Lily sucked in a breath as CC walked towards them, his tight jeans hugging his skinny hips and she couldn’t help but stare at him. Brianne’s older brother, Christian, had been numero uno crush for Lily three years ago and the younger girl had been too damn shy to do anything about it. Once she had gotten up the nerve, CC had had enough of his strict Catholic mother and had hit the road, drumming for some band that he had formed. Was he still in a band? Lily felt her eyes water as she took CC in once more-he looked so much like Brianne.

They both had that wide smile where all of their teeth showed and Brianne had been even slimmer than her brother. Lily missed Brianne in that moment-she missed the times that the two of them had where they would meet up after last bell and walk around the streets of LA. Neither of them ever wanted to go home and so they rarely did. CC had been the one good thing about going to Brianne’s house-he listened to the coolest music and had gotten the girls to check out bands that they would never have thought to listen to.


“Hey I’m CC!” He was standing right in front of her and Lily only smiled as she placed her small hand in his and shook it gently. His palms were calloused and Lily felt her heart skip a beat. She hadn’t seen CC since Brianne’s funeral and suddenly she felt her old feelings for him come cropping up.

“I-uh-I’m Lily…” She paused, waiting for the recognition to set it. Something must’ve set in because CC’s eyes got huge and then he lunged at her, wrapping his arms tight around her as he picked Lily up off the ground and she giggled nervously.

“I thought that was you! Dude I haven’t seen you since…well in a long ass time!” CC looked sad for a moment at the thought of Brianne, but that smile was back. Lily had a sinking feeling in her stomach-what if working with CC caused her and Andy’s secret to come to light? Lily felt sick at the thought and she rubbed at her wrists instinctively.

“I know. I kind of disappeared after…yeah, but now I’m back.” It was awkward, talking about Brianne but not really talking about her and Lily suddenly had the urge to go and hide…among other things.

“Yeah, I haven’t been back home since then but I could’ve sworn I heard that you had uh-well that you died. I guess that was one false rumor!” CC laughed it off, but Lily could see the questions in his eyes as he trained them on her. Her heart beat sped up as Lily bit down on her lip and tried to laugh it off.

“What?! Wow-no…I-uh-I just kind of faded away for a while, but now I’m back and ready to work!” Lily laughed and as her eyes scanned over the shop she smiled. This place-this place could be a good thing for Lily. Not a lot of good things happened in Lily’s life and maybe that was about to change.


Lily spent most of her day with CC and Sammi showing her the ropes around the shop and Lily actually found that working was keeping her mind off of her nerves. Unfortunately CC kept bringing things up and he kept questioning those death rumors and who would start them and why. Lily felt more and more sick as the day wore on and finally once Sammie told her it was time to head home, Lily felt like she had no other choice but to relieve her nervous energy as soon as she stepped through the door to the room she and Andy shared. Sammi and Lily walked towards the huge building and Lily wondered if she should ask Sammi to stop by the record store to see if Andy wanted to walk with them.


“Do you live here too?” Lily asked as the two girls came to a stop right outside of Jinxx’s place and Sammi turned to face Lily. The shorter girl just smiled at Lily as the two of them climbed the stairs and Sammi placed her hand against the wood of the door and knocked four times quickly and then two times more slowly.

“Most of the time, but I do go out to see my parents every once and a while.” Sammi smiled at Lily again as the door popped open and Andy was standing there in front of them. Lily noticed that his hand was resting against his left pocket where she knew he was hiding his dagger.


Lily had begged Andy to leave his weaponry behind and while he agreed that his long sword would be easily seen, he still insisted on keeping his dagger in his pocket and another one was hidden in a boot. He didn’t trust humans and from what he had seen today at the record store Andy had good reason now. He’d stopped four kids from stealing things, something that Jake seemed to be overly grateful for and admitted to Andy that it was a problem. Other than that his day had been pretty boring but he had gotten to listen to music all day long which was comforting to him. Music reminded Andy of Lily and he had found through the day that he missed her desperately. Finally she was standing in front of him, looking adorable and tired, but Andy was unsure of what he should do in that moment. Kiss her? Hug her? He longed to do both, but which one came first?


“Hi Andy! I was just wondering if you had made it home okay…” Lily said as she came towards him and wrapped her skinny arms around his waist. Her head was right below his chin and instinctively Andy tightened his hold on her. He had missed her, something else that had taken him by surprise.

“Yeah, Jake said he was coming over here and I walked with him. How-uh-how was your day?” He asked as Lily let go of him and Andy felt sad in that moment. He didn’t like not having her by his side, something that would have made him cringe just a few days ago.

“Really great. Oh! This is Sammi-Jinxx’s girlfriend and the girl I work with. Sam this is Andy.” The two strangers shook hands and Andy found Sammi to be sweet-not as sweet as Lily, but she seemed nice enough.

“It’s nice to meet you Andy! Well I’m gonna go track down Jinxx-I’ll see you guys later.” Sammi said with a smile and suddenly Andy and Lily were alone. Lily really needed to head upstairs and she hoped that Andy didn’t plan on following her.

