Chapter Thirty-Six:
Uranus’s POV (OMGGGGG. Finally right?)
I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t take being so far away from her.
“Hey, Trent,” Holly smiled warmly at me.
“Move away, skank!” I shouted and pushed past her.
There she was. Her blonde hair was just the right shade and the way her name ended with an ‘A’.
“Serena!” I called.
She turned around, waiting for me to say something.
“I have to tell you something,” I told her.
“What is it, Uranus?” she asked, looking like she really wanted to know.
Loser.
“Move your fat ass!” I yelled at her.
She called me an asshole and stalked away. Loser.
There…there was the one I wanted in all her glory.
“Olivia,” I said dreamily.
“What?” she screeched.
“I love you,” I told her, meaning every word.
“I love you too,” she said as she smacked on her gum, “’Specially when I found out you had a hot body.”
“When did I not have a hot body?” I asked suspiciously.
“When I thought you were preggers, duuuuuur. You’re so stupid.”
Oh, the way she said duuuuuur. It turned me on.
“Oh,” was all I could say.
“Hey, guess what?” she asked me.
“What?”
“I’m really Liam,” she said but then her she parts turn to he parts and Liam was standing in front of me. “’Sup bro. Didn’t know you played for the other team too,” he said sending me a wink.
“Oh my GAWWWD,” I said, shocked. “I didn’t either…. But if I loved Olivia and Olivia was Liam. And Liam is you. I love you. So I’m into duuuuudes? OH MY GAWWWD.”
“Nope, just kidding. I’m not Liam,” Liam said. “Just remember THAT’S WHAT MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL!” he shouted and all of a sudden. Liam turned into Liam Payne.
“EVERYTHING I KNOW IS A LIEEEEEEE!” I whined.
“Nah, bro. You’re still a homosexual. That isn’t a lie,” Liam Payne said in his sexy British accent.
“Ohhhhh my GAWDDDD,” I said.
“Hey, buttface,” someone said. It was Alex.
“HEyyyyyy,” I said.
“I like me some rare,” he said before he drank my blood. It turned me on. “Good night forever.”
Then I died
END OF PROJECT FAT SUIT.
Oh no. It’s the end L poor Uranus. Yeah, you guys should know. HAPPY APRIL FOOL’S DAY! I don’t know why, but I have fun making these. Did this one trick anyone? Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
So anyways, if that disappointed you guys, here’s a super long (unedited) chapter for y’all.
Chapter Thirty-Six: How CHARMing
“Stupid game,” I said bitterly and dropped my phone next to me on the bed.
I had recently gotten a phone because Kurt left me at school because he ‘forgot’ to. How do you forget about your own sister? But yeah, my dad already yelled at him and got me a new smart phone, telling me that I needed it.
But the phone wasn’t very smart because I TOTALLY turned that stupid corner in Temple Run and I died. I swear I turned.
Suddenly my bed started shaking and I freaked out a bit, but I turned my head and realized that my phone was just vibrating.
I can see you.
The text said.
I rolled my eyes. Kurt is stupid.
“Kurt, come here so I can punch you,” I said.
“Well, on that friendly invitation, of course,” Kurt said sarcastically and walked into my room. “Liam told me to give you his phone number,” he told me and sat down next to me on my bed.
Sitting up, I gave Kurt my phone because I still have no idea how to work that thing.
“Took him long enough,” I grumbled.
On Monday, Liam said we would go on our date after watching the kids at the hospital, but he was a no-show. I was worried about him. After all those dizzy spells, I didn’t know what to expect, but he had texted Kurt saying he was fine and he was at Disneyland.
“Aw, someone upset because they got stood up?” Kurt teased me as he pressed buttons on my phone.
“No, it’s because your face is ruining the atmosphere in my room,” I told him, lying.
“Rena, it’s fine to be upset. After all, you two do have chemistry together,” Kurt laughed to himself, trying to make a pun.
“You’re stupid. I don’t even take chemistry,” I corrected him. “We have physics together.”
“Ew, Rena. At least wait until you’re officially a couple for that,” Kurt said jokingly and wrinkled his nose in disgust.
It took a moment for the sexual innuendo to process in my brain, but when it did, I punched Kurt in the shoulder.
“Ow,” Kurt whined and rubbed his shoulder as if my punch actually fazed him. “Rena, you know I have sensitive shoulders ever since…” Kurt blanked, having difficulty making up a story. “Since… I don’t want to think about it. It’s too painful,” my immature brother tried to save himself and ran out the room, mock crying.
Idiot.
