The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window (2 page)

I held my
breath
, looking at my door with wide
eyes. If my father caught him here he would go crazy, he didn’t
like Liam to come over and play at our house, he always said he was
too noisy. “Liam, get out!” I whispered, desperately trying to push
him back towards the window. I winced, wondering what my dad would
do if he had heard my window open and knew that Liam was here. Liam
didn’t budge; he just wrapped his arms around me tightly, and
pulled me against his chest. I tried to push him away but he just
held me tighter.

“
It’s OK,” he
whispered, stroking my hair. I started to cry again into his chest;
thoughts of Jake being hurt earlier flooded my brain.

Liam was tall
for his age
; he was ten, the same as
Jake. They were best friends, and had been since we moved in four
years ago. He had chocolate brown hair, which he usually spiked up
with too much gel, and light blue eyes that were like windows to
his soul. When Liam looked at you it made you feel like you could
fly. He was very cute; all my friends had crushes on him for some
reason. Liam and I didn’t get on at all though. He teased me all
the time, he trips me, pulls my hair, and he has this annoying
habit of calling me Angel for some reason, he’s called me it since
the moment he met me and it really makes me mad.

What on
earth
was he doing here now? And why was
he hugging me? Maybe he thought this was Jake’s room, maybe he went
to the wrong window – but that couldn’t be right, because Jake’s
room was on the other side of the hallway, his window faced onto
the backyard.

I pulled back
to look at him. For some reason he looked so sad; he had tears in
his eyes as he just continued to hold me. He knew about my father,
Jake had been covered in bruises once and had blurted out the truth
to him. Jake and I had both begged him not to say anything though,
and he never has.

“
What are you
doing here, Liam?” I whispered
, wiping my
face, but the tears continued to fall.

He pulled me
onto the bed
, rocking me gently, just
like Jake always did when I cried. I looked at his chest and
realised he was in Power Rangers shorts and t-shirt. I frowned, a
little confused as to why he would be wearing that, it was freezing
outside. Then it dawned on me that he was wearing his pyjamas. I
looked at the clock to see it was almost half past eight. I’d been
crying for over an hour.

“
I saw you
through the window. I just wanted to come and make sure you were
alright,” he whispered back, still hugging me tightly.

I
looked
back at the window. Liam’s room
was directly opposite mine and I could see into his room, which
meant that he could see into mine. I bit my lip, oh God he’d seen
me crying, I must look so weak to him. The only people I ever cried
in front of were my mother and Jake.

“
I’m OK. You
need to go,” I whispered, pushing him again, trying to get him off
of my bed.

He just shook
his head. “I’m not leaving until you stop crying,” he stated,
pulling me down so that we were now laying on my bed, facing each
other. He had his arms wrapped around me so tightly that I couldn’t
even squirm away. I felt safe and warm. I scooted even closer to
him, pressing my whole body into his and sobbed on his
chest.

I woke in the morning, still tightly wrapped in his
arms; I gasped and looked at the clock 6:20 a.m. “Liam!” I
whispered, shaking him.

“
Ahh,
what
, Mom?” he asked with his eyes
shut.

“
Shhhh!” I
hissed, quickly covering his mouth before he spoke again. I can’t
believe we fell asleep, this is so bad.

His eyes
snapped open and he looked at me
,
shocked, then looked around my room. “Oh no, did I fall asleep?” he
whispered, sitting up and rubbing his hand through his hair, which
was sticking up everywhere but actually looked better than when he
has all that yucky gel in it.

“
You need to
go
home, Liam. Quick!” I hissed, pushing
him towards the window. He opened it and started to climb out but I
grabbed his hand making him stop. He looked up at me a confused
expression on his face. “Thanks,” I whispered, smiling gratefully
at him. I really needed that hug last night, that was probably the
nicest thing Liam had ever done for me.

He smiled
back
. “You’re welcome, Angel,” he
replied, smiling and climbing out.

I watched as
he went through the hole in the fence and climbed back into his own
window. He closed it and waved at me, I waved back and then
went to go get dressed. The thought of Liam
sneaking over here and being in the house when he wasn’t allowed,
made my stomach hurt. We were so lucky not to have gotten caught. I
dreaded to think what would have happened if his parents had gone
into his room in the night and saw his bed empty, or what would
have happened if I hadn’t have woken up early. I shuddered at the
thought of what my father would do if he had walked in here to find
Liam in the house at night-time.

Chapter 2

~ 8 years later ~

I woke to the familiar sensation of being crushed; I
wriggled, pushing my shoulder backwards. Liam shifted his weight
off of me slightly. He was spooning me from behind, breathing
deeply into the back of my hair. His heavy arm was draped over me,
pinning my arms to my chest, he was holding my hand tightly, our
fingers interlaced, his leg was slung casually over mine. I could
feel the usual ‘morning glory’ pushing against the small of my
back.

I quickly
silenced my phone alarm and elbowe
d him
in the stomach. “Six o’clock,” I mumbled sleepily, closing my
eyes.

“Ten more minutes, Angel. I’m still tired,”
he murmured, pulling me tighter to his chest.

“
Nope, no ten
more minutes. Last time it turned into another hour, and Jake
nearly caught you in here,” I mumbled, elbowing him in the stomach
again.

He moved his
arm and pinned my hands down to the bed near my
head
, in a praying position. “Just ten
more minutes, Angel,” he whined. I sighed and closed my eyes again.
There was no arguing with him when he was like this, I just didn’t
have the energy this time of the morning to get into a fight with
him. We both drifted back to sleep, instantly.

“Amber, you had better already be up!” my brother
shouted, banging on the door. I jerked up and so did Liam, it was
almost half past seven.

