"All you do is work, Margaret!" my father's shout from the kitchen echoed through the otherwise silent house. "In case you forgot, you have another daughter!"
"You want to talk to me about having another child?" My mom's voice caught as she spat the words. "All you've done since Raya died is blame Reese. Like it was her fault."
I raked a hand through my damp hair, staring at the picture hung over my computer desk. It was from Raya, the twins, and me at Disneyland January of last year. My sister was hugging me, the biggest, cheekiest smile on her face, strands of her blonde hair falling into her eyes as she tried to pinpoint exactly where to look. The sun had been blinding the four of us, I was amazed we were able to get a decent picture without us all squinting. On her left was Brianna, towering over my petite sister, her arm draped over her shoulder. Bryan was on the right of me, not hugging me, but his hand had been resting on the small of my back, so he was close enough to be part of the picture. My family. This was my family.
Or at least it had been.
Bri and Bryan had been my backbone, my safe haven in the aftermath of my sister's death, it was likely I would have taken my own life a few months ago if I hadn't had them. They were still my family, my comfort, my everything, but there was just a bond that Raya and I shared that I'd never be able to attain with anyone else.
"You know, Margo, she's just like you!" My dad's voice tore me out of my train of thought. They'd been going at it for two hours with no end in sight. "Caught in her own little world of denial, pushing away all those who care about her by, burying her head in the sand and pretending."
"She was in the fucking car, David!" My mom cried as I edged closer to the door, tears stinging my eyes. "We almost lost both of them! You. . . you act like we did!"
My mother's words were followed by the sound of shattering and a cry from my mother. I threw my door open and raced out of the room, my heart pounding so hard against my chest it physically hurt to try and breathe. My father was standing over my mother who'd collapsed to the ground in a mess of porcelain. Shards encased my mother, her head in her hands. They must have heard my heavy breathing, because both of them turned to me in the dining room. My mother's right cheek was a bright, stinging red.
"Get out of here, Reese!" My mom said through her tears. "Go to the Waters."
I looked to my father, but he was a rigid bomb ready to detonate again. Blinking the tears from my eyes, I reached at my keys on the hook, opening the door as my father started toward me. I jogged down the steps, feeling my father at my tail until he spotted the large truck parked along the curb. Liam, who had seconds ago been drumming his fingers against the steering wheel, looked out the window, a confused look on his face.
"Reese, come back inside, sweetheart." My dad tried to reason, but the blood on his knuckles from hitting the mug from my mother's hand was enough for me to continue to back down the driveway. "We can talk about this like adults."
I slammed into something hard, thinking it was Liam's car, I was surprised to catch a waft of the jock's cologne. But for the first time, it was almost as much of a sense of comfort for me.
"What's going on?" Liam whispered, turning me so I was facing him. I avoided his eyes, and he clearly got the hint because he looked over my head and turned his curiosity to my father, "Is there a problem here, sir?"
Silence. Then, "No, son. My wife and I just got into a disagreement and Reese brought it outside and caused a disruption to our poor neighbors."
Because he and my mom fighting every day wasn't a disruption to the neighborhood.
"She was coming out here to meet me, sir. There must be some sort of misunderstanding here." Liam said, and without looking up could tell he was smiling at my father, "We're heading out for a couple hours."
"Heading out?" My dad responded, sounding confused. "Who are you?"
My head tilted back a fraction so I could see how Liam was going to answer. He only smiled, not wavering in the slightest as he said, "Her boyfriend. We've been going out for a while now, I thought she would have mentioned me. We better get going though. I'll have her back by midnight."
Liam opened the passenger side door and helped me in before my father could protest. I knew without looking at him that he was staring at the two of us, but he wasn't going to get a word out of me. Within minutes we were down the street and out of my neighborhood, but I couldn't stop my hands from trembling. Liam was just as tense, but he stayed silent, focusing on the dark road.
"What happened?" He eventually broke the silence. "Are you okay?"
I forced my head in the opposite direction, afraid I'd break under the intensity lighting his eyes and tell him everything. "I'm fine. What were you doing there, anyway?"
"I was coming to pick you up." He shrugged a shoulder. "Figured you weren't asleep and you being the nerd you are, you'd be done with your homework."
"Why?"
"Why what?" He responded with a confused drawing of his dark eyebrows.
"Why do you want to spend your night with me?"
Liam blinked as if he was unsure how to answer the question. Then whispered, "It beats sitting all alone.
*
"Can I ask you something?" Liam's low rasp ended the serene silence we'd been sitting in for the last half hour, eyes that greyish storm cloud color.
"If it has to do with my dad, please don't."
He shoved a Dorito into his mouth, then asked, "Why don't you sleep?"
"It doesn't matter."
"It does." He wiped the dust from the chips on his jeans and made a gesture toward me, "And you freaked out in the car the other night."
I hugged my knees tighter against my chest, allowing the words to break passed without much thought. "Because the last time I shut my eyes for a second, when I opened them again my sister was laying in a pool of her own blood on the asphalt."
I felt Liam's entire body stiffen and began to question if I'd said too much. When I turned my head I found him staring at me, analyzing me, as he always seemed to be doing. "Why? Why do you look at me like that?"