I picked up my phone, which Kurt had placed on my bed before gracefully went crying out of the room.
Lying back down on my bed, I went through the contacts, looking for Liam’s name. I was going to send him a strongly worded text about his absence because I was actually really excited to go on the date.
After all, it was going to be my first official date. And I would never admit to this, but I actually Googled how to prepare for it.
But before I could scroll to Liam’s name, my phone attacked me.
Okay, it didn’t attack me. My phone vibrated again and I got scared and dropped it on my face. I wasn’t used to my phone doing so many things. With my old phone, it would just ring when someone called me (and that wasn’t often). But now, this stupid smart phone vibrates when some game wants me to come back. It was frightening.
Hey
Was what the text read. It was from Liam. He was gone for five days and he gives me a one-word text?
How was Disneyland? On Friday?
I texted back, making it clear to him I didn’t appreciate being stood up.
Liam didn’t text back for a long time, so I started playing Temple Run again.
I was doing pretty well, but then I died because Liam called me.
“Did you know I was being chased by demonic monkeys? You could have killed me,” I told Liam instead of greeting him.
Liam laughed on the other line. “I’m sorry, but Temple Run will have to wait because I wanted to apologize.”
How did he know I was playing Temple Run?
“I’m listening,” I urged him to speak.
“I’m really, really sorry, Rena. My parents wanted to surprise my sisters and I with a vacation because we all seemed stressed. So I didn’t really know about it until Monday night. By the way, I’m grounded for an extra week since my mom found out I sneaked out of the house,” Liam explained, rushing through quite a bit.
His parents let them all go to Disneyland because they we’re stressed, but Liam got grounded just because he came back drenched in water? That was odd and a bit fishy.
“But, my sisters are still in town and told me they would help me sneak out again,” Liam stated, hinting at something.
“And?” I’ll admit I was being kind of mean. The guy didn’t know he would be gone, but still I was stood up. Can’t I be a tiny bit mean?
“Serena Davidson, will you go out with me tonight?” Liam asked. “This one will have a 99.99 percent chance was actually happening,” he added in jokingly.
“Fine,” I answered. “Just let me go back to running for my dear life as I try to escape the clutches of demonic monkeys.”
“Okay,” Liam laughed. “I’ll pick you up at seven?”
“That’s good. Bye,” I bade him goodbye and hung up without waiting for him to say bye. Rude, I know, but he did interrupt a very important game.
I thought I was free from everything after Liam called, but here I was staring in awe at my phone. Out of everyone on my contact list, I really didn’t expect this person to call me.
The screen of my phone read Maria Hamilton.
“Hello?” I answered hesitantly. She was going to yell at me I could just tell. I told her I would keep in touch, but I’m not really a long-distance type of person. I just hated talking on the phone or emailing…it felt too weird and impersonal.
Maria didn’t yell at me though. Instead, I heard crying.
“Maria?” I asked, concerned.
“I’m—outside—outside your house,” she said between sobs and she hung up the phone.
All I could think as I dashed down the stairs was the worst. Did someone hurt her? Did someone pass away? What the hell is wrong with Maria?
I quickly unlocked the front door and made a mad dash to…Ryan’s car?
As soon as she saw me, she rushed out of the car and embraced me. I didn’t complain. Instead and wrapped my arms around her, gently patting her back as she sobbed into my shoulder.
“Ryan—Ryan and I,” Maria started to cry between sobs, but I shushed her.
“You can tell me when you calm down,” I told calmly her as she continued to cry.
I looked at the car. How the hell did she manage to get here without breaking down and crashing into something?
Soon, Maria’s sobs dissolved into silent tears and we made it into my house.
We went into the kitchen so I could get Maria a drink.
“I broke up with Ryan,” Maria said once she had her drink and I was seated across from her.
“What? Why?” I asked, shocked. They seemed so in love when I last saw them.
“It was this morning. I woke up and went over to his house and I saw him,” Maria paused her voice dying out. “He was kissing another girl,” she nearly whispered. “So, I stole the asshole’s car and I guess I ended up here.”
I was ready to be so pissed at Ryan, but I didn’t want to assume anything.
“You didn’t say anything to him?” I clarified.
Maria thought back. “I think I shouted that we were over and then I stole his car and drove off.”
“Maria, we’ve both known him for so long. I don’t think it’s fair to ignore his side of the story,” I tried to reason with her.
“I swear to God, Rena. They were kissing. What else could it be?” Maria asked me, looking like she lost hope in her boyfriend’s credibility. “You call him. I think I would swear him out if I did,” she told me and tossed me her phone.
