The One For Me(17)

“Welcome to the land of high school girls.”



“Do you have to listen to that music?” I ask on the way home from school. I plug my fingers inside my ears.

Liam smiles and turns up the music. “What’s wrong with Shinedown?”

“It’s loud and rude.”

“What do you listen to Taylor Swift?”

Yes. “No!” I screech. I cross my arms over my chest and still when I see Dad’s SUV in the driveway.

“You okay, over there?” Liam asks, pulling along the curb in front of my house. I hear the doors unlock but I’m still staring. Am I ready to see him after what he said Saturday night? He is packing his things to move. Move away from Mom and me. He is uprooting his family, like we’re nothing to him. Like an entire family and twenty years with someone is replaceable and garbage.

“Hey, you okay?” Liam asks again. I feel him nudge my arm, I glance back at him and away from my house.

“No, my dad is home.”

He lifts an eyebrow. “You don’t want to see him, I’m guessing?”

“No,” I say. “I don’t think I can.”

“You want to go somewhere else?” he asks.

“Yes,” I whisper.

“Okay,” he says, putting his Jeep into gear, “to my house it is.” Liam doesn’t ask a bunch of questions on the way to his house. It’s a comfortable silence that helps me erase the situation with my dad away. At least for a little while.

I didn’t know his house was so…big. I’d always thought Liam come from a single mother and they didn’t have a lot. That’s me and my ‘judging a book by its cover,’ mind set. Even though he dressed decent and had a car, he just had that bad boy lonely boy look. “So, this is the pad,” Liam says, throwing his backpack on a white leather couch, that looks like it cost as much as my house.

“This is your house?” I glance around, it’s like a museum. It doesn’t look lived in at all.

Liam walks into what I assume is the kitchen. “Nope, I snuck us in.” I roll my eyes. “Want a Coke, you can come in here,” he yells, disappearing behind the wall. I slip my shoes off; because I’m scared I’ll scuff up his floor. I slide by the perfect furniture into a completely red and black kitchen.

“Ah!” I scream, jumping backwards. Liam turns around, cocks an eyebrow and his attention draws to the lady in the far corner.

“Oh, sorry. Melinda this is Katy my… girlfriend.” He tries not to smile. “Katy this is Melinda, our house keeper.”

Melinda waves, brushing her brown hair off her shoulder. She says something in Spanish but I’m not sure what. Liam says something back to her in Spanish and she leaves.

“You speak Spanish?” I ask.

“Don’t look so surprised,” Liam says.

I laugh. I am surprised. “Well, you could have warned me,” I say and grab the Coke Liam if holding out for me.

He shrugs. “I forget she is here. She is always here. Been here since I was little.”

“Where are your parents?”

“Dad is at work and my stepmom is probably out screwing around.”

I choke on my Coke. Okay, I feel a little hostility. I cock an eyebrow and look up at him. He shrugs and takes a large drink of his Coke. “What? It’s the truth. She is old enough to be my big sister.”

“Where is your biological Mom?”

He shrugged. “Have no idea. She took off one day while I was at school.”

What. The. Hell. What kind of mother leaves her son? I bite my lip and try to think of something to say that wouldn’t sound irritating like ‘are you okay,’ or ‘it will be okay.’

“Her loss,” I say, and take another drink of my Coke. Liam is staring at me and the hurt that was in his eyes disappear. He smirks and shuts the fridge. He walks out of the kitchen toward a set of stairs.

He turns around, cocking an eyebrow. “You coming?”

“Where?” I ask, even though I know where he is going.

“My room. Is that a problem?”

I freeze and my stomach flips. “I--,”

Liam sighs and rolls his eyes. “I’m not going to rape you, scouts honor.” He holds up two fingers to his forehead. “Come on, girlfriend.” He starts up the stairs and I wait until he has disappeared from my view to take a breath. It comes out heavy and ragged. It’s not that I think Liam will try anything with me; it’s just that he makes me…nervous.

I walk up the stairs, and try to focus on my steps rather than being alone in his room with him. Get a grip, Katy. It’s just Liam. It’s just your…boyfriend…fake boyfriend. When I turn the corner Liam jumps out and I scream. When I realize it’s him I stop and narrow my eyes in irritation. Really?