Coached ➳ l.p [au]

chapter 23: part one

"Jo, you look beautiful, okay?" Liam interrupts me, laughing. "You will always be beautiful to me."

"Oh," I awkwardly cough and look out the window. What was I even supposed to say to that? Thank you?

Change the subject, Jolissa, change the subject!

"So, what do balloons have to do with anything today?" I ask, remembering the text he sent me while I was messing up my makeup.

The stupid grin is back on his smooth face, "You'll see. I just hope you like them, or else things won't go quite as planned."

"It depends. If it's a bouncy house for seven year olds, I think i'll pass."

He laughs loudly, before turning onto the next street, "Where the hell do you think i'm taking you to? A pre-school?"

"You never know with you," I shrug.

Liam lets out a small chuckle before rolling his eyes, "Just be patient, Jo, you'll see."

-

"A hot air balloon?!" I gape at the large round and red balloon floating above us.

"Yeah," he smiles like he's proud, "Do you like the idea?"

I ignore his question, "This must have costed a freaking fortune! How in the world could you even pay for this?!"

"I Coach, Jolissa, how else? It's worth it, anyway," he takes my hand and steps inside the large basket, pulling me gently along.

"So just to be clear, sir, it goes up almost two thousand feet, correct?" Liam speaks to the short man over the edge of the basket. Thank god we're still on the ground, otherwise I would probably be clawing my eyes out.

Yes, I am afraid of heights. Wait, scratch that, i'm extremely terrified of them.

"Yes, sir. You should be landing, however, in about two hours so try and get the most of the view as you can before then," he scratches the red hair on his head, while holding a long rope that connects to the basket.

"Okay, thank you."

"You can take the bags off now, if you're ready," he says again.

Liam reaches over the edge of the basket and drops a medium sized bag onto the grass, and I feel the basket slightly lift.

"Should I help?" I ask.

"No, I can do it," He says, moving around to release each bag from the edges. Before I know it, i'm clutching the sides of the high basket as we lift from the ground.

Liam waves to the red-headed man and turns to look at me, "Are you alright? You look sort of pale."

"Just dandy," I pretend, looking over the ledge as I watch the shadow of the balloon on the green grass.

Oh my gosh, what if I just fell right out of this basket?! I mean, it's shoulder height but still, I could just fall right out and land on the floor dead! Then when i'm dead, i'll find a way to haunt Liam because this will all be his fault!

"What are you thinking about?" Liam's voice makes me jump back, my back hitting the basket.

"That i'm gonna die."

He laughs, "You're not going to die."

"Shutup, yes I will. Somehow i'm going to fall out and land on the ground and i'll be squashed."

Liam raises an eyebrow, "Are you afraid of heights, Jo?"

"Maybe."

"Well, if you are. I guess that's good."