Liam O'Donovan

The tree (Ep4)

The three leave everything and sprint into the garden, not expecting to be greeted with Tee stuck up a tree.

"Tee, listen to me," Johnny says reaching his hand out from the lower branch, trying to help his sister. "Just grab my hand!"

"What's happening?" Liam asks as the tree starts to groan under the weight of two bodies.

"Tee! Grab my hand, you have to! I'm slipping."

Tee gains some confidence and crouches down to grab his hand, but her other hand slips causing her to tumble backwards from the tree.

Aria lets out a gasp in shock, a hand goes over her mouth, frozen to the floor. Liam instantly reaches out to grasp her other hand, his heart beating fast.

But luckily, a beanbag is placed directly under her causing her to safely land.

Toby stands over her, the others letting out a breath of relief at knowing she's safe. He chucks another one for Johnny to jump down, Carmen and Lily run over to Tee to make sure she's okay.

"That's so cool I want to do that!" Liam jokes, but stops smiling at Tracy and Aria's glare. The young girl quickly retracts her hand from his hoping no one realised, ignoring the weird feeling in her chest.

"Get away from her," Johnny demands Tracy once he sees her walking over to see if Tee is alright. "My sister could have been killed."

"Back off Johnny," Sapphire tells him sticking up for Tracy. "Tracy didn't make Tee climb that tree."

"Yeah, I wasn't there but I doubt the worlds 'Hey Tee, climb this tree to show you don't need your brother to tell you what to do' left her mouth." Aria says standing next to Sapphire.

"She causes all of this," Johnny carries on ignoring the other two. "Cause she's a stupid, interfering, big-headed idiot who'll never be good at anything. Writing books, working here. Anything!"

"Shut up Johnny, that's quite harsh," Aria tells him. She might not be a fan of Tracy just yet, but it doesn't mean that he can say those things about her no matter if she is older then them.

"Tee are you okay?" Tracy asks instead looking directly at Tee. She nods her head from inside of Carmens arms.

Johnny looks down at his watch, "You're shifts over, so why don't you just go home and never come back?"

The rest of the house watch him in shock as Tracy walks off. Liam has his hands on Harry's shoulders, Aria standing right beside them.

"Do you think she will come back?" Aria asks quietly that night as her and Liam sit in her room together.

"Probably, Tracy never stays away for too long," Liam tells her, placing his head on top of hers. 

The two sit in silence for a little longer before Mike softly knocks on Aria's door. Pushing it open with a small smile on his face, seeing the two curled up together. "Liam it's time to go to your own room." He tells them gently.

Liam sighs before standing up and yawning. "Night Aria."

"Night Liam," Aria calls back. "Night Mike."

"Night Aria," Mike says, putting a hand on Liams shoulder to guid him out the door. He turns off her light, closing the door behind the two and walking Liam back to his room to say goodnight to him.

The next morning  the house is greeted with Tracy being back like normal, unfortunately she corned Liam, Frank and Aria in the sitting room wondering where her books are.

"Before you do anything, I really liked your book," Liam tells her, Harry laying beside him.

"Oh forget it, lying won't save you."

"No honest," Liam tells her sitting up, "I really read it. About how you had nothing but what you did have were your mates. It really made me realise what I have." He looks back at Frank and Aria who are both smiling at him.

"Wow, you really liked it?" Tracy smiles before dropping it. "So where are they then?"

"I can explain" Frank says also sitting forwards. "Remember yesterday....?"

//

The three teens end up going out to receive the books they left out after the incident with Tee. Yelling at this recycling van which decided to pick them up. Frank and Liam chase after the lorry, running down the road until they can't no more.

Aria stands back laughing so hard she has to grab her stomach. Mimicking how both their arms are going side to side while running.

//

"Tracy," Liam says shaking the memory away as Frank tells her what happened. "Um, is it a good time to mention that you owe us...£2?"

Aria sighs, flopping back on the sofa shaking her head.