I looked at the screen. Twenty-three missed calls from Ryan. Eighteen new text messages… from Ryan.
Suddenly the phone started ringing.
“You better have a reason for this,” I answered the phone.
“Oh my God, Rena. Thank God, I was beginning to think the worse. Is she okay?” Ryan talked quickly.
“She’s fine. Heartbroken, but nothing physical,” I answered his question.
“Tell that to my heart,” I heard Maria muttered and slumped in the kitchen chair.
“Explain yourself,” I demanded of Ryan and put him on speaker.
“I was rehearsing for the school play with Autumn. And she took it too far,” Ryan explained.
“It looked like you enjoyed it,” Maria shouted from her spot.
“I swear. I had no intention of doing that with her, Maria. She literally shoved her tongue down my throat!” Ryan tried to talk sense into his girlfriend. “I would never, ever cheat on you.”
I gently placed Maria’s phone in front of her on the table. I feel like this is a private conversation.
Maria looked like she was contemplating something.
“Maria, you’ve known me since we were little kids. I’m your best friend and your mine. I care so much about you. You had no idea what I was going through when you suddenly disappeared like that…. There’s a hole in my wall,” Ryan reassured Maria.
Maria still looked like she was thinking it over. I think she was crazy for believing Ryan would do something like that. Don’t get me wrong. If he were cheating on my best friend, I would have probably kicked his ass.
“You’re so stupid,” Maria finally spoke to him.
“Does this mean you forgive me?”
“Yes, you stupid oaf. You better tell this ‘Autumn’ girl to back the hell away from you before I ninja on her ass,” Maria said with a smile.
I took in a breath of relief. The resolved their issues in less then twenty minutes. Why couldn’t Holly and Uranus be this easy?
“Aw, you’re jealous,” Ryan cooed. “Do you see how that feels? Maybe you’ll think twice before befriending anymore guys.”
“Are you kidding me? I caught you kissing some girl. I was just talking to those guys.”
“Come on, Maria. You just made up with that guy,” I huffed. I can’t believe they were starting another fight.
“HI RENA!” Ryan called through the phone.
“Hi, Ryan,” I greeted somewhat less enthusiastically.
“Babe, can we talk about how it’s not cool to steal someone’s car?” Ryan redirected his attention on his stolen car.
“Don’t call me babe. And I’ll talk to you later. Kay, bye,” with that, Maria hung up on her boyfriend.
“Well, a real mess was avoided,” I commented after silence had ensued.
“Rena!” Maria shouted like she had just seen me and came running in for another hug. “I missed you! Why didn’t you call me?” she scolded me.
“Because my phone died,” I excused myself lamely.
“Oops, did I do that?” Maria asked impersonating Urkel’s voice, as she pointed to the stain of mascara her tears had left on my shirt.
“Yup,” I answered simply.
“Thanks, Rena. I guess, even after all these years, you’re the one who gets blessed with crying Maria,” Maria joked and thanked me.
“No, problem. Now let’s talk about how you got here. Did you run over anybody?” I asked seriously, still wondering you she got here without causing an accident.
“No, Rena,” Maria chuckled. “I’m a really good driver when I’m angry. Ask the person who was with me on my driver’s test. ‘You’re going too fast. You’re going too fast. SLOW DOWN, CRAZY GIRL,’ he said. He was really annoying me. But, yeah, I still have one, don’t I?” She flashed me a smile. “What’s new with you?”
I shook my head at her normal shenanigans before answering her. “I have a date,” I informed her and looked at the clock. “In four hours,” I said more precisely.
“Oooo, juicy. With who? Hunky cashier guy or sexy birthday boy?” Maria urged me to clarify, getting that glint of excitement in her eye.
“Sexy birthday boy,” I said reluctantly. Really? She had to remember them by those names?
“You don’t look that excited about this,” Maria observed. “Shut the front door,” she said suddenly. “You like hunky cashier guy don’t you?”
The thing I liked about Maria was that she picked up on thing like this quickly. So I never had to do any of the painful ‘I have a huge problem’ moments.
I nodded confirming. There’s no use in hiding it anymore.
“Oh my gosh, girlie, spill.”
“Do I have to?” I whined, not feeling like opening up old wounds.
“No, Rena. I drove from two towns over just leave without catching up on your life.”
I was about to say she came her because she broke up with her boyfriend, but I felt like that was too soon.
But eventually, I did ‘spill’ everything. I told her about nearly everything—how I met Uranus, Holly, and Liam, how I started having a crush on Uranus, how I was being stupid and pushed them out of my life, all of Liam and I’s dates, Sherry’s death—just everything. And it felt so good saying it to someone else. Kurt was there, but I don’t think he could empathize with me as well as Maria could.
