march 2018 : 2 years and 6 months ago
Liam knew he was all in from the moment he saw her.
He also never knew it could be so hard to pick out a freaking outfit. He stared at his reflection, unsure of how he felt about it, and with his insides knotted up into a bundle of nerves about going to this party.
After succumbing to a wardrobe of sweatshirts and sweatpants for most of the winter, he was expending way too much effort deciding what to wear tonight. It didn't help that he had no clue what kind of crowd he was walking into - if they were loud or quiet or preppy or emo or a mix of anything and everything. It was hard to get a read on Bennett's personality from the little talking they had done and if there was one thing Liam did know, it was that people didn't behave the same way at school as they did outside of it.
This was getting ridiculous. He threw on a plain shirt, jeans, and one of his nicer jackets and hoped that it was okay. It couldn't possibly matter that much. Even if he made a great impression tonight, it wasn't like he could keep up a perfect image forever.
When he walked downstairs, he found Jo at the kitchen sink filling up a watering can. She perked up slightly when she turned towards him and saw him dressed in something that didn't scream I've been hibernating for three months.
"You going out somewhere?" she asked curiously.
"Just a thing with some people from school."
She appeared to be pleased that he wasn't being a total hermit and the lines around her eyes crinkled when she smiled. "Have fun. And text me if you need anything."
He nodded and glanced at time as he grabbed his keys off the hanger by the door, which he only actually remembered to use about half the time. "What about you? It's getting late. You've already been here for what? Ten hours?"
Jo shrugged, a guilty grin on her face as she turned the sink faucet off. "Time flies when you're having fun."
"I know." Liam's fingers absentmindedly fiddled with the ring of keys in his hand. "But there are these things normal people do called rest and sleep. You should try them sometime."
"I'm about to go," she promised. "I was just going to water this little guy."
She was referring to a small succulent sitting in the windowsill over the sink. Liam came over to look at the tiny plant (which he had honestly forgotten was there) as she drizzled some water into the soil.
"Huh, he got bigger," he observed. For some reason, it made him happy that the little plant was thriving. "He was looking kind of rough the last time I noticed."
"Sometimes they sneak up on you like that," Jo agreed, setting the watering can down on the countertop. "They start to thrive when you don't think they can. I like that about them, though. You never know what's right around the corner."
The amount of noise coming from Ezra Torres' apartment when Liam knocked on the door was a good sign.
There was definitely some chatter coming from inside so he knew he wasn't about to embarrass himself by showing up at the wrong place, but nothing sounded too wild, either.
Bennett answered the door, looking less stiff and awkward than he had when they met. Not that Liam could blame him for that; introducing himself to strangers was pretty low on the list of things he liked to do. "Hey, glad you could make it. Let me introduce you to the others."
Liam realized that it was more crowded than he anticipated as he stepped inside the dark apartment, but the chaos at least seemed controlled. Most everyone was in the living room, piled up on the couch and floor and watching an episode of Stranger Things (he wasn't familiar enough with it to tell which season this was), while a few people were raiding the kitchen for snacks.
Another guy with a flop of black hair and a lopsided grin appeared behind Bennett and slung his arm around his shoulder. The latter shook his happy-go-lucky friend's arm off but appeared very unsurprised by the gesture, hinting that it was a common occurrence. Liam assumed this was Ezra.
"The name's Ezra, but I'm guessing Benny here already told you that much." It took all of Liam's self-restraint not to laugh; Bennett definitely did not look like a Benny. Ezra held out his hand and Liam shook it. "Lemme find..."
Rather than finish his sentence, Ezra turned around and scanned the room for whoever he was looking for, waving them over once he spotted them. Two new figures approached, a tall blonde guy and a girl with choppy, shoulder-length hair dyed a bright shade of electric blue.
"Adam, Robin - this is Liam," Ezra introduced. "Our new Lucas." Liam could only presume that Lucas was the guy whose spot in their ensemble he was taking.
Ezra glanced back at him. "Lucas kind of sucked. Hopefully you're better. On the bright side, it would be really hard to be worse."
