we do what they say, and Maryann looks on disapprovingly.”
“See, the two of us meddle.”
“We’re the muscle for hire.”
“We’re just as smart as Lily and Chris!”
“How are you feeling today?” Ramone tested.
“Quite good, considering.”
“Considering what?”
“My liver isn’t working right, hasn’t been for the last week, I shouldn’t be drinking,” Larken explained.
“You’re crazy.”
“No, I’m dying. I’m in a lot of pain and I’m not willing to kick the bucket until those two are together.”
“We are not getting involved, Lucy.”
“Larken.”
“I was making a TV reference,” Ramone told his friend,” You know, ‘Lucy! I’m home!’”
“Oh. That’s not funny.”
It wasn’t too long ago that Lily would come back to her apartment and be welcomed home by the sound of the Playstation. But ever since her roommate had moved out it was only silence as she hung up her keys and turned on the lights. She thought once or twice about getting a cat but it seemed like such a bother to go through the channels her building had so cleverly created to keep animals out. Not to mention having to take care of it after going through the trouble. She’d never had a cat so it wasn’t difficult to convince herself she was allergic.
“What are you doing?” Maryann asked as she looked down at Chris. He was sitting on the floor in front of the cabinet filled with bake wear.
“Looking,” he answered, “I could have sworn we got some bread pans as a wedding present.”
“You want to make bread?”
“Lily’s mother gave me a recipe for banana bread a while back. I remember you really liked it.”
“So you’re making banana bread,” Maryann reasoned and came up short, “Feeling faggish.”
“I just feel like making banana bread.”
Maryann paused before speaking, “I think we put the bread pans in he box in the pantry. Since we’ve never used them.”
“Thank you.”
Lily was sitting in her office on Friday, typing up a hand written document that had turned up from god knows where. As the organizer for the magazine it was her job to make sure every piece of paper she came across from nine to five was typed and properly filed. I was tedious but enthralling enough that she didn’t even notice hat Larken was leaning just inside he door with two Starbucks cups in her hands.
To be completely honest, Lily didn’t so much as look up until her female friend spouted in frustration, “Is it really that interesting?”
“You scared me!” Lily exclaimed, holding her hand over her chest.
“Wimp.”
“I try and work during my day,” Lily accused.
“Coffee?”
“Oh yes!” Lily brightened, all slights forgotten, “What brings you here?”
“Just taking a walk.”
“The Starbucks is a block away and you work three floors down.”
“Walking is good for my health.”
“I thought it was bad for your health.”
Larken just shrugged and took a long sip from her coffee and winced.
“Hot?”
“Kind of,” Larken said as if she was still trying to decide, “When’s your lunch?”
“I had a sandwich from the cart about an hour ago. I have a lot of work today.”
“Oh.”
“If you’re really jonesing for some conversation, Chris and I have some nonexclusive dinner plans.”
“I’ll skip,” Larken said, “I’d never want to impose on any Lily-Chris time.”
Lily laughed, “The more Lily-Chris time that’s unimposed on the more crazy schemes you and Ramone get handed.”
“I think we can handle anything you crazy kids can cook up,” Larken argued, “Plus, I doubt that’s all you two talk about.”
Lily just shrugged and shuffled through the papers until she found the one she looked for.
“I really do have a lot of work,” Lily explained, “Think about tonight.”
“Didn’t I tell you not to meddle,” Ramone reminded his roommate.
“I’m not meddling,” Larken argued as she counted out pills into her hand, “I’m just giving hem a little push.”
“Don’t meddle.”
“I’m not meddling!”
“Whatever,” Ramone declared, “Why do you even take those things?”
“What things?”
“The pills.”
“The doctor said taking vitamins would help me feel better.”
“The doctor thinks you’re crazy.”
Lily was so used to come home to an empty apartment with nothing demanding her attention hat it took her a while to notice her answering machine’s blinking light. She walked around the space several times trying to figure out what was different before actually seeing it. She hit the play button and for a second the message sounded like any other. When the person finally revealed their business Lily could almost feel her heart physically drop.
Chris sat on the open air patio outside his house. He stared at the table in front of him where about three and a half loaves of banana bread were sitting, cooling off. The bread had only been out of the oven for thirty minutes and Maryann had already eaten half of one. When he’d been young cooking with his mother had always given Chris a quiet feeling. But for the last couple of days, this itching sensation of impending doom had been at the back of his mind. Even Maryann’s soothing piano playing just irritated the sore.
