Hero » l.p. au

Chapter 16

“Animals are a lot easier to handle than people, that’s the most important thing I learned in life so far.”

“People can at least take care of themselves,” I shrugged, “Well… at least some of them. I can barely take care of my own self, anyway.”

It’s a good thing that Briana was laughing at what I’d said, otherwise she would have surely notice me jump in my seat when I felt my phone vibrating. This way she only kept playing with the tea spoon in her cup, not asking any questions. When I pulled my phone out and felt my heart stop for a millisecond when I read Liam’s name on the screen, I was glad about it.

You looked nice today.

What the hell? Why would he text me in the middle of the day, telling me I looked nice in the morning? Still, I couldn’t help but feel the temperature rise a few degrees as I reread the words a few times. I hadn’t even seen him the entire day, did he watch me or something? We did have music class… but I didn’t see him, in that pool of students in the amphitheater. Maybe he was in the very back? Could be, since I was in the fro-

“Dammit Sally!” I jumped again at the sound of Briana’s voice; somehow I know she’s been speaking the whole time, but I just couldn’t register her words.

“Huh?” I said, completely distraught.

“Did you even hear anything of what I’ve said?” She asked, looking at me like mum did after ‘did you even wash the dishes’ would leave her mouth. Well then.

“Yeah, I just… got distracted, don’t kill me.” I said quietly. There’s no way she won’t find out Liam had texted me now.

“By what? A game on your phone?” She raised her eyebrows and I immediately nodded; maybe I was wrong, perhaps?

“Yeah, sorry. What were you saying?” I tuned out as soon as she started talking about her French teacher staring at her in class, and tried to think of how to reply to Liam. I hadn’t heard from him the entire weekend nor did I see him today, so this was a surprise.

Thanks? I didnt see you today though

I clicked send and looked up at Briana, nodding my head at everything she said, but I could barely even hear her over my thoughts. Even my leg started shaking, for some reason- alright, this is getting ridiculous, why the hell was I getting nervous over Liam? I was just listening to Dominick’s advice. Well… when I think about it, that’s not exactly what he told me to do. I just wanted to see if I had anything with Liam and I guess I got carried away… Jesus, I actually cannot-

"Wow!" I jumped again at the sound of Briana's voice, twice as louder, and looked up at her, for a second forgetting about Liam.

"What, what is it?" I was scared she'd noticed me typing on my phone and now knew I wasn't playing a game, but luckily for me, she only showed me an article in the local newspaper.

"The festival in Birmingham!" She pointed at it excitedly and I sighed as I watched the picture next to the text.

"Forget about it," I shook my head, "I'm poor."

All the excitement drained from her face at my words. "Dammit, if money is such a big issue, I'll pay you to hang out with me!"

I laughed at her words, "Nah, I mean no offense, but I wouldn't want to be sitting with you and looking at all the lovely couples having a blast around us."

She knew exactly what I was talking about; our last experience of the winter festival in Birmingham had been highly awkward, since there were little to no single people there. Even the ones who were single, they weren't either by the end of the night. I still remembered every single detail of it, and it still made me shiver every single time.