Robin rolled her eyes and elbowed Ezra. "Don't scare him," she chided before giving Liam a reassuring smile. "I promise he's actually nice. He just doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut."
"Just don't get on his bad side," Adam added.
"I don't have a bad side," Ezra corrected him. "And I only trash talk people who bail on us a month before our concert. Don't be a moron and you're fine."
Liam racked his brain for all of the information Bennett had given him about the others, which wasn't a lot. If he was remembering correctly, Robin sang and Adam played bass guitar.
The one thing he was sure of was that Ezra was their drummer. Bennett had given a word of advice about him in advance: "Ezra's way better at drums than the rest of us are at anything, but don't let it bother you too much. He's ambidextrous, so he picks up on stuff in like five seconds."
Unless Liam was forgetting about someone, there was only one person missing from their group: the apparently elusive Izzy.
"Is Izzy around here somewhere?" Ezra asked the other three.
"I think so," Adam answered. "I saw her just a minute ago."
He turned and peered around the room like Ezra had when looking for him and Robin. "Izzy, get over here!" he called once he spotted her, earning him a couple of annoyed looks from people who were trying to hear the TV.
Izzy showed up a moment later with a plastic cup in her hand and a couple of friends in tow. She introduced herself to Liam, but he struggled to make himself focus on her.
His mind completely blanked when he saw the girl next to her.
She was unassuming for just a moment at first, like she was purposefully trying to blend into the shadows and not be seen. Her gaze was down and long dark hair - he couldn't quite tell if it was black or deep brown - partially concealed her face. But his heart did a little ba-dum in his chest when she looked up from the floor and caught his eye. She gave him a tiny smile, dimples forming on her cheeks.
It was over in what felt like a second. He blinked, Izzy was suddenly saying "See you Monday," and the girls disappeared back into the living room just like that.
Ezra's voice partially snapped Liam out of his trance. "There's enough sugar and caffeine in the kitchen to give yourself a heart attack, so have at it," he encouraged before he, Adam, and Robin all followed the others to catch the rest of the episode.
Liam and Bennett were the only ones still hovering near the door. The latter regarded the former with an odd look on his face as though he noticed the sudden change in Liam's behavior. He was grateful that it was dark because his face was surely starting to turn pink.
"Do you, um...Who was that with Izzy?" he tried to ask nonchalantly (and failed).
Bennett raised an eyebrow. "The blonde one?"
"No, the other one."
"I dunno." Bennett sounded slightly amused. "But you should go find out."
With that, he went to join everyone else, but Liam hesitated.
He wanted to go find out who she was, but he didn't know what he would say to a girl as beautiful as that when he was just him.
He watched the silhouettes of everyone sprawled in the living room, some of them fixated on the screen and others quietly chatting with their friends. He tried to see where she was, but he couldn't make out who was who from this distance.
You might never see her again, he told himself. This is your one shot.
But what was with this incessant thumping of his heart? What had gotten into him? He couldn't remember the last time he felt this way. He used to be so confident, but after seeing this girl for barely even ten seconds Liam couldn't figure out how to string together a sentence.
He had no idea what it was about her. Just that she was something special.
He silently shook his head to himself. He couldn't stay here in the corner. He hadn't come here to be a wallflower; he needed to go hang out with his new friends even if he didn't have the courage to talk to the girl.
The air felt hot, but he wasn't sure whether that was from the amount of people crammed into the apartment or himself just feeling flustered. It definitely wouldn't kill him to get a cup of water and take some deep breaths before throwing himself into the socializing fray, so he slipped into the kitchen.
The television cast a shifting phosphorescent glow through the entryway, giving him enough light to see what he was doing, so he didn't bother turning the light on. There was no one else in the kitchen, but the previous invaders certainly left evidence of their presence behind. The counter was littered with nearly-empty chip bags and Oreo containers.
He always felt kind of weird going through other people's fridges and didn't need any reminders of his old bad alcohol habits, so he didn't bother opening it to see what drinks were inside. He did, however, spot a stack of red Solo cups near the sink. He pulled the top one off the stack and reached for the faucet handle-
"Do you mind passing me one of those?" a voice piped up from behind him.
