To Dance With Wolves ▪Liam Dunbar▪

✓ | 01. Paper Heart

The next morning I slept through my alarm, barely had any time to make myself look presentable, almost missed the bus, and got stuck sitting next to the same ridiculously talkative boy whose locker was next to mine. While he spent most of the end of the ride talking to the two people in the seat across from us, there were about fifteen minutes in between when I got on the bus and when they did, so for fifteen minutes I was stuck with his full attention on me. 

Somehow in that short amount of time, he managed to insist that I sit with him at lunch because apparently he though that my encounter with his best friend Liam the day before was more endearing than embarrassing, as well as tell me that he wanted to get to know me because I was fairly new to town and I looked like I could use a friend, since I spent every morning standing alone at my locker. After all of that he added that his name was Mason, and realized that he didn't even know my name; I told him it was Emily just before his friends got on the bus and pulled his attention away. 

Once my slightly hellish experience on the bus had ended, I was actually looking forward to school, which was a remarkable feat on it's own. I couldn't take another second of listening to Manson's superficial friends talking, so as soon as both my feet were off the bus, I dashed away. When I reached the picnic tables where we ate outside on nice days, I turned around to send Mason an apologetic glance, but he was no longer with the kids from the bus, instead he was standing with Liam. Deciding that maybe I didn't really need to apologize, I was about to walk away when Liam turned his head in my direction and his eyes locked onto me. Not wanting to repeat my deer in the headlights moment from the other day, I tore my eyes away from him, and headed towards the school feeling strangely giddy.

After spending what was probably way too long standing at my locker staring at the smiling kid on my math textbook, I was looking less and less forward to class, because despite the happiness that the book proposed, math generally ended in despair, anguish, and misery for me. I steeled my nerves and got ready for the imminent torment when someone rounded the corner in a hurry and I walked right into them. And as my luck would have it, the person I walked into turned out to be the one boy with blue eyes that I was completely taken by.

I thought that I was going to stumble backwards and crash into the floor, but even as I started falling, Liam's strong arms wrapped around my body to steady me. My skin was on fire and I was hyper-aware of the fact that his hands stayed on my waist longer than what was necessary to keep me from having an unwanted meeting with the ground. And while I was looking up into his extraordinary eyes feeling dazed and entranced, he looked down at me with a trace of confusion, until recognition seemed to slap him in the face and his cheeks turned a peachier color than usual. He pulled his hands away, mumbled an apology and practically ran off.

My heart dropped in my chest a little as I watched him rush away from me. I wasn't exceptionally surprised that he wanted nothing to do with me, but for a second there I thought that maybe I'd have some luck. I guess that's the problem with me getting my hopes up, they always get knocked down sooner or later, and I end up in a lower spot than the one I started in. So with a heavy heart I dragged myself to math, and just prayed I'd make it to to the end of the day.

When Mason found me in the hallway to drag me back to the cafeteria to sit with him and his friends, I just let him pull me along because there was no point in struggling against someone actually making an effort to be my friend for the first time since I'd arrived in Beacon Hills. When we got to his table the only people there were the boy and girl from the bus who introduced themselves and Garrett and Violet after Mason told them I was Emily and that I was going to sit with them.

I sat in silence with my sandwich while they talked about what they were going to watch for their movie night until I saw Liam walk through the cafeteria doors. I ducked my head down and held my breath while I watched him approach the table through my hair. Once he was seated next to Mason I picked my head up and busied myself with finishing my lunch. I eventually couldn't couldn't look the other way anymore and glanced in Liam's direction, only to see him practically gaping at me. Immediately uncomfortable, I crumpled up the bag I brought my food in and used leaving to dispose of it as an excuse to get away.

I walked back slowly and couldn't help but hear Liam challenging Mason about me being there.

"Why is she here Mason? Why is she sitting at our table and eating lunch with us?"

"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that it's because I invited her."

"Why? Didn't you listen to anything I said yesterday?

"Yeah I did, but I invited her so I could spend time with her because she's nice, plus she sat with me on the bus this morning while you were trying to be freaking superman or something running to school, it has nothing to do with you."

Liam shot his best friend a smoldering glare while Mason just looked beyond amused.

I reached the table before Liam could say anything else, and grabbed my bag, "Look, thanks for inviting me Mason, but you're obviously the only one cares about me being here, so I'm just gonna get out of the way." I said as I sent the floor a bitter scowl and walked away.

I made it about ten feet out of the cafeteria before Mason caught up to me. "Look, I'm sorry about Liam, he can be a real idiot sometimes, but I don't want you to hate me just because of his stupid ass, so how about I give you my number and you give me yours, so we can talk over the weekend and then we can try the whole 'friends' thing again on Monday without him screwing it up."

I eyed him with a mix of suspicion and curiosity for a moment, before deciding that he seemed genuine. I shrugged and passed him my phone when I realized that I could use a friend, and so far he had been pretty nice guy.

By the end of last period I was sure there weren't any other emotions I could possibly feel before I went to sleep that night. As usual though, I could not have been more wrong.

Before I even made it to the bus I saw Liam in the hallway again, except he was too busy watching some other girl to notice me. When I saw the look on his face I felt a flame of petty jealously in the pit of my stomach, because even though I hated the fact that Liam obviously didn't like me, it didn't make his interest in anyone else any less painful. I stumbled through the people clumped together on the opposite side of the hall in order to avoid stepping on the pretty girl that had managed to fall down the stairs, and was still lying on the floor, and didn't look back to see Liam glance in my direction before I pushed through the double doors and walked out of his line of sight.

I was one of the first people to board the bus, and when Mason climbed on a few minutes later with his friends he made sure they didn't sit anywhere near me. Thankfully my house was one of the first stops because even as I ran up the front steps of my house with my head down I could feel tears beginning to burn the back of my eyes. Once I made it to my room I threw my backpack on the ground and then wiped furiously at my face before curling into a ball on my bed and wishing I didn't have such a stupid, paper heart.