Chapter Two (Part 5): Troubled Teen Years
The weeks wore on in Pleasantview, but Lilith found herself falling into a hapless state of melancholy. She wanted to spend every waking minute with Dirk, but the time they had together grew increasing short as his tutoring sessions lasted longer and longer and became more frequent throughout the week.
In addition to her frustration over how her time with her boyfriend was being eaten away by activities that did not include her, Lilith was bombarded with discussions of other people during the little time she did have with Dirk. Their conversations, which used to only include what they were going to do together once they turned eighteen, now always came back to something Dirk had discovered with Allison during his tutoring.
"Oh, and guess what else Allison told me about history," Dirk would say or "Guess what Allison and her brother are doing this weekend!" and then launch into a twenty-minute diatribe about Allison "this" and Allison "that" leaving Lilith more annoyed than satisfied to be spending time with her boyfriend.
Intent to not allow the sparkle to dwindle from her relationship, Lilith tried everything she could to keep Dirk with her and even went with him while Allison tutored him, though she found the sessions frightfully boring.
When she had gone an entire week without even speaking Dirk, Lilith prepared for the worst, but as her heart began to set into a grey depression, Dirk strolled by her house with a wide grin on his face. He had arranged a dinner at the fanciest restaurant in Pleasantview for just the two of them. Even as she listened to Dirk talk about the reservations, her heart beat wildly at the thought of being with Dirk in such an intimate atmosphere.
Lilith practically ran all the way home from school the afternoon before her evening with Dirk and put on the dress she had been saving for a "special" occasion.
"This is the night," she said to herself. "Tonight's the night Dirk is going to propose to me."
When 6:30 had come and gone without any sign of Dirk, Lilith began pacing in the foyer wondering why he had could be running late. By 8:00, Lilith continually called Dirk's house hoping to hear some news, but his father would only answer saying that Dirk had left the house at six o'clock and he had not heard from him.
Fearing the worst, Lilith was ready to "borrow" the car and drive up and down the streets looking for him in case something terrible had happened, but as she headed for the door, Mary-Sue called for her.
"Lilith! Someone's calling for you."
"I'm so sorry, 'Lil," Dirk said into the phone. "Time just got away from me and it's so late already."
Lilith sighed as she attempted to hold back tears. In the living room, Angela and Dustin cuddled together on the sofa, but they had stopped whispering to one another so they could properly hear what Lilith was saying.
"It-It's...It's Okay, Dirk. Can you just come over for a bit so we can spend some time together?"
"I would...really," Dirk said, "but my dad's really mad at me right now for taking off today and I'm kind of grounded."
"Oh...okay. Well, I guess I'll see you a little later..."
Lilith hung up the phone to see Angela nuzzling Dustin's neck with a wicked grin on her face, yet that was not what was troubling Lilith most.
"He never cared what his dad said before," Lilith thought as she slowly trekked to her bedroom. "And why would his dad suddenly ground him for running around all afternoon? We've been gone for days before...heck, we've been arrested together. Why would his dad start caring now?"
That night, every part of Lilith wanted to simply cry herself to sleep. Instead, she stared out her window and watched the moon move across the sky while wondering what she had done to make Dirk want to lie to her.
The next morning, Lilith began calling Dirk every hour on the hour. At first, she started on his cell until it went directly to voicemail and then continued calling his house until his father had told her to stop calling and that he would have Dirk call her when he saw him again. Lilith waited by the phone for the rest of the day, but never got a call.
When she awakened the next day, any vestige of self-pity had vanished and anger simply overwhelmed her. She stormed to Dirk's house before she could stop herself and banged on the door until Dirk came to the door surprised to see her.
"Oh! Hey..."
"Hey?" she said, trying her best not to strike out at him with the same anger she had normally reserved for Angela. "What do you mean 'Hey?' I called and called yesterday, but you never called me back!"
Dirk looked behind him briefly and Lilith could see Allison and a circle of her friends sitting in Dirk's living room.
"What's going on Dirk?"
He closed the door and took a deep breath.
"What do you mean?" he said.
"I thought you were grounded and you're just here hanging out."
"Kind of grounded. You know how my dad can be."
"Oh, so that's it..."
"I'm sorry."
"That's what you said yesterday," Lilith said, braced for an argument. "What is going on?"
"Nothing."
"Then, why didn't you ever call me back? I called you all day long!"
"I'm sorry!"
"Is that the best answer you've got for me? That you're sorry?"
"I am!" Dirk shouted. "I just...Yesterday, we were all hanging out at Allison's and we just got busy."
"We?"
Dirk motioned to the gathering in his house. "Yeah...everybody."
"What about us, Dirk?"
"We're still us. Why don't you come in and meet everybody?"
