"What an idiot." Liam commented. "Why the hell would he leave her for the other chick?"
I couldn't fight this smile; hearing Liam making comments on a movie that he had promised he wasn't paying attention to was cute. He was in the process of writing out apology notes for everyone he'd bullied and was already on his second pack of notecards, which was both sad and bittersweet. I could see as he looked over last year's yearbook the sad looks that passed through his eyes when he realized just how many people he was a jerk too.
"Because the other girl is prettier and skinner, and he feels more comfortable being seen with her then the main character. Kind of like me and Nicola."
Liam quirked a brow as he threw a curious look over his shoulder. "Do you really believe that?"
"I'm not insecure, not really." I answered indirectly. "But when it comes to me being put beside Nicola, I can guarantee you and Jay, and the rest of the team would choose her over me. It's just the unfortunate truth and what society wants to see."
Liam laughed at the response, shaking his head. "Jay had the chance to choose her over and over, and who'd he end up choosing, Reese?"
I hardly had enough time to think about it before he continued.
"And I'd choose you over and over again before I'd ever go to Nic, Reese. She is, as you said, the same heartless, plastic Barbie doll that society has crafted her to be. You, you're real."
I almost defended Nicola against the harsh words. She wasn't at all that, but it was the façade she wore and seemed content in the false skin.
I never got the chance to give him a response. Just as I looked toward him again a loud clap of thunder that sent me half way off the couch cut the power. I heard Liam laugh despite not being able to see how scared I was. I touched the arm of the couch multiple times before I found my phone. Switching on the flashlight I swerved around Liam at my feet and grabbed a few candles from the hallway closet. Once I'd dug a lighter from the junk drawer in the kitchen, I lit one and set it on the kitchen table. I carried the other two in either arm and set them down on the coffee table in front of Liam. He quickly jumped to his feet and sat on the couch as I walked back around the table to join him, flopping down with a dramatic groan.
"I'm sure this isn't how you planned on spending your night." I said, smiling a little.
He grabbed the stack of notecards from the table and nodded. "I just wanted a distraction and to get a head start on the next Play. Don't be too hard on yourself."
Liam started to reach out as if he were going to touch my hand then decided against it and started to rifle through the cards.
I was so lost in my own abyss of thoughts that when the door knob turned my heart was in my throat. Liam, also on guard, stood and stared, looking ready to pounce. Both of us sighed in relief when my very wet mother stumbled in, shaking the hood of her sunflower raincoat off. She was clutching to big white bags with familiar Thai writing down the sides. My mouth started watering at the very thought of Dim Sum.
"Oh, hello, Liam!" my mom didn't notice us until she'd shaken off her wet jacket and draped it over the back of one of the kitchen chairs. This left her in her bland pink scrubs, the food now on the table beside her. "I didn't know you'd be here tonight."
"It was kind of a last minute decision." Liam crossed the room and for a moment I thought he was going to extend his hand for her to shake, but was surprised when my mother stepped forward and hugged him. She looked so small and frail against his frame it made me question if I looked like that when I was in his arms. Deciding it was weird and creepy for me to keep staring I headed for the food, grinning.
"I come baring gifts." My mom said, planting a kiss on my temple on her way to the kitchen for dishes. "Please help me set the table. Liam, sweetheart, go grab one of the candles from the living room, would you? I want to be able to see you guys."
I helped my mom with the plates, glasses, and silverware. By the time Liam sat down I had already given myself a pretty healthy serving of Dim Sum and Lo Mein noodles, with the addition of a Spring Roll on the side. Liam eyed my plate, then me with a smirk. "What?"
"Where does all of it go?" he questioned with a laugh. "You're so skinny and eat like a body builder."
My mom nearly choked on her Boba at the observation. We both looked toward her to ensure that she was good. Once she'd coughed it out a few times, she looked toward Liam with the funniest look on her face. "You're father used to say that she ate like a growing boy. I would tell him she was just stalking up for the summer because Reese eats like a mouse between May and August."
The mention of his father was enough to catch Liam's full attention. "You knew my Dad?"
"Very well." Was all my mother said.
Liam stared at her for a while, then started poking around his food with his chop sticks. I watched him intently, waiting to see his reaction to the heavenly meal set before him. Feeling my eyes on him, he smiled, the first real, genuine smile all night. "This is really good."
I composed myself, not allowing my hand to shoot up in a John Bender moment over my small victory. My mother must have seen me bouncing in my seat because she shook her head in amusement and said, "This is Reese's favorite restaurant. I'm sure if you ask Bryan he probably has hundreds of pictures of her there. She always has this huge smile on her face when she eats it."
"That's because this is the food of the Gods." I said, pointing my chop stick in my mother's direction. "It tastes heavenly."
"It's good." Liam agreed. "But I love me some cold Desmond's Subs."
I gasped, my hand falling over my heart. "How dare you?"
"Preston used to bring me here every day after school." My mom nodded toward her food. I saw Liam grow rigid upon hearing the name out of the corner of my eye. "He was like you, Reese, he would have sold his soul for the Dim Sum."
I smiled, but Liam bowed his head. "You knew my dad pretty well, didn't you?"
"Very very well." Mom repeated. "Preston was to me what Reese is to Bryan. We were the best of friends until our Sophomore year."
I couldn't help myself. "What happened?"
"Well, we started dating."
The chopsticks dropped from mine and Liam's fingers simultaneously, our mouths agape as we processed my mother's words. Finally, Liam whispered, "You and my dad dated?"
