Below the Surface

Chapter Seven: Coming After Me

"Gaby, I have a horrible hangover. We can talk about this later." Bella groans throwing a pillow over her head.

"I have a serious problem -"

"I understand, now go out and get us some food." I purse my lips into a tight line. Fine. I turn on my heels and walk to my room, the plain and simplest of rooms. The walls of my room is a very soft blue, my bed comforter is white with dark blue spots and the only things I have are a few photo frames here and there of my friends and family and a collection of seashells that are all placed nicely on my drawer. I pull out my lavender bandeau swim top and slip on a pair of light washed jean shorts with a white V-neck.

"Bella! I'm leaving!" I call out loudly enough to annoy her. She groans out loud and I smirk as I grab my brown leather purse.

Looking around for the ripest bananas, I scratch the side of my stomach. Deciding that the first ones were perfect I place them on the cart. I push the cart, and start picking out green and red apples. I pick up a red apple and smell it when my eyes suddenly lock onto Liam. His back is to me, but I can recognize his back well enough to know it's him. Shit! I check the cart and see this is enough to satisfy Jay and Bella. I toss a few apples in a bag and toss them into the cart. I place my hands on the handle of the cart and glance once more at Liam, who is by the cereal aisle. I push forward when I run into Rita. I jump into the air and Rita starts cackling up a storm.

"Oh, Gaby, you should've seen your face!" she cries out holding her stomach. I peek over to see Liam still by the cereal aisle, too far to see me, but close enough to hear Rita's obnoxious laughter. I start chuckling along with her taking quick glances to see if Liam has noticed yet.

"Hey Rita..." I breathe out and scratch the back of my leg. "What a surprise." She slowly starts to recover from her fit of laughter and she wipes her finger under her brown eyes. Rita is local, and I have known her for forever.

"Oh honey, you are too great." She waves her hand out like it's no a big deal, "Where'd you go last night? We missed you."

"Oh, you know...I forgot to feed Philip." She raises one eyebrow like Liam did last night and I huff as I scratch the back of my neck. "My pet turtle." her red colored lips form a big 'O' and I nod my head.

"Well, there was this really sexy looking guy and he would have been perfect for you."

"Damn." I muster out, not feeling the whole hookup thing right now.

"Don't worry! Next, next friday night," she looks around and waves me to come closer. Scratching the side of my right leg, I lean in closer. "Sydney is going to have the party of the year. Her parents are going to be out of town so she gets her parents mansion for the entire weekend, and everyone is going to be there. So then you and Ricky can have your thing." She winks at me and I puff my cheeks with air, making me look like a chipmunk. "Oh no...I know that face, you have to come."

I glance at Liam and a smirk slowly forms on my lips, he's in the dairy section getting closer to me. I turn back to Rita who has hopeful eyes.

"Of course I'll be there. It's summer after all." She squeals and I wince. "Well I have to go. See you next, next Friday." I wink at her and she claps her hands together and I smile as I push the cart. I can do this. Maybe this summer won't be as bad as I thought. It's not like Liam would be there anyways, he hates over the top parties. What was I thinking last night? This summer is going to be great, it's not like Liam and I are going to be together each hour of the day. I smile to myself, until Liam steps from out of the corner and I come to a halt. My smile disappears and Liam reaches down to the ground picking up the box of cereal he had in his hands. "Sorry." I wince at how quiet my voice is.

"Hey, Gaby." Liam stands back up and smiles slightly. I try my best to smile, but once again it's too forced.

"Hey..." I squeak and curse under my breath as I look all over the place to avoid Liam's eyes. Then my eyes land on his cereal box and it's too late to stop myself. "You know frosted flakes is a really sugary and sweet cereal. I suggest you either get cheerios, or raisin bran - but then again, raisin bran contains fiber, and well fiber causes a lot of time in the toilet -" I bite my lip when I see Liam looking at me carefully, but I see the corner of his lips rising up slowly. He chuckles and looks down at the tiled floor and then back at me. Shit. I scratch harshly at my arm and then neck.

"I guess you're right, I mean you are the health expert." He chuckles and I chuckle along softly as I stare at him, trying to read him again. His eyes stop on mine and I see him squirm under my intense stare, "Well, I better change my cereal." He passes by me and I turn around and wave at him awkwardly.

"Bye." I breathe out and he smiles at me forcefully and walks back into the cereal aisle. I curse under my breath and slap my hand onto my forehead. "Shit."

"Oh yeah, Gaby," He exclaims coming back around and I place my hands behind me and raise my eyebrows expectantly. "You should really put something on for the poison oak, it's looking pretty bad." His eyes are all over me that now I squirm and when I look at my arm I see some spots, puffy and red. I gasp at how awful it looks and turn back to Liam who has a small smirk on his face.

Play it cool. Play it cool. "I- I- I know. Bella is preparing me something back home. Everything is all good." He nods and then disappears back into the aisle. "Shit!" I breathe out in a panic. I push the cart to the nearest cashier, "Aloha," I smile and dial Bella's number. There's no answer so I leave a quick voicemail while the cashier bags the food. "Listen Bella, I have done a lot of things for you. And I don't ask for much, but I'm running on a very thin line. Liam is back and I think I'm going to die this summer. So, the least you can do is get off your prissy ass and make something that helps relieve poison oak." I look up to see the cashier, a local, probably mid-thirties, giving me a strange look. I raise my eyebrows expectantly and he carries on with bagging my things. "By the way, we have a lot to talk about along the lines of when were you going to tell me that you were still BFF's with that son of -" I notice the cashier giving me a scared look, I sigh and hang up my phone, "How much?"

"Twenty." My heart stops when I recognize the voice and as unlucky as I am, when I look to my left I see Liam standing there with his arms crossed causing his arms to look muscular than before. His jaw is set and I guess he heard everything I had just said. "Exact."

"Wow. Thank you, Liam." I force out with a little bit of sarcasm flowing out. He gives me a tight smile and I nod my head as I take a twenty and hand it to the cashier. "Just so you know, I was talking about Kai. You know how annoying he can be. Remember in high school?"

"I remember a lot of things in high school." It's the way he says and how he says it, it's full of hurt and anger. Whatever look I had before disappears and I stare at him. He still remembers and he is not going to let me forget.

"Right..." I drag and take the bags from the cashier, "Mahalo." I try to smile, but fail and without another look towards Liam I quickly make my way out of the super market. Once I'm out, I break into a run with the bags in my hand. Everything is now starting to itch and it's so hard to resist the urge to scratch. It's official, he's after me.