"I'm trying to figure you out. And I can't."
"Good." I whispered. "You don't need to."
The last thing I needed was Liam Scott knowing all my dirty secrets.
"But I want to."
A wave of shock washed over me at the sincerity, but uncertainty in every word. I lifted my head completely and stared at him, but he was already staring straight ahead, somewhere far beyond the bright lights of the city below us.
"My family died in a car accident Sophomore year, so I know how you feel." The words were soft, but there was a catch in his throat at the end of the confession. I thought back, trying to recall hearing or reading about the Scotts, but nothing came to mind.
"Have you figured out the next play?" Liam asked, louder, as if he were trying to change the subject and pretend as if that piece of information hadn't just sat in the tension in the air between us. "Because with Jay asking you to Homecoming, I'm sure he'll be wanting to take you to Prom too."
I nodded, actually relieved to be talking about something so trivial. "Yeah, but I'll give it to you at school tomorrow."
"Reese?" Liam whispered.
"Hmm?"
"I'm here, you know. If you want to talk about what happened."
"I know I'm not your first choice, but I think you might find we have more in common than you think."
*
I must have started to doze off again, because I felt a hand grasp my forearm just as my head started to fall to the side. I jerked forward, nearly scratching Liam's arm. We were still in the bed of his truck, and when I looked to the side I'd begun to fall against, I likely would have banged my head right against the side of it.
"You wanna head home?" He whispered. "You're falling asleep."
"No." I mumbled groggily. "Drop me off at the Waters."
He grabbed his phone from his lap and frowned when he saw the time. "It's one in the morning. You sure that's where you want to go? Won't they be pissed?"
"No. Bryan is used to it." I muttered, rubbing my eyes with the heels of my hands. "We should go before it gets any later though."
Luckily Liam didn't try to push and pry at me and let me remain in my tired, misty eyed daze the entire ride to my best friend's house. I texted Bryan halfway there, and called when he didn't answer it. He answered on the fourth ring and mumbled something about calling when I was outside the house.
"You guys are really close, aren't you?" Liam cleared the air with his quiet question.
I nodded, yawning, "Yeah. He's my other half, and Brianna's like my girly alter ego."
"Him being in love with you doesn't bother you?" Liam asked, genuinely curious. "You act like you don't even know."
"We've talked about it already." I wound a loose thread from my leggings around my finger. "But you know how being in love is, you don't just fall out of it. Kind of why my mother still allows my father into the house. She still loves him enough to keep him around, even with all the abuse."
I knew I'd said too much when I heard Liam's quiet intake of breath. There was silence for a while, then he said, with a bitter edge to his voice, "He hits you guys?"
"Sometimes." I couldn't stop myself, it felt good to finally say it aloud, "Mostly my mom. He knows if he laid a finger on me Bryan would kill him. But it's definitely taught me a lot about love, you know. That it's just a long, winding road to inevitable heartbreak."
"When I picked you up, had he—"
"I didn't see what happened. I was in my room but when I heard glass and my mom start crying I went out there and she told me to leave." I avoided the sad look Liam was casting in my direction. "So I did. But I don't really know what he would have done if you hadn't been outside. Could have been a lot of yelling and scolding, or he could have hit me like he did my mother."
Liam slowed the truck to a stop and put it in park beside the curb outside the Waters house.
"You're not the person I thought you were, Reese." Is what he whispered, eyes burning into mine. "You're actually very much the opposite of it."
I thought about his words and how they applied to him as well. He was still kind of an ass, especially to Bryan, and apparently Jay, but he seemed to be trying his hardest to keep himself together. But the ultimate test would be presented at the Homecoming game Friday. He was notorious for starting fights with the visiting team after the game.
"You're not either." I replied. "I mean, you're still kind of an ass, but you aren't as big of one as I initially thought."
"I'll take it." He flashed me a toothy grin. "That's as close of a compliment as I'm going to get out of you."
I smiled weakly. "Thank you, Liam. For tonight. I appreciate it."
"Sure." His eyes left mine and fell on the house over my shoulder. "Bryan's waiting for you."
It was the first time I'd heard him say my best friend's name and for me it felt like a monumental breakthrough. I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the door, turning my head to find Bryan on the sidewalk, shirtless, with his hands deep in the pockets of his basketball shorts. Why he'd come out here in the middle of the night, knowing it was chilly, shirtless, I had no idea.
"Reese." Liam caught my hand before I could take the one Bryan had offered to help me down. I looked at him over my shoulder, nodding so he knew to go on. "If your dad tries anything again, just let me know. I'll take care of it. Goodnight."
I grasped Bryan's forearm to keep myself from falling off the curb once I was beside him, but instead of slamming the passenger door in Liam's face, Bryan lifted his head and said and looked at the jock with something I'd never thought I would see. Respect.
"Thank you for getting her out of there." Bryan said through his teeth. It wasn't much, but it was a start. "Good luck at your game, Scott."
Then my best friend shut the door and draped his arm over my shoulder, hugging me against him as we headed up the concrete path up to his front door. I heard Liam start the truck again once we were inside, and glanced out the window just in time to watch the truck disappear into the darkness.