of all these broken things

 

Lily hoped this made everyone happy. She came with gifts (the boxes of Valentines' candies) She handed one over to Izzy in the school hallway for her to share with Brick.

"I hope you have a great Valentines' Day." Lily smiled. Although Izzy didn't say much, she did take the candy and thanked her.

Next up was to find Mercer. She was certain he was in the band hall. Of course, when she found him he was with Cade. They were chilling with some of the band who were now in stage band. Still, the hall was thick with students who were having a grand old time goofing off even in masks. Finally, she got their attention. She presented the candy to them.

Mercer looked at her stunned as if he had nothing in return. Cade already opened his and took a chocolate or two to eat. Of course, Thank You wasn't in their vocabulary which she understood.

"These are good," Cade said.

"Why would you do this?" Mercer looked a bit peeved.

"Oh you know, it's-- It's Valentines' Day," Lily shrugged. Why did he have to have so many questions? She didn't really want to tell him it was all her Gram's doing. Lord knows, she didn't need this much candy at home, especially in the dead of winter. 

"I guess you'll get a lot of Valentines," Cade nodded as he ate another chocolate.

Lily really didn't want to talk about it. Of course, she wasn't getting anything. But maybe a sore throat the more she thought about it. Why did Valentine's day have to be so depressing? Of course, there was one box left. It was for Rafe. She was afraid to give it to Cade or he might have another box of candy all to himself.

About then somebody tapped her on the shoulder from behind.

"Found you," he said. There was Rafe with a bouquet of pink roses.

Brick didn't know if he had a comeback. He did his best with Valentine's Day with Izzy. He'd gotten the flowers, the candy, and even a necklace. Was he missing something? He pondered there in the front seat of her car in the high school parking lot in the depths of a winter blast.

"I want us to spend the night together," she said.

"The whole night?" This had him stumped. No way. Not on a Monday night. 

"You know what I mean," she said as if there were parts of the night that were more important than others.

He thought his hearing might be going or was that just his heartbeat? What if he lost consciousness and the whole sex thing resolved itself before he even had any say in the matter.

Of course, there was a dire cry in the midst of all this that said, "What about Lily? What's Lily going to think?"

He'd always thought this day would come and it would be Lily. His soulmate. Or so he thought was set in stone all those years ago. Yet at the moment he felt he was sitting at the bottom of the barrel looking up. And there was Izzy.

"Well, we..we need to think about this," Brick squinted back. Wasn't this a virgin voyage of some kind? Sure Izzy was older, and definitely not Lily.

"Don't you..don't you love me?" She fretted.

Brick remained even lipped. He couldn't say it.