CHAPTER 6 - "No one can help me"
***Liam’s POV***
After our fight, everything returned to normal. It was as if it had never happened and I loved that.
“We’re finished Liam,” Erin said.
I looked up from my books and saw her slinging her bag around her body.
“Already?” I asked, disappointed.
“Yep,” she answered with a smile.
I stood up and went over to her. “Can’t you stay a little longer?” I asked in a quiet voice.
“No, I can’t. I’m sorry,” she said back.
I held onto her wrists and looked into her eyes. “Please?” I begged.
She opened her mouth. “Er... I...” she stuttered.
I moved closer to her and bent towards her lips. Just a few centimetres more and I would reach those perfectly soft, smooth lips.
Her phone rang. I let go of her hands and she moved away from me. She fumbled in her bag and answered the phone.
“Hey,” she said.
“What? Which window?” she asked, confused.
She moved to one of the windows of my suite and smiled. I went over there too and saw a red, convertible BMW parked in the front of the house with two guys. Erin waved at them and then put the phone down.
“Who are they?” I asked.
“The one standing up is Adam. I told you about him,” she answered. She sat down on the sofa and started pulling her boots on.
“He’s gay isn’t he?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said.
I looked at him again. “He doesn’t look it.”
She laughed. “I know.”
“Who’s the blonde one, sitting on the bonnet?” I asked. “Is he Adam’s brother or something?”
She laughed as she zipped up her boots. “No, that’s Alex. My boyfriend.”
“What?!” I asked, shocked.
“That’s my boyfriend Alex,” she said slowly as if I didn’t understand.
I actually didn’t understand what was going on. I froze.
“I’ll see you on Saturday,” she said. She walked to the doors and opened them. “Bye.” She left the suite.
I continued to stare out the window and less than a minute later, Erin walked to the car. Alex moved forwards and enveloped her in a hug. She smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek. They walked to the car and got in the back together. Adam got in the front and started to back out the drive. As they were leaving I saw Alex lean in towards Erin to kiss her. They pulled out of the drive so I didn’t see if he actually did kiss her but I was pretty sure that he did.
I went to my bedroom and sat on the bed. I closed my eyes and dreamed of Erin.
***
My mouth closed over hers and I moaned at how soft her lips were. My hand travelled up her body, taking in the contours of her figure and making her shiver in anticipation.
My lips left small kisses on her cheeks and down her neck where and bit down softly. She moaned sensually.
“Oh, Liam.”
God, my name sounds so hot coming out of her mouth, I thought.
I couldn’t wait any longer. My hands frantically started to strip her clothes off her body and in no time I had entered her in one fluid motion. She let out a sexy moan as I started to pump in and out of her, first slowly and then much faster.
When we were both too exhausted to move, we lay next to each other. I turned to face her and froze.
“God, Liam. That was the best ever,” Annie said in a half-sleepy state.
Annie? No, I was with Erin... wasn’t I?
I looked again and saw that it was definitely Annie. I let out a small groan. God, I’m so messed up.
***Erin’s POV***
I checked my reflection in the mirror and groaned. I looked terrible. There were red rims around my eyes, my face was pale and my hair was limp around my shoulders.
I had just spent the half-an-hour crying because Dad had told me the date of the wedding and it was so close. I had tried to persuade him to change it but it was no use.
I told Nick that I was going to tutor Liam and then left.
***
When I walked into Liam’s suite on Saturday, he was sitting on the couch watching TV. He saw me and then gasped as he quickly stood up and came over to me.
“Erin? What’s wrong?”
Dammit, why does he have to be so concerned? “Nothing,” I answered.
“That’s an obvious lie Erin. What happened?”
What the hell do I say to him? “I… You..”
“Just spit it out Erin!” he demanded, clearly irritated.
“Alex and I broke up,” I blurted out. WHAT?! Why the hell did I say that?
He frowned slightly. “Why?”
Damn! “He cheated on me,” I said quickly. What the hell are you saying, Erin?!
“WHAT?!”
***Liam’s POV***
Erin walked into my suite on Saturday for my session with her. I was shocked when I saw her. She looked terrible. Her eyes were slightly bloodshot and she looked as if she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a while.
“Erin?” I gasped. I went over to her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she answered dismissively.
