Lily's long eyelashes fluttered gracefully as the loud alarm from Joan's phone interrupted her sleep. As always, Joan didn't get up so the phone kept ringing. Lily didn't feel like letting it slide today so she shoved Joan repeatedly until the latter let out a small groan.
"Wake up and turn off your alarm Joan."
Lily whined, ending her request with a big yawn. Joan simply turned on the other side, giving Lily her back. After a minute, she went still, again. Soon enough, Lily realized that her friend had succumbed into the hands of slumber.
With a loud groan, not caring whether it would wake Joan up, Lily reached for Joan's ringing phone on the little beside table that sat on the right side of the bed. The right side was Joan's side of the bed. When the phone was finally turned off, Lily grumbled while sitting up. She knew there was no way she would go back to sleep. She was the type of sleeper that had to sleep in a perfectly quiet environment or else they wouldn't sleep at all.
Lily swayed her legs off the bed and into her flip-flops. After a long minute to gather enough energy in her bones, especially her legs, she rose to her feet. Rubbing her slightly aching eyes, she dragged her feet into the living room.
The minute she walked through the door and the living room came into full view, she froze. Her eyes widened, almost immediately squinting them. Her brows so close together, they were almost touching, as she noticed a figure lying on the only sofa she and Joan owned. She couldn't see the face of whoever it was because the person had it's back to Lily.
Who is this person? Why and how is this person in my apartment? It couldn't be a break in, I didn't hear any noise the night before. Does Joan know about this?
All these thoughts ran through Lily's head as she cautiously approached the figure with a cover cloth up to its neck. When she was a few inches away from the couch, she pushed herself on her tiptoes, hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever was on her couch. She couldn't, whoever it was had their face almost buried into the couch. Letting out an inaudible breath of frustration, she returned to her heels. She had to go around the couch.
And so she did, tiptoeing her way through. She was barely halfway when suddenly, the figure turned on its back. Lily froze, her breathing freezing as well. She remained that way until the figure had stopped moving, but now the figure's face was in plain sight. From where Lily stood, she noticed familiar facial features, but still couldn't completely make out who it was.
"Is someone there?"
The person spoke. Lily also recognized the voice. There was only one person who she knew that sounded like that.
She swallowed hard, taking a leap of faith. "Sean?"
At the sound of her voice, Sean jerked up from the couch to look behind him. His eyes brightened when he saw her.
He could barely hide the excitement in his voice when he whispered her name. "Lily!"
Lily was equally surprised. It really was Sean. Her boyfriend Sean who she was slowly losing feelings for but he was too in love with her to notice, and she was too guilty to confess to it.
She was still standing in the same spot with a faint smile when Sean rose up from the couch. He didn't hesitate to sprint towards Lily, wrapping her into a bear hug. He flew two hours from a bordering state, arriving last night to surprise his girlfriend. She was surprised all right, but not the reaction he was expecting.
"What… what are you doing here?"
Lily muffled from having her face buried into his warm sweatshirt. The last person on her mind to see was Sean. Not like she didn't like him at all, she just didn't love him as much as she did before.
"I flew in last night to surprise you babe," Sean muttered, pulling her slightly away by her shoulders. "But you don't look at all surprised." he added when he looked into her eyes.
"No, no," Lily retorted quickly. "I'm surprised," she paused to come up with a sensible excuse. "I'm just, really tired from yesterday."
Sean nodded, caressing her cheek with his thumb. "My Picasso." he whispered.
It was what he always called her. Lily used to blush at being called that, but now she felt nothing. In order not to come off as strange, she forced a smile. Sean fell for it. Lily's smile brought out his smile.
"Joan knew about this didn't she?"
When Sean nodded with a slight chuckle, Lily giggled quietly as well. Sean's eyes searched Lily's. He was smitten by her. Always was and most likely will continue to be.
"You look even more beautiful than the last time I saw you." he whispered lovingly.
Sean lived and schooled two hours away by air and eight hours away by road. It became a long distance relationship when Lily got accepted into Greenville University. They last saw each other almost a year ago, and as much as Lily didn't want to admit it, she had gotten used to living without him. It seemed like she had moved on without him.
"Thank you Sean." Lily managed to say.
She hated herself for falling out of love with Sean. He was the perfect boyfriend. Attractive, supportive, understanding, an active doer of service; like flying out to surprise his girlfriend, among many other wonderful qualities, but Lily just couldn't explain why she felt differently. She tried and tried to reignite the feelings but everytime she tried, she failed.
Sean wasn't satisfied with Lily's response. It was plain, almost flat. "You seem really tired babe," he mumbled.
Lily noticed she was dampening his spirit. "I just need a cup of coffee." she replied with a smile.
Her smile suddenly turned into a small laugh. A confused Sean joined her in her gesture. "The thought of coffee makes you laugh?"
It was then Lily realized she was even laughing in the first place. "No, not that," she mumbled. "I just remembered an event from work that involved a cup of coffee."
She stylishly walked out of Sean's arms, heading towards the kitchen. "Really?" Sean exclaimed behind her. "Tell me about it babe," he followed behind her.
Lily's lips straightened, her smile vanishing after Sean's request. "Oh I uhm," she began, returning her smile when she turned to him. "I barely remember it anyway."
"So much on your head huhn?"
Sean suggested as he pulled a chair from under the kitchen aisle. Lily saw a window of opportunity and immediately took it. She nodded in agreement to Sean's suggestion, even though it was a blatant lie. She in fact remembered every single detail of what happened between her and Asher.
"Anyways," she lifted her head when Sean spoke. "We have the whole day to ourselves," he couldn't hide his excitement as he spoke.
"What do you want to do today?"
Lily opened her mouth to reply when her phone lying on the aisle, pinged. The screen lit up as notification of a received message. Just as it lit up, she noticed a message from Asher.
"Where are you Lily?" It read.