She listened attentively to every word until I finished.
“Girlie, you’ve been holding out. You’ve been through a lot,” Maria told me. “But I think you’re being stupid with the whole hunky cashier guy thing.”
“Why?” I asked, staring at my ceiling.
We had moved to my room during the whole thing and we were now lying side by side on my bed.
“If you like him, go get him, right?” Maria told me. “You want to know how Ryan and I got together?”
“Ew, no, that sounds disgusting,” I played with her.
“Not like that,” Maria said and playfully punched my arm. I nodded for her to continue her story. “Well, I think I was the one who had the feelings for him first. I didn’t really act on it though. But I got really jealous when he started to get to know this new girl in the theatre group. She was the main lead in one of our new plays and of course they just had to have stage kiss. So, on opening night, I ran out from behind the stage and kissed him right there and then—everyone was so mad at me for that, but I couldn’t take it anymore, you know? So, I went for it.”
“You kissed him in the middle of the play?” I nearly shouted. “Geez, Maria, you’ve got guts.”
“Its not like he didn’t like it. After all, he was the one who asked me to be his girlfriend… also on stage,” Maria said as if that excused herself.
“That’s so adorable, yet weird,” I commented, but I couldn’t help at smiling at their cute love story.
“The crowd ate it up though. They actually thought it was part of the play,” Maria said in contentment, as if remembering that night. “You’ve had plenty of cute moments with this Liam guy though. Holding hands in a pot of soup, cuddling in the middle of all those candles, falling into a lake? Pretty Nicholas Cage if you ask me,” Maria switched the subject on me.
“You still don’t read, do you?” I asked her.
“So? ...Wait is it Nicholas Sparks or Cage?” Maria asked, momentarily confused. “Whatever it doesn’t matter,” she waved the subject matter off. “But it seems like what you’re concerned about is having cute moments with the right guy.”
I sighed. “Yup.”
“Ask hunky cashier guy out on a date. See if you really like him,” Maria suggested. “He’s single right now, right?”
“I don’t know. I think he really is in love with Holly.”
After I left them on Monday, they seemed to be getting along. They weren’t exactly lovey-dovey status, but they were friends again. Though, Holly was still doing her best to never initiate the conversation with Uranus.
“Pity date? You’ve been with him through a lot. I don’t think he would exactly reject you if you so happened to ask.”
“Maria, that’s like asking for more heartbreak,” I immediately shot down the idea. “I think I’m just going to leave it alone. Let the wind blow where it may.”
“You’re too good of a person, Rena. If were in your situation, I’d jump him,” Maria told me. “Holy crap, it’s five,” she noted, sitting up. “We only have two hours to get you ready for your date with sexy birthday boy.”
“That’s plenty of time,” I waved it off. “I’ll do it later.”
I just didn’t want her to go overboard with this. I wanted it to be a casual thing and I bet Maria would have none of that.
“Nope, you’re getting up. Let’s go. Chop, chop,” Maria commanded, hoping out of my bed and dragging me along with her.
It’s going to be a long night.
“I swear to God, Rena. It’s like you haven’t used this side of your closet for like five-hundred years,” Maria complained as she threw a bunch of clothes out of my closet.
It was because I hadn’t used it in three years. Okay, when I said I told her everything, I didn’t really tell her everything. I left the part about my fat suit out. No one really needs to know about that except for me.
Maria already did my hair. My really old curling iron broke halfway through the curling and Maria got frustrated and put my hair into some fancy half-up half-down style. And she had some mascara and eyeliner, so that was it for makeup.
And now here I was, lounging on my bed waiting for her to pick something that was suitable for me to wear. She wasn’t succeeding so far. She just got past all of my hoodies and found my old clothing.
“There’s a bunch of dust in here and it’s making me—“
Maria got cut off by her own sneeze.
“Bless you,” I called for her as I sat on my bed bored.
“Eureka!” she called and rushed out of the closet, nearly tripping on the mountain of clothing in front of the closet.
“You found something?” I asked, getting up, slightly surprised. I thought I buried those clothes deep within my closet.
“We Hufflepuffs are particularly good finders,” Maria quoted AVPM and shoved the dress my way.
I took hold of it and looked at it. It was one of my old summer dresses. It was a rich maroon and fell down to right above my knees. It had two straps that looked like they were braided.
“I’m going to freeze in that thing,” I told her, giving her a ‘are you crazy’ look.
