Your Secret's Safe With Me

Lily sat on the curb outside Tim’s little house, smoking a cigarette and watching the clouds. The Langsley kids had been in Arizona for three days now, and she was starting to panic. Where were they supposed to go? Could they afford their own apartment? Lily didn’t even have a college degree; who would waste their time hiring her? And the worst: what if he found them? Lynn and Lily were legal adults, being twenty-two years old, but Luke wasn’t. He was only seventeen. Which meant, technically, that what they were doing was illegal. Luke had run away from his guardian, their wretched uncle, and could probably be considered a fugitive at this point. They were lucky to have gotten away from him in the first place.

She pushed those thoughts away, deciding to save them for another day, and took in the scenery around her. Cacti and funny looking trees and lots of shrubs. Not to mention the dust and dirt and large rocks all over. Good old Arizona.

God, this place reminded her of her mother. So much that it began to hurt. Lily had done a good job over the years of trying to forget and move on, but she found her throat tightening up as she realized where she was. And she’d never, ever been here without her mom. And that was scary as hell.

“Well, well, well. Look who’s finally back!” a playful voice called out from the sidewalk.

Jumping at the sound of an unexpected voice, Lily turned to see who it was. And there, in all of his ridiculously-long-haired glory, was Pat Kirch, younger brother of Tim.

She instantly got up from her spot, not bothering to brush the rubble from her butt, and ran to tackle him in a hug. “Patrick, you look so big! You’re so old!” she laughed.

“That’s generally what happens, Lily. People get older,” he answered, grinning. “You, especially.”

Lily hadn’t been as close of friends with Pat or their older brother, Bryan, as she was with Tim, but she still loved the kid to death. He tended to hang out with Luke during their visits. “I can’t believe I’m actually back,” she said, out of breath.

“Me either. I haven’t talked to you in, how long? What are you doing here?”

“Well, I’m not going into specifics, Patrick, but Lynn and Luke and I, we kinda.. ran away from home,” she said sheepishly.

She watched as the expression on his face changed, dropping into a frown. “Are you okay?”

She shrugged. “I’m getting there. It’s alright, Pat, don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” he scoffed, referencing to all of the fist fights she’d gotten into over the years. She had a mean right hook, and that was something she took pride in.

Lily smiled. “So we flew in on Wednesday,” she said. “We’ve been staying at Tim’s.”

“And no one told me?!”

“Well now you know,” she said, the corner of her eye catching movement. She looked up, just now seeing the other boy who’d been with Pat. Her body tensed at the stranger, but relaxed after noticing the gentle look on his face.

“I’m Garrett,” he said. “I’m in Pat’s band.”

“Pat’s band, eh?” she smiled. Pat had never told her about a band. “I’m Lily. An old friend of the Kirch’s.”

“Lily! What are you doing-” the familiar, deep voice yelled, followed by footsteps on the front porch. “Oh, hey guys,” Tim said, noticing his brother and Garrett.

After a couple of murmured ‘hellos’, the three of them entered Tim’s house, revealing Lynn, who was in the kitchen cooking. Again. Would she ever stop?

No. Probably not. She cooked when she was nervous or upset, which had basically been the last six years. What would stop her now?

“Lynnie!” Pat yelled, running over to her and hugging her. Garrett stood awkwardly in the doorway, itching the back of his neck, as his friend reacquainted himself with Lily’s two siblings.

“Are you hungry?” Lily asked. “We have a lot of food. Lynn never stops cooking.”

“I’m alright, but thanks,” he said politely.

I tried, she thought, and moved past the kitchen and into the living room, where Tim was sitting on his laptop. She grabbed a blanket and took a seat next to him, wrapping it around her.

“Whatcha doing, Timmy?”

“Just some research,” he said, squinting his eyes at her, obviously trying to deflect her attention.

Not a chance. “On what?”

“Michigan state guardian laws,” he sighed. “Among other things.”

“Find anything good?”

“Not really. Just everything that we already know. Luke being here is illegal, he’s supposed to be with his parents or guardian, blah blah blah.”

“So what are we gonna do?” she asked nervously. Tim wouldn’t send Luke back to Detroit, would he?

