Seven Minutes From Heaven [bxb]

Chapter 31 - LIAM POV: Come rain, hail, or shine

Friday came so quickly and I was not at all prepared for today's game. Charlie sat to my left nearest the window, opening loud crinkling lolly wrappers, and endlessly drawing attention to himself in class. I could hear that gross suction sound whenever he popped them into his mouth and gravely wished he'd choke on one. I tapped my pencil rapidly against my desk while nerves accumulated and got the better of me. Our Scottish substitute teacher gave us several warning glances before finally losing it and throwing the chalk down in front of her.

"Enough, the bloody both of ye," she said, clearly exasperated. "The day's barely gone ahead, Liam. Ye just can't hold ya horses until twelve, can ye?"

"No, ma'am," I answered, shaking my head. I felt jittery all over. There were still two hours left till the buses came to pick us up from school. It was already an hour into school and I hadn't seen Jude yet. He'd been off Wednesday, here but totally quiet yesterday, and today another no-show. Charlie handed me one of the lollies, and despite my better judgement, I opened the rustling paper and popped a sweet little cherry ball in my mouth.

The teacher rolled her eyes and turned to Charlie. "And Charlie, yer utterly disgusting. I hope yer gonna choke on it." Her words through me for a curve. I choked back a laugh and inhaled the lolly somewhere up the back of my nose. Charlie smacked between my shoulders a few times before I could swallow it down the right way. "Serves ye right," she muttered, turning back to the front.

Charlie and I looked at each other, me with my eyes watering from this unsettling near-death experience, and Charlie, grinning with a devilish gleam in his eye. The class had already burst into a series of giggles and laughter, which Charlie appeared to take sincere pride in. Sometimes I thought Charlie Rascal must be the epitome of chaos.

Ben looked back at us, shaking his head with bemusement, while Goose kinda just waggled his eyebrows.

The teacher continued her lesson and didn't pause when Charlie inevitably butt in, leaning towards me and whispered, "Where's ya girlfriend?"

I looked at him weirdly, then looked at Ivana sitting literally two seats in front of him. Though she wasn't really my girlfriend, I guess she could be labelled the next closest thing till she went back to her country. "Literally right there, ya donkey," I answered.

Charlie shook his head. "The other one."

Only one person came to mind. "Jude?" I asked, raising a brow.

Charlie broke into a huge smirk then smacked my back. "At least you know it."

"Fuck off," I said with a shake of my head, but couldn't help but grin. Ivana looked back at us for whatever reason. Charlie wiggled his fingers provocatively at her, but I stuck my hand up and gave an awkward wave. She grinned and turned back to the front.

The cool thing about Ivana was that she was just really chill. Even though I've been occupied with soccer, she was always happy to just hang out and catch up when the opportunity presented itself. At present though, we didn't see much of each other. Alongside my time being occupied by soccer, my mind was also being preoccupied by Jude.

I couldn't wait until tonight. The idea of him watching my first big game got my adrenaline pumping even more for tonight. His once constantly stoic facial expressions always turned eager and invested every time he watched one of my games. The way his face lit up whenever he smiled up at me or couldn't seem to believe his ears any time I talked to him let alone invited him anywhere. It's not every day an average, every day, ordinary high school kid had his very own fanboy. These little things caught my attention a whole lot more than I cared to admit, so when I couldn't see him around at school, I started getting a little more restless by the minute.