Amaranthine (Editing)

Chapter 11 - Love Tangle

Chapter Eleven: Love Tangle

I was sitting quietly crossed legged on my bed with my covers in my lap. Liam sat directly across from me at the other end, he hadn’t moved since I told him what I saw ten minutes ago - not a fraction and not one whisper of a word came out of his mouth.

He stared straight ahead, although it was like his stare was going directly through me, as if I wasn’t even there at all. His eyes were wide and his mouth set in a tight line, I stared right back, waiting for some-any kind of reaction.

I felt my feet begin to tingle with the early signs of them falling asleep, but I remained still, fearing that if I moved one inch it would cause some sort of cosmic reaction resulting in a traumatic outburst from Liam.

The silence stretched on, the only sounds were coming from the clock in my room as the minutes and seconds ticked on and the wind rustling the branches outside my window. It was so quiet that I even tried breathing as soundless as possible. My legs were going completely numb and when I moved one toe in the slightest way, pins and needles shot through my entire leg.

Finally I couldn’t take it any longer and cautiously leaned closer towards Liam, folding my hands on the bed in front of him, I looked up into his eyes – which were still staring directly above me. “Liam…” I said his name quietly - as if I were tip toeing around a tiger ready to snap at the slightest sound.

But I got nothing, not a single word, not a look of any kind. And the more I looked at him the more he was beginning to look like a statue. I didn’t even know it was possible to be as still as he was, but I suppose not having a physical mass does that to a person.

“Liam, listen, I can’t even begin to imagine what you are thinking or feeling right now. Guilt? Anger? Hurt? Obviously shock, probably all of the above. But now is not the time for a mental break down. We are going to figure this out. At least now we are closer than you have ever been. We will figure this out, we will fix this.” I promise.

Should I be promising things I didn’t know whether or not I was able to keep? Probably not, but I was running out of options, and beneath that promise was the real one, that I would do anything and everything I could to help him.

“I didn’t even love her…” his words were barely above a whisper and almost unintelligible.

“You didn’t even love whom Liam?”

“What she did to Anna, to Anna’s father. To me…” Suddenly he brought his eyes to my own, and for the first time since I began telling him what I saw, he actually appeared to be looking at me and not through me. He was trying to hide the emotions running through him but I could sense the utter most agony behind the mask.

I sat back up straight and stretched my legs out, which was a little difficult considering it felt like they were made up of concrete. My whole lower half was asleep, even areas I didn’t know possible. I looked at Liam with an expecting look, waiting for him to continue.

“Cliona never loved me.” He began, as he got off the bed. He paced in the room for a couple seconds clearly trying to compose him self before he came back and sat at the head of the bed with me. “We weren’t in love. I thought I could learn to love her and her I but it never came to that.”

That had me a little confused so I asked, “So…why did you marry her?”

“Times were different then, you didn’t marry for love. It was pretty much an arranged marriage that our fathers set up. We both came from highly respected families in Ireland. The reason why my mother had stayed back in England after she gave birth to me was the simple fact that she was a servant, and my father’s parents would never approve.”