He somehow knew the voice was hers before he turned around and saw her, but that didn't stop his breath from catching in his throat.
There was no one else with her this time. Did she come to talk to me? No, that was a stupid thought. She just needed a cup.
"Oh, yeah, sure." Very smooth.
He handed her the one he was holding and prayed she couldn't hear the fluttering of his heart when she came over to take it from him and use the sink. The sound of running water drowned out the chatter from the other room but not the thumping in his chest. He caught the faintest hint of perfume before she went to leave.
And then she stopped, lingering near the doorway and turning back. Even in the dim lighting, He thought he saw a hint of curiosity directed towards him in her dark eyes.
As he looked at her, ten or so feet away from him at the other end of the kitchen, Liam didn't know what to think of her. She was possibly the most confusing person he had ever met and they had only exchanged a few words. But it wasn't anything about her behavior that baffled him. It was that she was somehow the most gorgeous girl he had ever laid eyes on and completely average at the same time.
She was in a simple tee shirt, jeans, and sandals - nothing too different from any other girl he'd seen here or on campus. She wasn't visibly striking at first glance like the models his mom managed and occasionally showed him pictures of. But there was something about her eyes, the hair that fell in waves down to her ribcage, the slightly round shape of her face and the curves of her nose and lips that made her more attractive to him than anyone else. It wasn't that she was the showstopper, the one who immediately turned people's heads. She was more like the masterpiece you found hidden in the corner of an art gallery or the slow song you didn't realize was your favorite off the album until you were unable to get it out of your thoughts later in the day. Like those particularly lovely flowers he and Jo sometimes found nestled amidst the others far along into their season, nearly missing out on them.
He didn't want to miss out on her.
"I didn't catch your name," she spoke up.
"Liam."
For some reason, that put a small grin on her lips. "Would you happen to have a last name or is it just Liam?"
"Sorry." Why am I apologizing? "It's Duke."
A hint of recognition flickered across her face. His heart sped up again, but it wasn't because of her looks this time.
"What is it?" he reluctantly asked, but he had a bad feeling he already knew the answer.
She set her cup on the counter next to her. "People talk about you, you know," she told him, her tone much more reserved than it was a moment ago.
Great. Caroline's rumors were really still going around? Liam tried to stay outwardly composed and appear as though her knowing that information didn't make him want to crawl into a hole and die, but his spirits sank knowing that his chances with her were probably ruined now.
He waited to ask his one question, the only one he needed the answer to, until she reluctantly glanced back up at him after remaining fixated on her red cup for an agonizingly long moment. Once she did, he dared to come nearer, leaning back against the counter a few feet to her side looking over at her. He tensed in the slightest when their eyes met, longing for her answer not to end whatever this was as soon as it began.
The room felt unusually still, like both of them were too nervous to even breathe now that they were remotely close to one another. The hum of noise from the adjacent room slipped away and left just their two lonely souls in its wake.
Liam took care to keep his voice particularly calm, wanting anything but to sound accusatory.
"Do you believe them?"
She must not have expected her statement to be turned back on her. Her eyes widened and lips parted slightly, the silhouette of her shoulders rising and falling once as she took in a little surprised breath. Her voice was soft when she answered, but she held her ground and didn't pull her eyes off of him.
"I don't know."
His thoughts simultaneously eased in relief and stiffened with anxiety. It wasn't a yes, but it wasn't a no. He maintained his poker face but knew he still had to prove to her that they were all wrong about him.
"Then I guess you'll have to decide for yourself."
"I guess I will."
She subtly broke their eye contact to reach over and grab her cup, her pointer finger very lightly tapping on the plastic.
"You never told me your name," he said quietly, his mind buzzing from the implications of her response.
When she looked back up at him, he saw that the worry had been wiped from her expression as quickly as it arrived. He couldn't help but smile a little bit.
"It's Lily," she told him. And when she smiled back, Liam thought that he just maybe had a chance. "Lily Myers."
END OF PART ONE