Chapter 19 – Sleepover Simulation – Holly Hayfield

  Val’s relationship goals were more than I had bargained for. She left the library self-satisfied that I was in agreement. I wasn’t of course. It was just that I was having a hard time finding my voice. There was no way I was going to walk back things once she agreed to being something other than a bully.

Surprise kisses were bad. Surprise punches were worse. I had a choice between the lesser of two evils. So I let her leave thinking we were on the same page. My only hope was that this wouldn’t come back to bite me later.

It turned out that Lilith went home early. Her first text to me was a question about what she needed to bring for our sleepover. She refused to call it that. Perhaps the word ‘sleepover’ was too girly for her. Instead, she asked what equipment was required for our ‘rendezvous’. Somehow that sounded worse.

Luckily Val had left the library by the time I got a question about this mysterious ‘rendezvous’. In return I told her to bring her toothbrush and a change of clothes. She followed up that text to ask about food, activities, and sleeping arrangements. I told her to leave all that to me. She obviously wasn’t lying about never having a sleepover outside of elementary school.

Angelica drove me home once she was finished with her business. She was excited to hear about my upcoming ‘rendezvous’ with Lilith. She wasn’t the main person I needed to pacify, but she was an important secondary. When Angel dropped me off the first thing I needed to do was make sure that everything was ready for Lilith’s arrival. I got to work on cleaning as soon as I changed out of my school uniform.

Things had to go well so that Lilith wouldn’t up and leave in disappointment. The mission to appease my mother would end right then and there if she did. It’d look bad if Lilith lived up to her option to walk away at any time. My mother would think my new friendship was on the rocks. These were the stakes that were on the line.

Once the house was sparkling clean it was time for me to get started on dinner. Since this was such a special occasion I decided to make my mother’s favorite dish, chicken parmesan. It was simple enough that I could make it quickly, but also delicious enough to impress Lilith. I rarely got the chance to show off my skills so this was another welcome opportunity for me. I put extra care into this dinner.

The plan was going well by the time my mother arrived home. She was excited not just because someone was coming over, but also because I was making her favorite dish. For a while I felt like I had this in the bag. That feeling didn’t last long. Lilith was running nearly an hour late. My confidence was replaced by anxiety.

“Are you sure your friend is still coming? The food is getting cold.” My mother said.

She said what had been on my mind for the past twenty minutes. Lilith hadn’t responded to my texts and I was starting to feel like a stalker after texting her so many times. My mother was already sitting down at the dining table with her plate in front of her. She was waiting only on Lilith to start eating. I was too impatient to sit down. Instead, I was walking around in circles. Was Lilith ditching our agreement?

“She’ll show up. We agreed on it. She has to show up.”

“Sit down, honey. Why don’t we go ahead and…?”

The doorbell ringed as my mother was talking. I rushed over to answer the door. My mother followed behind more leisurely. It was Lilith, but someone else was with her. It was a lady about my mother’s age with long, black frizzy hair. She looked somewhat like Lilith, though much taller.

When this woman laid eyes on me she seemed to glow with excitement. She stepped in, without a word, and hugged me. This was a surprise. I looked over at Lilith curiously. Lilith sighed and looked away.

“You must be Holly! It’s a pleasure to meet you! This is the first time I’ve ever met one of Lilith’s friends!”

“You must be her aunt? It’s an honor to meet you. This is my mother, Jennifer Hayfield.”

Lilith’s aunt stepped away from me to shake my mother’s hand. She shook her hand so sporadically that even my laid-back mother was taken by surprise.

“Hello Jennifer! My name’s Margaret Wilson. People call me Margie. I’m Lilith’s guardian. Thank you so much for allowing her to sleep over. You have no idea how happy I am for her. I don’t remember the last time Lilith slept over at someone’s house.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m also happy that Holly has made a friend she can bring over. It has been a lengthy transition for us. You can call me Jennie. Would you like to come in and eat? We were just about to have dinner.” My mother said.

“I only have a few minutes before I have to get back to work. I’m on break right now. Can we trade contacts though?” Margaret asked.

“Sure. Holly, why don’t you take Lilith to your room so she can put away her stuff? Come on in, Lilith. Holly has prepared a wonderful looking meal.”

Lilith nodded at my mother as she walked in sheepishly. I took Lilith by the hand to lead her to my room. I could feel her aunt’s gaze on me the entire time we were in her line of sight.

“Have a good time Lilith! I’ll text you as soon as I get off of work!” Margaret called as we walked away.

Lilith seemed to be stuttering with each step. If she was having second thoughts it’d be too late the moment we turned the corner and went into my room. When she laid eyes on my room she stopped at the doorway. She looked from the doorway. It was alike she was afraid stepping inside my room would be dangerous.

My room wasn’t anything special, per se. However it was very clearly a teenage girl’s room. I had posters of my favorite bands. I still had old pillows and dolls that I had since I was a kid. All the light colored furniture gave my room a vibrant feel when it shined in the light.

