Tiger lilies ^^

Chapter 10

After that awkward and slightly embarrassing moment, Haley said something about leaving for her house because her parents were calling her. So, the rest of us finished up our morning routines and piled into Mom's car to head to the zoo.

"We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo! How about you, you, you!" Jason sings at the top of his lungs. I cringe and put on my headphones in an attempt to block out his voice. I love my brother to the moon and back and all, but sometimes I'd rather not hear him sing all the time.

Mom looks at me from the mirror and glares. "Braska! Don't be rube, listen to your brother's beautiful voice," she says, making a right turn. She's kidding me right?

"Mom, I listen to him sing enough times already. Can I just listen to my music in peace?" I whine, letting my head rest against the carseat.

She gives me a stern look before a grin breaks her fake angry facade. "I'm just messing with you. Go back to listening to your One Direction or Cher Lloyd music," she says, turning her gaze back towards the road.

"But I don't listen-"

"Hush sweetheart, don't distract the driver." I huff and cross my arms while looking out the window. Well then.

***

"We're here!" Jason shouts with excitement, jumping in his seat. I roll my eyes but smile at his enthusiasm. He's such a cute, innocent little kid.

Mom parks the car and the second she takes her keys out, Jason hops out of the car and is pulling my car to get out. For the sole purpose of annoying him, I take my sweet time to unbuckle my seatbelt and even make a show of stretching my arms over my head slowly.

I smirk at his annoyed expression and scoot towards the open door exceptionally slow. He glares at me and I continue by putting one leg out and counting to five before moving my other leg out.

"Momma, can we leave Braska?" he asks, looking back towards Mom.

I laugh out loud at his reaction before finally getting out of the car and closing the door. Mom locks the door before taking out the spray-on sunscreen, making Jason groan loudly.

"Noooo," he whines, while Mom just smiles and starts spraying it all over the parts of Jason that weren't covered by his shirt or pants. She hands the bottle over to me while rubbing it in on Jason.

"Spray some on too," she says, pointing to my legs.

Since I'm only wearing shorts and a tanktop, it takes me longer to spray it all over my body. Of course Jason's annoyance to the whole thing makes me want to go purposely slower but I think I tortured him enough back at the car.

"What do you want to go see first?" I ask, holding my hand out to get stamped. I never really understood that. Why do I need to have a stamp of a monkey to go inside the zoo?

I adjust my glasses on my face and wait for my mom and Jason. As I'm waiting, I grab a map even though I've been here many times before already.

"I wanna see the monkey!" he exclaims with a wide grin, practically tugging on Mom's arm.

We laugh while walking over to the monkey pen. "Oh Braska, I forgot to tell you," Mom starts as soon as we reach the monkey pen.

There's a small lake surrounding an island with a giant tree that holds many branches. There's about five or six monkeys all over the island. I notice that some of the branches stretch over the fence. Aren't they worried about the monkeys escaping?

"What is it?" I ask, keeping my eye on the monkeys. I know Mom is holding one of Jason's hand in hers so I'm not worried about him running away or anything of the sort.

"Tony's mother got in an accident last night," she says, making my eyes bulge out.

"What? Is he okay? Wait is she okay?" The questions continue pouring out of my mouth. Tony's mother is a really sweet lady even though I've only met her once. She visited about a year ago for Thanksgiving.

"I'm not sure. From what I heard...she's not doing so good. Tony has to shut down his diner and go to Maine to see to her," she says, with a sympathetic look. But that would mean...

"I have to look for a new job," I state, looking down at the small bed of water.

From the corner of my eye, I can see her nodding. "I'm afraid so sweetheart. Don't worry, if you're having a hard time finding a job I'll help pay for the expenses until you can. You're more important to me than-"

"Don't say that," I interrupt, giving her a small smile. "I know we're your children and all, but he's your husband and your highschool sweetheart. Besides, isn't he almost getting better? Just a little more chemo and he should be good as new."

She smiles but doesn't say anything while I look away so that she doesn't see me. I can't lose my father, so I want all the money Mom makes to go towards his medication. But I can't lose my brother either. Letting out a small sigh, I look down and start playing with my fingers. How am I supposed to find a good paying job before my mother leaves?

***

"Oh my God, is she okay?" Haley's panicked voice asks over the phone. After a long day at the zoo, we went home and I immediately called Haley to update her about Tony as well as my situation about needing a new job.

"I don't know. I talked to Tony earlier and he said that she's still in the operation room," I reply, brushing out the tangles in my hair.

"I hope they're both okay. Can you believe those idiots? How dumb do you have to be to drive knowing that you're drunk? I hope that asshole gets run over by karma," she seethes, and I nod while putting the brush down.

"Me too Hales. I'll call him again later, when he's more settled in."

It's silent for a while. It's not an awkward silence though since we both have a lot on our minds. "So what are you gonna do about that job now?" she asks.

Taking off my glasses, I flop down on my bed and rub my eyes. "I don't know. I have to start looking for a new one as soon as possible."

"How much time do you have?"

"Before my mom leaves I guess. She said I could start looking for a job now but I don't even know where to start."

"Perfect!" she squeals. "Get dolled up, I'll be there in twenty," she says, hanging up before I could say anything.

Sighing, I put my glasses back on and plug my phone in to charge. Going to the bathroom, I brush my teeth and wipe my face before putting on perfume. I take my showers at night but I'm still sweaty from the trip to the zoo earlier. Just as I get out of the bathroom, the doorbell rings and I start grabbing my phone and some money knowing that it's Haley waiting for me on the other side. She's really impatient and I remember nearly giving her a key due to how much she slams her finger on the doorbell when left waiting for more than three seconds.

