Obliterated

Chapter 10

Liam

October 4th, 2016 | 9:00 am

Liam wasn't sure what he was expecting when he walked into math class. He expected Lexi to be sitting there glaring at him. Or at the very least ignoring him, but she was nowhere to be seen. Liam sat and did his work quietly until the teacher came by to check their work.

"Is Lexi here today?" he asked the teacher.

The teacher shook his head. "She hasn't been here all morning, according to the attendance sheet her father emailed saying she was sick."

Liam knew that wasn't the case though, Lexi must've used his old email to sent it. He nodded though and continued his work. Once he had finished the assignment, he copied down the work he had submitted online on a piece of paper for Lexi. Ryan and Josh insisted that he help them so Liam went and sat with them. Thankfully, they had no clue what had gone down between him and Lexi and him and Rachel so they were talking about some basketball game instead of bugging him.

It let Liam's thoughts drift back to the rest of his weekend. He had met up with Rachel and tried on his suit for the dance. It was a plain white button-up with black pants. The tie matched the color of Rachel's dress which was a dark blue. When both of them had finally finished trying on their outfits, he noticed Rachel's eyes were a little puffy and red. He had offered to drive her home so she didn't have to go home with her mother and that was when the tears really came.

Her mother had once again destroyed any confidence Rachel had in herself by commenting on her weight. Rachel wasn't even remotely close to being overweight, but once again, her mother found a way to tear her down. He and Rachel had talked for a while. Liam tried his hardest to reassure her that she was not what her mother said she was, but he wasn't really getting through to her. Instead, he held her as she cried and he continued to hold her as she fell asleep that night, only sneaking out around six in the morning.

His parents had come home from their trip on Sunday. They were both doctors and had been giving lectures in California. He had caught up with them for most of the day. That night he had wanted to call Lexi, but he figured she didn't want to talk to him. Liam only hoped he hadn't driven her to get high. He knew she had just gotten clean.

He had lunch with Rachel who was doing a pretty good job of pretending she hadn't just been sobbing on his shoulder over the weekend. She had said she didn't want to talk about it so Liam was honoring that, however, he knew she would only feel better once she began to talk about it.

Instead though, she went on about a new dress she had made and how she was customizing the dress her mom had bought. He let it go, for now, he was still worried about Lexi. Which again felt wrong, he should worry about Rachel, not the girl who probably hated him at this point.

He searched for Lexi after lunch but couldn't find her anywhere. It was particularly frustrating considering she had no friends who could track her whereabouts. He had just about given up and was tempted to tell Austin to see if he knew where she would go. Liam had just walked into his philosophy class when he saw Austin. He was about to walk up to him when he saw Lexi walk in as well. She walked past him and took her seat and Liam immediately went and sat down next to her.

"Look I'm really sorry," he began. "I won't ever bring it up again, just please tell me you didn't get high."

Lexi rolled her eyes and scoffed at him. "I may be angry at you and frustrated as hell, but I'm not stupid. I'm clean, besides I get tested for drugs almost every week."

A huge relief went over Liam. "Okay, I just had to be sure."

"Look," she said softly. "Deep down I know your father did all he could for my dad and he didn't mean for what happened to happen. It's just hard to deal with. Liam, you have no idea what life is like for me."

"I know, and you're right, I do feel bad for you but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. I just want to help."

Lexi stared into Liam's green eyes. Almost as if searching for whether he was being sincere or not.

Eventually, she took a deep breath and faced forward. "Look I don't need friends, but I know we have to work together in this class and in math, so let's just be civil, okay?"

Liam nodded. That was probably the best he was going to get from her. The philosophy teacher began explaining whatever topic he was going over. Liam was just reading the project assignment list on the board over and over again. Somehow out of the thirty partners in this class, he and Lexi had been given soulmates and spiritual connections.

Liam wondered what Lexi thought about soulmates. The topic had always been on Liam's mind but he wondered what she thought about it. Liam also remembered the personal bet he had made with himself about Lexi and Austin and him and Rachel.

He wondered if Lexi thought Austin was her soulmate. He wondered if she believed in all of this, to begin with. Liam also wondered if Lexi was even going to talk to him.

Towards the end of class, they had been given some time to work on the project that was due at the end of the semester. Lexi was peeking glances at Austin who, for once, did not have a girl seated next to him. He was angrily whispering with Rick, who Liam did not like at all. It was pretty well known that he and Austin supplied the students with drugs. Although he always suspected that Rick was the one with the real connections. Austin was just along for the ride.

"So what do you think about soulmates?" Liam asked.

Lexi gave him a strange look, she glanced back over once more at Austin and Rick, but they had stopped whispering and were on their phones under the table. She looked back at Liam, and shrugged him off.

"Well, do you believe in them?"

Lexi glared at him this time. At once, she stood up with her bag and stormed out. Almost everyone looked up when the door slammed, surprised by the noise. Liam looked down as everyone immediately turned to look over at her empty seat. Austin made eye contact with Liam. He was expecting to see indifference or annoyance in Austin's eyes as he looked at her empty chair. However, Liam saw something surprising: worry and guilt.