“That’s an obvious lie Erin,” I said. “What happened?”
She looked like she was debating whether to tell me the truth or another lie. “I… You…”
“Just spit it out Erin!”
“Alex and I broke up,” she blurted out.
I should be happy but if she was like this then I couldn’t be.
“Why?” I asked.
“He cheated on me,” she said quickly.
“WHAT?!” Why would you cheat on Erin? Why would you need another girl when you already had the most perfect girl?
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Because I have officially given up with all boys. I don’t ever want to go out with another boy ever again.”
“That’s not the best way to solve things,” I said.
“That’s easy for you to say,” she burst out. “You do the cheating because you sleep with every girl in sight.”
I love it when you get stressy, I thought. “There are ways of cheering yourself up,” I said.
“Like what?” she asked.
“Like relaxing, watching TV and eating,” I answered. “Forget the session for today and I’ll help cheer you up.”
“No. You have to learn,” Erin said.
“Not today. Today I am cheering you up,” Liam said.
It was then, I realised what she was wearing. She had a long-sleeved white top with a light brown waistcoat. She was wearing a dark brown ruffled skirt that went halfway down her thighs. She also had black, fishnet tights and brown, heeled, suede boots. She was wearing a long necklace made up of metallic gold circles and a bracelet to match. She looked like a cowgirl and damn did she look hot. My mind started fantasising about her in that sexy outfit...
“Why do you look like a cowgirl?” I asked, snapping out of my fantasy.
“Oh, I went to a fancy dress party and the theme was the ‘Wild, Wild West’ so I decided to dress as a cowgirl,” she answered.
“Don’t you have a hat or a gun?” I asked with a smile. Or rope? I thought in my head.
“I did but they were borrowed so I had to give them back,” she answered. “Now, can we please get on with whatever you’re trying to do?”
“Alright,” I answered. I pointed to a shelf next to my 50” TV. “That shelf is full of DVDs. Go and pick one to watch and get it ready. I will get some food for us to eat.”
She smiled. “Okay.”
I left the suite and started heading down to the kitchen. I opened the freezer and looked for ice cream. I found a tub of vanilla and a tub of chocolate. I decided to take them both down. I also found some beer and some bottles of coke. I found a big cardboard box and filled it with all the snacks I could find. Then I headed back to my suite. When I walked in Erin was still deciding what movie to watch!
“Erin,” I said. “Are you still deciding what to watch?”
“Have you seen how many DVDs you have?” she asked. “You have enough here to open up a HMV store.”
I laughed. “I know.”
“What’s in the box?” she asked.
I told her.
“Do you really think we’ll be able to finish all of that?” she asked with a laugh.
“I didn’t know what you liked so I brought everything,” I said.
She smiled and looked back at the DVDs. She quickly sifted through them. “I found one,” she said. She held it up. It was ‘The Proposal’.
“Good choice,” I said. A good rom-com would cheer her up in no time. She started setting it up while I sat down on the sofa and rummaged around the box of food. I found the tubs of ice cream and two spoons.
Erin came and sat down next to me. The trailers started playing on the TV.
I held up the tubs of ice cream. “Chocolate or vanilla?” I asked.
She laughed. “I’m can’t finish a whole tub of ice cream!”
“Sure you can,” I said. I held out a spoon to her and she took it.
“We’ll share one tub,” she said. “There’s another wedding coming up and I have to fit into my dress so I’m not gaining or losing any weight.”
“Alright. Which flavour?” I asked.
“Vanilla,” she said. “It’s one of my favourites.”
I smiled and opened the tub of vanilla ice cream. We started eating as the movie started. I wasn’t really watching the movie. I was watching her. Her expressions, her features, her body and the way she laughed.
As I was watching her, she looked up at me and laughed.
“What?” I asked.
“You’ve got ice cream all over your face,” she replied. “Wait, I’ve got something.” She opened her bag and pulled something silver out. The next thing I know, there’s a big flash and the sound of a click.
“What?” I said, confused. Then realisation dawned on me. “Is that a camera?”
“Oh yeah,” she replied. “I just had to get a photo of you looking like that?” she laughed.
“Let me see,” I asked.
She jumped off the sofa and walked away from me. “No. You’ll just delete it.”