Opening the door, I frown seeing that there's no one here. I step out to see if Haley is just hiding somewhere when I feel my foot hit something. Looking down, I see a small box on the floor. Oh you've got to be kidding me.

After making sure that my mom and Jason didn't wake up from their nap, I pick up the box and close the door.

Walking to my room, I place the box on the sink counter and open my small box of razors. I pick up the first one I could grab and slice the tape open. Before opening the box, I walk over to the windows and pull the dark purple blinds shut. Jokes on the creep, I know better now.

After turning on the lights so I can see better, I open the box to see that it's filled to the top with tiger lilies. There's a note at the top so I pick it up and read it.

One for each reason why I'm in love with you

Forever Yours,

~L

It's official. This guy has lost it. There has to be at least forty lilies in here. For one thing, I have no idea where he managed to find this many since they're rare around these parts. I can barely find one, how'd he find this many?

Is it also a coincidence that tiger lilies are my favorite flowers?

Before I could get too deep into my head, I hear a soft knocking at my door. I quickly close the box and hide it under the sink behind my stash of tampons. "Braska, are you in there?" Haley's soft voice asks.

"Yeah, hang on a sec," I reply, washing my hands. After drying them, I open my door to see Haley smiling at me. Her eyes trail to my covered wrist before looking up to meet him.

"You alright?" she asks in a worried tone.

I nod with a smile. "Yeah, don't worry about it. Let's go job hunting," I say. Pushing her gently out the door, I drag her to her car as silently as I can since I don't want to wake up my sleeping family. I already left a note in the kitchen earlier telling them where I went and that I'll be home around dinner.

We drive in silence before Haley breaks it. "Braska, what's wrong?" she sighs.

"What do you mean?" I ask, looking at her.

She takes a deep breath and uses one hand that isn't steering the wheel to rub her forehead. "You know what I mean. For the past couple of months you've been acting differently." I keep my mouth shut and my head down. She's right, but there's no way I'm telling her that. "I'm your best friend," she continues, "we're supposed to trust each other with everything. Remember that one time in first grade when you wanted to take Ken home for the day and I covered for you when Mrs. Trent found him missing?"

I smile at the memory. "Yeah I remember."

"What about that one time in sixth grade, when you got your first period." I grimace at the memory. Thanks for bringing it up Hales. "I helped you hide in the bathroom and let you use my skirt to cover up since blood leaked out of your pants."

"Okay-"

"And again in our freshman year, when we found out we had no classes together. We pulled the best crime to get our schedule changed so we had at least four classes together." When we first went to high school, we panicked over not having classes together. It took a lot of lying, fake phone calls, crying, and an innocent bystander who got blamed for a crime to get our schedule changed.

Looking back at all our memories, Haley and I have been through everything together. Through the ups and downs, our friendship still remains strong.

Now I'm questioning my decision to keep this secret from her. We haven't kept secrets from each other before, why start now? Maybe back then it seemed like a prank, but now I know how serious this is. I have to tell someone.

"It's a long story."

She shrugs. "I got a lot of time."

***

-and that's what's been going on," I finish, taking a sip of my drink. We're at the mall again since it's basically Haley's third home. It makes sense to come here to tell her everything that's been going on with me.

And I do mean everything.

Haley chews her fries slowly, taking in everything that I said. "You don't know what this guy looks like?" she asks, eating another fry.

"No. He's been leaving me notes, chocolate boxes, and he even gave me a box of Sour Patch Kids."

Her blue eyes light up. "You love those!"

"Exactly! That's the thing. Apparently when Jason was with him-"

"Wait, this stalker guy kidnapped Jason?" she asks, looking surprised. Did I accidentally leave that part of the story out?

I nod. "You have no idea how scared I was. It was a relief when I found him in my room. But I guess Jason told him what I liked and that's around the time I got the box. Jason didn't give me a good description of his appearance in case you're wondering."

"Why haven't you gone to the cops yet?"

"I have no proof! I can't just go 'Hey 911? Some guy is sending me love notes and chocolate and flowers. I think I'm in danger'. You've seen the shows! Cops won't do anything unless someone gets hurt," I tell her.

"What do the notes say anyways?" she asks, leaning forward. She seems genuinely interested but worried about my situation.

"I threw most of them away. But from what they say, I think he's watching me all the time or at least having someone else watch over me."

She shakes her head, causing some loose hair from her ponytail to fall. "But has he left any threats in those notes? Like saying how if you don't do something or return his feelings he'll hurt someone?"

"No...yeah no. All he writes about is how he thinks I'm beautiful and how he really 'loves' me," I reply, rolling my eyes.

Her eyes soften and she softly says, "aww," making me hit her arm.

"It's not sweet! Haley, this guy is creepy!"

She sighs and gets up to throw our plates away before leading me out of the food court. "Braska, if all he does is leave you sweet gifts and cute love notes, then I suggest not for you to worry about it. If anything, what you got is a secret admirer, not a dangerous stalker. However, the second he puts e ven a hint of a threat, then we take action."

"Haley...I'm scared. I don't like the idea of someone watching me without my knowledge. What if he takes it too far? What if it becomes more than just notes and gifts?"

"Close all windows, lock all doors, install an alarm system. And since your mom is home, you can make sure she stays with Jason so you don't have to worry about him."

"What about me?"

"If you don't show up to first period tomorrow, I'll call the cops." Wow thanks Haley. That's reassuring.

_____________________________

Advice for the day:

Never shave your legs while listening to dance music unless you want to get a cut from attempting to do the running man while shaving