Chapter 4
Liam was stressing out. He had to come up with a perfect essay topic for his application to Yale but for some reason he couldn't focus. He only had one thing on his mind- Arianna.
"I blew it!"
"Liam, bro, no you didn't" Brad and Liam were talking in a empty classroom.
"She said I was her friend, than I kissed her! What kind of friend kisses another friend!" Liam confided in Brad
"Well what did she say after?" Brad questioned
"Nothing..."
"Nothing?"
"Yeah, she was too in shock to speak." Liam admitted
"Liam you're a varsity football player, Class president, you practically already have a spot on Yale's football team, your every girls dream guy and your telling me after kissing the girl of your dreams, she didn't have anything to say?" Brad was ranting on now.
"Yeah..." Liam was nervous.
"Ok, well how was it?"
"The kiss? Oh, well it was amazing, well at least for me."
"You don't think maybe it wasn't for her and maybe its your fault?" Brad said with one eyebrow up.
"I've never had any complaints before!" Liam was in full freak out mode.
"Alright, dude chill, this is what you're going to do. You're going to not talk to her and start flirting with other girls. Then she will come crawling back. Works every time." Brad was trying to be helpful
"I'm not that kind of guy. Brad!" Liam was getting frustrated.
"What it works every time with Kristi."
"Arianna is not like everyone else. She is... different."
"I've never seen you like this. She has really gotten under your skin Li." Brad said
"I don't know dude! I have a plan though! Its..."
It was Monday morning. I hadn't seen Liam since Friday. Over the weekend I decided to get my priorities straight. This Year I really want to give myself a chance. I'll try the whole friend thing. I don't want to be the girl who sits in the background while everyone else has fun during High School. I made a mental list
1. Focus on School. The better the grades, the happier the Dad.
2. Give people the benefit of the doubt. Don't be so quick to judge people.
3. Make friends
4. Make a truce with Raven. She is not someone you want as an enemy.
5. Liam
6. Liam
7. Liam
I walked into school not sure what I was going to say to him. I saw him standing by his locker. Here goes nothing...
"Hi Liam."
"Hey, Clumsy! How was your weekend?" His eyes light up when he saw me.
"Good, lots of unpacking..." Man, I didn't mean it to sound so awkward.
"Yup... Well see there is this thing that a lot of football players do for the homecoming game. You know there is this big festival while the game is going on."
"Oh Yeah! I forgot." I smiled at him.
"Yeah, well this would be my first time doing this sort of thing but you're the first person I actually wanted to give it to, so here." He hands me a white football Jersey.
"Don't you need to wear this?" I questioned
"Well Yeah but its my away jersey. On Homecoming we are all wearing our blue home jerseys."
"Oh?" I knew what he was going to ask. Ahhh! This is so cute.
"I was wondering if you wanted to wear it?" The biggest smile possible grew on my face. This was so cute and old school and totally me! I was about to answer him when Raven walked in. She came in all perky and saying hi to everyone, then she saw me holding Liam's jersey. She got this far away look in her eye. Raven looked heartbroken but then her expression harden and she looked pissed, not at Liam, but at me. I knew what I had to do.
"Liam I would Love too, but I can't." I said
"Wait, is this about the whole kiss thing, because if it was bad I can work on it!" He was freaking out- it was adorable.
"God no, Liam stop. The kiss was great, I'm just new here and I'm still trying to make friends and..." My voice trailed off.
"And dating the heartthrob of North Arlington High would make it pretty difficult to do that." He finished my sentence
"I wanted to try it this year. You know the actual high school experience. The making friends and going to bomb fires and just having a good time. That would be hard to do if everyone hated me." I couldn't look him in the eye.
"Arianna, its not over." He blurted out. I looked at him. He had a smirk on his face. "You and Me, were not done." He smiled. "You can go and make your little friends but when you're ready, I'll be here."
"Sorry Liam." I handed him back his jersey.
He looked like he wanted to say more but I turned around and walked down the Hallway as fast as I could.
"Arianna, wait!" He heard him yell over the noise of the crowd
I kept on walking, trying to convince myself that I didn't just make a huge mistake. Don't turn around, don't turn around-
"Hey...Arianna" I was broken out of my thoughts by Raven falling into step with me.
"Why did you do that?" She asked curious
"Oh...I don't like him that way." I lied. She grabbed my arm and stopped me.
"Please, ever girl likes him. Now spill it. Why did you just reject the cutest guy in school." Raven asked me, dead serious
I took a deep breath and said "Do you like Liam, Raven?" She got all flustered and blushed a deep red. "That's why I did it." I started walking again. She caught back up with me.
"You refused Liam's jersey for me?" she asked
"Well, not just you, all girls here. I had to face it, a majority of the school worships him and dating him would make it pretty hard to make friends. Hey, I guess I'm saying I didn't want you torching me the whole time." I said with a smirk on my face.
"So are you saying you want to be my friend?" I couldn't tell if she was glad or outraged that I would've ever thought I was worthy enough to be her friend.
"I guess..." I answered
After that Raven and I just walked to class in silence. Not an awkward silence, we both understood each other for once. This was the first time I actually didn't want to punch her in the face.