“That’s how you get their jackets, silly,” Maria justified herself.
I looked on the pile of hoodies in front of me and then back at her. Does it really look like I need more?
“You’re wearing that and it’s final. I’ll find you a jacket, since you keep complaining.”
“It’s a summer dress and it’s winter,” I muttered hopelessly. Maria wouldn’t back down.
“Fine, you can wear tights too,” she agreed, throwing a pair of my old tights at my head.
“Ow, “ I whined and scattered out of my room and into the hall bathroom before Maria could continue to be mean to me.
I went back into my room moments later to find even more clothing thrown about.
“I feel itchy,” I told her as I sat on my bed.
“Itchy is good,” Maria said, but I don’t think she was paying attention to me.
I glanced at my alarm clock. It was seven. Shit.
Not even a minute later, the doorbell rang. Maria scrambled out of the closet and shoved some jacket into my arms.
“That’s your cue, Rena! Go get the door!” Maria ordered me excitedly and practically shoved me all the way to the front door.
I think she was more excited about my date than she was.
Before I could open the door, Maria hugged me.
“It was nice seeing you again, Rena. I missed you while you were gone,” Maria told me as I hugged her back. “And thanks for today. I don’t know what would have happened if Ryan and I hadn’t worked things out,” she said. “Speaking of whom, I should probably give him his car back.”
I laughed and let go of her. “You should. And thanks for…this,” I gestured to my mini makeover. “I’ll try to call you more.”
“Alright, remember Rena—hugs not drugs, stay in school, use protection, and good luck,” Maria reminded me teasingly and exited my house. “Love you,” she called as she went through the door.
“You better treat her like a princess,” I heard Maria warn someone. Probably Liam.
I shook my head at her eccentric behavior and then I remembered that Liam was waiting outside too.
“What, no flowers?” I said, teasing Liam after I had stepped outside to find him leaning casually next to the door.
Liam’s attention snapped from the ground to me. “Rena,” Liam said, staring at me, “You look beautiful.”
Saying that I wasn’t flustered or fazed by his compliment would be a lie. And apparently my awkward social tendencies tend to appear when I’m flustered.
I couldn’t look him in the eye for more than two seconds, so I was looking back and forth between the street behind him and Liam.
“You too,” I choked out, not really thinking. “Wait. Not beautiful…like a girl, but you know the manly type of beautiful. Handsome. Yeah. Handsome,” I corrected myself, babbling a bit.
And it was true, but much to my dismay, Liam wasn’t dressed all fancy. He was clad in a pair of dark jeans and a black button-up with a white shirt underneath. Over the shirt, he had on a dark grey coat. His hair was in its usual attractively messy self. I felt kind of stupid dressing up now.
Liam chuckled at my spiel.
“Shut up,” I muttered. “Come on inside. I need to get my shoes,” I told him and stepped back into my house.
“Wait, Rena,” Liam called me back and took my hand. “I, uh, did sort of get you flowers…well flower.” Liam reached for something inside one of his jacket pockets and placed whatever it was into my hand. “I didn’t want to get you something that would die in a matter of weeks,” Liam told me referring to the flowers. “So I got you something that would remind you of me that wouldn’t die,” he finished.
I looked up at Liam. The way he said that was bothering me. He said it like I would need something to remember him bye. ‘Die in a matter of a few weeks’. I scanned his face for more clues. Was he dying?
“Rena, you going to look at it?” Liam asked, his solemn expression replaced with a smile and looked at the object he put in my hand.
I pushed my thoughts away. This was my first official date. I shouldn’t be really thinking about that stuff, right?
I gave him a weak smile before looking at the palm of my hand.
At the center of my palm was a blob with a ring attached to it. I tilted my head, hoping that maybe I could figure it out from a different angle, but it was still just a blob of metal.
“Uh…thanks for the…piece of metal?” I thanked Liam, struggling to find words to describe the metal.
Liam sighed. “I should have listened to her,” he said exasperated. “My sister’s in a jewelry making class and she brought some stuff home to do her project. I asked her if I could make something for you,” Liam said shyly, looking at the piece of metal in my hand. “It was supposed to be a flower charm for your bracelet.”
A smile spread on my face at the sweet attempt. I observed the trinket once more. It sort of looked like a rose…it had some folds and…stuff.
“I love it,” I told him, being honest with him. I love homemade gifts and always thought they said a lot more, so I appreciated them. I still have one of my tenth birthday cards just because Kurt drew a picture of a shark in roller skates.
I put the ‘rose’ on my charm bracelet, smiling at it.
