𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙀𝙏𝙀𝙀𝙉
ミ★ ( bewitched, act two ) ★彡

     Like promised, Lilith slowly began to get back into her old life after her discussion with Magda. It was a lot harder than she thought because she still struggled with the nightmares. A lot. Every night it was a new dream, which frightened her more than the reoccurring ones. Oliver had tried constantly to use different ways and spells to try and get her to sleep well, but, even that didn't keep away the bad dreams. She was slowly starting to feel okay enough to go back to school even when she was dreading the thought of having to face the stares that everyone would give her because of her absence, but, she was grateful that Bella had kept her up to date with everything that was going on so she wouldn't be completely lost like she was already feeling.

     She had a new sense of hope that maybe things would be better, and she would know what was happening to her. She was almost counting down the hours until Magda called to give her the explanation and it would all finally make sense again.

     Once Lilith did go back to school, classes went by normally like expected, she had to try and avoid the occasional odd looks from students as they were starting to notice a pattern when it came to her schooling attendance and from her friends as well—if she could even still call them that.

     By lunch time, Lilith had to try and soak up as much courage as she could to go and sit at the table with her friends. She held her tray with a tight yet shaky grip as she anxiously made her way over towards them.

     "I did see something in the woods." Angela insisted.

     Eric grabbed onto her hand with the other over his heart as he said, "Totally. Baby, I believe you."

     Jessica quickly swallowed her food so she could get her words out, "No, he doesn't. He's just trying to get lucky." She disagreed and Eric let out a nervous laugh to which Angela narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend.

     "No, okay. It was jet black and huge. On all fours, it was still taller than a person." She continued, standing her ground, "A bear, maybe?"

     Lilith looked passed the Cullens' old table, her heart clenching at the remembrance that they had left her, clenching her eyes as she continued to walk towards the other table, Bella seeing her and giving her a supportive smile, "Or an alien. You're lucky you didn't get probed." Mike joked and the group laughed.

     "Well, I saw it." Angela insists.

     Their smiles soon dropped a little as their little blonde friend slowly came and sat down with them, their smiles turning into sympathetic looks as they had all noticed the completely dead look in her eyes, not to mention the fact that she looked exhausted and like she hadn't slept or eaten in weeks.

     "You know you're not the only one." Bella said clearing her throat, trying to continue the conversation and make the attention go towards her, hoping it wouldn't make Lilith as uncomfortable as she was now, "Um... my dad's been getting reports at the station. Like, five hikers have been killed by some bear... but, they can't find the bear."

     Angela's head snapped towards Eric and she let out a pressed humphing noise, to which he laughed nervously again, "Last time you clowns doubt my girlfriend."

     The table went awkwardly quiet again and Angela tried to speak, "Um..."

     "I'm sorry." Lilith blurted, catching the group off guard, "I know I haven't exactly been present recently and it's because I let something stupid get in the way of everything else that was good in my life. I don't have anyone else to blame but myself, so, I'm sorry, and I'm trying to get better."

     "Don't be sorry. He was your first boyfriend, Lil." Angela consoled, "He was your first love and your first heartbreak. We don't blame you for being heartbroken and trying to move on in your own way. We understand." Everyone handles pain differently and she was surprised by the magnitude of pain that Lilith felt when Edward left, but, she couldn't blame her when Lilith most likely never felt real heartbreak before, let alone how to handle it.

     "But, that doesn't mean he was my whole life." Lie. He was her whole life, and still continues to be, "I have so much more to live for than just him and I need to remember that. I should've remembered that. He left me and I just... need to pick myself back up." She murmured, "I can't just let myself fade away from everyone else. Just because he left me with this huge hole in my chest doesn't mean I should let it ruin the good things I have left."

     "You'll always have us." Bella reminded her and she didn't miss the appreciative look Lilith shot her. Without Bella, she wasn't sure how she would've survived this part of her life.

     "Thank you." She whispered, "I just need to feel normal again. And I know I'm going to struggle for a bit getting back to that but I need to try. I just can't keep doing this." She can't keep acting like he would come back and all the pain would just disappear, she can't just keep acting like her nightmares were normal. Everything wasn't normal and everything wasn't okay.

     "Take your time, there's no rush." Jess said as she took a bite into her salad.