"For almost three years." Mom confirmed. "We loved each other with our entire beings, we were inseparable. As a matter of fact, we were voted most likely to last as a couple Senior year of high school."
"But you didn't." I stated the obvious.
Mom set her own pair of chopsticks against the edge of her plate and looked between Liam and I, "Unfortunately not. I had plans to start Med school right out of high school and he'd already gotten a full ride scholarship into USC, so it would have been too big of a distance. I would never, ever put myself before his dreams so I broke it off. We stayed friends, but when he met Julia senior year we spoke less and less until it was once every few months. She was a very jealous woman, she thought I would try and take Preston from her, It broke my heart when he gave it all up, USC, the NFL, his dreams. Not because it was for that very reason I broke up with him, but because it absolutely devastated him. He was never the same person again."
I looked toward Liam, curious if he was hearing the sadness in my mother's voice, but he was staring at my mom with such an intensity I was surprised Mom couldn't feel it. She continued, touching a hand to her damp hair.
"The universe definitely didn't want anything romantic to happen between us either. There was always something or someone in the way. When I met your father, Reese, that was the biggest divider in our friendship. He, like Julia, thought our friendship was something to envious of, to be worried about. We lost communication for a long time." Mom looked toward Liam then, fresh tears pooling in her eyes. "Until I decided to reach out when I was around six months pregnant with you, Reese. Raya was already two and Preston fell in love with her, but he also revealed to me that Julia had just given birth to their first child a few days prior, a beautiful little boy with these big blue eyes that he fell in love with the second he looked into them. For everything he'd grown to dislike about your mother, Liam, he found something he equally loved in you, sweetheart."
My mom's voice caught in her throat. Liam's hand was trembling as his fingers curled into a fist, his eyes mirroring Mom's.
"I had just come in for Shift Change the night of the accident. I didn't even have a chance to clock in. Julia had demanded to speak with me in the ambulance and when they wheeled her in she. . . she didn't have long. She grasped my arm so hard I cried out, and for the first time in over fifteen years of anger and hatred, she said, 'Take care of my boy, Margo. Take care of our baby boy.' Preston. . . my Preston was long gone by the time he got there. My coworker had told me that he had died doing what he did best; protecting his babies."
I didn't know who to comfort because when I looked up both of them were crying. This was news to me as well, I had no idea Mom and Mr. Scott had dated or been in love. The most I'd known is that they were good friends as kids. Liam dropped his head into his hands, but my mother thought it'd be in his best interest to go on.
"So I did as she asked. Every night, even now I do it, I would drive by your house on my way home from work. I would follow you on your late night runs to make sure that you got home safely. I would even occasionally go to your games so you knew there was someone out there for you, Liam, that understood, that loved you." My mom's glassy eyes flickered to me. "Then I saw your truck out in front of the house the first night Reese snuck out a couple months ago and thought maybe I didn't need to check on you anymore. That you had found the comfort you needed in my daughter. Then it all made sense."
I reached across the table and touched my cold fingertips to Liam's knuckles. He kept his head bowed, but I knew he was still listening to my mom.
"The universe, or possibly God, fought tooth and nail to keep Preston and me apart. What are the chances that he would have a boy and I would have a girl so close in age?" mom sighed. "I know you guys probably don't remember but we used to have Barbeques every summer and you guys would chase each other around. Preston and I would just watch, smiling, silently hoping that you guys would grow up into friends the way we had. That history would repeat itself."
"I don't remember that." I whispered.
Liam nodded. "Me either."
Mom smiled sadly at me before she stood and slipped behind my chair so she was standing at the other end of the table beside Liam. She took his head in her hands and brushed her palms across his cheeks, wiping his tears. Then she hugged him against her as if he were a small child and kissed the top of his head.
"You remind me so much of him, Liam. He would be so unbelievably proud of the man you're becoming, honey. I'm proud of you." Mom dropped her hands to his shoulders and whispered, "Just know if you ever need someone to talk to, that knew him as well as you did, I am here, sweetie. I won't let your mother down."
**
The thought of Liam Scott standing in my bedroom would have appalled me a few months ago, but after the load of new information that had been dumped on Liam tonight, there was no way I was letting him go back out in this storm. The power had come back on a little after Mom and I cleared the table, but part of me wished for it to go out again. Because seeing Liam's eyes roam my bedroom, his face an emotionless mask, I wanted to hide under my blanket.
"Mystery." Is all he said, a small smile breaking through. "You are like one giant mystery, Reese."
I looked to the picture of Raya, the twins, and I at Disneyland as he touched his thumb to it.
"I should get home." He broke the silence when I just stared. "At the way the rain is still coming down we'll probably have a fresh blanket of snow tomorrow morning."
"Stay." I croaked.
His mouth parted in surprise, the shut again before he turned away and said. "I don't think your boyfriend is going to like that very much."
"I don't like my boyfriend very much right now." I retorted. "Regardless, it's like sleeping in bed with Bryan. Jay knows about that and doesn't care."
It very much wouldn't be like sleeping bed with Bryan, but I wasn't sure enough of my feelings to say that out loud. The only thing I was sure of is that I needed to break up with Jay as soon as possible, no matter what the consequences were.
I turned my light off and fell on to my bed, scooting toward the window. After hesitating in front of my door for a second he fell on top of the blanket, rolling over so he was facing me. My fingers immediately grazed his swollen eye and the bridge of his nose, guilt hitting in strong wave that nearly knocked the wind out of me.
Liam brought his hand to my cheek and shut his good eye, his breathing ragged as he whispered,
"During the year I stood there I had known was the loss of my heart. While I was in love I was the happiest man on earth."