𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐒 ▸ liam dunbar [2]

4.

THE NEXT MORNING WAS THE DAY THAT I had been dreading for months: the first day of school.

Because of last night's, uh, interesting events, I had hardly gotten any sleep. The bags under my eyes were mortally embarassing. A thing I had noticed about being in a relationship with Liam – I had started to care way more about my appearance than I normally did. I had casually dated other guys in eighth grade, but Liam was my first serious... relationship. I was a little uncomfortable with calling him my boyfriend, even though we had technically been dating for about six months.

Anyways, as Liam, Mason, and I were walking to our first class together, Mason was starting to get on my nerves. Ever since his encounter with a Beserker near the end of freshman year, he had become obsessed.

"This is the one I wanted to tell you about, Emma." Mason said enthusiastically, showing me some old, dusty book. "I got this from a rare book dealer in Germany. It cost me 200 dollars, but it was totally worry it."

"200 bucks?" I repeated, arching an eyebrow at Mason. "What?"

"You're still reading about this stuff?" Liam asked his best friend, exasperated.

"I was attacked by an armor-plated giant wearing a bear skull. It left an impression." Mason replied defensively.

We stopped outside of the history classroom. Class was about to start, but Mason wasn't finished talking. "Look, look! Have you ever seen anything like this?"

I craned my neck to look over Mason's shoulder to see what he was talking about. He was pointing to drawn figure on the book page that looked hauntingly like a Beserker.

Liam and I quickly exchanged worried glances. "Uh, no." Liam said quickly. "Never."

I sighed. "Let's just get to class, okay?" I said to the two boys. "I don't want to be late."

Liam nodded quickly, taking off into the classroom. Yet, Mason still hadn't stopped talking. "Have you ever heard of a-"

Before Mason could finish his question, I took off after Liam, following him into the classroom. I took my usual seat, in front of Liam and next to Mason. "Take you seats, everyone!" Mr. Yukimura called out just as Liam and Mason entered the classroom. Mason sat down, but Liam never did. Instead, I heard him groan, "Ugh. Great."

I turned around to see what the confusion was. Liam was frowning at a curly-haired girl that had taken the seat next to his. Liam's eyes were darting between the girl and Mr. Yukimura like he didn't know what to do. She was pulling back her hair while blowing a bubble with her chewing gum. Call me biased, but I already felt a strong dislike for that girl.

"Liam, sit down." I whispered.

Liam shook his head at me, his eyes wide. He spun around in his place like he was looking for a new place to sit. I raised my eyebrows at Mason, asking a silent question: What's going on? Mason merely shrugged.