Another Lollie oneshot for the Loliver Summer Post-a-thon. -gasps for breath- Read and review please.

Paper Shreds

Lilly walked down the sidewalk, her black Converse slapping the wet pavement as a heavy rain poured down on an unsuspecting earth. She sighed and put her hands in the pocket of her bright orange hoodie. Maybe going to the beach hadn't been such a great idea.

She had been walking for ten minutes and was getting annoyed. She just wanted to reach the warm, dry sanctuary of her cozy home. She eventually came to her street, but found herself not at her own front door, but the front door of none other than her best friend Oliver.

She shrugged and, not questioning where her legs had carried her, knocked on the door.

"Why Lilly. What a nice surprise." Oliver's mother said, standing in the doorway. "Come in, Sweetheart and dry off."

"Thanks, Mrs. O. I was just wondering if Oliver was here." Lilly replied smiling.

"I'm afraid he's not here, Lilly. I'm actually not sure where he is." Mrs. Oken said sighing. "I've told him a million times to clean his room before he went anywhere. And of course he forgot his cell phone."

Lilly smiled faintly. That was just like him, skipping chores and sneaking out of the house.

"Why don't you go on up to his room and wait for him. And there's some towels upstairs in the bathroom you can dry off with." Mrs. Oken said.

"Thanks." Was Lilly's reply as she started up the stairs, her sneakers squeaking with every step.

She grabbed a blue towel out of the bathroom and pressed it to her face, taking in the sweet smell of fabric softener.

"Mm…" Lilly murmured. The simplest things in life were the best. She continued to dry her face, then her bangs that hadn't been protected by her hoodie. She sighed happily. This place was like a second home to her. She had spent so much of her time here over the years. She yawned and put the fuzzy, and now damp, towel in the bathroom hamper and proceeded to Oliver's room.

It was a disaster, not as bad as Jackson's room, but pretty darn close. She hadn't been there in about a week, but a week was all Oliver needed. Clothes and papers lay around everywhere, soda cans and Tootsie Roll wrappers, schoolbooks and video games.

Lilly waded through the great abyss, cleared a spot, and sat down on the floor near Oliver's desk. She intended to sit on his bed, but considering it was piled high with clothes and other random things, that didn't seem to be an option.

She crossed her legs and put her hands in her lap. She looked around the room and felt like she was trapped in a spinning vortex. The walls were closing in. She couldn't breathe. She was becoming claustrophobic. Although, it wasn't like she wasn't used to this. Oliver's room was always going back and forth between total filth and extreme tidiness.

She had to find something to do to pass the time. She didn't even know why she was waiting anyway. What was so important? Why was she allowing herself to sit in the middle of this toxic waste dump? She sighed. She really was that bored. What on earth was taking him so long?

She glanced around the room once more, her eyes stopping on a heaping pile of crumpled up papers, scattered around a metal wastebasket. Lilly's eyes searched back and forth between the papers and her hands folded calmly in her lap.

"I couldn't…" She thought to herself. "But then again, Oliver is always going through my things, trying to read my diary and stuff. It's only fair." She leaned over and peered as far out the door as she could. The coast was clear.

She grabbed a scrunched up piece of paper and flattened it out. It had something written on it, but she couldn't make it out considering it was scribbled over with a dark, ballpoint pen like there was no tomorrow. She sighed, then picked up the next paper and unfolded it, only to find it exactly the same.

Frowning, she picked up another, and flattened it out, exposing more scribbles. She grew bored with that and glanced around inside the trashcan. She saw a tiny piece of torn paper. She picked it up and found that it read 'Lils'.

Her curiosity grew and she began to dig through the trashcan in search of more bits of paper. She discovered another and found that it read the word 'imagine', minus the 'e'. She was really into it by that time. She grabbed the wastebasket and dumped it out in front of her.

She dug through used tissues and old gum wrappers, cotton swabs and chewed pencil erasers. Every once in a while she'd come across a tiny piece of paper, stuck to dried-up piece of gum or stained with some mysterious orange substance that she really didn't want to know what it was.

Once she had sorted about every sticky piece of garbage, she had a pile of paper shreds lying on the floor next to a pile of trash.

She laid them out, face-up in front of her and began to rearrange them.

"Hmm…" She said out loud. "It's like a puzzle." She moved papers left and right. She turned some over and upside down. As the pieces of paper started to come together, Lilly grabbed a roll of tape and began taping them together. Soon, the tape ran out and she resorted to staples. She started spelling out more and more words. It was slowly becoming easier to read.

A sentence became clearer, then another. Lilly's eyes grew wide as she continued to piece the paper back together. She couldn't believe some of the things written on it. It didn't make sense.

At last, after what had seemed like an eternity, the shredded paper was in one piece once more. Lilly picked it up, her hands quivering and read it all together for the first time. It was a poem, a pretty corny poem, which probably explains why it from torn up and in the garbage, but a poem nonetheless.

Lilly, your smile brightens up the darkest room, Without you I'm filled with gloom. I laugh with you the whole day through I can't imagine a day without you. I call you Lils. You call me Ollie, Just being with you makes me feel jolly. I love you. Do you love me? Maybe I should stop hoping for something that may never be. Maybe it's true, about you and I, That best friends can't be more… though I don't see why.

Lilly stared at the paper, not believing what she had read. She read it over and over to herself. Her head was spinning.

Suddenly Oliver stepped inside, his hair dripping wet. He threw his skateboard and helmet on the floor of his room. "Hey Lils." He said smiling. "What's that?" He pointed down at the piece of paper.

Lilly looked up at him, her eyes wide. She didn't know what to say. She shot up from her spot on the floor. "Uh, nothing…" She said, folding up the paper and sticking it in her back pocket. "I have to go…" She started for the door.

"But you just got here…" Oliver objected.

"I know. I just…have to go…" She opened the door and ran out into the hallway. After about five seconds of constant racing thoughts, she turned around, walked back toward Oliver and slowly kissed him.

"What was that for?" He finally asked. Drops of water dripped from his wet hair and onto his face.

Lilly smiled softly and whispered in his ear, "Oliver, you are one of the messiest people on the planet… and your poetry is the corniest thing I have ever heard."

And he smiled.

Fin

-Andi