Chapter 15
chapter fifteen
lily
Lily woke up at an ungodly hour in the morning as usual, getting up and taking a quick shower. When she finished drying her hair and putting on a fresh tank top and shorts, Mary was still asleep on the bed, curled up with the sheets clenched in her hands. Lily looked at her phone—it was almost 8:30. She decided she’d give Mary thirty minutes to sleep in, and squished herself into an armchair with a book.
When Lily looked at her phone again, it was almost ten. “Fuck.” She walked over to the window and pulled back the blinds, sun streaming in and turning everything gold. Lily blinked against the light.
“Nooooo,” Mary moaned, pulling the blankets over her head. “Why? Why would you do that?”
Lily sat down on the bed, patting the lump that she thought might be Mary’s head. “It’s time to get up,” Lily sang softly. “Sorry, I know. It’s ten, though, so we gotta get going.”
Mary made a sound like she was possessed—a sort of feral screech. Mary rubbed her eyes, cheeks pink and creased from the pillow and hair covered in a purple bonnet. She sat up, smacking her lips with a foul look on her face. “God, my mouth tastes like death.” Lily nodded sympathetically, and pulled the blankets out of Mary’s hands. “Hey, fuck you!” Mary gasped, shivering at the sudden lack of coverings.
“Let’s go!” Lily chirped, and Mary swiped at her. Lily skittered away, laughing, while Mary flipped her the bird.
It took a while to make it out the door, Mary grumbling the entire time. She perked up a little when they stopped at a Starbucks to get coffee and biscuits and when Lily agreed to listen to Wicked as they drove (Mary sang both parts in every song, between bites of biscuit and gulps of her drink). “Starbucks sugar cookies aren’t as good as the shitty ones from the supermarket,” Mary said, folding her napkin and shoving it in the glove compartment. “Also, they’re really expensive for no reason.” She handed a chunk of biscuit to Lily. “Bone apple teeth.”
“That’s the way it is, I fear,” Lily said forlornly, taking the biscuit and brushing pink sugar off her fingers. “Stupidly expensive and kind of terrible.”
They drove for a while, and Mary found a Sharpie in the glove department and drew whorls and sparkles all over her forearm. “You’re gonna get ink poisoning or something,” Lily said, glancing away from the road for a moment.
“Is that a thing?” Mary asked, looking at her skeptically. She finished the swirl she’d been working on and capped the pen.
“Yeah, someone in my class told me about it when I was eleven and I had to Google it for hours so I knew everything there was to know and didn’t have to worry about it,” Lily said. She tried to recall the articles she’d looked at, tapping her fingers on the wheel. “You can get, like, staining on your skin and nausea and stuff.”
“Well, damn,” Mary said, finally, and Lily wondered if she’d freaked her out. Lily chewed her lip. “But… I mean… the aesthetic,” she gestured to her arm, and Lily laughed, shocked she’d ever worried at all.
Lily glanced at the signs on the side of the road. “Oooh, we’re coming up on Skye Bridge,” she said, and Mary turned to look.
The bridge was slightly curved and looked a bit like someone had taken the road itself and lifted it up off the ground with a massive hand. It curved over a small bit of land before connecting to the larger island, and the girls could see cars crawling across the bridge far away from them like multicolored ladybugs.
“Oooh,” Mary cooed, looking out the window like a kid on a field trip. “Wait, can we open the windows?”
“Uh, sure,” Lily said, and rolled down the two front windows. Instantly, air whooshed in and turned the car into a mini windstorm. “WHY DID YOU WANT TO DO THIS?” Lily shouted, hair whirling around her wildly.
“TURN UP THE MUSIC!” Mary shouted back. “ACTUALLY, I’LL GET IT. YOU’RE DRIVING.” She cranked up the volume on Lily’s phone.
Nice to meet you, where you been?
I can show you incredible things
Magic, madness, heaven, sin
“SAW YOU THERE AND I THOUGHT OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THAT FACE,” Mary sang—even though she was almost yelling, she still sounded beautiful. “YOU LOOK LIKE MY NEXT MISTAKE.”