     "Does that also mean I won't get an 'I told you so' from you?" Lilith asked hopefully. Jessica did warn her on her first day that no one was ever good enough for Edward and she should've believed it in the long run, even if she was distracted by the small hope that maybe she was different to him.

     Jessica smiled, "Oh, I'll give you a rain check on that one." She cooed jokingly.

     Mike then rested his elbows on the table, "So... our Lil's back?" He asked hesitantly, with a hint of excitement in his voice.

     Lilith could only shrug, it was too soon to say so, but that didn't mean she wasn't willing to try, "Yeah, I guess so."

     Mike smiled and clapped his hands, "Ah, that's—well, welcome." He said, containing his excitement, "I was thinking maybe we could all go to a movie and just hang out." He suggested to the group. He was hoping that maybe it'll get her mind off of everything that was going on and that the group could help distract her a little, along with bring her back out of her shell. The group let out enthusiastic yeses and Mike nodded as he tried to figure out where to go from there as he wasn't exactly expecting a yes from Lilith so he hadn't planned that far ahead, "Cool, um... let me see, we could hit up Greta's and then we could check out, um... Love Spelled Backwards Is Love." He suggested, "You know, it's a dumb title, but, it's a romantic comedy. I mean, it's supposed to be really good."

     "Greta's sounds great, but, maybe let's not go with the romance option." Angela pitched in. Romance was probably not the best idea to go with given the circumstances and that it might make Lilith even sadder.

     "Yeah, how about Face Punch?" Eric suggested as he placed an arm around Angela's shoulders, "It's an action movie."

     "It sounds perfect." Lilith said, maybe she would enjoy it a little better than some mushy romance movie that would remind her that she was forever alone.

     "Face Punch, yeah. Mike and I were supposed to watch that the other week." Tyler added, "Remember the trailer was like... punch faces..." He began to mimic the trailer along with make a bunch of explosion noises before punching his cupped hand, "And then he got food poisoning the day we were supposed to go—we haven't spoken about watching it again though." He made a disappointed face.

     "I wanted to watch Love Spelled Backwards Is Love." Jessica frowned.

  Mike placed his arm around his girlfriend as he said, "We'll watch it another day."

     The group then looked up the movie times and picked a night that they were going to go and watch the movie, settling on that Friday night at seven before the bell rang and everyone went to their next classes.

     Friday night came quickly and Lilith was slightly more excited to get back into the groove of things along with moving on with her life. Slowly but surely she was becoming okay but she knew that she would never be the same. Lilith's eyes lit up a little when she saw Bella and Jacob come greet them, the boy engulfing her in a hug as he hadn't seen her in a while and he was happy that she was starting to become herself again. Since Jacob was dating Bella, he got the inside scoop of pretty much everything that was going on and since he saw how much both Bella and Lilith affected each other emotionally—he slowly began to become affected too.

     The girl then stood out the front of the movie theatre with Mike by her side as Bella went to make a few phone calls, "So, Face Punch, huh?" Jacob asked Mike, trying to start small talk, "You like action movies?"

     Mike opened his mouth before closing it again and saying honestly with a small shrug of his shoulders, "Not really."

     Jacob chuckled, "I heard it sucks. Bad."

     Lilith let out a small sigh, "Great." She mumbled. Maybe they should have gone with the Love Spelled Backwards Is Love option. She then looked at Mike, "Where's Jessica?" She asked.

     "She got into a fight with her mom. She's not allowed out tonight." Mike told her, "But, she said she'll make it up to you on Monday." Jess did want to go, but, her and her mom got into a huge blow out over something incredibly silly and it ended up in Jessica being grounded over the weekend. She felt horrible because she wanted to be there for her friend, but, she would just now have to figure out how to do it another way.

     Bella then walked over towards them with her phone in her hand, "Angela got the stomach flu and Eric is taking care of her." She explained the phone calls.

     Lilith's phone beeped as she scrambled to grab it out of her pocket, she looked down at the text message she received and she sighed as she read it.

TYLER: Had to cover a shift at work. Can't come to the movies tonight but I'll bring you a giant teddy bear on Monday to make up for it xx

     The girl frowned deeply as she typed out her response.

LILITH: You better :(

     "It's just us four." Lilith announced with a sigh, "Tyler has to work."

     "Great." Jacob said enthusiastically.

     "Great." Mike said also with a lot less enthusiasm.

