Because I just want him. The looks, the arched eyebrows, the whispers - none of it matters, because I know how I feel. And I know what happened between Liam and I might be frowned on, but it wasn’t wrong. I know that now. It’s something people might not understand, but that doesn’t make it bad.
I’m in class - his class - but of course, it’s not Liam up a the podium anymore. Susan, the department head has taken over Liam’s lectures, and so it’s her up there now, talking about who knows what. Because I can’t focus, especially here in this room that reminds me of him. I’m also no longer sitting front and center like I did before, because, well, I just can’t.
Susan is mid-sentence when the door to the lecture hall suddenly slams open, and my heart jumps right up into my throat.
It’s Liam; here, standing right there and looking right at me.
Susan whirls as he storms in and starts to shake her head and wag her finger. “Oh no, Mr. Martin! You are not supposed to-”
“Uh-huh,” he growls dismissively, moving right past her and never taking his deep dark eyes off of me.
There’s a titter through the crowd of assembled students, but I barely even hear them over the roar of my pulse in my ears.
He’s here; he came back.
He came back for me.
“Mr. Martin!” Susan’s voice is shrill as she scowls at him with her hands on her hips. “I suggest you leave immediately!”
He stops at the front of the class, looking up at the theater seating to where I’m sat towards the back of the room.
“Mr. Mar-”
“Oh, shut it,” he says, shushing Susan. He winks as he looks up at me, and I’m standing before I can stop myself, totally ignoring the whispers and the shocked gasps around me as I do.
“Ellie Thompson?” Liam’s eyes blaze as he starts to climb the stairs to where I am, his eyes never leaving mine. There’s a gasp from the crowd, but I’m not even seeing them as I push past people in my row and start to move down the stairs towards him.
“Mr. Martin!” Susan shrieks from behind him. “Miss Thompson, sit down!”
But her words wash right over me, and the room almost fades away in slow motion as I’m suddenly crashing into his arms. He’s kissing me, and I’m crying as I throw my arms around him and kiss him back.
He pulls back, those dark, brooding eyes looking right into me. “I love you,” he says, his voice even. “I love you, Ellie, and I’m never going to stop loving you.”
And right then, nothing else matters. Right then, the final piece click into place, and despite the whispers and the giggles and the pointed fingers, it’s perfect.
“I love you too,” I whisper into his lips before moaning as he kisses me again.
“You know,” I say, grinning as I pull back. “I’m pretty sure you’re barred from campus.”
“Oh I’m positive I am.”
I giggle, biting my lip and slowly shaking my head as I stare up at him, right there on the lecture hall steps. “So what are you doing here?”
I shriek as he picks me up suddenly in his arms and whirls us around to the the gasps and cat calls of the crowd as he starts to carry me down the stairs. “Sweeping you of your feet and stealing you away from here,” he says.
“Sounds perfect to me.”
Epilogue
Ellie
And steal me away he did, from the small town college to the big city - New York, actually. Four years later, and we’re still here, and still wildly happy
The initial fallout was bad, of course, and even my parents with being as cool as they are weren’t exactly happy to see me drop out of an ivy league school. Of course, when I got into another one, they got on board with the situation. It took some finagling, but after I left Hardham, I managed to transfer my credits and qualify for academic scholarship stuff at Columbia for the next semester, which is where I ended up finishing out my undergraduate degree.
It helps that I had a glowing recommendation letter from my english professor.
Ally was pissed, of course, when she found out I was leaving, but she got it. She ending up meeting a wonderful guy of her own that next semester, and as it turns out, she ended up getting a job offer here in New York when she graduated.
Ted last exactly three more weeks at Hardham after I left before he got busted trying to slip something into a girl’s drink at a party. He was arrested on drug and intent to assault charges and kicked out of school.