“You don’t have to lie,” Liam told me, giving a forced laugh. “It’s not the—“
I cut him off with a hug because I genuinely loved it and he needed to know that.
“I love it. I swear,” I said to him and released him. “Thanks.”
“Well, well, well, what do we have here,” Kurt said from behind me, making me jump.
“What, Kurt?” I asked annoyed.
“Nothing.” Kurt leaned against the doorframe, folding his arms over his chest. “Just doing my big brother duties and checking up on my little sister’s date.”
“Kurt, you’ve been pushing us to do this for ages. I don’t think you need to do anymore questioning,” I reasoned, trying to save myself from more embarrassment. “Come on, Liam. Let’s go,” I said quickly and lead him by the elbow to the driveway. “Are we walking?” I asked, confused because there wasn’t any means of transportation besides my brother’s car.
Liam gave me nervous look. “I kind of asked Kurt if we could borrow his car for today since I can’t really drive at the moment.”
I stared blankly at Liam for a second.
I bet this was Kurt’s plan. He wanted to wound my pride as I marched back to the porch reluctantly.
“Don’t look so smug,” I spat when I saw the smirk on Kurt’s face.
“Aw, come on, sister dearest,” Kurt practically sang as he ‘discreetly’ took his keys out of hi pocket. “How about we all go and—”
Annoyed at Kurt’s sudden need to be an overly protective brother, I snatched the keys out of his hands when he was busy blabbering about something.
“Hey!” Kurt whined.
“Hay is for horses,” I told him condescendingly as I walked back to the driveway.
“Rena, just be careful, alright?” Kurt called after me, sounding genuinely concerned.
A wave up guilt washed over me. Kurt was just trying to be a good brother and I wasn’t helping with that.
I backed up a few steps so Kurt was in my line of sight.
“I’ll be careful,” I promised him giving him a reassuring smile.
“And tell Liam and hanky panky-ing,” Kurt warned, wagging his finger and loosing all of his caring tone.
I rolled my eyes. “Bye Kurt,” I bade my brother goodbye and went back to Liam.
:::x:::O:::x:::
“So tell me why you can’t drive again?” I asked as I drove, following Liam’s vague directions. I had to make three U turns already and I was getting slight road rage from the amount of people honking at me.
“Uh…I lost my license,” Liam told me. “Turn right.”
I scrambled to turn in time, getting yet another honk. “I swear. You’re just like a dysfunctional GPS,” I muttered under my breath.
Liam laughed at me. “I thought girls like spontaneous guys.”
“That’s only when they’re doing the spontaneous. I really don’t like driving without have the destination in mind,” I told him.
All I could tell at the moment was that it was busy. The roads we have been taking were just jam-packed with cars.
“We’re almost there,” Liam told me as if that would ease my frustration. “It’s on the left.”
I nearly forgot to brake when I was looking where Liam was pointing. Was he crazy? He was taking me to the movie theater—the main hangout for teens everywhere, including teens from my school.
I was violently pulled back by my seatbelt as I stomped on the brake, waiting to turn into the plaza that held my personal hell. “Are you crazy?” I echoed my thoughts to Liam.
“I don’t know, Rena. That last brake sent my head reeling a bit,” Liam joked, trying to avoid the subject.
I restrained from hitting my head on the steering wheel.
“There might be people from our school there,” I told Liam calmly.
“The light’s green,” Liam told me.
I accelerated and pulled into the full plaza.
“Did you not hear me?” I asked him, pulling into the first empty parking spot, knowing I probably wouldn’t find a better one. “People. I. Know. Heeeere,” I emphasized.
“Rena, I wanted to go on a normal date with you and that’s kind of hard to do when you’re trying to hard to avoid something mundane as running into someone you know,” Liam told me, looking at me seriously.
“But what if my secret gets out?” I asked him.
I knew I was going to give in and go into my personal nightmare. He just made me feel really guilty. He wanted a normal date and I wanted to go on one too, but I was just getting in the way with my fat suit problems.
It wouldn’t be that bad anyways. I could finally do something in public without my suit.
“Don’t worry, Rena. It won’t happen,” Liam promised me. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t.”
He better hope he doesn’t.
“How are you going to do that? Throw me head first into a trashcan if we recognize someone?” I asked jokingly.
“…I wasn’t planning on it, but now that you mention it,” Liam teased me.
“You know, if I wasn’t craving popcorn right now, that statement would totally deterred me from going into that hellhole,” I subtly hinted that I was fine with catching a movie.
After I cut the engine of the car, Liam and I trekked the long journey to the cinema. As we were going, my nerves started to build up.
