Blooming: Part 2
“Liliana Marie Jones, if you don’t leave soon you’ll get stuck in that storm. It’s supposed to be bad and we don’t want you to get in a wreck.” Lili groaned as she rushed around her room, tossing clothes into her suitcase.
“Mom, I’ll be fine. I still have a couple hours, I promise I’ll make it.” She grabbed a pile of clothes from the floor and started folding them.
“I understand, Lili, I’m just worried. JJ keeps asking me when you’ll get home, he’s afraid you’ll get caught in the storm and he doesn’t want to wait any longer to see you.” Lili paused her frenzy to look at a picture of her brother on her dresser. It was taken at their beach house in northern Maine. He was playing with his favorite toy, a little foam sword he used to carry around everywhere. In the picture, he was standing atop a mountain of sand, wielding his sword toward the ocean, his shaggy red hair blowing in the wind. A young pirate at the helm of his ship.
“It’ll be okay, Mom. I’ve got it all planned out and I’ll be home by 5:00, before the storm hits, but I need to go so I can finish packing, okay?” She smiled as she moved to her laptop, pulling up her favorite music playlist.
“Okay, alright. I love you and I’ll see you later.”
“Love you, too.” Lili hit play and danced around her room as she finished packing for spring break. She was so beyond excited about her vacation after such a grueling beginning to her second semester at college. Cornell was a blessing for her, but studying to be a doctor was hard work. She was especially thrilled to see her little brother after 3 months of school. The two of them had always had a special bond, after all, she basically raised him. With their parents always at the hospital, Lili had had to pick up the slack with JJ. She remembered many nights where they had stayed up late doing homework and jamming to the Beatles. Dancing around the house with him was always the highlight of her days.
“Hey, are you almost ready to go?” said a familiar voice from behind her, catching her off guard.
“Ethan, you scared the crap out of me! And I don’t need you nagging me too.” Lili had been so deep in thought that she hadn’t noticed her boyfriend walk in.
“I know, I know. I just want to make sure you get home safe,” he said as he walked around the room, grabbing some things to put in her bag. Lili walked over to him and put her hands on his shoulders.
“Don’t worry about me, the storm won’t pass through here for several more hours, I’ll be fine. You need to be worried about yourself, you’ve got a plane to catch.” Lili tried to redirect the conversation, avoiding the subject she knew Ethan was trying to bring up.
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about, Lili. I know how you get when you go home. I’m not comfortable with you driving back by yourself. And don’t tell me you’ll be fine because last time you almost got in a wreck,” Ethan said, looking at her with genuine concern, “Are you sure I can’t just drive you home? I can get another ticket for tomorrow.”
“Ethan, there’s no reason to worry, that last time was the other guy’s fault, I clearly turned my signal on to change lanes.”
“That’s not what you said on the phone-” He tried to add in but she interrupted him before he could finish.
“Well, I was just startled that’s all. I won’t let her get to me this time, pinky promise,” Lili said as she stuck out her pinky like a little kid.
“Okay, just please call me if you need anything. My plane doesn’t leave until late tonight so I’ll be able to answer,” Ethan said, accepting Lili’s answer and sealing the promise with his pinky. Lili looked at the time.
“It’s about time for me to go, so I guess I’ll call you tomorrow?” Lili walked over to her suitcase, zipping it up as she stopped to look back at Ethan for his answer.
“Yeah, just text me when you get home so I don’t have to worry, alright?” Ethan walked over to her and took her hands.
“Of course, honey.” Lili gave him a quick kiss and he walked her to her car. She put her suitcase in the back of her white Kia Optima and climbed in. As she backed out, Ethan watched from the sidewalk, waving, and she smiled and waved back as she drove away.
As she drove home, she passed a familiar car on the highway and was overcome with a feeling of something from the past. She couldn’t seem to figure it out until she was overwhelmed by a memory from her childhood.