“LOVE’S A GAME, WANNA PLAAAY?” Lily sang, laughing and spitting out the hair that blew into her mouth. If the people in the other cars could have heard them through their windows and over the roaring of the wind, they definitely would have been getting some weird looks. But then, that was the thing about Mary—she made you forget to be self-conscious. Lily thought there was something nice about singing at the top of her lungs while the wind blew so hard it almost felt like it was drawing the breath from her very mouth and sending her voice out into the ocean surrounding them.
Mary held the Sharpie she’d used to draw on her arm up to her mouth like a microphone. “Boys only want love if it’s tooorture…” Lily glanced at her, and her stomach swooped. Mary’s eyes were closed and she was smiling, head tilted back and Sharpie held up like she was really on a stage, performing. Something tugged sharply behind her navel. Lily looked back at the road.
“GUESS WHERE WE’RE GOING!” Lily shouted when the song ended.
“WHERE?” Mary asked.
“FUCKING FAIRY GLEN!”
“THAT’S A REAL PLACE?” Mary looked delighted. “HERE, I’LL CLOSE THE WINDOWS.” She held down the button and leaned across Lily to close hers. “Did I hear you right? Fairy glen?”
Lily grinned. “Yup.”
They parked soon after that and began the hike through the blustery green Scottish countryside. Lily closed her eyes for a moment when they reached the top of a mossy green hill and breathed. The wind blew over her, and her hair billowed behind her gently. She smiled.
“Whatcha thinking about?” Mary asked, curling her pinky finger around Lily’s.
“You. And how pretty it is here.” Lily took a breath of the salty, cold air.
Mary said nothing, but leaned her head on Lily’s shoulder. They kept walking.
Fairy glen was beautiful—it was circles of stone emanating from a single point, surrounded by sloping green hills. It looked like something right out of a fantasy story. Lily loved it. They stumbled down the hills, stepping carefully over ancient stones in awed silence. Lily felt if she touched a stone, it would be disrespectful, somehow—so she gingerly tiptoed over them, barely even breathing.
Mary looked up, eyes wide. Lily looked too—both girls swept away in blue-grey watercolor skies. There were other tourists there wearing bright colored rain jackets and fuzzy beanies, but it felt like it was just them there, staring up at skies that seemed to envelop them and surrounded by swirling circles of stone.
“It’s beautiful,” Mary said as they walked back. Lily looked to the side and saw Mary’s profile lit with the soft light that was peeking through the clouds.
“It is,” Lily said softly.
chapter fifteen
mary
They began walking back to the van as it started drizzling, and by the time they’d been walking for a few minutes, the rain had gotten heavier. Lily took off her sweater and held it over their heads, though it barely sheltered them at all and just made her shivery and red in the face.
They got in the car, soaked from head to toe. “I’ll get the blankets from the back,” Mary said, teeth practically chattering. Lily turned up the heat and pressed her hands to the vent. Mary grabbed the mound of blankets and stuffed animals and dumped it onto their laps.
“Good fuck, I’m so cold,” Lily shuddered, taking a blanket from Mary. Her hair was wet and frizzy from the rain. She brushed the wet strands behind her ears and sighed. Mary wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, savoring the little warmth it gave her. She looked at Lily, whose eyes were half-closed, hands held over the vent.
“You’ve got an eyelash…” Mary leaned forward, hand hovering over Lily’s cheek. She very carefully pressed a finger below Lily’s eye and brought her hand back, showing Lily the little red eyelash on her fingertip. “Make a wish,” Mary said, so softly she could barely hear herself. Suddenly, all the air had drained from her lungs—they were barely a few inches apart, and Lily was looking at her with wide eyes.
After a few moments, Lily blew the eyelash off Mary’s fingertip and kept her eyes locked with Mary’s the entire time. Mary was pretty sure she was dying.
“What did you wish for?”
“Can’t tell you, or it won’t come true,” Lily replied matter-of-factly.
“I didn’t take you for the superstitious type,” Mary leaned almost imperceptibly closer, shocked by her own boldness. Her heart thumped so loudly in her ears she could barely hear what Lily said next.
“Why risk it?” Lily asked, looking at her through her eyelashes. The playful set of her jaw and steely tone of her eyes almost felt like a challenge.
“I mean, what’s life without a little risk?”
“You’re so stupid.” Mary could barely stand this.
“You love it.”