“Come inside. You can set your bag over here in this chair.” I said, pointing at my pink round chair.

She made her way in, each step a baby step. This had to be an overwhelming experience for her. I could only imagine what was going through her mind. She hadn’t said even a single word since arriving. She put her stuff down on the chair like I said. I needed to make an effort to make her feel more at home.

She then turned a circle while looking around my room in wonder. She was fiddling her fingertips nervously as she stared. I nodded over to my bookcase. She followed me like a kitten. I knelt down to grab a book. There was a particular mystery book I was going to show her, but she picked out something on her own.

“I can’t believe you have this!” She said excitedly.

“What is it?” I asked as I stood up to see.

“You read this light novel series? I love the animated adaption! I’ve never had the chance to read the book!” She said.

“Yep, I’m a huge fan. I have all the translated works. See? I have other light novels too. I started reading them in middle school.” I said.

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She looked at the rest of the volumes sitting on my bookshelf.

“You didn’t strike me as the type to read light novels.” She said.

“I could say the same about you. For some reason I thought you’d be the type of person that only read intensely serious fiction.”

“Are you kidding? I love this type of book. We don’t have any light novels in the school library and I haven’t been able to buy many for my home collection.”

“Look at that. We share a certain common interest. I would’ve never known without you coming over.”

“Is it okay I borrow this?”

“Of course you can. I’ll lend you volume two whenever you’re ready.”

“Thanks!”

“Let’s go to the dining room. My mom’s probably waiting on us.”

“Okay.”

Finally we were able to dig in. My mom’s enthusiasm to eat dinner was eclipsed by Lilith’s. She was really putting it away. It was amazing for someone of her stature. In my imagination I initially imagined Lilith taking small bites and eating like a mouse. That fantasy was laid to rest.

The entire time she never looked up from the book she was reading. When she asked if she could borrow it I didn’t think she meant immediately. My mom looked back and forth between me and Lilith. It was quiet except for the sound of Lilith’s fork hitting her plate. Neither of us had said anything so my mother was getting understandably curious.

“You really like that book, don’t you dear?” My mom asked.

“Mhmm,” Lilith said without looking away.

“Lilith’s an avid reader. She’s a library assistant at our school.” I said.

“Is that so?” My mother asked.

“Mhmm,” Lilith said, still not looking away.

“So how did you two meet?” My mom asked.

Lilith shrugged. As half-assed as that response was it turned out to be incredibly apt. We met because I was looking for refuge away from the bullies that usually hunted me at lunch. I couldn’t tell my mother that of course. She’d have a heart attack. Instead, I needed a way to conceal the details without it being an outright lie. This was difficult considering my first meeting with Lilith had all the grace of a plane crash.

“We met in the library. Umm… I actually ended up helping her put away library books that day after school. She taught me about her great grandmother, Judith Meredith. Lilith is actually related to the school founder.”

“Wow, isn’t that amazing. We have quite a special guest here, don’t we?” My mother said.

“Mhmm,” Lilith said, still focused on the book.

My mother was amused, just not in the way I wanted her to be. It was easy to see that Lilith had no care in the world as she was deeply engrossed in her book. I had half a mind to close it but who knew what she would do if I did. Lilith didn’t exactly have a good temperament for most of the time that I knew her. She was docile while reading. Maybe that was the best I could ask for.

Lilith finally looked up when she realized her fork was no longer scooping up food. Her plate was empty. She pushed it across the table to me.

“Can I have more?”

“Sure. Do you like my cooking?”

“Mhmm,” She said, turning the page in the book.

My mother laughed. This wasn’t going too well. I got up to refill Lilith’s plate. As I was trying to think of how to recover the situation my mother stood up and walked over to me.

“I’m sorry,” I said, “This dinner didn’t turn out quite like I hoped.”

“What are you talking about? Everything was great.”

“Lilith didn’t really talk much.” I whispered.

“Her aunt said Lilith was usually reserved around strangers. It’s okay if she doesn’t warm up to me immediately. Besides, it’s cute. It reminds me of how you used to be when you were a little girl. Do you remember? I could hardly even get you to talk to relatives.” My mother whispered back.

She was taking this surprisingly well. Perhaps that was my mother’s greatest power, to see someone’s weaknesses and forgive.

“Thanks for saying that. I still don’t know a lot about her, but I do know one thing. She’s a very special girl.” I whispered.

Lilith waved her hand in my direction without looking up from her book.

“Is there any food left?” Lilith asked.

My mother and I smiled at each other.

“Yes, I’m almost finished loading up your plate now. Here I come, princess.” I said.

Watching Lilith eat and read was somehow calming. I was worrying over nothing the entire time. My mother didn’t care about Lilith’s personality. She only cared that I had a friend. She left us alone to finish dinner together.

