Black Leather, Red Lipstick

Chapter 10

The rest of the day went by smoothly, and on the way home, I thought about calling Harley.

But did I have her number?

No.

Sighing, I pulled into my driveway, but reversed before I shut the engine off into the street. I got out, and went to the garage, digging out a basketball. It was flat, so I found a pump and started pumping it up.

“Need some help?” A voice said. I looked up to see my father’s face. His eyes went wide, but then relaxed back to normal. “That a bet?” He said, pointing at my head. I realized this was the first time he had seen me since my haircut.

“Something like that.” I said. He grunted a laugh, and sat down on a tote labeled ‘Christmas Decorations’. “So…. have you made a decision yet?” He said, and I continued to pump. I wasn’t in the mood to have this conversation.

“Come on Liam. You gotta choose! Time’s running out!” He said. I looked up at him. “Dad. It’s still September.” I looked back down and continued pumping up the ball, not wanting to see the look on my father’s face.

“So it is! Look. Kids have known where they’re going their whole lives! Why is it such a hard decision for you to make, huh? I was talking to Jake’s father the other day and-” “You don’t get it, do you?” I said, interrupting him.

“What?” He said, clearly confused. I laughed once. “I’m not Jake.”

“Well I know that! I’m just saying son, your options are going to be closing in on you, and you’re going to end up-” “End up where? Some school you don’t want me to go to? A diploma is a diploma, dad.” I said, getting up and walking out of the garage.

“That’s not what I’m saying Liam. I just want you to be happy.” He said, following me. I could’ve turned around and told him that what made me happy was being able to be my own person. Not having to make my decisions for other people, him especially. That maybe, I don’t want to play football for another four years. I could of told him everything I’ve been keeping in for eighteen years in that very moment.

But I didn’t.

“Okay. I’ll think about it.” I said, and he nodded. “I’ll uh… talk to you later.” He said, waving to me before walking into the house. I gritted my teeth as I took a shot, which was dead overkill, bouncing off the iron and flying behind me.

“Hey! Watch it!”

I turned, and all my anger melted away. Well, at least the majority of it did. “I thought you were supposed to be athletic?” Harley said, walking towards me, before throwing the ball right at my chest.

I laughed, and turned taking a shot. “How was your day?” I asked her. She shrugged her shoulders. “Same old, same old.”

I’m not going to ask it.

“Why weren’t you in school today?”

I asked it.

She looked at me, before bending down and grabbing the ball that had rolled to her feet. She spun it around in her hands a few times, before taking a shot that missed the net by an inch. We both laughed at her horrible attempt.

“I had to drive to some store in the middle of nowhere to get some things, and I figured I would just do it today since all I had all day was like two periods of study and biology.” She said, lining up her fingers on the ball to take another poor shot.

“I did miss biology today, though.” I heard her mumble under her breath, and I would never admit that I heard her say that. After her third missed shot, I couldn’t take it anymore. “You have it all wrong, you know that, right?” I said.

She looked at me, and rolled her eyes. “Okay, Mr. Know-It-All. What is the exact formula to throwing this ball at a hoop with a net?” She said, smiling. I bit my lip as I moved behind her.

I placed her hands on the ball, and put mine over hers gently. Her breathing got shallow as we got closer to each other. “You’re just going to flick it off your fingers, alright?” I said, and she nodded.

“1, 2, 3!” I counted, before we shot the ball together, and it went in. She jumped up, and I moved away quickly, not wanting to get hit in the chin. “Did you see me? I shot it and it went in!” She said, laughing and smiling. I cracked a smile, too, as I usually do when I see her genuinely happy.

“Liam? Who’s your friend?” I looked up at the porch and saw my mom, smiling with her arms crossed. Harley put the ball down, and walked over to me. I wrapped an arm around her, instinctively.

“This is Harley mom.” I said, and my mom nodded, biting her lip, and I knew she was biting back a smirk. “Would you like to stay for dinner?” She asked, looking at Harley. I wanted to tell Harley that she didn’t have to, but she just smiled.

“That would be great.” She said, shocking me but pleasing my mom. My mom nodded twice, before walking back into the house. “You sure?” I asked her, and she turned to me, nodding.

“Now how do I do that again?” She said, grabbing the ball off the ground and trying to reenact what I had just taught her.

------------------------------------

“Are you new to Liam’s school this year?” My mom asked once we had all settled in. My dad and mom were on one side of the table, and Harley and I were on the other, facing them. My mom had already decided to play 20 questions.

“Yeah. I just moved here.” She said, taking a bite of the pot roast my mom had made. I couldn’t eat, I was too nervous. “From where, if you don’t mind me asking?” She said, and I looked over at Harley. I knew this was a touchy subject. Even we hadn’t talked about it.

“From the city. I wanted to get away from the hustle for a little while. My brother still lives there though.” She said, looking over at me. I bit my lip, and took a sip from my water. “.....I really want to get out to New York though.” She said, smiling.

“That’s quite a stretch from a suburb outside LA, don’t you think?” My father said, and I wanted to kick him under the table. “Well it wouldn’t be an adventure then, now would it?” She said to my father in a respectful tone, and my dad just laughed.

“Isn’t that the truth.”

-----------------------------------

The rest of dinner went over fine, my parents asking questions and Harley answering them. I got to know her a lot in that one sitting, even though I wasn’t the one asking all of the questions.

She hates black olives, for one. She doesn’t like any new music, just solid old school rock and roll. She loves books with tears and notes in the margins, because those are the books that tell stories other than the one written on the pages. Her hair is naturally curly, like freakishly curly. She got a black eye as a kid because her brother threw a football at her head. After that one, she had looked at me and laughed.

She helped my mother clean up the kitchen, thanked both my parents for the meal, and then asked me if I wanted to go for a drive. I looked past her at my mom, who was eavesdropping. My mother smiled and winked, and I looked down at Harley, and nodded.

We somehow, in someway,ended up at Zayn’s place. I recognized the normal crowd of Harley’s friends as we walked into the living room.

“Harley! Should I get pink or blue highlights?” Perrie said, and Harley went with pink. She turned to Zayn, who just rolled his eyes. “He wanted blue, I want pink, you were the deciding vote.” She said, smiling. “You’d look beautiful even if you shaved all of your hair off, in my opinion.” He said, and Perrie’s cheeks grew a rosy pink.

“Now come on! We gotta go buy some pink!” Perrie said, pulling Harley towards the door. Harley laughed, and looked at me apologetically, before leaving.

I turned back to the living room, and saw Zayn, Harry, Louis and Niall. Niall got up, and walked over to me, clasping a hand on my shoulder.

“Liam, we’re going to teach you how to live.”