“I really do.” And Lily was looking at her with those soft eyes, and the memory of awkward, stilted conversations and seeing each other from afar had never felt farther away—
Mary kissed her.
And for a terrifying moment, Mary thought she’d done something terribly wrong because Lily wasn’t moving at all. But then, Lily put a cautious hand on Mary’s cheek, and everything was okay again. Better than okay. Mary had to be dreaming—she could feel the soft curve of Lily’s smile and taste her strawberry lipstick, and Lily’s hand shifted to her neck, sending shivers down her spine. How was this real?
Lily pulled away, face redder than Mary had ever seen it, and Mary panicked.
“I—Did you—I mean—I’m sorry. I should have—I should have asked.” Mary stuttered, uncharacteristically anxious. “…Are you angry?” She squeezed her eyes closed; positive she’d astronomically fucked up.
The seconds before Lily replied felt like decades.
“God—god, Mary, no, I’m not angry,” Lily said, sounding as shaky as Mary felt.
Mary looked up tentatively.
“I’m anything but angry,” Lily picked at her thumbnail nervously, smiling a bit. “Actually, I’m really fucking happy.”
“Oh.” Mary was lost for words, and it wasn’t an experience she was used to. Really fucking happy. Really happy. Mary pinched her arm and didn’t wake up, so she guessed that meant she wasn’t dreaming. Holy shit. She swallowed around the lump in her throat. “Well, that’s quite lucky for me, then,” Mary looked at Lily, who hadn’t stopped smiling, Mary could tell she was grinning as well. “…I really like you.” Mary murmured.
“I really like you too.” Lily said softly, and her hand drifted to rest on top of Mary’s. Fuzzy tingles spread from where Lily touched her—like all of the nerves in her hand were fizzling like the ends of sparklers.
Lily finally looked up from her thumb, eyes sparkling. She leaned forward, and they were kissing again. Mary tentatively placed her hands on Lily’s shoulders, and Lily wrapped her arms around Mary’s neck. Their balance was upset, and they toppled backwards, Lily throwing out a hand to catch herself.
“Ow, sorry,” Mary said apologetically, rubbing her hip, which had clunked against the barrier between the driver’s and passenger’s seats.
“That was a bad idea on both our parts,” Lily laughed.
“Yep,” Mary giggled. Holy shit.
“Wanna watch something?” Lily said after a few moments. Mary’s heart ached painfully. God, she loved Lily Evans so much.
“Absolutely.”
~~~
Mary leaned against Lily’s chest, listening to her steady heartbeat. An episode of Gravity Falls played on the laptop in front of them—Mary didn’t remember what it was called, but Lily was telling her something about codes and ciphers in an excited, high-pitched voice, so she gathered it must be an important one.
Lily paused the show. “We’re not going to talk about the twinkification of Bill Cipher,” she said, a dark look in her eyes. “I have a whole rant about that.”
“I want to hear the rant,” Mary said genuinely, looking up at Lily.
Lily’s expression was one of surprised pleasure. She leaned down and kissed Mary’s forehead. “I haven’t gotten used to being able to do that,” Lily said, face still close to Mary’s.
“I haven’t gotten used to it either,” Mary squeaked, sure her face was bright red. Lily smirked, and Mary swatted at her. “Give me your rant.”
She took a breath, grinning, and Mary let the sound of Lily’s voice wash away her worries.
Soon, Mary volunteered to drive them to somewhere they could park the van for the night. She turned the engine off, crawling to the back of the van, and scooted in beside Lily in their nest of blankets. They laid there, half-asleep, for a while. Mary’s hand found Lily’s waist and tugged her closer, any trace of cold from earlier gone. “I really adore you,” Lily said with a sleepy yawn.
“I like you more,” Mary said cheekily.
Lily gasped. “You bitch! No you don’t!”
“You’re so pretty,” Mary replied, reveling in the flush of Lily’s cheeks—even though she could barely see it in the almost-darkness.
“That’s—no fair!” Lily stuttered. Mary laughed, feeling like her heart was close to exploding. Lily giggled, and covered her mouth, trying to scowl. “You suck.”
Mary snickered, and wrapped her arms around Lily tighter.
Mary was pretty sure she was the luckiest person in the world.