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"Point taken. Okay, my turn." I try to come up with the next question. "What’s the song you’ve listened to most in the last few months? Not counting anything Nightwish, Freedom Call, or Van Canto."
"Excluding my favorites is not fair! Well..." She pauses, opens her mouth, and closes it again before answering, "Probably ‘Helsinki’ by The National Parks. Yours?"
Without hesitating, I say, "‘Good Goodbye’."
Lilly does a double-take. "Linkin Park’s ‘Good Goodbye’?"
She smoothes her expression so quickly and concentrates back on the road that I can’t figure out what she is thinking.
"Yes, why?"
"Nothing." Her answer comes a little too quickly.
That was...odd. We’re quiet for a moment, and I take in the flattening landscape; we have officially entered the Midwest.
Lilly continues, "What are you going to do next year? I mean, where do you plan to go to school?"
Ah, the topic I’ve been avoiding for months. I’ve received partial scholarships to two schools, but I don’t want to be away from Lilly—I just got her back. Even before I told her the truth, I didn’t want to leave her. Call me lovesick...or co-dependent—or both.
Attempting to sound neutral, I mumble, "I’m not sure; I want to stay close by. I have the option of an athletic scholarship for South Carolina or Georgia, but I’m hoping for something closer."To you,I mentally add. "I also applied to Virginia Tech and VMI." VMI is Dad’s alma mater, and in a way, I had hoped it would improve our relationship. We used to be super close until the day he pulled me aside and told me I had to get a grip on my feelings or he’dfiguresomething out. Figure out my ass. His ultimatum basically made me move out. Since that day, our conversations have been nothing but surface level. Mostly because I let resentment rule our relationship, but deep down, I still want my father to be proud of me.
"VMI? Since when are you interested in the military?" Lilly’s eyes widen in surprise, and I focus back on our conversation.
"I’m not. I guess I was trying to make Dad happy." I pretend it’s not a big deal. Though, her raised eyebrows tell me that she knows better.
"Didn’t you also just visit Georgetown? Heather’s alma mater?"
She doesn’t press the VMI topic, and I appreciate it. I expected the Georgetown question. Lilly is perceptive, and Mom did go to law school there. I’m facing the window. "Yeah, but that was more for Kat than me."
"I see," is Lilly’s response.
Peering over, I notice her suddenly tense posture. Her playfulness is gone.
"Have you decided what you want to do yet?"
"No, not really. I’m thinking of something with math or computers. I have another year to figure it out."
A selfish thought crosses my mind, and I give her a grin. "Virginia Tech?"
Her eyes crinkle. "Maybe." Then, she looks like she’s about to add something but stops herself and presses her lips together.
"What is it, Cal?"
Her gaze flicks to me for a fraction of a second.
"I, uh...I’ve kind of started playing with the idea of going back to the West Coast. Going back to where I’m originally from, you know?" She avoids eye contact, and I can’t read her at all.
"That, uh...yeah, I mean, that’s kinda understandable." My stomach clenches.
God, I’m so screwed.
She quickly adds, "We’ll see; I have other priorities now." She’s probably misinterpreting my unenthusiastic reaction.
After a while, we continue the game, asking questions back and forth. Anything from favorite book, to the top five places we would want to visit, to if you could speak one other language fluently, what would it be?
Lilly is not surprised when I tell her that I want to visit Rome. The Colosseum, gladiators—what else could you want, right?
However, I did not anticipate her desire to speak Latin. I would’ve expected Italian, or even something like Mandarin. She already takes Spanish and French in school, but she says Latin is a classic language. It provides the root words for all of the modern sciences.
