Unsung

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters appearing on the Disney Channel's original series, 'Hannah Montana', created by Michael Poryes, Richard Correll & Barry O'Brien. Characters are copyrighted to 'It's A Laugh productions'. Original characters are copyrighted to the original author (QYM). This series is posted to Girls Loving Girls with full permission of the author. No copyright infringement is intended or implied.

Feedback: Every author in his or her own way makes it a point to ask for feedback when posting a story, well me I don't usually. But there are several reasons as to why a reader should consider taking the time to give it. The simple fact is that giving some form of feedback is truly the most important thing a reader can do after reading and enjoying a story. Hopefully in the process providing that author with at least one viable reason as to what you liked about the story. This small amount of time spent will no doubt inspire the author to write more and possibly at a quicker pace, knowing that they have a fan base who are waiting on their next works. So thanks for the feedback and please keep it comin.

Summary: In the ALL NEW 10th episode of 'Unsung' (Season Finale), Lilly's visit with her Dad has devastating conequences for consequences for her and Miley's newly formed relationship. A decision that leaves the girls mutual best friend, Oliver, in a rush to fix the problem before it spins further out of control. Later, Lilly and her brother take a trip that results in a tense confrontation with their father.

Original Airdate: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 @ 9:30 p.m.
(following an ALL NEW 'My First Time')

Story Codes: no sex

Tuesday mornings, on their own, were depressing. They didn’t have the bitter panache of Mondays, with all their beginning of the week evilness, but they were quite horrid in their own right. This particular Tuesday, however, was killing Lilly more than usual. She had ditched walking to school with Miley, which she knew was a bad idea, but she couldn’t face her soon-to-be-ex girlfriend yet.

Fifteen minutes before first period, Miley approached her. Anger was evident on Miley’s face, but it was shadowed by confusion.

“Lilly, where were you?” Miley asked, her voice laced with concern. Reaching out slightly, she tried to touch Lilly’s arm. The blonde jerked away as if Miley was burning metal.

“We have to talk,” Lilly muttered out of the side of her mouth.

“About what? What happened? Why are you acting like this?” Miley was even more confused now. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, but I did. Miley, I’m sorry I led you on, but I can’t do this. Whatever it was we had… well, we don’t have it anymore.” Lilly tried to put an apologetic smile on her face, but it came out as a strained grimace. She walked away, leaving Miley speechless and frozen in shock.

“Lilly…” Breathing suddenly became very difficult. She’d just been dumped by her best friend for no apparent reason. Now she’d have to go through the school day with a fake smile, all the while wondering what had happened.

“Hey, airhead,” Rico slid up beside her. “Got a minute?”

“No,” she gasped, unable to focus.

“It’s actually important,” he insisted. “I know about you and Lilly but nobody else does. If you want to keep it that way—”

The short boy’s eyes widened considerably when Miley grabbed him by the front of his shirt and slammed him against the lockers, holding him slightly off the ground. “There is no Lilly and me,” Miley growled, her anger at the situation boiling quickly. She wasn’t sure if this was her covering the relationship or just the dead truth at the moment.

“Look, I saw you at the beach with her. I heard you two talking,” he rattled on, slightly afraid at the look in her eyes, but, being Rico, unable to back down.

“That was nothing, so just drop it? Okay?” Miley didn’t wait to hear his answer – she dropped him and ran off in the direction of the girl’s bathroom, her anger passing as despair overwhelmed her.

When Miley didn’t show up to first period, Lilly didn’t bat an eye. It was to be expected, she told herself. If she hadn’t numbed herself to it already, Lilly knew she’d be in an empty stall sobbing her heart out, too. Oliver, though, was curious and nosy.

“Where’s Miley?” he whispered while the teacher’s back was turned.

“Don’t know, don’t care,” she whispered back.

He paused a moment before narrowing his eyes. “What did you do to her?”

“Nothing.”

“I’ll find out the truth from Miley, y’know.”

“Then find her and ask. I don’t really care,” Lilly murmured, eyes fixed on the front of the room. She wished Oliver would just drop it.

Her wish came true; he eased back in his chair with a thoughtful look on his face. Something was telling him that Miley needed his help and that something big had happened between Miley and Lilly. He shook his head quickly, bouncing his hair all around. No, he thought, there’s nothing wrong. I’m just looking too closely at this.

Miley did show up to her second period class, grateful that Lilly wasn’t in it. She spent the entire period silent, face blank. She knew that if she smiled, it wouldn’t look right, and if she frowned, her face would drown in the tears she was holding off.

“Miss Stewart, do you have an answer?” The teacher called from the front of the room, obviously trying to catch her off guard.