“I’m going upstairs for a bit…” Lily said, her hand on the railing as she began to climb the steps and Andy’s hand landed on her wrist, his skin warm against hers as he smiled gently at her.

“I-I missed you today Lily…will you come back down? I wanted to talk to you more about your day.” He was so sweet in that moment and all Lily wanted to do was lean down and kiss him. She couldn’t. He wouldn’t know what was going on and Lily didn’t have the energy to explain everything.

“Of course-that would be really nice. I’ll be down in a bit. I-I just want to freshen up.” She smiled at him as Andy let her go and turned to walk off towards the kitchen.


Lily sighed in relief as she walked up the steps, looking over her shoulder as she climbed just to make sure that Andy hadn’t followed her up here. She needed to be alone for this and as she reached the top of their landing, Lily felt a moment of shame. She shouldn’t be thinking about this stuff-this is what had led to her demise the first time. But it was just one little cut to make her nerves calm down and as Lily walked down the hall towards the bathroom she tried to think of placement. It couldn’t be her wrists because Andy would see and she didn’t know what he would do. Anywhere on her upper torso was out, so it would have to be her thighs. Lily came to the white door in front of her and she knocked softly.

No answer.

Lily pushed open the door and stepped in to the small bathroom, flicking the light switch and locking the door behind her and she began to rifle through the small cabinets. There had to a be shaving razor here somewhere-ah ha! Lily fumbled with the plastic pieces as she expertly broke apart the razor and finally after struggling for a few minutes she held in her palm her salvation. The metal shone in the light and Lily felt her heart beat in her throat as she moved to sit on the edge of the bathtub, the razor now held between her thumb and her pointer finger. With her free hand Lily pulled the top of her jeans down until they were around her knees and she was sitting there in her underwear. She looked at herself in the mirror then and Lily felt ashamed at what she was about to do.

The thirteen year old Lily Carolyn Jacobs stared back at her and she hissed at herself as the blade met her skin. Lily looked down and saw a faint red line appear against her pale skin and then the red began to grow and grow until droplets of her life began to form and run down towards her knees. What had she done? Tears spilled over Lily’s cheeks as she dropped the blade and looked down at herself. She was terrible and a liar. Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Lily rushed around to find a bandaid and to hide her new savior somewhere that it wouldn’t be found. Looking up, Lily saw that there was a ledge near the ceiling and as she stood on the toilet she knew that this would be perfect. No one would think to look here. Quietly she got down, wincing as her new cut rubbed against the bandaid and the inside of her jeans. Lily moved towards the door and gasped lowly as she pulled it open.


“Andy! What are you doing up here? I told you I would be down in a bit…” Lily said as she exited the bathroom and came face to face with Andy. His blue eyes looked sad as they took her in and suddenly she was in his arms, her cheek pressed against his chest as he bent down slightly and kissed the top of her blonde head.

“I just missed you. I-I’m not sure why I missed you so much today Lily but I did…” He voice was low, so low that Lily almost didn’t hear. But she had heard and at his words she smiled, but then the thought of what she had just done entered her head and she had to fight back her tears as she pulled away from him and looked up.

“I missed you too. Come on-let’s get downstairs…”Lily smiled up at him as she reached for his hand and began to lead the both of them down the steps.


The building seemed to grow louder in noise the closer they got to the downstairs area and Lily felt her heart stop. CC was walking through the front door just as she and Andy got to the bottom of the steps and suddenly Lily wanted to run back up the stairs and hide in the bathroom all night. It seemed like Jinxx liked to invite a lot of people over, as there were groupings all around and Lily had to push her way through just to get in to the kitchen, her hand still clutching Andy’s as he looked around in amusement. Andy couldn’t imagine why humans liked to get in to such huge groups to do nothing but drink and prove just how vile they really could be, but he was on Earth now so he would have to just go with it.


“Lily! Hey!” Jinxx called from the kitchen table and Lily only smiled as she walked over towards the small group and stood behind Sammi’s chair, Andy standing silently by her side as he seemed to take everything in.

“Hey guys!” Lily looked around, her heart stopping as she noticed that CC was sitting right next to Jake and Lily hoped that she would not be the topic of the night.

“Sit! We were just talking about some stuff. CC was telling us how he knew you when you were a kid…that you were his little sister’s best friend and he hadn’t heard from you in a long time…” Jinxx’s tone was pointed and as he looked up at Lily she knew that she would have to explain things to him. Shit-to everyone.


Lily and Andy joined the group, all of them laughing and joking around as they talked into the wee hours of the morning. Andy actually enjoyed the conversation but soon found his eyes wandering around the room until finally he landed on a single person standing by themselves in the corner. The human was male, slightly shorter than Andy himself and he had long black hair which shined in the light of kitchen as he just stood there, his back against the wall and his arms crossed over his chest as he seemed to take the small group in. Andy didn’t think anything of it at first, until the stranger gave him a small smirk and his red eyes flashed in the light of the kitchen.
Andy did a double take and he felt his lips curl up into a snarl as he took in the stranger who was staring them down. Not a stranger-a Demon.

Notes

Looks like Andy isn't the only Demon in town any more. Please read and review, because Andy is feeling insecure and he needs to be loved.

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Love By Mistake
We Caught Fire