“So my dad had this great idea.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh, wait ‘till you hear it! It’s absolutely horrifying!”
“For God’s sake, Piper, just tell me!”
“Okay. So it was as soon as I freaking woke up yesterday morning…..”
It had been a beautiful and sunny Sunday morning. I had gotten up at ten o’clock, feeling a bit more refreshed and less….trampy. So, with a big smile on my face, I trotted down the stairs, fully intending to make breakfast. But, to my dismay, my mother was already dishing breakfast up. It looked like biscuits and gravy—a thing my mother made well, but hardly ever made—but you never know; that sausage could be anchovies. This all should have been my first clue.
“Morning, honey!” my mom had greeted with this glowing grin on her face.
I had sat at the table warily, eyeing my biscuit—I hated the gravy; just the biscuit and butter. “Morning….”
Dad was already seated at the head of the table, glued to his blackberry.
“Honey, turn that off,” my mom had muttered, placing his plate in front of him. I swear, she had the mindset to snatch that little device from him immediately.
Anyway, as soon as my mother was seated, I knew something was up.
“What’s…..going on?” I’d asked warily.
“Well, your mom says I have to ask you first,” my father began. “but what do you think of having Liam and his girlfriend over this week? I barely see him anymore.”
For a minute, all I could do was stare at them. I had forced myself to shrug nonchalantly. “That’s fine. Um, but you do remember I’m staying the night at Lulu’s this weekend, right?”
My mom had sighed in a way that signaled she saw through my lie and petty excuse to get out of dinner. “I really think you should be here.”
I had given her a hard look. I never should have told her anything was up. Now she thought it was her duty to fix it. That’s what this dinner was really gonna be about; my parents trying to mend mine and Liam’s past friendship.
“Maybe we just weren’t meant to friends,” I told Lulu now.
“Okay, it’s completely screwed up what your parents are doing for one,” she said finally after being eerily silent for the past few minutes as I bitched. “And second, I can’t believe you would say that! Of course you two were meant to be friends! He’s just being a little immature right now.”
“A little?”
Lulu gave me a hard, stern look. “Well, what d’you think was gonna happen, Piper? When a guy really decides to love a woman, he puts all his love into her. You can’t blame the guy for being a bit crushed right now.”
I combed my hair back with my fingers, feeling miserable. “Thanks, Lulu.”
“Hey, I’m serious. You’ve gotta give him time to mourn the loss of your affection. Although, personally, I think you’re being a stubborn ass. But that’s just my opinion.”
I let my back fall flat on her bed, feeling lower than dirt. First, I’m a slut. But now I was a heartbreaking slut. It just got better and better.
Lulu sighed, lying back with me. “Can I make a suggestion?” Without waiting for a reply, she plowed right into it. “Don’t bring Kyle to this thing.”
I stared at her. “Why not? What the hell’s the point in dating him if Liam never knows?”
“Just trust me on this one, okay? Now’s not the right time. It’ll just turn into a huge pissing contest, and your parents don’t deserve that.”
I sighed. “You’re right……”
“I know.”
A few minutes passed in silence. Then I randomly said, “I let your brother kiss me Saturday night.”
Lulu bolted upright, staring at me. “You did?”
I nodded.
“Eww!”
“It wasn’t ‘ew’ the first time,” I felt the need to defend. Until the last part, Kyle was actually, dare I say, enjoyable Saturday.
“The first time?”
I winced, making a face. “He did it again as I was leaving. Then it was just kinda awkward and slutty.”
“Ewww! God, Piper! Total TMI! Keep these awful things to yourself! He didn’t slip you the tongue, did he?”
I started laughing.
“Well, I’m just saying! I’d die!”
“Yes, Lulu. He slipped me the tongue and made me moan with internal desire!”
Lulu closed her eyes. “Gross! I know you’re kidding, but, damn, you’re so freaking convincing sometimes, you know?!”
“I know,” I laughed.
It was cool to just kick back at a friend’s house after school. And being that Lulu was basically my only friend, it was that much cooler. I was so thankful for her friendship, and sometimes I didn’t think I expressed that enough. I mean…she was letting me use her brother to get even with Liam…..
God, even thinking his name made my heart constrict painfully. How could he have that much of a hold on me? Especially when I obviously didn’t love him! I mean, if I did, wouldn’t I have known right when he kissed me and told me he loved me? It was so stupid; an eighteen year old guy saying he was in love! Teen love wasn’t even real. Liam didn’t know what he felt. It certainly wasn’t love. He would have fought harder if he really loved me.