It worked. “No, I’m sorry.”

Sensing that Miley wasn’t feeling too well, the teacher nodded once. “Don’t let it happen again.”

Miley wanted to melt into her seat. In her mind she kept replaying the scene from earlier. Lilly had given no indication as to why she wanted to break up. There were a few reasons, as far as Miley could figure out. Maybe Miley had moved too fast. Sure, it was only a few kisses and a brief touch here and there, but this was still new to Lilly. Maybe those little things weren’t so little to her.

Or maybe Lilly realized that she was just trying to like Miley so that Miley would be happy. It felt logical enough – Lilly generally was concerned when Miley wasn’t content, so it would make sense that she would try to help. Maybe Lilly couldn’t lie to herself anymore.

Whatever the reason, Miley felt like her life had hit rock bottom. She’d been terrified of losing Lilly from the start and now that nightmare was reality.

--

The rest of the school day was a blur. Miley was vaguely aware of her surroundings as she switched classes, ate lunch, and went to her locker. She was acutely aware that Lilly was avoiding being anywhere near her, not that she could blame her. Miley would try to avoid someone she had just broken up with, too.

She grew slightly aware of Oliver’s concern for her, especially when he cornered her between periods, narrowing his eyes.

“You’re going to tell me what happened.”

She tried to focus on him, but found even that hard. “What? Oh… I… It’s just… why don’t you ask Lilly?” she finished with a sigh, trying to push past him.

He stuck his arm out and grabbed her. “I tried. She said to ask you.”

Miley fell silent. Actually saying it out loud would feel like she was finalizing the event, accepting that it had, in fact, happened. Oliver waited patiently, ignoring the bell ringing. He sensed that Miley needed something right now, and he hoped to provide her at least a willing ear.

The tears began falling before she even opened her mouth. “Ollie, she dumped me,” she whispered, struggling to stay composed.

Suddenly it made more sense to Oliver. Why Lilly was so closed off, why Miley wasn’t in first period, and, most of all, why Miley was so distraught. “Did she say why?”

“No,” Miley shrugged her shoulders, eyes dropping to the ground. “I just can’t figure it out,” she sobbed, finally losing her control.

“Shh,” Oliver whispered, gathering the brunette in his arms. She shook uncontrollably, and it broke his heart to see her hurting so badly. Shaking his head slowly, he tried to come up with a reason for Lilly’s behavior. “Look, I’ll talk to her, okay? See if I can’t sort this out.”

“Would you?” Miley sniffled from his shirt. “If you can fix this…”

“Just relax. Things’ll get better,” Oliver promised, setting his hands on her shoulders. “Come on, we’re already late to class.”

She managed to give him a small smile as she wiped away her tears. “Thanks Oliver.”

“What’re friends for? And besides, it’s a man’s job to look out for the ladies,” he puffed out his chest for effect.

“Oliver…” Miley chuckled.

After school, Lilly grabbed her skateboard, fully intent on leaving without as much as a good bye to Oliver or Miley. Her plans were derailed, though, when Oliver grabbed her arm and jerked her off her skateboard before she even got going.

“Why would you do that?” he demanded quietly, letting go of her arm.

“Do what?” she pretended not to know, though it wasn’t difficult to figure out what he was talking about.

“Don’t act stupid with me, Lilly. You know exactly what,” Oliver returned angrily. He had been careful to stage this confrontation where nobody was around to hear it.

“I just don’t want to date her,” she muttered, not making eye contact.

“Stop it,” he snapped, causing her eyes to snap to him. She had rarely ever heard him so angry. ”Why are lying to me?” he pressed again.

Finally relenting, she looked around to make sure no one was around. “You have to promise to keep your big mouth shut, got it?” she glared at him.

“Yeah,” he nodded, even as he began planning ways around that promise.

Lilly turned away and began walking. “I just wanted to,” she spat, having seen the wheels turning in her oldest friend’s eyes.

“Lilly, listen to me!” he yelled, grabbing her arm again and spinning her back to him. “Unless you have a reason – any reason – all you’re doing is killing one of your best friends!” he tried, hoping to knock some sense into her. “Did you see her today? She was a zombie, and not like the ones from Zombie High, the ones that look really real, and there was no Jake Ryan to keep her from the bathroom stall…”

Lilly stared at him as if he’d grown three heads. “Oliver, I don’t know what you’re talking about. She looked fine to me.”

“I don’t believe that for a second.”

Face unreadable, Lilly stared him down. He saw the tears welling up in her eyes, though, and her façade cracked quickly. “It hurts me, too,” she almost sobbed, stepping away from him.

“Then why’d you do it?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” Lilly persisted, wrapping her arms around herself protectively.

