She needs to get the heck away from all these bullies!
[Lily]Stunned, I sit for a moment, staring at Nyx’s number before answering. “Hello?”“LILY!!!!!!!” I pull the phone away from my ear as she chatters nonstop about how much she misses me and loves me and my ears hurt so badly I almost miss the important part. "You're where?" I ask as she takes a brief moment to breathe. "Did you just say you are outside?""Yes!" I almost start laughing as I imagine her bouncing up and down outside. "OMG OMG OMG I found you!"I carefully pull myself off the floor and explain my situation. Nyx sends me a text of instructions on how to get to the back door through the kitchen with a note that she'll meet me there. Hobbling on my crutches, I consider my options. I can return to the awkward meeting with the other Legacies where I have to answer questions about my wet and dirty dress, sit next across from Evie, who now wants me out of her way by any means necessary, and next to Atticus, who can't look me in the eye but is defending me against his friends
[Lily]There is a moment of stunned silence as the two of them blink at one another right before they fall over laughing. “Hey!” Link laughs. “What was that for, Cuz?”“Never writing me back, you Asshole!” Nyx laughs. “Damn, boy, I thought you were my friend and then you never wrote me or sent a postcard or anything. You suck!”For a moment I just stand there, looking at my friends, both new and old arguing like a couple of old hens, I feel both confused and ignored. How the heck do these two know each other?“Oi~!” I wave my arms to get their attention. “Remember me?”They both turn to look at me and they start to blush. Interesting…“Oh,” Nyx comes back to stand next to me. “Link and I go waaaay back. We have been in Ballet Camp together every summer since kindergarten. And Band Camp, and Wushu and…”Ah, it sounds like they know each other very well. “Are you two…” Not wanting to imply something too strongly, I don’t finish the sentence, leaving the idea dangling in the air that t
[Lily]Godmother. Is that even a real thing anymore? Do people still have godmothers?Apparently, I still do. And my godmother is a famous supermodel. “But I don’t know you,” I say without thinking, only seeing that my words hurt by the way she steps back, her eyes dark with sadness. “That doesn’t mean I don’t believe you, but it seems strange that my mother would leave me to someone I hadn’t even met.”“You’ve met me,” she laughs, “But you were little the last time and don’t remember. I think you were maybe four at the time. I used to come out and spend summers with your mom before my…” she looks over at Link and winces, “before my breakup with Link’s father. I stopped coming to California, and it wasn’t safe for her to come back to New York,” she explains. “Your grandfather didn’t want her ANYWHERE near the city ever again. In his mind she was dead…”“Until she was,” I murmur, growing bitter as I consider my grandfather and how he didn’t care about my existence until the only perso
[Atticus]When Evie returned to the table, I knew something was up immediately. She seemed far too pleased with herself. “Did you see Liliana,” I asked her directly as she sauntered over, positioning herself next to Veronica, who moved over to make room for her best friend.“Why would you ask that?” she grins sweetly. “Lily and I aren’t exactly friends.” Zephyra snorts sarcastically, “That’s an understatement.”Ignoring the side chatter, I try again to get a real answer out of Evie. “Liliana headed in your direction to check on you to make sure you were okay and you are saying you don’t know where she’s gone?”She shrugs. “I didn’t say I didn’t know where she is,” she clarifies. “I said we aren’t friends.” She chooses to ignore as she takes a seat and picks up the menu, pretending not to notice or care about the way her words are affecting me.“Hey Ace, chill,” Simon taps my shoulder drawing my attention to him. “She’ll be fine. Even better probably because she is now alone,” he the
[Lily]Atticus is making a huge ruckus, so while Link goes downstairs to talk some sense into him, I lean out Alexis’ window.“Atticus!” I hiss down at him. “What are you doing? Are you drunk?”As he rocks on his feet he is quite clearly drunk.“You left without saying anything,” he sways, barely standing as he almost trips down the small stoop to look up at me. His face is flushed and he seems unable to stand still.“I left you a note!” I scream down at him, mystified by his suddenly possessive and obsessive behavior. “I told you I just needed a break. I’ve only been gone for..”“Two hours!” He holds up his phone to show
[Lily]Nyx looks both frightened and angry, terror filling her eyes as she clenches her hands. “You can’t let my father find me. Please, we gotta hide me.”“Shhh,” I try to calm my friend down, but her eyes are wide and unfocused. She’s petrified. I’ve never seen her this scared before, even when she found out that Atticus Preston and the rest of the Legacies have skeleton keys to every room in the Academy--An event which led to her putting deadbolts on her dorm room and, as I am now learning, a brief stay in a mental facility while she worked through her persistent panic attacks.As I try to comfort my friend, Atticus and Link briefly come to an unspoken truce. It is hard to make out exactly what she is saying, but according to Nyx, her father intends to keep her trapped in her bedroom here in NYC until she c
[Lily]That wasn’t the answer any of us were expecting. We are all racing away in the night avoiding Nyx’s dad and heading right back to the very place I was trying to escape and the best reason that Atticus could give to why Link’s plan would work is “because it would be fun…”Why would anyone find any part of this situation “fun.”“Does it matter why I’m doing it?” Atticus drawls, his voice taking on its usual sarcastic tone. “It should only matter to you that I’m willing to put my neck out there to save you.”“I’m grateful,” Nyx responds, her voice completely deadpan. “But that still doesn’t answer my question.”
[Lily]I had forgotten for a moment that Link Carter is related to Evangeline Crocker. His mother is her brother's sister.“It was bad enough I had to see your low-born face at the fashion shoot, but now you’re here, with…she points at Nyx…her? Do you really have no respect?”Link is completely unaffected by Evie’s anger. If anything, he’s amused by it. Shaking his head, he chuckles as he walks past her without the slightest touch of fear. He must be insane. Evie is standing with her hands on her hips, her eyes moving from side to side as she looks from Link to me and then over to Atticus and Nyx. When her face rests on Nyx, her already angry expression curls into one of disgust. But she doesn’t do anything more than stare and scowl while Atticus helps me sit.Interesting. As soon as I’m comfortable, Madison rushes past everyone to scoop me into a strong embrace. “Lily!” she exclaims, “We were all so worried about you! Wherever did you go?”She says “we were all so worried”, but loo