Authors: Layla James
“Now,” Mr. Fringe says, walking toward his desk. “I pray to the good God above you delinquent of students done
your
work. I really hate giving zeros. It depresses me.” He runs his fingers through his hair. “Brett?
Kathy?
” He looks back at the table.
They
both get up and move toward the podium. “Call the press!” Mr. Fringe yells.
Brett and Kat
h
y both start in on their essays. I zone out on the first paragraph. “Thanks,” I say, leaning toward Liam. “You didn’t have to do that, ya know. I can handle it.”
Liam snorts. “You looked like you were about to cry.”
I shrug and pick at the edge of my notebook. “No, I wasn’t. It just pisses me off. We haven’t even done anything. I don’t understand.”
Liam looks over at me. “This is high school, people are stupid. We’re doing the only thing either of us can think of to make them stop talking. Date. Well, pretend, but you get the picture.”
I nod. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Liam and Katy,” Mr. Fringe says. “Since you have so much to talk about, why don’t you present next.”
Great.
I stand up and someone lets out a wolf whistle. My cheeks heat. “Shut it,” Mr. Fringe says, pointing toward the back of the room.
Liam and I walk up to the podium. My hands are shaking erratically. I can’t make them stop. Liam takes my paper. “Mr. Fringe, can I read Katy’s for her. Her throat is sore.”
“What from?” someone in the back of the room yells.
“You better shut the fu--,”
“Stop it,” Mr. Fringe interrupts Liam. “Next person besides Katy or Liam that says something is getting expelled. Grow up,” he says. He nods at me.
God, I hope he doesn’t know what’s going on.
My cheeks are hot. I’m looking down at the podium. I place my hand on the outside to steady myself. Liam steps next to me and places the paper over my hand, then holds my hand underneath it. I gasp. It’s the first time he has really tried to comfort me. It’s very comforting. I smile to myself.
Liam clears his throat and adjusts his shirt. He starts to read my paper. He stops mid-way and glances over at me. “Arrogant, uses lame pickup lines and is always late.” He laughs. “Thanks, Katy,” he says. “That’s a confidence booster.”
I shrug. “I vowed to tell the truth.”
Liam finishes my essay and then starts his. Mr. Fringe shakes his head throughout the entire paper.
Nice rack
is in there at least five times. I’m really glad the podium is blocking everyone’s view of my boobs.
“Thank you, guys, you can have a seat.” Liam lets go of my hand and I follow him back to our seats. I don’t look up; I lock my eyes onto the floor. “Melissa and Donovan,” Mr. Fringe says.
Liam looks over at me. “My lines aren’t that lame,” he says.
I shrug. “That’s up for debate.”
“Hey,” he whispers. “Don’t worry about that jackass. It’s just Justin; he is a dickwad to everyone.”
I nod, but I can’t help but to think about it. “Okay,” I whisper.
The rest of the period goes by quickly. I’m glad we’re out of the spotlight. Liam laughs under his breath at everyone’s essays. They obviously just made up a bunch of random things.
Mr. Fringe’s clap brings me back to the present. “Okay, everyone. Nicely done. That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”
Everyone mumbles.
He smirks. “Okay, so we will have our next test, this Friday. Be ready, it’s over chapter fifteen.” He turns around and writes down our homework on the board when the bell rings.
I grab my books and step out into the aisle. Something hits my back and my books scatter along the floor. “Oops, sorry,” Justin says. I look up at him. It’s the first time I’ve glanced at him all period. His dark eyes are right on me. He has a letterman jacket on, a smirk on his face and his books in his hands. I want to cry, everyone passing by is staring at me, no one stops to help.
He is laughing at me. Really laughing. He shakes his head, and then his books go flying toward the floor. He glances back at Liam. “Oops,” Liam says. “Better pick up your books.” Liam bends down and helps me gather my books.
“You better watch yourself, asshole,” Justin says, kicking on of my books across the floor, before walking off.
“You don’t have to--,”
“Yeah, I do. You’re my girlfriend remember, gotta act the part.” It makes me think if he would help me if he wasn’t pretending to be my girlfriend. He helps me up and we walk out of class. Jen is waiting by the door.
“Way to go, new boyfriend. I think I might need to hire me one,” she says.
“What?” I yell out.
Liam is frozen beside me, looking down at Jen.
“Jeez,” Jen says, “I need protecting too. I don’t see any guys lined up to date me. I would have to hire one. Why are you guys so antsy,” she says, shaking her head.
I smile.
Wow. That was close
. “Haha,” I blurt out as Jen walks away.
Liam looks down at me, and then laughs. “We have got to relax,” he says. “I’ve had more drama today then my entire life put together.”
“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 ag
ain. 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, y
ou 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 c
hoke
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?
He is still laughing when I push him. “What were you doing down there, making sure your breath smells alright? Fixing your hair in the mirror?”
I straighten my shoulders and tilt my head to the side. “No. I was just admiring your house,” I lie.
“Whatever,” he whispers and rolls his eyes. “Come this way. I want to make you birth my children. You have great child birthing hips.”
I roll my eyes and follow him down the long hallway. I can imagine a little Liam standing at the end, watching the empty hall after his mother left.
What would a child think? My mom has disappeared without me? How would a kid deal with that?
“You coming in or what?” Liam asks, waving his hand in front of my face. I gaze back at him and nod. His room is...not what I expected.
First off, it’s clean. Secondly, there are no naked pictures of girls on the walls. Thirdly, it’s clean.
“Pick up your jaw, Melinda cleans it for me.” He kicks off his shoes. “If it were up to me, I would have clothes everywhere, like you. Well, I wouldn’t have the opened books but I would have the clothes.” He plops down on his bed and turns on his TV. He looks up at me. “You can sit down, I was just joking about the birthing hips.” He eyes my hips. “You are actually a little on the skinny side.”
I i
gnore his comment. “Your parent
s won’t be home soon?” I ask, sitting on the edge of his bed. It’s soft. I’m pretty sure his comforter probably cost more than my entire room, with everything in it. I’ve never wanted to sink into material before.
He shrugs and leans back against his pillow. “Don’t know. They come and go as they please.
Their never home, really.
They are adults, ya know.”
I pick at a piece of fringe on my jeans. “They don’t tell you where their going or anything?
They just leave?
”
He sighs. I know I’m asking a lot of questions, but sometimes, ya just gotta ask. “I don’t know, I don’t ask and I don’t care. Why are you so worried about wh
en they are coming home, anyway
?
It’s not like we’re really doing anything, even though that can be arranged.
”
He wiggles his eyebrows.
Because, I feel sad for you
. I shrug. “Just asking, Liam.
”
Liam rolls over onto his back. “So, what do you do for fun?”
Liam props himself up on his elbow. “You ever play tennis?”
“I have before, why?”
Liam stands up.
“Well, that’s what I do. We’re gonna play tennis, come on.” Liam gets up, grabs my arm and pulls me downstairs.
“Are we going up town to the courts?”
Liam opens the back door for me. I stop in my tracks.
What. The. Hell
. “No, we have our own.” My jaw is open.