7 Discussion

Finally, after a few minutes of struggling, Lily managed to free herself from the other man's grip. She freed her leg and kicked him on his thigh, hard.

Grunting, the man loosened his grip enough for her to break out of his hold. They glared at each other in annoyance.

"Did you really have to do that?" He snarled at her.

"What, did you think I was going to let you kidnap me?" She retorted back.

She wanted to get to the bottom of what Jackson's ploy was, but she didn't want to be in the company of the strange man either. Feeling stuck, she just decided that a more direct approach was the way to go.

"How much is he paying you to harass a high school girl?" She asked him. "I don't know if this is how you get your rocks off, but I would rather not be involved in anything that jerk is cooking up."

The man looked down at her, confused.

"What?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Stop with the innocent act, I know that that jerk is paying you to orchestrate one of his schemes."

"I'm not--" she didn't let him finish.

"What the jerk-face fails to realize is that not even the most brain dead idiot would believe this crap!"

"It's not crap!" he insisted. Lily just waved him off, already done with this conversation. She began to stalk off before he pulled her back. She whirled around, ready to deck him and claim self defense before someone else called out to them.

"Can you two, just not?"

They turned toward the newcomer. Lily vaguely heard the other man huff in annoyance, but she couldn't even pay him any mind. Because the man coming towards them could only be described as an older version of her best friend, Calen. He had the same cheeky smile, the same sardonic arch in his brows, and the same giddy joy in his eyes.

"No way," she breathed out. "Cali?"

Her friend rolled his eyes before grinning at her. "Hey Lils."

"Are you kidding me?" The other man complained at her. "You didn't believe me, but you believed him?" He threw his hands in the air in aggravation.

"Typical."

"So," Lily jumped, not noticing that Calen had snuck up behind her. "When is this?"

"Wouldn't..." Her brain was a scrambled mess of confusion. "Wouldn't you know that?"

"Not the date chrome-dome," he flicked her forehead. "I just need help remembering what happens on this particular day?"

This didn't help Lily comprehension skills. "Is that important?"

"Today is when little miss sunshine finds out she's a stalker," Jackson butted in.

"I'm not a stalker," she hissed at him.

"Denial is not becoming sweetheart," he smirked at her.

In response Lily kicked him.

"Ah!" he gasped. "Again?"

Calen brought himself between them, stopping them from getting back into it.

"Alright already," he waved off the other man's protests and turned his attention solely to his younger bestie.

"Lils," his expression was subdued, something she had never seen not his face before. "We need your help."

**********************************************

All testing should be made illegal. Or they should at least be postponed until she could escape the mess her life had become.

After accepting the fact that Armando most likely hated her--and his girlfriend was not her biggest fan either--she decided that the best thing to do would be to just keep to herself. She had left the two older men behind after they gave their unbelievable--but sadly, not undeniable--explanation about how they needed her to help them fix a time anomaly that would affect their future. They couldn't get into too much detail as it could jeopardize everything they have ever loved, ( she didn't know why he had given Jackson a pointed look here, but figured his conceited self had done something that took them off of the right path), but they would be there to help her every step of the way.

She had felt too overwhelmed and told them that she would think about it and proceeded to run as fast as her legs could carry her. She didn't take more than two steps before Jackson was once again stopping her from leaving. She was too frazzled to deal with anything else and was going to just kick him--this time aiming higher than she did last time--but he did something unexpected. He pulled her tightly to his body and pressed his lips to her forehead.

Lily felt her breath freeze in her lungs.

He murmured something to her and let her go. Lily slowly backed away from him, sputtering in shock, and then she finally ran away.

As she gotten further and further away, she realized that she didn't know how she was going to face Jackson or if she even wanted to hang out with Calen like she used to. Did she tell them about their older counterparts? Would that endanger all of their futures? How was she going to help out their future selves and pretend that everything was normal with their present selves? She felt her anxiety building up as these thought sounds in her head. She didn't know how she would accomplish everything, but she would do her best to keep her head down and just try to survive the rest of high school incognito. Then she ran into Armando's current girlfriend.

"Great," the girl muttered when she caught Lily's eyes. Which actually hurt as the other girl had not formally been introduced to her yet. She had seen her from time to time and was only polite towards her. And whenever she met her her with Armando, she always made sure to include the other girls in their conversation when she found the space to do so.

"Um," she started. "Hi, Trina." She gave an awkward smile. "How are you doing today?"

"I'm doing...fine." She was obviously reluctant to talk to her. "I'm just going to head on to class."

"Oh, okay." Lily was taken aback with the brash attitude. "Have a nice day...?"

The girl didn't answer as she just walked off in the opposite direction, completely changing her route, and went on her merry way.

Oh my God, Lily thought to herself. I am a stalker. Again she felt a wave of shame fill her up as she put her head down, speeding off to class to make sure that she made no eye contact with her fellow schoolmates. She had never wanted the ground to open up to swallow as she badly did in that moment.

Now Lily could only stare forlornly at her D minus. She tried to convince herself that she should be happy that it wasn't an F. She may not have been too much of a geek, but she took pride in her work. Her average range from an A- to a B+.

If I end up living in a box, she thought to herself negatively. I'm going to pound these guys in the face with a sledgehammer.

That may have been too violent of a thought, but she was at her wits end.

She still could not wrap her head around how it was all possible. Time travel? Did she step into a Back to the Future movie? Was Doc going to come around the corner with Marty and drag her into the DeLorean so that they could go on an adventure? No matter how much she wanted to deny it, however, she couldn't. Jackson The Jackass had actually managed to travel back in time and he was wasting a wonderful opportunity just to mess with her. And of course, he had to do it while she was dealing with her current mess. How much of a bigger jerk could he be? She was disregarding the fact that her best friend had followed him, but she figured that Jackson had just dragged Calen along with him.

(I really missed you Lily.)

His words filled her head, making her feel even more confused. She and Jackson barely got along. He would mock her openly to his group of cronies. Whenever they had crossed paths, it would end with them getting into a screaming match half the time and with Lily leaving in frustrated tears the other half. Armando would usually approach her and take her to a small ice-cream shop to give her comfort. That had been another tally in the Armando-is-her-prince-charming column. He had made sure to check on her whenever those spats happened days after they occurred too. It did not matter if he was preoccupied with his family business or class, he wanted to make sure she was okay.

Can anyone really blame her for falling for him even more then?

So why was Jackson acting like they had a great relationship?

Lily thumped her head on her desk.

"Do have anything to say about the test, Miss Lily?"

Only about why it was testing her will to live.

"I was just taking a nap, sir." She mumbled against her desk.

"Well sit up," Mr. Hiriam commanded. "We still have ten minutes left of class."

Lily had to keep from crying.

"Yes, sir."