Perfect For Me

Chapter 6

 I've added a picture of Zoe! Enjoy!

Love,

xox Lucy

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It’s the middle of July. Fourth of July has passed, Liberty got drunk with her and Steven’s friends and ended up passed out on her bed. Ever since the last night she saw Brayden she thought about him, hard until her head hurt. Steven was texting her always asking her what’s wrong. But her grandparents knew she was alright, she was just going through boy troubles and this was exactly how her mother would act. They did what they just did back in the 80s, just let her figure it all out. 

 Now it was July 13th, Saturday morning 8 a.m. “UUghh.” Liberty woke up, breathing fast. She couldn’t sleep last night. Like she hasn’t been for the past few weeks. She reached for her water off of her bedside table, like it should be there and tried standing up. The world was spinning below her and she thought she saw the floor form the words Brayden. “Come on, Liberty. Get through today and you’ll be fine.” She looks around her room, stumbling towards her bathroom to take a shower before she headed to the grill. 

She runs out the door, barley making around the corner and past the drug store when she starts tripping and stumbling. She has her sunglasses on so no one can see her red eyes as she had been thinking about Brayden. “You ok?” A boy came up to her as she almost walked into a hot dog stand. She looked at him and saw his face change to Brayden’s right before her eyes. “I’m fine. Thank you.” She pulled away and ran into the grill. She ran past where Zoe was standing and into the women’s bathroom. “Oh. My. God.” Liberty slid down the wall and started to think, “Do I really love him? I can’t love him back.” She looked at her self in the mirror and wiped off all the tears. As she slowly opened the bathroom door, she saw Steven and she ducked back inside. She took deep breaths and pulled the door open again. 

“Hey, Liberty!” Steven had spotted her before she had spotted him. 

“Hey, Steven.” Steven grabbed her arm, and pulled her in. Liberty stopped him. 

“Is something wrong?” He asked. 

“I just don’t feel good, that’s all. I don’t want you getting sick.” 

“Well, I’ll be here for you. And I don’t mind if you share your sickness with me. Come on, give me a kiss.”

“I know.” Liberty grinned. “But I think I’m alright for now.” Liberty looks up at Steven and sees Brayden. 

“Are you sure you’re ok, Liberty?” Liberty realized she had been staring at Brayden across the room. He shook his head. 

“Oh! I’m going to be late for work.” Liberty said as she jumped up out of her seat. 

“What? But i thought you were sick.” Steven said, grabbing her arm. 

“Well, you know Mr. Mathers.. If i can still walk and talk I’m fine for work. Hopefully he wont mind if I cough on everyone.” Steven smiled and Liberty knew she was ok. “Call me later, ok?”

“Yeah, I’ll call you later.” Steven waved as Liberty walked to the back room to get her apron. 

In the back room Liberty sees Zoe and they catch up a bit. “I’m sorry I haven’t been talking to you lately, I’ve really needed a girlfriend lately but I guess I was just to caught up in this mess of my life.” 

“Honestly Liberty, it’s ok I wasn’t really open about I being someone you could talk to. Now, since I do see you at work i’m gonna guess your mess is the Brayden effect....?”

“You absolutely are correct.” Liberty unlocked her locker. She rolled on some perfume on her wrist and her neck. 

“Woah, what smells good in here?” Liberty stopped cold and the perfume dropped out of her hands, the little eau de toilette fell on the floor and rolled under the couch. 

“Shit.” the other employees continued talking but to Liberty the sound around her just went silent. Just before Brayden sees her she dives to get her perfume from under the couch. Liberty hasn’t talked to him since the 1st of July. She wouldn’t force herself to face him to make this crush worse. She looks under the couch for as long as she thinks Brayden’s in there. After 10 minutes Liberty pops out from under the couch and looks at Zoe who’s sitting in front of her. “Is he gone?” Liberty whispers. 

“Yeah, well.” Zoe points to someone behind Liberty. Then Brayden starts to speak.

“Is who gone?” 

“Um..no one.” 

“Well, what are you doing?” 

“Trying to get my perfume bottle that rolled under the couch.”

“Ok, well you can find it after Mr. Mathers talks to you. Just go to his office.”

“Ok, thanks.” Liberty dusts herself off and heads out the door. Brayden turns on his heel and follows right behind her. 

Brayden grabs Liberty’s arm, hard, just as they were out of sight and earshot. “Can I just say,” Brayden says gritting his teeth, “What I told you in the park was the hardest thing I could make myself do, alright? I told myself that the worst thing that could was you telling me I was crazy and we would continue to be friends. But this -- you not speaking looking at me in the eye when we speak, I’m loosing it. Just thought you’d like to know, cause you’re really being a bitch.” Liberty turns and looks at him, she knows that this is not the time to tell him she has feelings for him. “The only reason I’m being a bitch is because I’d rather be faithful than to help someone be unfaithful. Do you understand? Because I really think you don’t. You can’t just walk in and tell me you love me like I’ll just stop dating Steven. This isn’t your world, Brayden.” She shrugs him off violently and runs back into the back room. She smiles but she wants to cry, the only thing that keeps her from doing that is knowing that Brayden still loves her. She’s afraid that maybe what she said could have turned it all around. By that point everyone had left and Zoe was just about to head back out to the restaurant. “Zoe, I really need a friend now.” She says with a monotone manner as she reaches out for Zoe’s arms. I’ll just let fate choose for me. 

The customers come and go and soon Liberty’s the last one to check out, she knows no one else is here except Mr. Mathers so there was no need to lock up. As she closed the gate behind her, out of the corner of her eye she sees Brayden sitting on the the hood of his car sipping a can of beer and looking at his phone. She hesitates, thinking of way to get out without him seeing her but the longer she stood there thinking of a way to get out of them interacting Brayden looks up from his phone and their eyes meet. Liberty walks towards Brayden and she knows what she needs to do to make everything with him ok. “Brayden,” This time he turns his head all the way to face her. 

“Oh, hi.. Liberty. What do you want? Did you not finish explaining to me how much I’m a fucking jerk? I kinda do get it, Liberty.” He turns back to his phone.

“Brayden, that’s the thing we need to talk this over.”

“Why--”

“Just meet me at the park at 8:00, please?” 

“-- Fine.” he jumps off his car and throws his empty beer can into the nearby trash can and starts  his car. He flies down the street as Liberty walks to her car that’s parked around the block. She can feel the warm air blowing through her hair. She takes in a deep breath and starts the car. What if he won’t show?