What if someone really did recognize me? After all, Liam and Uranus had figured it out pretty quickly. Would I be able to keep them from spilling? Would it be the end for my fat suit?
“You okay?” Liam asked nudging my hand with his.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I told him, giving him a smile. “Just a bit worried Maria dressed me up a bit too fancy for this place,” I made up.
“No one’s going to find out,” Liam reassured me once more, looking right through my lie. “And if we do run into someone, I’ll be there,” he said, looking straight into my eyes.
“Thanks,” I said in a meek voice.
His gaze was just so smothering. My stomach felt as if someone had released flies inside my stomach and dumped a bunch of hungry frogs in it afterwards. And you would think the stomach acid would get to them, but nope.
It didn’t help that Liam took my hand in his. Oh my god, I really hope my hands weren’t sweaty. They tended to do that when I was nervous.
I managed to beat down the freaking frogs during the next ten minutes while we got our tickets and popcorn. And I began to enjoy myself. I wasn’t panicking about the possibility of running into someone and right now Liam and I were throwing popcorn at each other like the mature young adults we were.
“Stop it, Liam!” I yelled him, fishing out a piece of popcorn out of my hair, but nevertheless I was still laughing.
“You started it,” Liam blamed me and kept pelting pieces of popcorn at me.
“It was an accident!” I defended myself.
“Yeah, because a fistful of popcorn flying towards my head is an accident,” Liam said sarcastically.
“You’re the one who insisted on the horror movie,” I blamed him.
Through those frog-fly scenes, Liam had apparently bought tickets to a horror movie. I’m fine with horror movies. I could handle all the scary stuff that happened, but what I could not take was all the suspense. If something popped up on the screen, I would be screaming my head off.
“…Okay, so maybe it wasn’t an accident,” I told him after thinking about it.
I really did just take a hand full of popcorn and chucked it at him when he told me it was a horror movie.
“Thought so,” Liam said smugly and threw one last piece of popcorn at me.
“The people that have to clean up will hate us,” I commented, looking at the popcorn-covered floor.
We were lucky no one else was caught in the war zone. Apparently this movie came out two weeks ago, so no one really wanted to see this film. There were only about five people in here with us now and they had chosen the front row.
Liam didn’t reply. His gaze was on the base of the stairs and he looked really worried.
I followed his gaze and all the nerves about running in to someone came back, but now it was sheer fear. I could feel myself freezing up.
Alex. The guy who had thrown punch on me at the dance was there with his basketball chums.
They were getting closer and closer.
I turned around to face Liam hoping he would find some sort of escape.
“It’s Alex,” I hissed.
“I know,” Liam whispered, turning his attention back to me. “I’m so sorry about this, Rena. I should have listened to you.”
“That’s not important right now,” I replied. “We need to get out of here. He’s getting closer,” I said panicked. There was other way out other than the way Alex was coming up.
“Uh,” Liam hesitated for a second, but he seemed to get an idea. Quickly, he pulled up the bar-cup-holder thing that was separating our chairs. “Please don’t hate me for this,” he said before taking a hold of my waist and pulled closer to him. I was nearly in his lap. He lowered his head to mine and my heart skipped a beat at our close proximity.
For a second, I saw his lips dart to mine and I swear I thought he was going to kiss me, but he didn’t. He just put his forehead on mine.
“What are you doing?” I finally worked up the nerve to ask.
I could feel his minty breath on my face and our noses were touching. And our lips were a dangerous half-inch apart.
“Alex and his friends are heading towards the row behind ours. He can’t see you if we’re this close” he explained. “We can go when the lights dim,” he briefed me in on the plan.
“Oh,” was all I could say because I was heavily distracted by his breath tickling my face.
My arms were getting uncomfortable at my side, so I started shifting them around. Liam noticed my discomfort and with his hand that wasn’t around my waist, put my arms around his neck.
“This isn’t a very normal first date,” I said, trying to ease the situation.
“What? Kissing?” Liam laughed.
“No, being this close you know, without doing the deed,” I clarified.
“Do you want to ‘do the deed’? It would be way more convincing,” Liam asked me teasingly.
“Shut up,” I said lamely, just noticing the dirty side to what I had said.
“It’s hard for me too, Rena. Your lips are just centimeters away,” Liam said suddenly.
I swear his lips were getting closer. Was he going to kiss me? The frogs and the flies were going crazy in my stomach and if my heart beats any faster, I think it would explode.
The crazy thing is that I think I was inching closer as well.
“Go get a room. This is a goddamn theater room, not a freaking whore house,” Alex said suddenly, sounding really close. His chums started laughing.
