The Wallflower Ch. 08

"As you can probably tell with that tidbit of information, that's why the Spirit can not visibly talk in his spiritual form. The knife works as his severed tongue. It speaks for him. And the letters scribbled into the wall...is his blood." Lily looked at Nicholas as he furrowed his brow in distress. "The blood of the unheard and the unspoken.

"Why do you come here...if it causes you so much distress?"

"Do you think I want to be here?" he said heatedly.

Lily thought about her answer before she said them aloud. "Yes. In some messed up way, yes. I see how this place changes you. You're not wild or depressed like you usually are. You are calm and at peace."

"So are the dead," he remarked as he pulled out another blunt and lit it on fire before taking a drag.

Lily leaned back onto the tree with a groan. There was no convincing him today. He was being a deep stick in the mud and there was nothing she could do about it. Every time she said something positive, he went and turned it into something dismal. She wasn't about to go after a lost cause, so screw it. If he wanted to think of this place as a vast graveyard then so be it.

"Now that you've asked your questions, it's time that you answer mine." Nicholas said as he left out a ring of smoke.

"What is it?"

"Same question I asked at the library. What's up with you and Vanessa? Every time I see you two, ya'll are thicker than thieves. This one time I come and see you two, it looks like she's ready to burn you alive with her eyes."

Lily sighed just thinking of the situation. She had just gotten free of one problem, just to get trapped in another. She wondered if freedom was just some illusion that people believe they deserved. It was just some cruel joke. Truth was as long as there was life, there was someone out there that will try and make her bow to their will.

"I'm listening."

"It's Brandon...again."

"Is he putting his hands on you again?" Nicholas said as his body tensed up at the thought.

"No...he's taking a more indirect way of ruining my life. He's trying to turn Vanessa against me."

"How's he doing that?"

"That incident that happened at the party. He turned it around in his favor to make it look like I was being irrational and starting shit. He has her believing that I've become overconfident and believing I'm too good for people."

Nicholas nearly choked on his smoke as he let out a peal of laughter that soon became louder and more frenzied. He was so transfixed on laughing that he raised his blunt in the air so he could roll on his side. Lily just glared at him as she waited for his laughter to die down. She didn't see what was so hilarious about the whole situation and said so.

He finally made an attempt to stop his laughter, so he could answer her question with a question. "She believes that you have become overconfident? If you're overconfident, Anna Belle must be the queen bitch of overconfidence. If your friend thinks you're becoming overconfident from this new small burst of confidence, she's either dumb or she's not your friend."

"She is my friend, Nicholas!" Lily yelled, getting fed up with his new found pessimism.

"Then why does she believe you're bully instead of you?"

"She doesn't...She doesn't know the truth."

Nicholas looked at her with a steely expression. He put out the blunt in the dirt and reached over to grab her hand. Already knowing what he was going to do, she jerked her hands back away from him. He looked up at her with an authoritative gaze and reached again for her hand. This time she let him hold her hand and use his other to push the long sleeve up her arm. She turn her head to the side so she wouldn't see the ugly bruises purpling her skin.

"Lily."

She didn't turn her head around.

"Lily. Look at me."

She still refused to turn her head. She knew what he was going to say. She knew he wouldn't understand.

"Lily. Look at me now. Please."

Lily looked down at the ground as she turned her head in his direction. She felt the warm tug that made her focus on his firm eyes, demanding answers from her. "Why doesn't she know? I want answers. You're not going to run away from me or throw a tantrum like you usually do so you can dodge questions. You're going to answer them."

Lily shook her head and said, "You won't understand."

"Why doesn't she know?"

"Nicholas, leave me alone."

"Why doesn't she know?"

"Just leave it alone! God! I don't want her to know!"

"Why doesn't she know?"

"I don't want her to know!"

"Why doesn't she-"

"Because I'm scared! OK?!"

It became so silent that she could hear crows cawing off into the distance. Lily felt some of the tears begin to well up in her eyes. She closed her eyes firmly to keep them at bay. When she felt like she had regained control, she looked back up into Nicholas's unwavering expression.