“What’s wrong?” Maryann had asked.
“Nothing,” he told her, “yet.”
“Feeling psychic?”
“I don’t believe in that crap.”
But not believing in it didn’t make the feeling go away. As he did whenever he felt odd, he called Lily. But she didn’t answer her phone. Which just made the feeling stronger and tie his stomach in knots.
The feeling didn’t go away. Chris tried Lily’s phone several times over the next couple days. On the fourth day of not seeing or hearing from her, a record in nearly three years, Chris finally went to catch up with her at her car after work. Even then Lily’s eyes didn’t light up when she saw him like they usually did.
“You’re avoiding me,” Chris accused.
“Yes,” she admitted, “I am.”
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing. I–”
“Don’t tell me nothing,” he interrupted.
“You’re right. Something. Denying stuff is kind of a natural reaction.”
“To me?”
“No, not to you,” Lily said, avoiding Chris’s gaze, “Look, don’t make this harder, please.”
“How can I make it harder if I don’t know what’s going on?”
“I just…” Lily started. And stopped. “I never thought…I don’t…I’m not good with goodbyes.”
“Goodbye?” Chris repeated, “What is going on, Lily? And don’t say nothing.”
“I
got the job in
“You don’t have to take it.”
“I promised my mother,” She justified, “It was her dying wish, her goddamned dying wish that I apply for this job.”
“That’s melodramatic.”
“That’s my mother. Was my mother. I never thought they’d take me, it’s too good a job.”
“You were just going to leave? Just like that?”
“I thought it would be easier.”
“Is it?”
“It was,” Lily admitted, “I leave tomorrow, I almost made it.”
“Tomorrow, that soon?”
“My job here has an out clause for job transfers and they want me down there as soon as possible. I wanted to stay longer.”
“Stay longer?” Chris said, “And avoid all of us longer? Avoid me longer.”
“Yeah,” Lily gave a nervous laugh, “That is pretty dumb.”
“Tomorrow… Guess I should let you get home to pack.” Chris turned on his heel and walked away. He had convinced himself not to turn back, not to stop like she was begging him to do. And he didn’t until he heard her car door slam.
“I think something is wrong with Chris,” Larken said at breakfast the next morning.
“What makes you think he’s not ok?” Ramone asked sarcastically as he watched the subject of their conversation cut his eggs into microscopic bits.
“He doesn’t seem to even notice we’re here,” she explained, missing the connotation.
“Where’s Maryann?” Ramone asked loudly right in Chris’s face.
“She’s sick,” he answered automatically.
“Where’s Lily?”
“On
a train to
“How do you know this?” Larken asked, not quite letting the statement sink in.
“I found out about the leaving part, Maryann got the details,” Chris lifted a forkful of eggs to his mouth then changed his mind and dropped them, “What am I doing here?”
“Eating eggs,” Larken told him, “Or at least you’re supposed to be.”
“I’ve
got to get to the train station,” Chris declared and ran out of he diner.
Ramone watched him go, “I’ll
get the check,” he said flatly, “you get the car.”
“Lily!” Chris yelled, pushing his way through the crowd towards what he thought might be Lily’s direction. He kept yelling her name over and over until she came into view collecting her carry-on bag. “Lily! Wait!” He yelled. Miraculously she stopped and waited or a moment while Chris caught some of his breath.
“I have to go,” she said while he still huffed, “I’ll miss my train.”
“Miss it,” Chris insisted with what little air he had, “Stay. Please stay.”
“Chris, I have to go.”
“You can’t leave, what about our group? Your friends?”
“I can’t stay.”
“What about Ramone and Larken?”
“My train…”
“What about me, Lily? Oh Lily, stay.”
“I’ll call when I get there,” she said and started towards the train.
“Lily, stop!” Chris yelled, but she didn’t. “Lily, I love you! Don’t leave!” That made her pause, “Lily, stay. Stay and be with me. I want to be with you.”
“I…” Lily began seemingly unable to say anything more. And for the first time since the phone message, she burst into tears.
“Maryann will love this,” Ramone said from the front of the crowd that was forming.
“We did it,” Larken said happily, “I told you we could get those two kids together.”
All contents on this and any other page on Complications is the intellectual property of Rebecca Moses.
