28 | l i l l i

I truly thought Lilli was going to bite off my head the moment she saw me. Considering after yesterday and her finding out I had lied to her and my somewhat boyfriend. I think.

If there was one thing I knew about Lilli, it was that she hated dishonesty. It was her biggest pet peeve, besides trash talking about people behind their backs. She was a good person and I felt terrible for lying to her. Just like Ace, I knew she was going to go in on me not trusting her even though I did, completely.

All of that is the reason I made Ace stop at the grocery store on the way to school just so I could buy her a box of chocolates. I didn't care if I was late to class, Lilli loved chocolate more than anything in the world. And I was hoping she would forgive me the second she saw the heart shaped box.

Ace and I crept into class and handed out teacher our late passes. She gave us a suspicious look but said nothing.

As soon as I was in my seat, I turned to my best friend. But she had her arms crossed and her lips pursed. "Lilli," I tried to get her attention.

I knew she was doing her best at ignoring me but when I gently waved the chocolates in her face, she gave in. "You got me chocolates?" She asked me.

"It's part of my apology," I let her know. "Can we talk after class?" She took the box from me when I handed it over and nodded her head, giving me my answer.

I turned to Ace with a big smile on my face. He had one that mirrored mine and his eyes glimmered with adoration.

I kissed Ace gently on his cheek after class and made my way toward Lilli. We weren't going to really get into it yet but I wanted to walk her to class to show her that I was really trying.

"I know you wanted to talk to me now Ro but I really don't think an 8 minute passing period is enough time," Lilli told me without even looking in my direction.

I nodded even though she probably didn't see it. "Yeah, I know. I just wanted to walk with you. We can talk at lunch or after school; whichever is good with you."

"After school. Can you come over? I'll give you a ride back home," she said home with disgust.

I stopped her and pulled her to a set of lockers. "I'm not staying there anymore. You guys were right, it's stupid for me to stay there when I could just stay with Ace."

Lilli gave me a small smile and a nod of acknowledgement. "Good. I'll drive you back to Ace's after then."

"Sounds good to me." We had made it to her class so I turned to walk to my own. But Lilli pulled me back by my wrist and brought me into a tight hug. I closed my eyes and squeezed her back. "I'm sorry I lied Lil."

I felt her nod against my shoulder. She pulled back and told me, "I know you are."

At lunch, most things seemed back to normal. And by normal, I mean Ryder was making out with some girl at our table, Kaz looked like he wanted to do lots of illegal things while viciously eating an apple, and Lilli was typing something on her phone, looking bored.

Ace wrapped an arm around my shoulder and tugged me closer while we walked through the cafeteria. Most people were staring, especially at Sophie's table. Aka, Sophie.

Yikes, note to self: you do not want to look her in the eyes when she's giving you a death glare.

We sat down at our table and Ace slid his arm off of my shoulder and took my hand instead. I looked up at him and beamed brightly. He leaned forward slightly and-

"For the millionth time, get a room," Ryder told us.

I looked away and blushed. Ace scrunched his eyebrows. "Ryder, you were literally just making out with- I'm sorry, what's your name?"

"Leah," the blonde deadpanned.

"Yeah, I was. What's it to you?" Ryder interrupted.

Ace rolled his eyes. "Don't tell us to get a room. You get a room," he told him, very maturely.

Lilli looked up from her phone at no one in particular. "Oh good, they're done sucking face."

I almost wanted to laugh at the conversation but then I glanced over at Kaz who had stopped biting into his apple. He was looking right at Ace with a sad, almost dejected look on his face. I tilted my head in confusion and caught his eye. He glanced back down to his apple and mastered his stoney expression.

Weird.

"Hey, so there's a party on Friday at Peter's house, are you guys going?" Ryder asked all of us, carelessly slinging an arm around Leah.

Ace sighed and rubbed circles onto my hand with his thumb. "I wasn't really planning on it. Mel doesn't really like parties."

"Awe, you'd stop going to parties for her?" Lilli cooed. I gave her the universal "shut up" glare and she smiled, but stopped talking.

Ace nodded. "Well yeah, but it's not like I really enjoyed going to stupid high school parties in the first place."

"But you guys have to go! I heard it's gonna be huge," Ryder begged.

"Even more reason not to go," Ace told him, his tone harsh and direct.

Ryder resorted to puppy dog eyes.

"Give me a break," I heard Kaz mutter under his breath.

