Angel - 2

Chapter Two

Your face it haunts
My once pleasant dreams
Your voice it chased away
All the sanity in me
~My Immortal by Evanescence

A/N: just a little background mostly to know about Lilia and Eric’s past

~*Lilia*~

London. I sighed heavily, leaning back against the cool leather seat of the plane as it was taking off. God, I was going to miss this place. I had been living in London, English with my family: Mom, Dad, and Noah, my new baby brother, for 8 years now. I had fell in love with the city as soon as my 9 year old self got out of that plane after it touched down at London International. Ever since I could remember, I had always dreamed of living in Europe because I love to travel more than anything. So the day my dad told us that his company was relocating him to the UK and that we would be leaving in just a week. It was both the most exciting and horrible day of my life.

Why horrible, may you ask? 2 words, one person.

Eric Channing.

I’d known him since I was born practically. We were next door neighbors and our mothers had gone to college together, and they were best friends just like me and Eric were – utterly and completely inseparable. He was the boy next door, and the day I found out I would have to leave him and probably never see him again…well let’s just say I didn’t know what mixed feeling were until then.

I remember it all like it was yesterday, probably because I have this awesome “cannot forget anything” memory.

That one week went by too fast; even though Eric and I made the most of the time I had left being attached at the hip more so than usual. We played tag (I always wuped his butt because I was way faster than him. I lived for running, and still do), went to the beach (we lived in Miami and our houses were on the beach front), hung out in his room (not mine since it was borderline empty then because of packing), played video games (he taught me how, since I starting out being horrible at them), and just did everything. We always had so much fun together, even if we were doing nothing.

On the day of our flight, he and his mom and dad came with us to the airport to see us off. When they announced it was time for our flight to board, I completely broke down. I threw my arms around his waist and buried my face in his chest (he was tall for a nine year old – almost 5 inches taller than me), soaking it with tears. He cried too. I had never seen him cry before that day. He always seemed so tough in my eyes – my strong best friend, the boy who would always protect me. I could never forget him.

Our goodbye lasted as long as we could make it. Our parents were hugging and crying and talking as well, so they were paying us no mind. I finally pulled away from him so that I would look him in the eyes. I had always loved his eyes because they were this pretty blue-green color, but they changed. When he was happy they’d turn greener, sad – bluer, and when he was just mellow they’d be equally blue-green. He had the coolest wavy dirty blond hair ever; it was always too long and in his eyes, and it made me laugh when he flipped it out of his face. I used to tell him he looked like a pretty boy male model when he did it.

When we looked at each other, I tried to smile after I wiped my tears away. He smiled at me too.
“I’m gonna miss you Lili…way way too much...why do you have to go?” He said, looking down at me.

“I know Ricky…I’m sorry it sucks like no other. I’m gonna miss you way more though.” I told him back.

“I…I got something for you. A goodbye present I guess. Bought it with my own money too,” he laughed, “I saw it and just thought you’d like it…” Eric took the gift out of his pocket, then my hand from my side and placed something tiny and cool in it. It was a necklace, a locket actually with a heart shaped amethyst stone set into it. I opened the locket to see a picture of him and me in it. My mom (brilliant portrait photographer that she is) took the picture of us one day when we playing in my backyard. We didn’t want to, but she insisted that we would thank her one day – memories, she had said. We were 7 at the time.

But back to the story.

I gasped. The locket was gorgeous, and not to mention expensive looking. Of course, both our parents had money, but he said he bought it himself.

As I was in shock, I barely noticed Eric taking the locket out of my hands then moving behind me and telling me to hold up my hair so he could put it on. But I held up my hair, still kind of in a daze, and he put the locket on me. It felt nice against my skin, like I should be there.

When he came back in front of me, I came back to reality.

“I know purple’s your favorite color…and the amethyst matches the purple-y-ness, if that’s a word, in your eyes.” He told me, almost shyly, and with his hands in his pockets.

I smiled up at his tall figure. “Thank you, Eric. It’s beautiful. Best present ever. Oh dude, I feel horrible though cause I didn’t think to get you anything, which was really really stupid of me…” My smile turned into a frown when I realized that.
Eric laughed – at my smile-frown face probably, and said, “Nah, it’s cool. Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad you like it.”

“Like it? You mean love it.” I sighed, took a second to think, and then said, “But you must get a present too, since it’s only fair, and…and I know what I’m gonna give you!” Triumph was evident in my voice and inside I was snickering mischievously. He won’t know what hit him. Oh, this “gift” is perfect.