“We’re gonna keep on breakin’ laws,” he grinned.

Lily let out sigh of relief. Her and her sister were twins, but she was the eldest and had always felt obligated to take care of her brother and sister. Especially when their uncle was involved. “Thank god.”

“Well, none of you can go back to Detroit, that’s for sure. I won’t allow it.”

“We don’t want to go back,” she answered softly, hiding her face by burying it into his shoulder. It felt good to be here with Tim. For once, she had someone taking care of her, not the other way around. She felt safe, which seemed like a luxury.

“So did Pat tell you he’s in a band?”

Lily nodded. “Briefly.”

“Alright, so they’re playing a show downtown tomorrow night. You wanna come?”

She wrinkled her eyebrows; did she want to? She had been to her fair share of concerts over the years, and majority of them were crazy. Literally. Did she really want her body pressed in a crowd of others, unable to move?

No. If it didn’t involve a bubble of personal space around her, she didn’t want to do it.

“Can I just stay home?”

“If you really want to,” Tim said. “But it’ll be fun. You can meet the rest of our friends, and see the band play. You can even come backstage with me,” he winked, knowing just how to persuade her.

“So I don’t have to stand in the crowd?”

“No ma’am.”

“Then I’ll go.”

“I knew you would,” he smirked. “But before we do, I need to take you guys shopping. You need new clothes.”

Which was pitifully true. He’d lent all three of them some of his extra clothes to wear around the house, but they’d arrived wearing ratty outfits that hadn’t been washed in a week. Their single suitcase, which held all three of their belongings, didn’t contain anything better, either.

“Fine. But you know we don’t have any money. We used it all on plane tickets.” They’d been saving for months and months just to be able to leave. They didn’t even have cellphones.

“I know, Lily, I know. I’ve got you covered, babe.”

***

And Tim did, indeed, have them covered. Lily had only been planning on letting Tim buy her a few outfits that would last her long enough to find a job and earn her own money. But Tim had other intentions.

When he took all three of the Langsley kids to the mall, he bought them as many t-shirts and jeans and shorts and blouses that he could find, it seemed like. Lily wondered where the hell he worked at, if he blew all that money just on them.

So when the got home after shopping the day after Pat had shown up, all three of them had done loads and loads of laundry and shoved their clothes into whatever closet was available. Lily put hers in Tim’s walk-in, considering that’s where she’d been sleeping. His house only had two bedrooms, and she didn’t mind sharing a bed with Tim while her brother and sister slept in the other room. As long as it wasn’t Detroit and Tim wasn’t her uncle, she didn’t mind one bit.

“You ready?” he asked from the driver’s seat of his car, glancing at Lily first, then Lynn, and then Luke. They all three nodded their heads and hopped out of his car, each wearing a new outfit.

“You could have just taken us to Goodwill,” Lily muttered, walking ahead of them toward’s the venue where Pat’s band would be playing in soon. There were already kids lined up outside.

“She means thank you,” Lynn said to him, and he smiled.

“I know she does. She’s one tough cookie.”

Lynn nodded. “Thank you so much, Tim, for taking us in like this. I don’t know anyone else who would do this for us.”

He shrugged, following Lily and holding the door open for Lynn and Luke. “It’s no problem, Lynnie. I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

“Okay, enough with the heart-to-heart back there,” Lily interrupted. Her words came out sounding harsher than intended, but her eyes were shining brightly with a smile. Tim knew how much she was thankful, even when she didn’t say it. Lily wasn’t a verbal or emotional person. “I need a drink.”

“Let me take Lynn and Luke backstage first,” he laughed, pulling all three of them towards the stage. Once they were settled, watching the band do soundcheck, Tim and Lily made their way towards the bar.

“How much is a Jack Daniels with coke?” she asked.

“For a pretty girl like you, it’s on the house,” the bartender smiled, making her shiver. She always played along to get free drinks, but inside it made her sick to think about. She had even worn an outfit that covered her body -and all of the scars and bruises the littered her skin.

Tim ordered a drink after she did, and they made their way back to where her siblings were, sitting on an old couch.

“So, uh, Lily?”