Ryder frowned at him and turned back to Ace and I. He focused in on me. "Please Mel! I promise you'll like it! I'll make sure you have an absolutely wonderful time!"

I saw Ace roll his eyes out of the corner of my eye and Lilli chuckled. Sigh. I turned my body toward Ace. "I guess I'll go. But only if you go with me."

He blinked three times before letting out a tentative, "are you sure?"

"I'm not five, Ace. I can go to a party," I told him.

He nodded, "Okay, we'll go."

Ryder's smile grew half an inch. "Yes!"

"But nothing happens to her Ryder, I'm serious. No drinks, no drugs and no one will touch her but me, got that?" Ace's protective side came out.

Ryder rolled his eyes. "Yes sir. Do you want to shake on it too?" He asked sarcastically.

Ace leaned over and shoved his shoulder back. "Shut up douche."

I walked with Lilli out to her car after the final bell. We drove to her house mostly in silence, minus the radio. We walked into her house and immediately went to her room.

"Okay, spill," was the first thing she told me to do.

I took a deep breath and thought about how I would explain everything to her. "Promise to stay quiet until the very end?" She nodded. "Okay, so I'll start off with why I lied to you in the first place. I just didn't want to rely on you, or anyone. And I know that sounds dumb, Ace thought so too. But you've been my best friend for forever Lilli. And I've let you and your family take me in whenever I needed a place to stay and I just- I just didn't want to do that anymore. I won't have you forever and I need to learn to rely on myself.

"Maybe my actions were selfish and unfair to you and to Ace, but I just couldn't tell you. I wanted to handle Charlie on my own for once. I need to know that one day, when you leave and go off to college, that I'll be okay. I shouldn't have to rely on another person for a place to stay. Which is why I lied to Ace too."

Lilli nodded throughout my speech and when I was done, she pulled me into a hug again. "I understand your reasoning Ro. I forgive you. Just don't lie to me like that again. I worry about you and the thought of you living with your dad again scares the crap out of me. You finally got away from him and then to learn that you went crawling right back," she shook her head. "I wasn't really angry at you, I was mad that you felt like you had to resort to staying with that piece of shit again."

"I love you Lils. Thank you for being my best friend forever. I know that's cheesy, but I love you. Thanks for being there for me when no one else was. Sometimes I think I don't deserve you as my best friend," I admitted.

She smacked my arm lightly. "Shut up Rose! If anything, you deserve more friends."

"It's so weird hearing you call me Rose now. It's like I changed identities within the past few months," I told her.

She nodded. "Would you rather me call you Mel?"

"No," I shook my head. "That would be even weirder. You're basically the only person who calls me Rose now. It's special, just for you."

She rolled her eyes. "Awe?"

We both laughed and then like the weirdos we are, started our homework. Sometime after we had started and then finished two assignments, I glanced up.

"Do you want to go on our date now?"

She looked up eagerly. "Hell yeah! Otherwise Ace is gonna start to get a little antsy."

"Shut up, he's fine! Can this be a casual date though? I didn't bring any formal wear to school today, for obvious reason."

She nodded quickly. "Let's go get chicken strips at Roller Diner!"

"Great minds think alike. Also, make sure you tell Ace that we got chicken strips for our date. He acts like I'm too old for them. He keeps calling them little kid names," I told her with a frown.

She raised her eyebrows. "You guys went to Roller together?"

"Yeah that was our, what he likes to call, first date."

She smirked. "Cute."

Lilli and I went left her house to go on our friend date and ate chicken strips and milkshakes, even though Lilli was lactose intolerant.

She forgives me!

I texted Ace while we waited for our check.

Good, so now you can come home 😁

I rolled my eyes at his response.

Maybe. I might spend the night with Lilli tonight.

He replied with,

:( I'm sad now.

I showed Lilli his reaction and she laughed. "Tell him that I'm keeping you forever." So I did. He didn't react well, making Lilli and I laugh for another twenty minutes.

I was lucky; I had the best two people in my life.

Y'all got a big storm comin' within the next chapter or two!😬

Anyway, I hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter. It's over 1,800 words and I wanted to write more so I'm gonna go start chapter 29 right now.

Also, we hit 7k! Thank you guys so much for reading Ace and Mel's story.

And Peter..... he may or may not look exactly like Noah Centineo aka Peter Kavinsky.

If you haven't seen To All The Boys

I've Loved Before, do yourself a favor and do so. No RAGRETS

See you next chapter!