“Try me.” His previous concern for Miley had been overshadowed now by a concern for Lilly.

One minute, and then two, passed in silence, with only the distant sounds of students fleeing from school intervening. “It’s my dad,” Lilly murmured at last. “He wasn’t as cool about this as my mom was.”

“You hurt Miley this badly over something your dad said?” Oliver was amazed.

“I knew you wouldn’t understand,” Lilly cried, shaking her head violently. “He was disgusted with me! My own father said that I… that I was…” she trailed off as her tears overwhelmed her, and she sank to the floor, unable to stay standing under the strain of the past day.

“Lilly, I’m going to tell you now what I learned from the pages of the esteemed publication Seventeen magazine,” he started, sitting on the floor next to her and pulling a distraught female into his arms for the second time that day. He thought it had to be some kind of record for him. “You can’t let your friends or your family make your choices for you. Your happiness is dependent on what you want. You can’t spend your life trying to make other people happy.”

Lilly sniffled as she laughed. “Wow, Oliver, very Zen. Those magazines are really doing you some good.”

“I know. It’ll help when I get a girlfriend,” he stated proudly. And besides, some of those articles were really interesting.

“What am I supposed to do? I don’t want to hurt Miley, but I don’t want my dad upset, either.” Lilly felt stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“I can’t tell you what to do,” Oliver replied, sighing. “Do you like Miley?”

“Yeah,” Lilly answered. It was at that moment that she truly felt bad for doing this. Instead of feeling worse, though, she began to feel angry. Her father should want her to be happy, regardless of who it was with. “I need to fix this,” she stated, climbing to her feet.

“I wouldn’t talk to Miley just yet,” Ollie cautioned, following her ascent. “She’s still pretty upset. I’d give her a little while to get herself in order.”

“Thank you, Oliver,” Lilly whispered as she bear-hugged him. “Thank you for stopping me from making the biggest mistake in my life.”

“So far.”

The hug turned into a shove.

“And you just ruined the moment.”

He grinned for a moment before turning serious again. “So what’s next?”

“Talking to Dad.” Lilly took her helmet off and picked up her skateboard. “Can you tell me when Miley’s ready to talk?”

Oliver smiled, grateful he was at least able to get things on the road to recovery. “Yeah.”

--

”Will, can you drive me to Dad’s?”

Her brother stared at her for a moment in shock. He had been laying on his bed, reading a magazine when Lilly had burst in, completely unannounced and unexpected. “Um, sure, I guess. That’s not exactly a short drive, you know. Why the hell do you want to talk to him, anyway?” he asked, confused.

“Because I need to tell him he’s wrong, and that he’s wrong about me.”

Will shrugged and led the way downstairs, grabbing their mother’s car keys before leading them to the relatively new Camry.

Buckling her seatbelt as he pulled out, Lilly stared out the window in silence for the next six and a half hours. As they drove, she started sorting through the thoughts in her head. When they got to her dad’s, she’d be ready. Talking with Oliver had reawakened her strong sense of pride and she had a few choice things to tell her dad. Sooner than she thought, Will was shaking her awake, telling her they were there. Yawning, she looked at the clock. It was almost eleven. She got out of the car, shutting the door behind her, and followed Will through the front door and into the living room. She hadn’t visited her dad since school had started, but she was supposed to be spending the upcoming Thanksgiving break here. She was not looking forward to it.

“Who’s there?” her dad yelled from upstairs as he came into view.

Will waved as he walked off into the kitchen. “Just me and Lil, Dad.”

Confused, he stared over the banister at her. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay? What happened?” He asked, rushing down to her in worried parent mode.

“Dad, we need to talk.”

He looked into her face and the worry slid off to be replaced by a cold fury. “Very well,” he said, leading them into the kitchen after Will. “Alright,” he sighed as he leaned against the kitchen counter. “What’s on your mind?”

Taking a deep breath and summoning her courage, she laid into her father. “Dad, I refuse to believe that I’m doing something wrong. Something… disgusting,” she spat the last word, throwing all the hurt it had caused right back at him. “I know you don’t like it, but I am… I can’t help this, dad. I have never felt this way about anyone. And I was in a relationship with Miley, but because I thought you wanted the best for me, I listened to you, like an idiot. I broke up with her because I really thought that you wanted me to be happy.”

“Lilly, I do want you to be happy,” he interjected.

“If you did, you’d let me be happy with her. I was the happiest I’ve been in a long time. I just… I can’t understand why you’d try and hurt me like that. I’ve felt horrible all day today because of you. I’ve made myself sick with worry about what you think, and how Miley is, and how awful this entire situation is. And Miley’s felt even worse, because she can’t understand it,” Lilly accused. “So you’ve either got to learn to accept me, as I am, or…”

She shrugged helplessly. Or what?