"Why doesn't she know about this, Lily," he said, this time, raising her arm so she could see the fading purple bruises.

"I don't want to lose the only friend I've got," she gritted out.

Thy sat there looking in each other's eyes as her words drifted in the air.

A warm kiss to her cheek broke the stare down between Lily and Nicholas. When Nicholas lifted his head back up, his expression had softened. He pulled in closer to wipe away a tear she did not know had even fallen. "She's not the only friend, you've got. If she decides to no longer be your friend when you tell her, I will still be your friend. I will still be your friend. I will talk to you even if you do not feel like talking. There will be times I will tell you things that you do not want to hear, but you need to here. This is one of those moments."

He rolled her sleeve back down but still continued to hold her hand. Nicholas took in a breath before saying what needed to be said. "Lily, you're going to lose your friend either way. You will possibly lose her if you tell her the truth, but you will definitely lose her if you don't tell the truth. It's up to you to choose what's going to happen. But if you lose her to the lies, you lose her and Brandon will continue to wreak havoc on your life. If you want your freedom from him that bad, you're going to have to keep getting in his face like you did at that party. Understand?"

Lily wiped her eyes and nodded.

"Good," he stood up from the ground and helped her to her feet. He checked his phone and said, "It's almost time for you to get back to work. Let's go."

~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~

'Almost ...perfect.'

Lily stared back at her reflection, seeing that same woman she saw Friday night. She again ditched her bookish thick rimmed glasses for contacts. Her hair was styled in thick spiral curls that flowed all the way to her waist. Her curvy figure was in a short floral dress that swished with every movement she made. Her short stature was boosted a bit by four inch pumps. Everything looked beautiful.

Except for the bruises.

"Damn him to hell," she muttered to herself as she unscrewed the top to a liquid concealer. With a few swipes of it, her skin looked just as flawless as the rest of her. Now everything was alright.

She left the bathroom and retrieved her purse from her bed. She checked phone, seeing that she had received a text from Louis that said he was outside on the porch with Nicholas. 'Please dear God, don't let Nicholas say anything to ruin my date,' she thought as she rushed down the stairs.

"Have a good night, Mrs. Yates," she yelled as she passed by the kitchen.

'Have a good time with your hot date, sweetheart," she called back with a wink.

Lily almost circled back to ask what she meant, but she was already at the door. She opened it to find Nicholas blowing out a stream of smoke from his nostrils as he sat in the middle of the stairs. He seemed back to his normal rowdy personality. She looked over to see Louis leaning against the staircase pretty much just hanging out.

Seeing Louis again made Lily's heart beat faster as she stood there staring at him. His chiseled torso was encased in a green Polo shirt with short sleeves that showcased black geometric tattoos on his upper arms. The outfit was completed with a pair of jeans and some sneakers. His fohawk was just as nicely styled as it was at the party, but this time she noticed his had a tail that reached the back of his neck. Then she noticed...the devious white smile that told her she was just caught staring at him...again.

'I really need to get rid of this habit,' she thought as she rolled her eyes and smiled back as she walked down the steps toward him.

"I see that you're ready to go," Louis said as he did a quick onceover of Lily, getting stuck staring at her legs.

"Yeah," Lily said shyly. She glanced back at Nicolas who continued to smoke, as he looked at the empty space in front of him, expressionless. He began to rise from the steps as he put out his blunt and head for the door. "Hey, Nicholas!"

He didn't turn around as he continued towards the door.

Hating to be ignored, she called out, "Don't wait up for me!" With that, she grabbed Louis's hand, breaking him out of his trance, and headed towards his car. When she got into the passenger seat, she looked back at Nicholas. He was just standing there, looking down at the ground. His face was covered by his hair, so she couldn't see his expression.

At the moment she gave up looking at him, he rose his head and looked back at her. The smirk on his mouth was so twisted with black mirth that it trickled down to the rest of his body, causing it to shake with the hidden cause of his laughter. Just to contain it, he had to grit his teeth just to bare it. Lily would've thought he had succumbed to madness if she had not seen the tell-tale sign that it wasn't Nicholas who had gone mad. It was the Spirit going mad with all the dark and sadistic plans rotting in his head.

