“Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” I say as I go to stand up.
“No,” he yells, “We need to clear some shit up.”
“Where do you want to start?”
“I want you to know that I had no idea about the party. Haley, I would never do something like that to you,” he says with apologetic eyes.
“But what you did wasn’t much better.”
“You’re right. I was pissed off at you and I did take it too far and I am really sorry about that.”
“Liam, you had the freaking school calling me a whore. I had eggs thrown at me.”
“The only thing I did was get a rumor to be started, and the rest of it I didn’t know, but I will take blame for it because I started it. Haley, I am really sorry. I know I was pissed at you, but I took it way too far.”
“You had a right to be pissed; I just wish we could have talked about it before making it a war between us.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s my fault. I don’t usually talk, as you can see.”
“What happened to you?”
“What do you mean?” he asks with a surprised look.
“I’ve known you practically my entire life and I’ve never seen this kind of mean side of you that I’ve seen here.”
“Shit,” he says as he runs his hands through his hair, “When I was a freshman I was picked on, normal shit being a freshman and all, but since I was on the football team I had to keep a certain edge to myself. A guy started messing with me and I fucked him up, after that it was kind of one of those things to not mess with me. It just kind of stuck, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Alright, it more than stuck. People don’t piss me off; if they do, there are consequences.”
“But why? You’ve made people switch colleges, move off campus, why would you do that to someone?”
“Haley, I can’t say I’m proud of it because I’m not. I was wrong. People do stupid shit.”
“But you’re still making the same choices.”
“No, I’m not. When I saw you lying in your bed all pale and sick, I knew what happened was my fault, even though I wasn’t here. I take full responsibility, but I want you to know that if I could go back and change it all, I would.”
“How do you know what I looked like at home?” I ask shocked at hearing that revelation.
The look Liam gives me is pure confusion, “Quinn didn’t tell you?”
“No, so fill me in.”
“You were sick, it was a few days after the party, she came downstairs to bitch at Meg, I think, but saw me arguing with Meg about the party. I guess she thought it was my doing and she mentioned you were sick, that you wouldn’t eat, sleep, hell you couldn’t even really get out of bed. I followed her up the stairs to check on you myself and you were completely out of it.”
“How do I not know this?”
“I don’t know, but we took you to the hospital because it was obvious something was wrong.”
“Well, thank you for that,” I state.
“How do you feel now?” he asks as he pierces me with his smoldering blue eyes.
“Pretty good, back to normal, as far as I can tell.”
“Good,” he says with a smile.
“I need to tell you something Liam,” I say nervously.
“What’s that?”
“I lied to you before.”
“Lied about what?” he asks looking confused.
“When you realized that we had sex and I told you it was because of a bet,” I say feeling myself getting even more nervous, “I lied,” I say looking anywhere but at Liam.
“So it was or wasn’t a bet? Because Quinn was bitching about it that night in the hospital.”
“It wasn’t a bet,” I say now looking at the floor.
“Then why did you lie to me? Haley you know me, you’ve known me for years. What would make you do something like that?” I sit and ponder, trying to come up with something that makes sense and doesn’t make me look like a complete loser, but I have no idea what to say. “Haley?” he interrupts my spacing out.
“Sorry, I did it because I wanted to.”
“But why lie to me about it?” he asks sounding frustrated.
My head snaps up, allowing me to look straight at Liam, “Because, it’s not like you would have slept with me, if you knew it was me.”
“What?” he asks looking irate.
“God Liam, I’ve had a freaking crush on you since before I can even remember. So when I ended up coming to school here and I changed my hair, bought colored contacts, I was trying to be someone else, someone different. I didn’t think I would run into you at a party and end up getting the chance to sleep with you, but I sure as hell wasn’t passing it up.”