Just Our Luck! Part 1: Lily’s Falling Out
Lily was a coworker of mine at Kroger and one of my first friends there. One of her most notable appearances in Rules for a Greattastic Life was in Season 1 when she and I accidentally broke one of the sliding glass doors together (Just My Luck!). We had a falling out a few years back. This is that story:
Lily had the strangest effect on her friends. A year after she started working at Kroger, her best friend, Maya, started working with us. Maya's brother, Ethan, started working with us shortly after that… and then the floodgates opened. After Lily moved to her new Kroger, her boyfriend, Owen, worked with me for a short time. Then Chloe, Lily, and Maya's other friend began working at Lily's new store. Heck, even Lily's nemesis, Summer, started working at my store along with their other friend Izzy (who I almost moved in with before Shane).
Late in the summer of 2021, Lily started causing some drama within the group. While I will not disclose the drama itself, I tried to stay out of it, despite how hurt I was feeling about it. On Thursday, September 23, toward the middle of my shift, I was on carts. While I was out there, Lily drove up to me. “Hey,” she said. I didn’t reply. “Look,” she continued, “I really want to work this out. Can you please talk to Maya and Chloe about meeting up?”
When I went on my break, I found Maya and told her what had happened. By the time I was getting ready for bed that night, she had sent a group text to me, Lily, and Chloe, suggesting that we all meet up the next day.
Around 4:30, we met in a local high school parking lot, and from there we walked to a nearby duck pond. I knew that Maya and Chloe were going to team up on Lily, so I was there for moral support, even though I didn’t agree with Lily. We sat down at a shelter house at the duck pond, and Maya and Chloe spent the next hour laying into Lily. When they had said everything they needed to, they dramatically stood up and left.
As we watched them walk away, Lily became more and more distraught. She began asking me why they were acting that way, and I couldn’t really hide that I agreed with them on some level. We walked back to the high school, reminiscing on our 3 years of friendship, knowing that it was the end.
“I don’t want our friendship to end,” she cried when we got to our cars.
“Neither do I,” I replied, “maybe in a few years we can reconnect.”
“I would like that,” she said sadly.
On Tuesday, June 17, 2025, I went shopping at my old Kroger on my way home from work. While the store has been updated a lot since I left in early 2022, it still looks similar enough that I started feeling a little nostalgic. When I finished shopping and had brought everything into my car, I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Lilly.
To Be Continued…
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