He looked at me suspiciously, probably raising an eyebrow, but I couldn’t tell with all that hair of his. “What the gift?”

“This.”

I stood up on my tippy toes, closed my eyes, and bam! I kissed my best friend full on the lips, just like that. It was only a peck, but I felt this tingling sensation flood through my whole body in that milli-second. I pulled away, and then opened my eyes.

I looked at Eric, who was standing there, hands still in his pockets, and silent with shock.

I giggled. “This way you know what’s it’s like to kiss a girl. And I get to be your first kiss. Awesome present, in my opinion.”

Before he could say anything, the lady at the counter announced the final boarding call for out flight. I looked around and no one else was in the chairs around us anymore. All this had happened in only 10 minutes.

“Lili, honey, we have to go now.” My mom called from the counter where our parents were now waiting. I prayed to God that she didn’t see the kiss.

“’Kay, I’m coming, just one sec.” I called back to her.

Turning back to Eric, I sighed and said, “Guess it’s time then…”

“Yeah…” he relplied. We stood there for a fraction of a second before hugged him tightly again, so tight I wondered if he could breathe still. He hugged me back just as tightly though.

“I love you, Lili.” He whispered in my ear, “And you’re right that was an awesome present.”
“I love you too, Ricky. I’ll never stop loving you, best-est friend in the world. Promise you’ll never forget me?”

“Promise.” He smiled at me and I returned one of my own. Then I broke our embrace.

“Bye, Ricky.” I whispered, slowly and reluctantly backing away from him and going towards my patiently waiting parents.

“Bye, Lili.”

It took all the strength I had in my little 9 year old heart to turn away from that boy. But I finally braved it and walked quickly towards my parents. Eric’s parents were there and I hugged Mr. and Mrs. Channing and said good bye to them, before turning around to look at Eric one last time before I walked down the ramp and into the plane. He was standing in the same exact place I had left him, only facing where I was now. I waved at him. He waved back. And then I turned around and walked away from my best friend, from the first boy I gave my heart to.

That was the day my heart first broke – the day I said good bye to Eric Channing for forever. At least that’s what I thought.


Now 8 years later, I’m 17 years old. I just finished Year 13 (equivalent to at my junior year) at Worthington Academy in London, which I absolutely loved. My 3 best friends Ariel, Marie, and Emma said they’d keep in touch, and I’ll see them again next summer since I promised to come visit, of course. And you know that whole thing about British guys being hot and their accents totally dreamy? It’s true – every word of it. The guys at my school were rich and handsome, mostly stuck up, but there were the fair few who weren’t. I’ve had a total of 3 boyfriends in my short life – all British. But I’ve never loved any of them. I haven’t truly loved a boy since Eric, which is kind of sad, huh. Oh well, boys are just fun to me. They’re not worth getting all lovesick doe-eyed over. I’ve seen my best friends’ hearts get broken way too many times, and I like being the level headed not boy crazy one, thank you very much.

Ooh and did I mention that over the 8 years I’ve lived in the UK, I’ve picked up a British accent? It’s so awesome. ½ black, ½ white (my mom’s white & my dad’s black), and has a British accent. That’s me!

Right now, my family and I are on a flight back to, you guessed it, Miami, Florida – the good ‘ol U.S. of A, back to our old house, which we hadn’t sold, just rented out for these past 8 years. Good bye, lovely London. Damn, my dad’s job for moving us across countries. We were going back because he got promoted (again) and his new job requires him to be back at “headquarters” a.k.a. in Miami.

But you know surprisingly, I’m all good with all this. I kind of missed America…then of course there’s my whole “don’t worry, be happy” cause “every little thing is gonna be alright” Bob Marley (my hero) inspired “life philosophy” I got going on. Oh yeah, I’m so all good, it’s freaky. I ponder…what lies behind this “good”-ness. Hey, let’s not think about that at the moment. Let’s take a nap instead!

Quite lying to yourself, Brown. You’re going to have to face the truth (among other things) in approximately…8 hours and 20 minutes.

Yeah well you know what stupid little voice, I don’t wanna, so I am going to sleep. Don’t let the frickin bed bugs bite.

I turned a bit to get more comfortable in my squishy leather chair –gotta love first class. In front of me, my dad was already snoring away like there was no tomorrow, and my mom was singing Noah to sleep in her arms. I had a window seat, and the middle-age dude in a suit next to me was snoring away too.

“Jeeze, why do guys snore so loud?” I asked aloud. Of course, no one answered.

“Whatever.”

I lay my head against the window, cleared the thoughts from my head, and breathed slowly until the darkness of sleep consumed me.