My Guide to Popularity: The Story
Chapter Three
Liam plopped down onto his coach and turned on the TV. I walked over and sat next to him, enjoying being so close to him. "Ya know you should probably get some rest; doctors orders." I didn’t bother to ask him whether or not he was planning on going to school because I’d rather have him here with me. Plus, I have to admit, a part of me was afraid that if we went back to school, everything would go back to the way it was. He wouldn’t do that though…. right?
He rolled his head over on the back of the couch, to look me in the eye. “I don’t know… I rather…” He trailed off, and then came to a complete stop. He’d rather what?”
My eyebrows arched in curiosity, “You’d rather what-“, and then His phone began ringing. I exhaled deeply, agitated now. I so badly want to know what he was going to say. He picked up his phone and I peeked at the caller I.D number, in black letters it clearly read, “Brittany! ;)” I wanted to believe that she was the one that added the wink face to her contact name but a part of me wouldn’t allow that.
After about three rings, he still sat there, staring at the phone, still ringing. What was he doing? Then he did something I never thought he’d do. He clicked the “End” button; then shoved it back into his pocket. He looked back at me and smiled, seeing the shock on my face. “Id rather stay here with you.” He said. I could feel my cheeks raise and I began to blush. I playfully pushed against his shoulder and smirked.
“Aw, Liam the lion doesn’t want to leave my side? Its elementary school all over again!” Wow, nice way to be cool, Liyah. I instantly laughed as his jaw dropped as his old elementary school nickname, “Liam the Lion”. It all came about when Mrs. Hipper-knuckle first called him that when she first saw him with his lion faced backpack and matching necklace, I personally think she had a little crush on him. He picked up a pillow and hit me with it. And that’s when it all began.
The pillow war; we had set up our forces (AKA, I was hiding behind the couch while he was hiding behind a flipped over table on its side). I don’t know how it happened but now instead of throwing pillows we were throwing marshmallows and teddy bears at each other. “Give it up, Carson. You’re never going to win this war. I have been and always will be the Princess Warrior of Pillow Fights Extreme!” I could hear him chuckle. I probably brought back old memories; Pillow Fights Extreme is what we used to call this game as kids.
I felt a soft impact behind my head; I looked down to see a marshmallow hit the ground. I picked it up and saw words written on it in marker saying, “Carson Weapons inc.” I laughed, he’s so adorable. “Never, OK, McKinley? It’ll be a long, food less war until I surrender!” I stood up, creeping closer to him, trying to catch him off guard. All I had to do was cross over onto his side and hit him with a marshmallow to win. I slowly crawled behind him and then threw about six marshmallows behind his head.
It was hilarious! Every time a marshmallow hit him, he acted like I was shooting him with an automatic. Then he dramatically fell to the ground, onto his back, tongue hanging out his mouth. I stood up, triumphantly, flexing my non existent muscles and said, “I am Victorious!” But, I wasn’t for long as I was sweep off my feet- literally- and pinned down on the ground, under Liam. Now, I have to admit, this was a moment to remember. It ya know what I mean…
I smirked, clearly enjoying this just as much as him. “Aw, feisty I see.” I didn’t know where it came from, but I kind of liked it. And I could also see that he did too. He smirked, leaning closer to my face, forcing my hands above my head. I could feel his breathe on my face, actually, I felt a lot more of him that I probably shouldn’t have, but I liked that too. He stared between my eyes and my lips for a moment before saying. “You may have won the battle but you didn’t win the war.”
As his face got closer, a part of me knew exactly what he was going to do. And I couldn’t wait for him to do it but then, of course, his phone started ringing again. That seemed to snap both of us out of our trances. He gently rolled off of me and immediately answered the phone, clearly agitated. “Hello?” He snapped. I heard a few mumbles on the other end of the phone but didn’t hear at all what they wear saying. “Well, don’t worry about me, all right? I'm not your responsibility.” He hung up, not waiting for them to even reply.
“Who-who was that?” I asked, cautiously. He sighed, visibly relaxing when he heard my voice. He turned to me and gave a slight smile, tossing his phone on the couch.
“Oh, just… Brittany. She's so clingy, it’s annoying. She always wants to know what I'm doing and when I'm doing it. Were not even dating! She constantly calls and texts and… I don’t know. I'm just done with her.” I couldn’t help the small smile that crept up on my face. He looked at me and looked like he found something humorous in me, because he always smiled softly. I regained my serious look, hoping he didn’t notice that I was happy about that.
I checked my phone and noticed the time. “Oh, I, uh, better get home… schools almost out.” I can’t believe I had just spent most of the day hanging out with Liam Carson! My day has just intensified in so many ways. I spent the entire day with my crush, wow.