Am I saying that I wanted him to fight for me? To try to convince me that I did, in fact, return his feelings?
How odd……
Throughout the entire week, I’d been looking for crafty ways to get out of this dinner. Nothing worked, though. My mother was dead set determined to make things right between Liam and me.
To say I was a nervous wreck would be a serious understatement. I must have changed clothes a thousand and one times. I was sure Lulu was sick of me. I mean, I had called her several times periodically through the day. I basically lost sleep the entire week. What would I even say to him? If Tanya wasn’t coming, I think I could handle it. But she was and I just had to deal with that. Somehow. God, I was gonna kill my parents! Who are they fooling anyway? This would never work! If anything, this would make it worse. I had been doing just fine pretending Liam didn’t exist.
Oh, Piper, who’re you kidding?
“Piper! They’re here!” my mom called up the stairs.
I immediately froze up. Oh, God. I was shaking. My palms were sweaty….I was clamming up! Maybe I was coming down with something….Oh, God, my deorderant was failing! What was I gonna do?
LIAM IS COMING IN MY HOUSE!
OhGodohGodohGodohGodohGodohGodohGodohGod!
I was gonna kill that slutty bitch! It would be all I could do to not leap at her from across the table and gauge her eyes out. And than his! I hate her! I hate him! I hate me for getting this worked up and for feeling this way! I hate him again for making me feel this way!
“Piper?” my mom called back up again.
I heard the front door open and my dad’s booming voice, greeting them; the two people who have thus ruined my life.
I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm myself. “Coming,” I called down.
The dorrknob felt slippery in my hand as I twisted it and walked down the carpeted stairs with wobbly legs. Apparently they were very wobbly, because my foot hit the carpet just right halfway down and I slipped and fell on my ass, sliding painfully all the way down until I landed in a dazed heap at the end of the stairs.
When I looked up, there stood everyone. My dad looked like he could laugh, as did Tanya, with her hands clinging on Liam’s arm. My mom looked shocked and Liam just stared, brow raised ever so slightly. He looked good, better than when I saw him last. He’d shaved and his hair looked, dare I say, like he put a brush through it. He looked somehow….taller.
“Honey…are you okay?” my mom asked finally.
I looked at her, smiling, even though I wanted to cry in humiliation. I tried not to wince as I stood up, trying to laugh it off. “Darn stairs,” I muttered.
“Darn feet is more like,” Tanya giggled. My dad, not noticing the jibe, nor the nasty glint in her eyes, laughed along. Soon, my mom joined in.
The three of them moved on into the kitchen, Tanya’s arm looped around my dad’s. She was trying so hard to get on his good side.
But Liam stared. He watched me for a full minute before asking, “You okay?”
“I said I was, didn’t I?” I replied, not meaning to have a bite in my tone. But it sort of came out nasty.
His jaw tightened, gaze roaming into the kitchen, eyes narrowed. “Right,” he muttered before following everyone else.
I sighed, leaning against the wall. I could feel the rising lump in my throat, the tears threatening to leak. It was already so hard, and the night had just begun. I couldn’t do this. What kind of parents would make their daughter go through this kind of torment?
Well, maybe if you’d filled them in a little bit better….
No. I refused to take blame in any of this.
Taking a deep breath, I marched into the kitchen. Everyone was seated at the table, looking comfy. I didn’t think I could sit down, so I went over to where my mom stood by the stove, stirring something.
“Mom, let me do that,” I murmured.
She giggled loudly, trying to fill everyone else on our conversation. “Nonsense, honey. I’ve got it.”
“Well,” I said, glancing at all the eyes, particularly Liam’s, staring at me. “I just think you work too hard.”
“That’s sweet, babe. But I think I can handle stirring a little clam chowder.”
My mom made zero sense. She didn’t get that people didn’t want to eat soup on a hot summer—well, almost summer—night.
I gave her what I hoped to be a pleading look. “Mom. Please.”
“I got it. Go sit down.”
I leaned in more so everyone else couldn’t hear, whispering, “Mom, I really gotta go.”
“Where?” she asked, a stern look on her face.
“Out of here.”
“Honey. Go sit down. Have fun.”
I suddenly felt like crying all over again. “Mama, please….” I begged.
She nodded at the table, a hard look in her eyes. “Go sit.”
