The Viscottis’ Tales at Pesky Peek


CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Eavesdropping


OK, so she hadn’t phoned her dad ‘tomorrow’ like she had promised herself. But it wasn’t like she had a choice really –– what with Liz getting pregnant with somebody else’s child all of a sudden. There had been much more important things to do at the time than to worry about silly phone calls, besides it wasn’t all that important anyway. But now Lily felt like she had come to the point where she couldn’t put it off any longer. No more excuses. She had to do it this time.

Every now and again as Lily shuffled over to the phone in the hall, that note would brush up against her leg from the inside her pocket and her heart would miss a beat. Just the thought of dialling that phone number made Lily’s insides squirm. But she was going to do it anyway. She was going to call her dad and she was going to do it now.

Lily stared at the phone sitting by the brand new fold-up computer. The tiny green button glowed red, which meant that it was already occupied. Relief and disappointment swept over Lily at the same time like a huge wave. This meant that she’d have to put off that phone call for just a little longer. The part of Lily that was disappointed was thinking that she would probably never actually get round to phoning her dad if things carried on like this. But it was just as well really. He probably wouldn’t want to talk to her anyway.

Lily gathered herself and was about to leave but something kept her on the spot. Somewhere, tucked away amongst all that relief and disappointment, there was a hint of curiosity that was rapidly growing bigger by the minute. What was Liz on the phone about? More importantly, who was she on the phone to?

Well she had to find out; there was no doubt about it. But when she reached for the phone, she found herself hesitating.

What was wrong with her? What had happened to the Lily she had known for so long? The Lily who didn’t care about other people’s feelings. The rock solid Lily. She had been replaced by some caring clone that thought way too much and ignored people’s feelings far too little. Well, she was going to get the old Lily back. Screw that perfect life that she had been dreaming of before! It didn’t matter to her anymore! It would just get all mixed up anyway –– Liz’s baby had done that just fine already.





Feeling very mischievous and pleased to have the old Lily back, she picked up the receiver and pushed it to her ear. Immediately she heard her mother on the other end:

“… I just don’t know what to do! This – this baby is just going to complicate everything. Why did we have to –”

“Wow, wow, wait a minute Liz.” Said a male voice that sounded oddly familiar, though Lily couldn’t quite put her finger on where she had heard it before. The impostor that the voice belonged to was horribly calm and Lily could tell by the way it drawled on that he was very sure of himself. “You don’t want to go saying things that you’re later going to regret, now do you?”

Liz remained silent on the other end of the phone and Lily could just imagine how uncomfortable she must be.

The impostor gave a small, handsome laugh. “That was what I thought.”

There was a silence, in which Lily felt like shouting something very rude to the impostor but –– with much effort –– she managed not to.

After a few awkward moments, the impostor (whom Lily disliked more and more every second) spoke again.

“You see, Liz, I know as well as you do that you couldn’t resist me that night,” ––Lily’s jaw dropped and that urge to say something rude grew stronger–– “just like old times, eh?”

She was pleased to find that her mother did all the rude business for her.

“Oh, sod off, Mr Highandmighty!” (Well actually she said something a lot ruder.) “Don’t kid yourself. You were the last thing on my mind.”

“That wasn’t what you said that night.”

“I was drunk, you blooming idiot! It was the drink talking, not me.”

“You keep telling yourself that, babe.”

Lily shifted uncomfortably in her seat at the word ‘babe’. How dare this impostor call her mum babe!!

“What are you going to do about the baby?”

“What am I going to do about the baby? Babe, it’s not mine, I’m telling you. I’m not stupid enough to get you pregnant twice.”

Twice??

“It could be. What am I going to do if it is yours? I don’t want to ruin my life here, Da–”

Liz had been about to say a name but the impostor interrupted her. Lily felt her pulse quicken. A name was exactly what she wanted. She listened closely in case the name would pop up in their conversation again.

“You’ll just have to wait and see until it’s born, I guess.” Said the impostor.

“But what do I tell Vince? He’s bound to notice something…”

“Nothing. You tell him nothing.”

Silence.

“So when do I get to see Lily?” said the impostor but Lily didn't hear it; she had slammed the phone down.

She had had enough. Thoughts were buzzing in her head like bees around a beehive. She had to get away from all this… all this confusion.

Lily grabbed her coat and made her way down the stairs. Before leaving, she scribbled a quick message to Liz on a scrap piece of paper that was lying around: I’m going out. By the way, I’ve taken your car. Lily xx.

She was going to get away from all this mess and the only way she could do so was to go to the place where all the mess had started; the place where her life had started going down hill.

She was going to Jamie’s house.


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