One thing was for sure. The Spirit wouldn't only just be waiting up.

He'd be attending the date himself.

~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~

"Are you ok?"

Lily nearly jumped out of her skin when Louis asked her the question. For the most part the drive to the restaurant had been quiet. All the white, Lily was thinking of every possible way the Spirit could ruin tonight. She thought up everything she knew he could do. What if he could control Nicholas to come over to the restaurant and join them there? What if he thought ahead and set his plan in motion says before her date so all he had to do now was sit back and watch his plan unfurl? All the possibilities had turned her excitement to pure anxiety.

"Lily?"

Lily nearly screamed before she remembered that it was just Louis again.

"Yeah." she answered.

"You ok? You've been zoning out since we left your house?"

"I'm just nervous," she answered back, giving him a weak smile. He flashed her a smile of his own as he reached his hand over and clasped her hand in his.

"There's nothing to worry about. I know I'm sooo sexy that you can hardly stand it."

She couldn't help but let out a giggle before saying, "No, that's not it."

"Oh wow, my self confidence is totally bruised," he said feigning his wounded pride.

"No, you're sexy, it's just... this is my first date."

"Why? Any guy has to be blind not to ask you out."

Lily could only shrug, even though she already knew the answer. "I guess to them I was just too dark and ugly. I don't look like the other girls, so...never got asked out."

Louis scoffed in the back of his throat as he pulled into the restaurant parking lot and turned off the ignition. He turned in his seat and focused his warm chocolate brown eyes on her. "Lily, I really hope you don't believe that. Who told you that?"

"People," she lied.

"Well 'people' are stupid. You can be beautiful without being anorexic model thin and ghost pale. Most girls have to get surgery just to get a body like yours and go to a tanning salon to get their skin to glow like yours does. I do believe all women are beautiful, but I have a preference for girls who have curves and show them off like they aren't afraid to let the world know they have them."

Lily could only stare back at him in...shock? Her curves were ok? Lily never saw anything ok with her curves. She always saw them as...well, a distraction. The media had always showcased curves as being something beautiful. But in her life, people looked at her curves as everything but beautiful. They saw her body as dirty. As something slutty. As something to hide. As something to be ashamed of.

How were curves beautiful when everyone wanted her to hide them or downplay it like she didn't have any or else risk be accused of being a slut? Or else be treated like she was a slut?

She felt something warm against her cheek and immediately jumped. Louis pulled back and looked at her, "Sorry, I didn't want to rush and kiss you, so I just kissed your cheek. It seemed like I needed to seal that message with a kiss." He gave her a guilty smile.

"It's ok," Lily smiled. "You ready to go inside?"

"Yeah, but you stay right there." He opened up his car door and came around to her ide and opened her door for her. She smiled as she thanked him and grabbed his hand to step out of the car and go into the restaurant.

Inside the restaurant, everything was booming. The speakers were booming loudly with reggae music while waiters were rushing to fill orders. The customers were laughing at their booths or dancing on the dancefloor to the music. Lily could see why this place was so popular. It was like a miniature club with a Caribbean tropical vibe to it. It probably took people hours just to get in.

Lily looked up at Louis, who just winked at her and strolled up to the hostess and stated he was here for reservations for two. She smiled up at him and retrieved two menus and guided them to a private reserved booth. Lily slid in next to him, still amazed that they got in.

"Told you tonight is going to be perfect," Louis said.

"How did you get a reservation," Lily asked while looking around at the place. "This place is supposed to be beyond awesome and you have to wait hours or days just to get in and months just to get a reservation. Plus this is like V.I.P seating."

"I have connections." He shrugged and looked over his menu.

Lily looked over at her own menu and decided to get a smoothie for her drink.

Once the waiter came around and took their drink orders, Louis laid back and rested his arm on her shoulder. "I chose this spot because I liked watching you dance at that party last Friday, so I called in a favor. You looked like you were so in tune to the music."