The only time I got Lilith to talk was when I asked her about where she was in the book. Then she wouldn’t shut up, in a good way. For the first time we had a normal conversation that didn’t involve the school in any way. When she smiled while talking to me I realized the new goal I needed for tonight. The new goal was to solidify my friendship with her.

After dinner Lilith helped me clean up the dishes. She talked about the book the entire time. Still, that was a relief. I was happy to see her talking. My question was, did it need to be me listening? It seemed a silly thing to ask, but it was a serious question for me.

Would she be talking just as happily if it were someone else from our school? After all, it wasn’t her interest in me that drove her to talk so much. It was her excitement over the book. Maybe, again, I was worrying too much. Maybe the way to solidify things with her was this exact method, common interests.

After cleaning up we went to my room to relax. Now that she was here I wanted to learn if we shared any other common interests. As expected, Lilith was more interested in sitting in my bedroom chair and reading. Pulling out my video game console was a gamble. My ex-best friend Ellie and I spent countless hours together playing tennis games, dancing games, and other motion-sensing games.

Ellie, unlike Lilith, was very apparently athletic. We were both on the track and field team after all. Ellie was outgoing. Lilith was introverted. That being the case, I didn’t go for the motion-sense tennis game I liked to play on the weekends. I chose a fun fantasy game for us to play instead. Lilith looked confused when I handed her the controller.

“I’m not good at these types of things.” She said.

“Have you ever played this kind of game?” I asked.

“Only a little, my younger cousin has the same game console.”

“Would you like to try? I can teach you. I’m not the best at this either but it’ll be the first time in a long time I’ve played with anyone.”

She stared at the controller and then at the book like she was weighing her choices. She shrugged.

“I’ll give it a quick try I guess. Don’t blame me if I end up causing us to lose.”

“It’s okay. We’ll play co-op mode on easy.”

It didn’t take long for ‘a quick try’ to turn into an extended campaign. She said she wasn’t good at this type of thing and yet she was doing better than I was. When I was tapped out from playing as her back-up I suggested we play a different game. The next game was a competitive shooting game where we played against each other. She said she had never played this shooting game.

I expected to teach her how to play. Instead she ended up teaching me, the hard way. She didn’t show a single shred of mercy to my in-game avatar. I gave up trying to beat her. After that she switched games and played a single-player game for almost an hour. Then she switched game after game. By the time midnight rolled around she had gone through everything in my small collection.

“I think we should get ready for bed. We’re planning to visit the Noelle house in the morning, right?”

“We can go in the afternoon.” Lilith said, her attention locked on the video game she was playing.

I laughed. She was like a little kid. She was sitting on the edge of the bed too close to the TV screen. She was also mashing buttons on the controller like her life depended on it. If the night went on like this I’d need to buy another controller soon.

I had a plan to avert her attention from the game. While she was so intensely focused on the screen I decided to sneak up behind her on the bed. I gently laid my hands on her shoulders from behind her and leaned in. I planted a soft kiss on her cheek and she immediately pulled away. She wiped the kiss away and sat down the controller.

“Yuck! Now I really am finished with this game!” She said.

“Haha! Why don’t we switch to our pajamas at least?”

“Pajamas…? I didn’t bring any.”

“Why didn’t you bring any?”

“You said bring a change of clothes and my toothbrush, not a change of clothes, my toothbrush, and pajamas.”

Was she joking or was she trying to start a fight?

“It’s okay. There’s probably something in my closet you can wear.”

“It won’t fit me.”

“I’ll find something that will. I have a hard time throwing out clothing. There’s some stuff here from when I was younger.”

We found something she could fit in the back of my closet. It was something that I wore back in middle school when I was about Lilith’s height. Instead of preparing for bed she decided to go back to reading. Seeing her relaxed like this inside my room made me feel warm. She was sitting perched on the chair with her knees against her chest and her feet resting on the chair also. The way she was sitting gave me an idea.

“Can I do your toenails?” I asked.

“What about them?”

“I’d like to give you a pedicure, I mean.”

“Eh?”

“I’m pretty good at this sort of thing. Has anyone ever done your nails?”

“My mom used to a long time ago.”

“Do you mind if I give it a try?”

“Go ahead, I guess.”

She was still engrossed in her book. Luckily this didn’t require any of her attention. I started out by cleaning the dirt beneath her toenails. She flinched when she saw the metallic cleaning tool, but got used to it. Once that was done, I moved on to clipping her toenails to make them even.

As pedestrian as this was, it nice to be able to do this for someone once again. This was the sort of thing I wanted when I entered my new school, not all the troubles that I got instead. Like this, we were just a normal pair of girlfriends hanging out with each other. I felt warm vibes between us in this very moment. It gave me another idea.

“Hey Lilith, how about we forget about that whole ‘dead body’ nonsense. Want to just hang out tomorrow?”

Lilith shut her book and looked down at me angrily.