He looked sad for a second, then nodded. “Yeah, uh, well, I had fun with you today, Liyah. Come over anytime, I can use some fun every now and then.” I smiled and nodded, then headed out to the front door, shooting one last smile at Liam. Then I smiled even brighter when I noticed… He was already smiling at me.
My Guide to Popularity: The Story
Chapter Two: That Was Unexpected
I think Thursday is the most deadly day of the week. You sometimes wake up mistaking it as Friday and you can’t wait until the day is over until it is. One more day ‘til the weekend, I thought. It’s not like I have anything exciting going on but its still a nice thought. I rolled over, and then ended up falling off the edge of the bed. What a lovely way to start off the day. I stood up and zombie walked over to the bathroom, with a groan. "I hate Thursdays," I mumbled. I jumped and nearly fainted when I heard a noise by my window. I turned my head, my hair following dramatically. I grabbed the toilet plunger, ready to attack. A thought crossed my mind, what are you going to do with a plunger? Plunge them to death? But I ignored it.
Whoa, it's Liam. I decided that I was just dreaming and closed my eyes; I walked away and laid back down in bed, maybe ill wake up now. I heard the knocking on my window again, OK this is weird. AM I dreaming? Why do I think Liam is knocking on my window? My eyes popped open as I realized it wasn’t just a dream, it was real. I jumped up and opened the window, in complete shock. Before I knew it he climbed in and fell on the floor, he tried to lift himself up but he fell to the ground again, so he rolled over on his back. "Liam…?” I asked. There was blood on the bottom left part of his shirt and a bloody scar on his cheek. Oh my god, what happened to him?!
I bent down on my knees, my jaw dropped. I was so scared for him. Was he in a fight? Why is he bleeding? Why did he come to me? "Oh my god… Liam, what the hell happened to you?!" He didn’t say anything, just groaned and pulled up his shirt to reveal his wound. I saw his fit abs and then… oh god, he looks like he was cut or stabbed or something… the cut looks deep and it’s still bleeding! I looked at his appearance and he looked like he hadn’t even gone to bed because he was wearing the same clothes from yesterday. I ran to my closet and pulled on a jacket and a pair of shoes. I was wearing my hello kitty pajamas and my hair was a mess but I didn’t care, all I could think about was Liam.
“Liam, baby, you got to stand up, I have to get you to a hospital.” Did I just call him baby? He shook his head no but I didn’t care. “No, get up, now! You’re bleeding out way too much blood!” He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and I helped him back up on his feet. A few minutes later, after the difficult challenge of getting him down the stairs I finally had him in my car, buckled up. I ran over to the driver side and drove like a maniac to the hospital. Good thing my parents left early to go to work. Right now, my only priority is to help Liam, nothing else.
I pulled out my phone and shot a text to my other best friend… well, my only other friend besides Liam, Justin.
TO: Justin Moore
Message: Won’t be at school for a while, something big just came up. So you’ll be alone in 1st period today, sorry xoxox.
Within a couple of short minutes he replied.
FROM: Justin Moore
Message: so you’re leaving me alone with Brie? She's so annoying! >__< and what came up? Got a date or something? Ha-ha.
Brie Hall is a junior and well, what’s a nice way to put it… she’s not…. She’s a little… well, she’s a slut. That’s the only way I know how to say it. She's constantly flirting with him but Justin just doesn’t seem to be interested, he says he already found his perfect girl. Yet, she’s not giving up without a fight. I decided not to text him back because we were getting closer to the hospital plus, he’d be a little angry that I was with him.
They have a sort of sibling rivalry, except they’re not siblings so its worse, 10x worse. I'm not going to go in details right at this moment so I'm just going to say, they’ve been going at each others necks since middle school. I doubt they even remember why, that’s how long it’s been going on.
I was still in shock as I pulled into a parking lot at the emergency entrance. I ran over to the passenger side door and helped him out, limping in pain all the way in. As soon as we entered a handful of nurses ran over to our sides as they noticed to large amount of blood on both of us. But mostly Liam’s, they put him into a wheelchair and all ran off together to the E.R, they wouldn’t let me follow since I wasn’t family.
I groaned in agitation and waited impatiently in the waiting room, completely worried about and still so incredibly curious as to what went down last night. How did all of this happen? What’s going on? Is he going to be OK? No one was answering my questions and it was pissing me off, to say the least. I'm his best friend, I'm supposed to worry but since I don’t just have a friendly bond with him, but also a platonic love, my worry is increased.
Seconds passed, minutes passed and soon enough an hour passed by and I'm still here, sipping hot chocolate from the Tim Horton’s downstairs, watching the small television screen in the top corner of the room, waiting for answers. I started to think about the book my cousin gave me and about my feelings for Liam. Do I honestly think that this book will help me with him? Well, I guess it’s worth a try. I’d do anything to finally get him to notice me for once. I think I can really make him happy, I think we’d be a really cute couple. I think we’d be really happy together. So yeah, why not give it a try?