“Dad, listen to her,” her brother entered the conversation. “She really hasn’t done anything wrong.”

Her father glanced between his two children, his face settling into a fierce scowl. “I’m sorry. I can’t accept this,” he stated, climbing to his feet and leaving the room.

Lilly broke into tears. Turning to her brother, she flung her arms around his neck and cried.

Shushing her and rubbing her back gently, her brother tried to reassure her. “He just needs time, Lilly. Let’s get going.”

She barely nodded, clinging to the elder Truscott for dear life.

--

While Lilly was merging onto the I-5N to Sacramento, Miley sat on the steps in her closet, thinking. Her closet was one of the few places she knew she wouldn’t be bothered. If she was there, the only people who would find her were those closest to her.

She wouldn’t lose Lilly after only one day of dating. Lilly just had to give her a chance to prove herself. One day wasn’t enough. She stared around the room, planning. What she needed was somewhere that Lilly wouldn't feel pressured or anxious; somewhere they could talk without being overheard. Thoughts started bubbling in her head and she smiled for the first time that day. She needed Oliver.

Stretching her legs, she trotted downstairs. She made a pit stop in the kitchen, snagging an apple. Before she could get out of the house, though, she was stopped by Jackson, who looked awfully worried.

“Hey, Miles… How was school?”

“Do you remember how Uncle Earl smelled just before his weekly bath?” Miley asked.

“That bad, huh?” he blocked the door, keeping her inside. “Anything interesting happen?”

“I guess. Lilly dumped me,” she muttered.

“Oh, Miles, I’m sorry,” he said, pulling her into a hug. “Rico didn’t have anything to do with it, did he?”

“Jackson… what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Umm… nothing,” he gulped loudly, stepping back. His previous statement wasn’t supposed to be spoken. He really had to watch what he was thinking when his lips were feeling loose.

“Do you want me to get Daddy?”

“Ok, ok! So I might have let it slip, possibly, that you and Lilly were in a relationship. He tricked me, I swear!”

“So that’s what he was talking about this morning. Look, Jackson, I don’t like that you mentioned it before Lilly and I were ready to tell people, but that’s not why she got upset,” Miley reasoned. “I mean, he hasn’t told anybody, yet. So Lilly wouldn’t know that someone knew.”

“Um, sure?” Jackson was having trouble following the logic.

“Look, I’ve got to go. Don’t think I’m letting you off the hook, Jerkson,” she pointed a finger and jabbed him in the chest before walking past him. “But don’t feel too bad. I don’t hate you completely.”

Oliver’s house was further than Lilly’s, but not far enough to be a problem. She just hoped he was home, she hadn’t thought to call ahead. Luck was with her – she knocked three times on the door and it swung open, revealing Oliver with a phone pressed to his ear. He promptly hung up when he saw her.

“Miley! I was just calling your house. I think you’ll be happy.”

“I already am. I’m getting Lilly back whether she wants it or not.” Miley stated and then paused. There was something off about that statement. “Well, if she doesn’t want it, I’ll convince her.”

“She’s actually trying to make it up to you now.” Oliver put in, gesturing that Miley should step into the house. She did so with a small smile.

“Did she really say that?”

“I promised her I wouldn’t give you any details, but yeah. She feels bad about the whole thing.”

“Okay, but I have a plan, and you’ve got to help me, Ollie.” Miley grabbed his arm, face dead serious. “I’m going to avoid her tomorrow at school. It’s your job to make sure she doesn’t talk to me and then later, get her to my house.”

Oliver grinned, running a hand through his hair. “Sounds like a plan, Stan. Can I get you something to drink? Eat?”

“I would kill for a water.”

“Violence is never the answer,” Oliver joked as he headed for the kitchen and grabbed a glass.

Miley accepted the water gratefully when he returned moments later. “Are you sure you can’t tell me what has Lilly so worked up?”

“A promise is a promise,” Oliver responded rather reluctantly. “Don’t be mad at her, though. It was a good reason, especially considering how new she is to, well, all of this. It kind of caused her to go into a meltdown. She realizes she was wrong, though, and that’s the important thing.”

“Was it something I did? Something I said?”

“No… not at all. She did ask that you two make out in front of me while I’m video taping, though,” he beamed innocently.

“Oliver.”

“What? It was a joke.”

“Uh-huh,” she nudged him roughly with her elbow. “Thanks for being there for us. I know it’s not easy.”

“I consider this life training. Someday I too shall have a moody woman. And when that day comes, I’ll be prepared.”

“Oliver.”

“What? It was a joke!”