Never mess with a hormonal pregnant woman. Miserably, I took a seat at the very end of the table, whilst everyone else was gathered at the other end.
“So, Tanya,” my dad said in his pleasant voice. “How did you and Liam meet?”
I pretended to find fascination out the window. What I would give for my MP3 right now!
“Well,” Tanya said, all into torturing me. Hey, my parents were practically giving her the get-go. Why the hell not take advantage? “We actually started dating Liam’s sophomore year. I was a freshman. We met through school, of course. I went right up to him, you know, slyly trying to get him to ask me out for weeks. And then one day, I was eating lunch and he just sat down next to me and was like ‘You wanna go out Friday night?’ and I was like ‘Yeah, for sure!’”
“That is just book material, right there. Romantic as hell,” I said pleasantly.
Everyone kind of looked at me, trying to gauge whether I was serious or not. But Liam kept his eyes on the table.
“So, you two have been going out ever since?” my mom prodded.
“Oh, no!” Tanya said immediately. “We broke up before senior year. But then,” and here, Tanya lovingly slipped her arm through Liam’s, gazing at him dreamily. “He asked me out a few weeks ago. We were in the TSC at the same time Sunday night, and we got to talking and he just gave me this look and asked ‘You wanna go out again?’”
“And you said ‘Yeah, for sure’, right?” I butted in, trying my best to look completely unphased and not totally pissed off. I smiled sweetly. “That’s true romance right there. Like a regular Romeo and Juliet. I’m so happy for you two.”
Tanya watched me like a hawk. “Thanks….” She said slowly. Then she smiled brightly, a show for everyone else. “We’re completely happy!”
I watched Liam as my parents continued to question Tanya throughout dinner. He didn’t look “completely happy”, though. To be honest, he looked quite miserable and embarrassed. I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Laugh because he got himself into that mess again, and cry because he was still with her. He’d rather be with her and have all the scandolous sex in the world than wait me out.
My heart cried at the thought of some woman sleeping with him. Why should I care, though? Why should I care if Tanya boinks him every now and again? It wasn’t my problem anymore. And the only reason I was getting even a twinge of jealousy was because he was such a manwhore that he would profess his love to me one day and be sexing it up with the slut the next. It….hurt my ego, is all.
“Piper,” my mom said suddenly, deciding to acknowledge my existence. “Where’s your boyfriend tonight? I thought you were going to ask him to come?”
Earlier in the week, my mom, with great pain, suggested I invite Kyle to dinner. After my talk with Lulu, though, I didn’t even bring dinner up with Kyle.
But for the first time since dinner started, Liam looked up at me, staring directly in my eyes.
“Oh,” I said, smiling slowly. “He had to take his little brother to gymnastics tonight. It was totally last minute, but he really wanted to come. He said next time he would, but his parents were really wore out, so he just offered to take his brother. He’s so sweet.”
It was a lie that came from the very depths of hell. Kyle would never be caught dead going to gymnastics with Nathaniel. But I really wanted to make another jab; the first two were really fun.
Not missing a beat, Liam said, “Oh, Piper. I didn’t know you had a boyfriend.”
I smiled pleasantly at him, though not masking the icyness in my eyes. “Yup. I sure do.”
He waited a minute before asking, “Does said boyfriend have a name?”
I nodded, keeping my icy grin. “Why, yes. Yes he does.”
I could tell he was waiting for me to continue, and I really wanted to. But now didn’t seem like the right time. So I left it at that and with a simple grunt, Liam released me of his gaze.
“Well,” my mom said. “Tanya, who’re your parents?”
No matter how many times my mom tried to change the subject, Liam and I just answered the questions thrown our way, glaring eachother down for the rest of the night. It was really a relief to show my anger side to him. I tried to be nice last time. I wasn’t being nice anymore. He was done screwing with my head.
A/N Hope you didn’t find this to be too short or boring. I rather enjoyed writing it, actually. We’re getting closer and closer to the prom, the big chapter. Are you excited? I know I meant to update in Walgreens, but there was just more inspiration with Missed Me coming my way. Anyway, I know he wasn’t pleasant, but at least Liam was in this chapter! I rather miss that good ol’ boy, personally, I don’t know about the rest of y’all.
Love ya!
VOTES?
COMMENTS?
TTFN,
Hannah
P.S I’m rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer show, so there might very well be a SYRM update in the future…..