     The group then handed in their tickets and walked into the movie theatre and sat down in their respective seats, Lilith went straight to digging into her popcorn as the movie trailers played out, watching which ones she would want to go watch when the movie would come out and when an uninteresting one came on, she would look down at her popcorn bucket.

     The movie theatre went dark as the movie began to play, and Jacob was most definitely right. The movie sucked. Badly.

     It wasn't even halfway through when Lilith was left with her elbow on the armrest holding her head up as she watched the movie, completely uninterested, her popcorn finished along with her drink as well as the movie played itself out, everyone shooting at each other with terrible dialogue and even worse acting. Lilith looked to the side seeing Jacob look slightly interested as he held onto Bella's hand, the girl looking even more bored with the movie. She then looked over at Mike who looked like he was struggling to watch.

     Mike made a small gagging noise as he said, "Okay, I think I'm gonna throw up." He said, bursting out of his chair and running out of the movie theatre the rest of them running after him.

     Mike ran into the bathroom next door to their theatre as the rest of them walked out. Bella stifled a laugh, "Jeez." She said as she ran a hand through her hair.

     Jacob scoffed, "What a marshmallow." He said as they walked past the bathroom and took a seat on the set of stairs nearby.

      "I feel bad, he probably has that flu that's going around." Lilith said sympathetically, trying to ignore the jealous feeling she got when she spotted Bella and Jacob holding hands behind her in the reflection, "Hopefully I don't get it next, I've already missed enough days of school this year."

     "Because of him?" Jacob asked, not mentioning Edward's name but everyone knew that was what he was referring to; that Lilith was too heartbroken to come to school because he left her.

     "Jacob." Bella quietly scolded, nudging the boy slightly in warning to watch his mouth in case he accidentally triggered something.

      "It's okay, Bella." Lilith said, "And yeah, because of him. He broke my heart and I didn't know how to handle it, and that's okay—because I'm allowed to be sad by it—but, I know I shouldn't of let it affect me as much as it did. He was just some boy."

     "But, he wasn't just some boy." Bella couldn't help but remind her friend. Lilith went from one bad recovery method to the next. She went from shutting herself off from everything to pretending like it never happened—two ways that were not healthy when it came to dealing with a breakup, "You handled it the best you could and you're moving forward now."

     "Yeah." Lilith sighed out, looking down at her feet. She handled it the best she could. But, was she? She didn't think so. She was meant to be some powerful witch and she was feeling nothing more than a vulnerable, fragile dead flower.

     A sickly pale Mike then walked out making a sniffling sound, slightly covered in sweat, "Well..." He sighed, grabbing everyone's attention, "I need to go home." He announced. Jacob turned to look at him completely unimpressed and slightly angrily, "I'm... I was feeling sick before the movie, okay?" The blonde boy tried to defend his embarrassing moment because he doesn't want to let anyone know that he can't stomach a bloody action movie. Jacob scoffed at him and everyone looked at him weirdly as to why Jacob was so angry about the situation. Lilith didn't understand any of the reasons that came to mind as to why he was acting this way, "What is your problem?" Mike asked.

     "Right now, you're my problem." Jacob answered his question and even Bella began to look worried at the slight outburst, "Feeling sick? Maybe you need to go to the hospital." Jacob then stood up abruptly and got into Mike's face, "You want me to put you in the hospital?" He threatened.

     Bella stood up and grabbed Jacob's arm, holding him back and away from Mike who was backing away from him also, "Jake. Jake, Jake; the movie's over. What are you doing?" She asked her boyfriend and pointed at the people who were leaving the theatre. There was no need for all of this anymore, especially over missing the end of a horrible movie that none of them really seemed to like that much. Even though Jacob was entertained by it, he wasn't the type to react such a way over a movie he could probably watch again later. She then noticed his body temperature, her eyes looking him over to see if he was okay, checking his hand, "You're... really hot. Like, you feel like you have a fever. Are you okay?"

     Jacob swallowed the lump in his throat, finally snapping out of it slightly, he too was wondering what had just happened, "I don't know what's happening." He admitted, breathing heavily, "I gotta go." He said and walked out of the theatre.

     "Dude is weird." Mike commented as he watched Jacob's walk away and he looked at the two girls ludicrously.

     "Maybe it's the stomach bug going around?" Lilith could only suggest as she watched Jacob's retreating figure with a look of sympathy across her face.