“
Er…. yeah
I’m up already, Jake,” I shouted back, glancing at Liam who was
rubbing his face, looking a bit dazed.

“
Good. I’m
going to have breakfast. Hurry up will you. Liam’s driving today so
be ready to leave in thirty minutes,” Jake called through the door,
before stomping off down the hall.

“
Jeez
, Angel, why didn’t you wake
me up?” Liam accused, frowning.

I looked
at
him warningly and gave him my best
death glare. “I did, you jerk! You said
‘ten more minutes’
then
pinned me to the bed to stop me from elbowing you!” I growled
sarcastically, doing a bad impression of his voice.

He chuckled
and pushed me back down on the bed
,
pinning my hands above my head and rolling on top of me. “Pinned
you to the bed? Were you dreaming about me again, Angel? I could
make that dream come true for you,” he mocked, with his face inches
from mine.

“
Yeah
, you wish! Now get the hell
off me, Liam, and go get ready. You’re driving today, apparently,”
I hissed, nodding to the window. He sighed and pushed himself off
me, pulling on his jeans and t-shirt. He climbed out of the window,
silently, sliding it back down after him. I walked over and locked
it before heading in for the quickest shower ever.

Exactly
twenty-six minutes later, I trudged into the kitchen with a frown,
Liam was there leaning casually against the counter, eating
my
cereal.
Damn it, every morning! His brown hair was messy in his
usual
just got out of
bed
look
, which
to be honest he did get out of bed and it looked just like that.
All he ever did was run his hands through it a few times and add a
bit of wax.

He looked the
same as he did every morning, like a freaking supermodel. He wore
low slung ripped jeans
that showed his
boxers a little, and always made the girls swoon. Today he wore a
white t-shirt that showed off his perfect sculpted body, and an
orange and grey checked short sleeve shirt over it, which he wore
completely unbuttoned. His blue eyes were glittering with amusement
as he looked at me.

“
Running late
this morning, Angel?”
he asked with a
smirk.

I gave
him
a drop dead look, making him chuckle.
“Shut up, Liam! Why the hell are you eating
my
cereal again? Don’t you
have any food at home?” I asked, snatching the bowl from his hands
and eating the contents. He just watched me with an amused
smile.

Jake threw me
a juice box
. “You do look a little
harassed this morning, Ambs. Everything OK?” he asked, looking at
me a little concerned.

I glared at
Li
am again as he started to laugh. Of
course I looked harassed, I had half an hour to get showered and
dressed. “Slept in,” I muttered with a defeated sigh.

Jake had no
idea that Liam slept in my room with me every night, if he did he
would go crazy. Jake was very protective of me, he always had been,
but he had gotten worse since my dad had left when I was thirteen.
Well
, I say
left
, but in reality Jake and
Liam came home early from hockey one day to see that my father had
beaten me senseless, and was trying to rape me. Jake had finally
snapped, and he and Liam had beaten the crap out of him, almost
killing him in the process. They had thrown him out of the house
and told him that if he ever came back, they would kill him. He
never came back though, that was three years ago.

A little
while after that
, my mom got a job with a
huge electronics firm, she was the PA to the director and so she
travelled a lot. She was gone twice as much as she was here, so we
only saw her for about one week a month, if that. Jake was my only
supervision, although at times it was more like I was the one
taking care of him.

Liam was also
very protective of me
, but we still
didn’t get on - even though he had literally spent every single
night wrapped around me in my bed for the last eight years. He had
snuck back into my room the following night after seeing me crying
again and we had ended up falling asleep again. After two weeks it
had just became a regular thing. It wasn’t something that we ever
talked about, I just left my window unlocked and he let himself in
once his parents had checked in on him to make sure he was asleep.
We had never once been caught in eight years. We’d come close a
couple of times though. A couple of years ago, Liam’s mom had found
his bed empty, but he took the hit and lied, saying he’d snuck out
to a party and stayed at a friend’s. No one suspected he was next
door with me.

He still
teased me
like crazy and annoyed the life
out of me just as much as he did when we were kids, but I always
knew he would be there for me if I needed him. It was like he had a
split personality. By day he would annoy me, making me crazy and
angry all the time, and by night he would be the sweetest boy in
the world and would cuddle me, making me feel safe and
secure.

“
You’re
looking hot today, Angel,
” Liam stated,
with his trademark smirk, looking me up and down slowly, making me
squirm.

Yeah
, right! My brown hair was
still damp because I didn’t have time to dry it because of his
stupid ‘ten more minutes’ so I had pulled it back into a messy bun.
I had thrown on my dark blue skinny jeans and red V-neck top and
pulled a black hoodie and black converse. I had added the bare
minimum make up, as usual, just a little mascara to make my
grey-green eyes stand out, and some clear lip gloss. I did not look
hot. Freaking asshole! I gave him the finger and walked out to his
car. Leaning against it, angrily, waiting for them to grace me with
their presence.

The drive to
school was the same as usual, they sat in the front talking about
football and parties, and I sat in the back listening to my iPod,
trying to ignore Liam smirking at me in the mirror. We pulled in to
the school and the car was immediately swamped by people, the same
as every morning. Liam and Jake were considered ‘hot players’ at
our school. They were seniors and every girl
’s dream, the boys wanted to be friends with them, and the
girls wanted to sleep with them.

Liam laughed
as I cringed getting out of the car, trying to avoid the horde of
skanks that banged into me because they were trying to throw
themselves at him. One girl elbowed me on purpose. I looked at her
in her tiny skirt that looked more like a belt and her top that
showed her stomach, and grimaced. Jeez, she is such a
ho!