Just Stay With Me Awhile

“Oh, shit,” Lili said, grabbing her phone and looking at it. Brian looked at it too and glowered at the name, but he didn’t say anything as she answered the phone. “Hi, Zack,”

“Hey, Lili,” Zack’s voice said on the other end of the line. “I was wondering if maybe you’d like to go out with me to dinner tomorrow night? Maybe we can start setting things right again?”

At Zack’s words, Lili wanted to burst into tears. She was a horrible person for sleeping with Brian—one of Zacky’s best friends. She managed to calm herself down however, and coughed.

“Yeah, that would be nice.” She said, trying to keep everything vague so that Brian wouldn’t know what was being arranged. Again, she felt horrible. Brian didn’t deserve her two-stepping around him, even if he realized what they’d just done was only casual. He’d told her he was getting serious about her, which made her feel even worse. She couldn’t make up her mind between Zack and Brian.

“Okay,” Zack said, sounding relieved on the other end of the phone. “Do you want me to come to your room tonight?”

“Uh, I’d love that, but I really don’t feel good tonight.” Lili said. It was the only true thing she’d told him all night; she felt horrible.

“Oh,” Zacky said. “Well, I’m going to hang up now so you can get some rest.”

Lili choked out a sob; he was being so nice to her tonight, and she’d gone and fucked his best friend. If there was a hell, she was going to the furthest corner of it. “Thanks, Zacky.”

“And Lili?” He asked her.

“Yeah?”

“I love you.” He told her. Lili’s heart began to beat rapidly in her chest. He’d just told her he loved her.

“Me too,” She told him, unable to bring herself to say the words Zack had just told her as she hung up the phone. She looked at Brian, who was studying her expression.

“You okay?” He asked her, swiping a strand of still-sweaty hair out of her face. Lili nodded, forcing the tears to stay in her eyes. If she cried in front of Brian, he’d assume that Zacky had said something to hurt her, and that would only result in disaster.

“I’m fine,” She reassured him with a watery smile. “Female hormones, you know.”

He nodded and pecked her lips lightly and began to get dressed again. “I’d hate to be the guy having to clean this truck,” He told her, a smirk set on his lips as she began to get dressed. A wave of nausea hit Lili when he said the words, but she managed to contain her emotions.

“I know,” She smiled at him. “We…We did a real number on it.”

He nodded and then got out of the car, moving to the front seat to begin driving. Lili stayed in the backseat, laying her head down as she pretended to be sleepy so that she wouldn’t have to talk anymore with Brian tonight.

She just hoped that when she woke up, it would be in Zack’s arms and that this thing with Brian had all been a horrible nightmare.

-x-
The Next Morning
-x-

When Lili woke up in the morning, she was back in her bed at the hotel, dressed in only the lingerie she’d worn the night before underneath the dress. She groaned to herself when she felt the ache between her legs; it had definitely not been just some erotic nightmare.

She’d had sex with Brian. And to top it off, she’d been completely sober when she’d done so. She hadn’t had any more than one glass of wine at dinner, so her actions were completely her own, and couldn’t be blamed on alcohol.

She got up out of the bed and walked over to her suitcase, picking out the first outfit she saw. It consisted of a blue and black buffalo plaid dress with long sleeves, a pair of leather leggings to keep her legs warm and to hide the scrape she’d gotten from the ice, and a pair of white UGG boots. She did her makeup light and left her long hair down so that it could frame her face. She was relieved when she checked her neck and the rest of her body that Brian had left only one hickey; a hickey that, if push came to shove, she’d say Zack had left on her when they’d been in New York City.

Just as she was finishing getting dressed, there was a knock on the door. She walked over and opened it, and Tommy was standing there, looking much more serious than she usually saw him. Lili gulped; a serious Tommy Lee was not someone she liked to see.

“What’s up, Uncle Tommy?” She asked him.

“You got back really late last night,” He told her, the tone of his voice leaving no room for argument. She nodded.

“Yeah, I was—“

“With Brian, I know.” He told her, cutting her off. He looked down both sides of the hallway before continuing. “And Zack was in here a few days ago. Don’t deny it; I was in your shoes once. Well, not really. I mean, since you’re a wom—Anyway, the point is, you were with Brian last night and Zack a few nights ago.”

Lili sighed. It was ironic to her how neither her father, nor her Uncle Nikki, whom she’d always considered to be smarter than her father or the others, hadn’t seen what Tommy had seen.

“Just because I was with them doesn’t mean—“

“Lili,” He told her, cutting her off again. “Personally, I don’t really care if you’re having sex with both of them. Well, I do care, because you’re my niece. But it’s your body, you’re not a minor, and you’re smart. So I trust you to do whatever it is you’re doing. But I’m going to give you a little Tommyland advice, okay?”

“Sure.” She said dejectedly, knowing that she’d have to listen to him.

“When I was your age, you know what I was like; what all of us boys were like back in the ‘80s. And it wasn’t very nice of us, to put it mildly. We broke a lot of hearts, and that’s something that isn’t easily fixed. So before you continue doing what you just did last night, stop and think. Do you care about them both? Because if you do, you’re going to choose which one you care more about and break things off with the other before things get messy. Things like this ruin bands, Lili.”

“I know, Uncle Tommy,” Lili said, tears forming in her eyes. “It’s not like I meant to do this.”

“It’s okay,” He told her, shaking his head. “You can still fix things, but you have to figure out which of them you love more. And hope like hell that he loves you enough to not judge you for sleeping with his best friend.”

Lili nodded and then Tommy patted her shoulder. “Well, we’re leaving in an hour, and you’re going to bus with Avenged again. Don’t look at me like that; it was your Mom’s idea.”

Lili nodded and then closed the door as Tommy walked away, going to pack up her stuff.

As she packed, she did so slowly so that it would postpone having to go to the Avenged bus. It was going to be a very tense day. She wondered what she was going to do if Zack kissed her in front of Brian, though she was almost positive Brian wasn’t going to do the same thing in front of Zack. He wasn’t stupid; he knew that there was still something happening between her and Zack, though she hadn’t said anything to him. As she was beginning to roll her suitcase over to the door, someone knocked on it. Standing there was Zack, smiling.

Lili suppressed a groan. She’d had no idea it was going to be this difficult. She put on a smile and hugged him, feeling guilty as he pecked her lips lightly.

“I came to help you with your stuff,” He told her. She smiled at him, hoping he wouldn’t see anything written on her face, and then handed him the duffel bag.

“Thanks, Zack.” She said. He nodded.

“It’s off to Detroit, now.” He said, putting his hand on the small of her back. He held her hand in his then, and they walked down the hallway together towards the lobby of the hotel.