“Yeah, Tim?”

“When the guys play a show in town, we usually have our own after-party and they all crash at my house because everyone’s so drunk. Is that okay with you, if the guys stay the night?”

“It’s your house, Tim, not mine. You do what you want,” she shrugged.

“Okay. They’re good kids, I promise. They all sleep on the floor, too, so don’t worry.”

Don’t worry? Alright.

***

Easier said than done.

Half an hour later, Lily had been quickly introduced to the remaining members of Pat’s band, though she forgot their names a second later. The only thing she was paying attention to was if she thought any of them would hurt her or her siblings that night.

She thought about it over and over as she watched them play onstage to hundreds of screaming fans, wondering how in the hell she’d be able not to worry. She’d probably be worrying straight to her grave.

Though she had to admit, they had some pretty good music. They were all crazy good at each thing they did, which almost surprised her that Pat had been in a band this successful and she never even knew about it.

When the boys were done playing, they all shuffled into the backstage area, all of them dripping with sweat and laughing.

Lily snuck off, making her way to a table in the back of the room that was covered with bottles and bottles of liquor and beer. She stood on her tiptoes, lithely reaching over bottles for one nestled in the back. Once she gripped the neck of the bottle and began to pull away, she felt her hand twitch.. and knock over two more bottles, sending them shattering on the floor and spilling the liquid all over the cement.

“Ah, cach,” she cursed, looking around for anything to clean it up with.

Someone chuckled behind her, a chuckle she did not know, and she automatically tensed as she saw the stranger standing next to her. She recognized him from Pat’s band, though she couldn’t remember his name.

“Don’t worry about cleaning it up. Happens all the time,” he said, reaching for his own bottle. “What language was that?”

“Welsh,” she answered, her cheeks flushing as she realized she hadn’t spoken in English.

“You’re from Wales?” he questioned.

“My parents were. But I’m from Detroit.” Which was mainly true. Her father had grown up and lived in northern Wales until he moved to Detroit as a young man, to be with his brother, but her mother had only been born in Wales and lived there a few years until her family moved to Arizona.

“Ah, I see. I’m John,” he said, holding out his hand for her to shake. She ignored it, looking straight at him. He was tall -a good six inches taller than her- with messy light brown hair and a bit of stubble on his chin. “I, uh, I have a bit of Irish heritage.”

“Interesting,” she smirked. Lily couldn’t exactly place why she was being rather rude with him, when he was only trying to make small talk. “Have you ever been there?”

“Yeah, a couple of times actually. I’ve been to Wales, too. It’s pretty amazing there,” John winked, earning a roll of the eyes from Lily.

“I’d love to see it,” she answered, not really paying attention to the conversation, instead scanning the room for her brother and sister, like she always did when they were separated.

Wait.

Where was Luke?

She left John standing there and rushed back to the couch, where she had last seen him. No sign of him. She spotted Tim and ran to him, yanking him out of the conversation he was having with a few of his friends.

“Do you know where Luke is?” she asked quickly, black strands of hair falling in her face.

“No, why?”

Lily ignored him, walking away and slipping through the groups of people standing around. “Lucan?” she called. “Brawd?”

“Lily, what’s wrong?” Tim asked, suddenly beside her again.

“I can’t find Luke.”

“I just saw him a second ago, I’m sure he’s fine..”

“But you don’t know that,” she snapped, walking around the area until she was sure he wasn’t in the room. She found Lynn talking to a boy and interrupted her mid-sentence. “Lynn, I can’t find Luke.”

“He went to the bathroom, Lily,” she answered, twisting a finger in her short, above-the-shoulder black hair.

“Are you sure?”

“I can go check, if you’d like,” the boy offered, but just then she saw Luke enter the room again. The little shit.

“It’s okay, Kennedy, he’s right there,” Lynn said as her sister collapsed onto a plastic chair sitting nearby. She couldn’t handle this. “Lily,” she sighed, standing next to her as she spoke privately. “Just relax. It’s okay. Have a drink and sit down. I’ll take care of everything tonight, alright? No more worrying. You’re going to give yourself an ulcer.”

Well, if Lynn said so.

Goodbye, sobriety.