"I don't want to meet everybody. Half of those kids go to my school and are friends with Angela."
"They're cool people once you get to know them."
"I don't want to get to know them. I just want to spend some time with you."
Dirk opened his mouth to respond as Allison and her friends came out of his house.
"Hey Dirk!" Allison said. "We're heading back to my place for dinner. My mother's making her lobster bisque. Oh...hi Lilith."
Lilith glared at her, but when the full force of her stare turned on Dirk, he took a step backward before gathering his nerve.
"Lilith...come with us. Please. We'll all hang out and we'll have a great time."
Shaking her head, Lilith began to back away from him.
"I can't believe you stood me up to hang out with them..."
"I didn't! I told you I-"
"I don't care, Dirk. You are not the person I thought you were."
"Please Lilith!" Dirk called as she continued to back away from him. "Just hang out with us for a little while."
Lilith paid him no mind and walked, stony-faced, all the way back home to find Angela and Dustin on the backyard swings.
"Get off the swings," she said in a low voice.
Angela and Dustin glanced at one another and quickly left the swing set; neither wanted to risk any further conversation given the expression on Lilith's face.
"Hey," a voice called as twilight faded to darkness around Lilith.
She looked up and found Dirk approaching her, but she made no move to greet him.
"C'mon," he said. "Are you really going to be like that?"
"Like what, Dirk?" she spat. "You chose Allison and her friends over me today. This is the only way I know how to be."
"It wasn't like that."
"Then how was it?"
"I don't want to fight anymore."
"Neither do I."
Silence fell upon them as a warm wind blew Lilith slightly in the swing seat. Dirk dug his toes in the ground as she refused to meet his gaze.
"Well," he said after five minute's silence. "I don't know what's happened between us, but I'd really like it if we could just start over."
Lilith felt her eyebrows rise, but still said nothing.
"C'mon," Dirk said. "We'll go to the park and just hang out. Just you and me."
At that, she glanced at him to find his eyes shining in the moonlight.
"Okay," Lilith said, finding his charming smile too much for her to resist.
That night, they ran the streets like old times and did whatever they wanted to whomever they wanted. However, all the while, even when they were running from the cops chasing them out of the park, Lilith could not shake the feeling that something had changed in Dirk.
His kisses felt different and even the way he held her hand had changed from when they first got together. A part of her wanted to chalk up everything to the both of them growing older, but the nagging concern could not be shaken.
"He's not the kid he used to be," she thought as she finally put herself to bed early Monday morning.
Throughout the next day, the tension that had been pulling Lilith in all directions seemed to lift, even as she passed by people she knew were friends of Allison.
When she got home, she was nearly skipping when she got a message from Dirk asking if she wanted to hang out with him that night.
"What are you so happy about?" Angela said as Lilith brushed past her.
"Don't talk to me," Lilith said.
"Whatever," Angela said. "Oh and by the way...I went for a run today and I saw your boyfriend and some girl holding hands by his house when I ran by there."
Lilith stopped short. "You're a liar."
"What? Why would I lie about something so trivial?"
"You're so full it! He just left me a message about hanging out tonight. Why would he say he wanted to meet at the movies if he was doing something with that girl?"
"Okay fine. Live in denial. I was just trying to prepare you. I don't know why he would've wanted to stay with someone like you for this long anyway."
"Why are you even talking to me?" Lilith yelled. "I just said to leave me alone."
"And everyone thinks the same thing too," Angela continued as if she had not heard Lilith. "Dustin was just telling me other day how I saved him. He was actually thinking about asking you out before I rescued him from himself."
At that, Lilith had to react and within minutes the fight that had ensued between her and Angela had grown so violent that Mary-Sue and Daniel had to pry them apart from each other.
"Get off of me!" Lilith screamed as she pushed Daniel away from her and ran to her room.
She had tried not to let Angela get to her, but she succumbed to the goading nonetheless. The only thoughts that comforted her were those concerning Dirk.
"He and I going out tonight and we're going to live the life we've been planning," she said aloud to herself.
"Hey Loser!" Angela called from the stairs an hour later. "There's someone here for you."
Knowing it could only be Dirk, Lilith ran down the stairs grinning wildly when she saw him at the door.
"I thought I was supposed to meet you at the movies," she said almost shaking with excitement. "Change of plans?"
"Yeah…I guess you could say that."
Lilith noted that there was no happy glint to his face and Angela's words began to echo in her head. Several minutes passed with neither of them saying anything before Dirk broke the silence.
"Lilith," he began, but his eyes fell toward the ground.
"What?" Lilith asked, her heart fearing how he might answer. "What is it?"
"Lilith," he repeated solemn with a seriousness in his eyes Lilith had never seen. "We...we need to talk."
Part Six
