32 IN THE SHADOWS AND MEMORIES

Lily was the name Ray kept telling himself not to ever escape his lips. Lily McQueen was the girl he warned himself never to mess with. The girl was a walking warning sign, and he now felt like he had stepped on the most active landmine on Earth. His foot was stuck and not going anywhere.

Or else, he'd go boom and die!

But somewhere, somehow after all their unexpected encounters with each other in the past couple of weeks, something inside him snapped—something had rekindled, like an old, extinguished fire bursting back to life.

A little spark started on that one night at Douglas' party.

Of course, Ray knew about Lily for years as the new girl in town. The girl from the big city. The locker room spy. The church lady's granddaughter. And, last but not the least, as "the Stiff". He just kept quiet about what he thought of her, from his close friends and people in general, despite having a good three years' worth of chances to acquaint himself with her.