Counting Stars | ✔

Chapter Sixty-six

After dropping the twins off, Liam drives me to Steff's house. I hug Ellie goodbye, and Liam steps out with me.

"Call me when you get there?" I look up at him.

He nods before pulling me in for a hug.

"Are you sure you can't come with me?" He asks.

"It'll be fine, Liam. Give her a chance." I tell him once we pull apart.

"I already miss you." He says, his expression sullen.

"I'll miss you too."

He sighs heavily before holding my face between his hands and pressing a lingering kiss on my lips. And I stand there watching him drive away until they disappear down the road, and I head back inside.

***

It feels like I have gone back in time as Steff and I bake an extra-large chocolate cake with sprinkles and stuff ourselves with it until we are a heaving and rolling mess on her bedroom carpet. Our stomach is fuller than south fork dam before it flooded Johnstown, and it's a miracle we are not having a stroke with the amount of sweet we've consumed.

After that, we put our black face masks on and get to catching up on the latest gossip. We do a weekly celeb quiz from one of Steff's magazines, and we do each other's nails following the instruction on an article titled, Ten Fun nail art ideas for spring.

"Leaf Prints and tie-dye are so in," Steff comments, looking through the latest issue of Harper's Bazaar as we lay sprawled on her bedroom carpet.

"I hate tie-dye." I purse my lips. "It doesn't appeal to my eyes."

"Good thing you are not the Fashion major." Steff eyes me over the edge of the magazine.

I shrug, going back to the Cosmopolitan article I was reading, The Shady Student Loan Practices to Watch Out For.

Steff's phone starts ringing, and she glances at it before rolling her eyes and ignoring it.

"Who was that?" I ask once it stops ringing.

"Ryan." She says monotonously.

I sit up straight, and I stare at her.

"You guys are still on the outs?" I ask.

She shrugs.

"I just don't see the point of us if there is even an "us"" She shakes her head. "I mean, you saw what he did that night."

Ryan threw me a surprise birthday party two weeks ago, and it was mostly fun, but it ended with him and Steff fighting on the driveway because she found him kissing Madison Green. Apparently, it was because of a "dare", but you can imagine how that went.

"Yeah." I sigh.

"His excuse is, "but it was a dare." "But I thought you wouldn't care." "But we have never defined our relationship." as if we didn't spend the last few months being exclusive." She snorts. "I blame myself, not him! I knew he would never commit!"

"I thought you were okay with that, Steff."

"I thought I was too." She groans. "But why did it have to be Madison? He knows how much I despise her!"

I bite my lips to stifle a smile.

"So your issues are with her."

"Or maybe I'm tired of fucking around." She lets out a heavy sigh. "I see what you and Liam have, and I want something like that. Something real."

I scoot closer, and I lay down beside her.

"If that's what you truly want, you will find it." I tell her. "Finding something begins with knowing what you want."