“I won’t I promise,” I said. “There have been more embarrassing photos of me than that.”
She walked towards me and showed me the picture. I laughed. I looked so stupid. I had the goofiest expression on my face and there was ice above my lip like a white moustache.
“Why do you have a camera?” I asked.
“I always have a camera with me so that I can capture everything and anything. My memories are really important to me,” she said. “And I got some really good pictures at the fancy dress party.”
“What was the party for?” I asked.
“It was for charity. I organised it and all the money went to children with terminal illnesses,” she answered.
“Let’s see the photos,” I said, wiping my face of the ice cream.
I took the camera and started flicking through the pictures. There was one of Erin wearing her cowgirl outfit. She also had a white Stetson hat, a gun and... rope. Man, that's hot! I went through them quickly. There were loads of children wearing different outfits and eating cake and sweets. I pressed the arrow and froze at what I saw. There was a guy wearing a cowboy outfit and Erin was hugging him. I pressed the arrow again. He was there again and this time Erin was kissing him on the cheek. I pressed again. Erin was getting a piggy back from him. Press. His arm was around her waist. Press. He was holding her in his arms and posing. She was smiling brightly.
“Erin,” I called. She came over to me and I held out the camera. “Who’s the guy?”
She smiled. “That’s Nick. My big brother.”
I sighed inwardly. “Your brother?”
“Yeah,” she answered. “He’s in the army and I rarely get to see him so I dragged him with me to the party.” She took the camera back, turned it off and put it in her bag. “Let’s finish the movie.” She was just about to dig her spoon into the ice cream tub when she realised it was empty.
“Sorry,” I said. “I think I ate a bit too much.”
She laughed. “It’s fine. We’ll eat the chocolate one.”
I opened the chocolate one and we started eating. After a few minutes, I realised that there was some ice cream stuck on her top lip.
“Erin, you’ve got some ice cream on your face,” I said.
She wiped her face but in the wrong place. “Where? Here?” She still didn’t get it. “Get it off please Liam.”
I leaned towards her and kissed her lips softly. I didn’t know why I did it. I just needed to kiss her. Tomorrow was my last day with her and I wanted to make the most of the little time we had together. I dropped the spoon and put one hand around her waist and the other hand on the back of her neck. I pulled her closer to me and I heard something fall to the floor. The ice cream tub? I thought. I felt her lips kissing me back slightly but then she pushed me away. We were both breathing hard.
“I think you got it Liam,” she said with a laugh.
I laughed too.
“We can’t Liam,” she said desperately.
“Why?” I asked, holding her hands.
“We just can’t,” she said. “I have to go.” She got up and grabbed her bag.
I quickly got up and ran towards her. “No. Please stay. I won’t touch you from now on. Just please don’t leave.”
“I’m not leaving because of what you did; I’m leaving because the session’s ended,” she said.
“I don’t care,” I said. “Don’t go.”
“I have to be somewhere,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” And just like that she walked out of my suite.
***Erin’s POV***
I quickly opened the door to the house and rushed inside.
Dammit! Why did I go to the session today in tears? I ruined the whole plan!
I thought I was going to cry again but I had to get to the safety of my room first. I closed the door and rushed upstairs to my room. I pushed the door open and froze. Nick, Mandy, Adam, Alex and Dylan were all there.
“What are you all doing here?” I asked. “Especially you, Dylan.”
“We’re here to help you,” Dylan answered.
I shook my head. “No one can help me.”
“Yes we can,” Nick said.
“No you can’t!” I screamed. “This is Dad we’re talking about. No one can change Dad’s mind. No one!”
“Why are you going through with the wedding?” Mandy asked.
“You didn’t tell them?” Adam asked.
“Didn’t tell us what?” Nick asked.
“Your dad is blackmailing her,” Alex answered. He and Alex explained everything to them.
“Oh my God!” Mandy said. She got up and came over to me. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you would go and do exactly this and I don’t want to get anyone in trouble,” I answered.
She hugged me tightly and so did Nick.
“Well figure a way out Erin,” Nick said. “We promise.”
“Whatever you’re thinking, it won’t work,” I said.
“We can try,” Mandy said.
“It’s too late for anything,” I said. “Can you please leave my room?”
Reluctantly they got up and left my room in silence. I curled up on the floor and cried.