Lily's face heated up just thinking about the kind of dancing she did at that party. "Nah, I actually don't do a lot of dancing. I didn't go to any of the dances in high school. Not even prom."

"Really?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "It looked like you belonged out there."

"I only went to the party because I wanted to forget and relax, so Vanessa dragged me along."

"Well, how about I help you relax a little bit more by teaching you a new dance." Lily was instantly nervous when she saw the devilish grin on Louis's face as he pulled her out of the booth and headed towards the dancefloor.

"What about our drinks?"

"They'll just set it on the table. Now ,c'mon! The song that is coming up is the best song to do this dance to."

Once they got to the dancefloor, he held her hips firmly. "The song coming on is like a line dance..sorta! Just watch me first!" He backed up and began to swish his hips abruptly to the Caribbean music.

'Cent

Five Cent

Ten Cent

Dolla

She said she can't take the pace.

We going too slow.

So she want me to wake up the bass.

And raise the tempo.'

With each one, a strong beat rung out to move his hips in an abrupt way. He moved his hips left, right, back then front to the strong beat and repeated. When it passed, he said, "Right now just move your hips in a figure eight until it gets to the "one, cent, five cent" part."

Lily moved her hips slightly the way he described, but Louis shook his head and held her hips and moved them the way he described. "You're getting it!" When the part finally came he jerked her hips in the way he did earlier. When the music began she began moving her hips to the music on her own accord. "There you go!" He let her go and began to jerk his hips in the same manner. When the song broke from the chorus, he grabbed her hand and twirled her around and brought her body firmly to his chest.

Lily began to grow hot as she wrapped her arms around his neck and let him lead her in the dance. She continued to swing her hips as he did the same with his hips. As the drums continued to beat in the song, he twirled her away from him and urged her to do a salsa like movement around him. She couldn't help but laugh when she came back around, catching him shimmying when she got back around.

She continued to enjoy the music even when the song passed. Between moving her hips in a new way and Louis's antics, she was having a good time. She had forgotten all about the darkness that was watching her.

Lily was in a fit of laughter when she returned to their private booth. She laid her head against Louis's shoulder who was also struggling for breath in between his laughter. She was having such a great time.

"I told you, I'd be able to get you to unwind a bit," Louis said with a devious smile.

"Where did you learn that dance?" Lily asked as she leaned over to take a sip of her strawberry smoothie.

"I have a cousin who loves everything Caribbean. At first she was just looking at Puerto Rican culture, but then started to look at other countries there. She really liked the dancing, so she showed me how to dance to a few songs."

"So you're Puerto Rican?"

He drunk some of his smoothie before answering, "Yeah and I'm as sexy as they come."

Louis hefted his arm around Lily once more and leaned in closed to her ear and whispered, "You don't have to play footsies to get my attention, hon." He kissed her cheek before leaning back up.

Lily looked back at him confused. "I'm not playing footsies with you."

"You're the only one here. Who else could it be?"

'Oh no, where is he?' Lily looked around them to catch sight of anyone that looked like Nicholas. She didn't see any. When Louis wasn't looking, she did a quick check underneath the table. He wasn't there. 'Of course, you idiot. Who hides under a table in a private booth?'

"A ghost," she answered herself.

"What?" Louis asked.

"Nothing."

"I thought you said something about a flower?"

"No, I've just been sitting here."

He looked at her skeptically as they continued to sit and look over their menus. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Louis beginning to fidget in his seat. He glanced at her before looking at his menu again. After a few minutes of fidgeting and stealing glances at her, he set his menu down and looked over at the crowd.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just... I keep hearing someone talking... here and there. I don't know. There's a lot of people hear, so it's probably just in my head." He directed a few glances over the restaurant before getting up. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom real quick. Order for me if I'm not back when the waiter comes, just order for me." With that, he went off to the bathroom.

'What is he up to?' The Spirit was definitely here, and it seemed like he was by himself tonight. 'Damn Spirit.'

Louis still wasn't back when the waiter came, so she just placed her order and ordered him a steak. When he did come back, he seemed more collected as he sat down and draped his arm over her shoulder.