TENDING TO THE STORM

CHAPTER 2

"Wake up Lizzy,its your graduation day!" She heard shouting, then banging,then someone shaking her rather violently. She opened her eyes abruptly as the words sunk in from the voice she heard screaming at her. Looking up at Lilly's smiling face was all the confirmation she needed.

   Checking her clock,she checked the time which read 7:40am;she had 20 minutes left.

  "Oh no!" Panicking she rushed out of bed only to fall flat on her face,Lilly couldn't hold in the laughter.

"Am late!" She exclaimed."why didn't you wake me up sooner?" She said fumbling around for her palms.

  Lilly rolled her eyes,"I did!but you didn't wake up. I was starting to think you were dead. You didn't move "she finished,as Lizzy ran into the cubicle bathroom to brush her teeth and take a shower just before she banged the door shut on Lilly's face.

  'Graduation is in the next 15minutes' she thought and brushed more vigorously.
As soon as she stepped out of the bathroom with a brown big towel wrapped around her,she felt light headed from all the stress that she had had this past week.She had lost quite a bit of weight,which she didn't need to loose.

She realized she didn't have any dress to wear, she spun around  from the miniature cupboard and collided with Lilly,both of their foreheads bumping together. After a cry of pain,she opened her eyes to see Lilly holding up a dress in her hand. It was nude pink and looked like silk. It looked pretty expensive .
She was confused at first, because lilly had to go for her anger management class in a couple of minutes,she was already dressed and later she would go job hunting.

So...she gasped upon realization. Tears welled up in her eyes. With her vision blurry, she looked up to see lilly wearing the biggest smile she had ever seen. She was like the older sister she never had. She couldn't contain her emotions.She gave Lilly the fiercest bear hug she could give with the gown in between them.

After a couple of minutes,Lilly drew apart and hurriedly told her to take the dress.

"I picked them down the street at the boutique that sells used clothes. I hope you like it. I picked the most neutral colour I could find so..." She babbled on obviously.

"I love it" Lizzy said cutting her short and smiling at her. They both smiled at each other with each smile representing different feelings.

   Lizzy's smile was that of gratitude and Lily's smile was that of relief and pride.

  After the bubble had burst,she shook her head suddenly remembering that she had a graduation to get to and she was late.

Rushing to put on the dress,and with her fair skill in makeup,she was able to make herself look good in about 2 minutes with what little makeup products she had.

   She slipped on the heels she got from the flea market at a reasonable price considering they have been worn already. After all the preparations,she turned to take her bag and graduation gown ready to zoom out the door,but Lilly wasn't having it.

  "Wait Lizzy, we can't let this moment go without a picture" bringing out her cell phone, she takes a picture of a very beautiful Lizzy with unshed tears in her eyes.

  The girl has been through so much to get here. Supporting yourself in this economy was hard enough let alone study without any help from anybody but she did it. And at that moment,Lilly couldn't be more prouder.

  Meanwhile,Lizzy oblivious to the flood of emotions running through Lizzy, gave her a peck on the cheek and rushed out the door with Lilly's voice ringing out.

"Be safe. Bye. I'll see you when I get back".

And Lizzy screamed back" Good luck!"

  Then she was gone.