Liam suddenly pulled away and pressed my head against the nape of his neck. “Dude, shut up. That wasn’t even funny,” Liam said.
What was he doing?
“Come on, Rebecca. We don’t need to hear this crap,” Liam said, getting up, taking me with him.
Oh.
Liam then lead me out with one hand still around my waist and me pressed against his side.
“That’s right, wimp. Walk away,” Alex shouted as we descended the stairs quickly.
“Asshole,” I mumbled.
Liam laughed.
“Well, that was really close,” I stated once we got out of the theater room. I could finally take my head away from Liam’s shoulder.
I gently walked out Liam’s hold too. I just felt confused at the moment and him touching me just felt weird. And I didn’t want to lead him on if it turned out I didn’t have feelings for him.
Liam looked hurt for a moment, but he recovered quickly. “I know. Thankfully, I’m so smart,” Liam commended himself. “And I didn’t even need to throw you into a trashcan.”
“Ha-ha,” I laughed sarcastically. “We could have just thrown the bucket of popcorn on his head and ran for it,” I said, trying to show my wits.
“And waste good popcorn on that punk?” Liam asked, looking appalled that I would even consider wasting popcorn.
“And where’s the popcorn now, Liam?” I asked condescendingly.
Liam thought for a moment before getting a look of mock despair on his face. “How could we have forsaken that golden, buttery heaven?”
“We? No, buddy. You’re the one who knocked it down when you pulled me towards you,” I corrected him. I suddenly felt awkward talking about what just happened, so I changed the subject. “Where are we going to go now?” I asked as we exited the theater.
“Where do you want to go?” Liam turned the question back on me.
“I don’t know. That’s why I asked you.”
“Do you want some ice cream?” Liam offered, gesturing towards the ice cream shop that was a few buildings down from the theater.
“What type of question is that?” I asked incredulously. “Who wouldn’t? Let’s go!” I said excitedly.
:::x:::O:::x:::
After we had enjoyed our ice cream it was getting pretty late, so I was taking Liam home, but we ended up talking for another half an hour about in his driveway.
It was just so easy with Liam. No subject ever got boring or dry. And I felt I could be myself around him. I was having a great time and there wasn’t five minutes without laughter from at least one of us.
“So, Rena, did you enjoy yourself on this date?” Liam asked me.
“Yes, Liam,” I answered honestly. “It was my best first normal date ever even though it didn’t start out very normal.”
“That’s good. This is the best date ever gone on,” Liam said, looking me in the eye.
“Really?” I asked. “Were all your other dates really bad then?”
“No, this date is the best because I had the best date on this date,” Liam said sweetly.
Seriously, Liam could write a book on one-liners that will get any girl’s heart racing.
“We didn’t have any fruits today,” I tried to laugh off his compliment.
“Rena, you know what I meant,” Liam said.
“Well, your face,” I said lamely.
“I’m sure your face knew what I meant too.”
I looked out the windshield of my car, trying to come up with something that would change the topic. I didn’t think I’d actually find something, but there, on the roof was a figure.
“Uh, Liam?” I got his attention. “Does Santa Claus visit your house regularly?” I asked pointing to the roof of his house.
“Oh my god,” Liam said sound embarrassed. “That’s not Santa Claus, Rena. That’s one of my sisters spying on us.”
Looking closer, I could see that the figure had binoculars in her hand.
“Well, that’s kind of creepy,” I noted.
“I have to go before my crazy sister hurts herself,” Liam excused himself, unbuckling his seatbelt. He looked at me again before opening the door. “I hope we can do this again, Rena.”
“Thanks for the great time,” I thanked him, sending him a smile. “Now go get your crazy sister from the roof.”
“Oh, right,” Liam suddenly remembered his sister and shuffled out of the car, dashing towards his house.
I turned on the engine again and was about to drive off, but someone was knocking on my window.
I rolled it down to see Liam.
“What?” I asked him.
“I forgot to say that you look beautiful tonight,” he said and bent down and kissed my cheek. “’Night!” he called as he retreated to his house.
“Night,” I said softly, touching my cheek.
Goddamn stupid frogs.
:::x::O:::x:::
Author’s Note:
Hey Guys! Yeah… I kind of lied about this being up LAST Friday, but I legitimately thought I would be done by then since I already had three-fourths done, but school is a pain.
But awwww! Liam and Rena.
Bye!
Is Rena finally crushing on Liam? 0.o Or is it some urge to kiss someone?
Who remembered Alex (Honestly)?
MARIA!