Pedestrian |✓

|44| c h o c o l a t e

"Hey, hey! Are you alright?"

I didn't bother lifting my head to look up, even when I knew the owner of the overly-concerned voice who was jogging towards my direction was, in fact, addressing me.

I stayed on the ground. With my face planted to the clump of snow and my body pressed down flat as my fingers curled around the cold shards of snow tightly. The cold was numbing my hands, but I couldn't care less.

"Hey, miss, are you alright?" Someone tried to push me to my side, and I let them. I was just too exhausted from all the running and crying I did to be even the slightest bothered that a stranger was pulling at my arm.

Keeping my eyes closed, I let myself be gently pushed to my side, then I heard it. The startled gasp followed by a small whimper of pain that made my eyes shot wide open.

At first, all I saw was blurry streaks of pink and blonde all swirling together in abstract. Until my eyes slowly regained its focus and there I saw, crouched down in front of me with her hands covering her parted mouth and wearing a pink knitted beanie over her head, was Lily with tears in her eyes.

I blinked, trying to pick up my jumbled thoughts.

"Oh, Anna," she breathed out, tentatively reaching out her hand to touch me.

Without meaning to, I instinctively pulled away and struggled into a sitting position. The snow was cold underneath me, but I ignored the burning sensation and focused on Lily. "Why are you here?"

I flinched at the sound of my voice, it was sharp and eerily sounded just like Austin's accusing tone.

Her gaze dropped to her hands that were folded on her lap as she bit on her lower lip. I watched her struggle to come up with something to say, only to fail and sigh when she couldn't come up with one.

I didn't know why, but the way Lily struggled and fidgeted reminded me so much of myself just a few moments ago. The guilt that was eating her alive, the agony from trying to form words to utter, the weight on her shoulders...

It was me in front of Austin just a few moments ago, and now, it was her.

"I'm sorry," she finally said, her voice low and barely audible.

And in that moment, with the both of us just sitting at the side of the road, completely ignoring the cold that seeped right through our clothes, I cracked again for what seemed to be the hundreth time this day and pulled her into a tight hug.

But this time, I had Lily to comfort me. So, I let all the pain consume me.

-

"Drink up," Kayla said, handing me a purple mug of steaming hot chocolate.

I took it from her grasp and gingerly held it in my hands. Letting the smoke swirling from the mug warm my face as I leaned into the confines of their couch.

Kayla and Patrick found Lily and me by the snow-covered playground a few minutes after my encounter with Lily. The found us sitting on the swings as I narrated to Lily every thing that happened. From the park, me seeing Georgina and Patrick, the talk with Patrick, the vanilla cake and what just happened recently.

Lily as expected was furious, and threatened to go to Austin's place just to punch him in the face. No guy let's another girl wear his girlfriend's shirt, she said. But quickly shut up when I reminded her that Austin and I weren't together.

That didn't stop her from scowling and cursing both Austin and Tori, though.

Maybe it was divine intervention, or a miracle. But I was really lucky that she passed by the playground on her way to the grocery store two corners from where we were. If not, I would've probably stayed lying on the ground - literally, until Kayla and Patrick found me.