A few minutes later, a nurse walked over to me. I stood up and anticipated what she was going to say. The pretty blonde waitress tucked the clipboard she was previously holding in her hands, under her arm. “Well, we still don’t quite know what went down tonight since he’s not really in the mood to speak right now but do you happen to know what happened? Do you know what went down? Did he tell you anything?” She asked me. I shook my head, completely clueless just like the rest of them.
I sighed in curiosity, “I honestly have no idea, he hasn’t said a word every since I first seen him like that.” I had a feeling she wasn’t done asking questions as she still looked confused and unsatisfied with my previous answer. She looked over her clipboard once again and then shrugged her shoulders, as if to say “It’s a mystery to all of us”. She looked back up at me and smiled.
“Well, he’s in better condition now after the doctor gave him a few stitches and patched him up. He should definitely rest when he gets home though, make sure he stays hydrated and that he walks it off. Also, remind him that he can’t do too many activities in danger of reopening the scar, if he does that he’ll have to get more stitches.” I grimaced at the thought of his scar reopening and all that blood… getting a little light headed I rubbed my temples. “Other than that, he’s good to go. He may leave.” She smiled; I thanked her and headed off into the direction where the nurse pulled his wheelchair up to the front.
I stood and looked over his body. The scar on his cheek was bandaged up as well and he looked washed up, he looked better. “Um, well. I guess I better get you home then.” He shook his head as he stood up and pushed the unneeded wheelchair to the side with the rest of them. He smiled at me and held his arms out to me, as if he was asking me to come closer so that he could hug me. I did, I felt the warmth of his arms being wrapped around my waist. I heard his heart beat as I laid my head against his chest; our very first hug. He kissed the top of my head and rubbed my back. Wow, that moment when you first hug the guy you like, it’s like you never want to let him go.
He sighed and finally let me go, I groaned inside as I didn’t want that hug to end so soon. “Thank you, Liyah. I'm glad I went to you first.” He chuckled and brushed a piece of fallen hair behind my ear. I was about to ask him why exactly he came to me first instead of going home or calling the police when it happened but he began speaking again, “But, I'm OK, really. You can just drive me home and you don’t have to hang around to watch over me, you can go to school now.” He scanned over my body and chuckled again, “Hello Kitty? Really, Liyah?” He asked, jokingly. I playfully punched his arm.
“Hey, I like Hello Kitty. And besides, you came to my second floor bedroom window right after I woke up. Right after I saw you were hurt, I wasn’t going to let you bleed there on the floor as I changed and got dressed. And what were you thinking? My SECOND FLOOR bedroom window?! You were already hurt; did you want to add to that?” I asked, he laughed and shrugged his shoulders like it was nothing. He was known as the dare devil of our small little town, so climbing up to my window wasn’t even a scrap on the knee to him.
“Oh, it was nothing. Remember when we were little and we used to climb down the vine outside your window and sneak off into the woods to watch the stars at our secret place?” He asked. I smiled, feeling teary. I can’t believe he remembers that. I last time I been there, I was alone and it was my freshman year of high school. I said my goodbyes to that place as I thought we were never going to be there at once at the same time again. That was after he joined the football team, found a girlfriend and didn’t have enough time to hang out with me. I remember the great memories there.
“Wow. I can’t believe you remember that, I thought you forget about that… like how you forgot about me.” I said the last part quietly, I thought he hadn’t heard but he shook his head no and frowned. He placed both his hands on the side of my face and lifted my chin up to look him in the eyes. He sighed and gave me such an apologetic look.
“No… Liyah, I could never forget about you. Never… I'm so sorry if I ever made you feel that way before, I guess I just let all that popularity get to my head and forget who my real friends were back before I was who I am today.” He smiled as he put his hands into his pockets now, the warmth leaving my face from where his hands used to be. “We have too many great memories together to have all that be washed down the drain because of a big jerk like me for ignoring my best friend.” I smiled, blushing slightly.
“You just got to stop hanging around that douche Justin and everything will be back to normal.” He smirked and said it in a jokingly way but I could tell he was half serious and half joking. I dropped my jaw, pretending to take offense of that and pushed his shoulder playfully. He looked at me one more time before pointing his head towards the door, saying “Lets go."
©2012 trueloveneverdies Anna Bella
3351 Words total
Awe, look at that! They both got to spend an entire day together, isn’t that cute? Well, I hope you guys liked it, I know I do! Thanks for reading, show me your support if you care. Love you guys, xoxox
- Anna Bella <3