All of a sudden she was sitting in the back of that car, and beside her was her best friend, Rosalie Carter. She looked just how Lili remembered. Her unruly brown hair and her signature mismatched eyes. And those sharp eyes were looking at her accusingly.
“Lili, you always get what you want! Don’t you see? You have money and my family doesn’t. You never have to worry about when your next meal will be, or whether or not your dad will come home drunk! You’ll never understand what my life is like and you’ll never even come close!” Rose seemed so angry at what Lili had said. She felt terrible about it, but before she could answer, Rose’s dad opened the door and dropped some bags in the passenger seat.
“What are you two cuties talking about in here?” He tried to make conversation but the air was too tense and there was this weird, loud sound coming from somewhere. As it got louder, Lili grew more frustrated, especially because neither of the others seemed to even notice it. She became frantic, knowing the sound must be important.
And quicker than she had left, she returned to reality, realizing that the sound was the horn of an oncoming car. She yanked her wheel to the right, swerving back into her lane, narrowly avoiding a fatal crash. Lili’s heart was nearly beating out of her chest, but she just ignored it and turned the radio on to distract herself and as she continued her journey home, she listened to the Beatles’ greatest hits.
Lili finally made it to Arlington, and as she took in the familiar streets she passed her old stomping grounds, Arlington High School. As she drove by she felt another wave of emotions overwhelm her and she braced herself for what was to come.
She stood, leaning against her car, across from Rose as they both stared at what was in her hands. It was a letter addressed to Lili, from Cornell University.
“Well, open it already, I wanna know if you made it!” Rose was so excited she seemed like she could yank it from Lili’s hands if she waited long enough.
“Okay, okay I’m doing it,” Lili said, her hands shaking with nervous excitement. She ripped the letter open and read it aloud. “Congratulations, you have been accepted to Cornell University!”
“Oh my gosh, no way! Lili, I’m so happy for you!” Rose pulled her in for a hug, squeezing her tightly.
“I can’t believe it, Rose! Cornell! I’m going to an Ivy League school! What about you? You applied too and if I can make it I’m sure you did, too! Where’s your letter, let’s read it!” Lili pulled back from Rose, excited to see if her best friend would be going to college with her.
“Okay, here it goes.” Rose opened her letter carefully and read, “We regret to inform you that you did not make it into Cornell…” Rose looked up at Lili. Tears welled up in her green eye and others fell from her brown eye, rolling down her cheek.
“Rose, I’m so sorry, I can’t believe you didn’t make it. We have the same scores and everything, how could they do this to you?” Lili tried to console her but Rose just shrugged her off.
“This is what I’ve been telling you our whole lives, Lili. People see me as just another black kid stuck in the streets. This was my last chance at college, and now they’ve all turned me down. No college wants me because I have a reputation. I come from nothing, my dad is a veteran stuck in a gang and my mom left when I was 10. All they see when they look at my application is just another hopeless kid.” Rose was so worked up, she was bawling and fuming at the same time.
“That can’t be the only reason, Rose, there’s got to be some school that will take you. I can help you pay for more applications. Please, Rose, I can’t leave you here,” Lili said, pleading with Rose, but she clearly wasn’t having it.
“You know no one’s going to accept me, no one outside of this lousy town, and I’m not going to waste your money trying to prove it to you. Let’s just go pick the boys up and forget about it.” Rose got in the passenger’s seat and slammed the door closed. Lili sighed and walked over to her door.
Again, Lili jolted awake to reality, where she had been sitting at an empty stop sign for who knows how long. She pulled into her neighborhood, thankful to be done with this long drive. She parked her car in front of her house, noticing that she had barely beat the storm. As she walked up to the front porch, the screen door flew open and JJ ran outside to give her a huge hug. As she hugged her little brother, she looked over his shoulder to see her parents standing, smiling at the two of them, in the doorway. And faster than little JJ ran out the door, Lili felt all her stress from the past couple months wash away. Instead, she just felt pure joy, and she couldn’t imagine being anywhere else at that moment. So she stood there, hugging her little brother, as thunder rumbled in the distance.
