"Do we want to make our own pizza dough or just buy the premade kind?" Liam asked as we stood in the ethnic foods aisle of Country Market searching for something to make for dinner.
We'd discussed just getting Chinese takeout when we got there and smelled the food in the takeout place in the store, but then decided that making dinner would be much more entertaining and apparently they had a dishwasher at the house so we wouldn't have to do dishes. Grocery shopping with Liam was always entertaining, he got almost as distracted as the girls did and he always ended up talking me into a bunch of crap food I didn't need and he didn't need. We also ate way too much takeout the last few months and I happened to actually like cooking. Cleaning up the mess I made, however, was not my favorite. But that's what Liam was for, I knew he couldn't tell me no, especially when I would bring up the fact that I was the one that had done all of the cooking and he'd just stood there and tried everything before it was ready.
"Let's make our own," I said, "This one's the best," I remarked, picking up two boxes of the pizza kits that my Mom would always buy when I was little, "It has sauce and the dough mix."
"And we have cheese already," he said as I tossed the boxes into the cart, "Pepperoni?"
"Definitely," I replied as we moved through the aisle and over to the cold foods section, "And smokies."
"Smokies?" he asked with a perplexed look on his face.
"They're little sausages," I replied, "They're super good."
"Sounds good," he said.
"There's Italian sausage over here too," I remarked as I looked through the refrigerated section.
"Let's grab that too," he said as I threw it in the cart.
"What about drinks?" I asked.
"We've got a fridge full of beer and Coke, I think we'll be fine," he laughed, "What about that chip dip you made for lunch when we were at your house? What do you need for that?"
"Cream cheese, pickles, garlic salt, onion salt," I replied.
"Let's go find that stuff then, and some chips," he said, "Because that was really good."
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"Stop eating the chip dip!" I laughed as Liam stuck a chip into the chip dip bowl yet again as I mixed it in the bowl.
Shopping should've taken about ten minutes max but we were wandering the aisles for forty-five minutes and Liam kept picking out shit I knew he'd never eat or make while I actually tried to get food to make for dinner that night and the next two or three nights before the dining hall opened again.
I was okay with it though, it was one more thing to distract me from the cloud looming over my head that was the argument I'd had with my Mom before I ran back to school. I didn't now how to navigate the whole I didn't want to speak to my parents thing. I had sucked at communicating with them since coming to school in August but I had never not talked to them intentionally like I had done since taking off in the middle of the night.
"I'm just testing it out," he laughed.
"There isn't going to be any left when it's actually cold and ready," I laughed, playfully shoving him away from me.
"Fine," he grinned.
"Is the dough ready to put the sauce and stuff on?" I asked.
"Yeah," he replied, grabbing the sauce packet from the box and squirting it onto the pizza dough.
When I was in middle school, we'd make this kind of pizza every Saturday night, my mom and I would. It was our thing, cooking together. She taught me how to make all kinds of things from cookies and frosting to spaghetti sauce and meatballs. A lot of things changed in my life when the girls were born but cooking dinner with my mom was the one thing that didn't.
It wasn't just my life that changed, my entire family's life changed when my mom had the girls. We went from a quiet family of three with a low maintenance teenager to a family of five with two newborns and everything and I mean everything in our house became chaotic. I know my parents tried their best to make sure I didn't feel neglected or forgotten when the girls came along unexpectedly.
"Careful!" I laughed, as he spread the sauce around with a fork, "You're going to make a hole in the crust."
"How do you suggest I do this then?" he asked with a lopsided smirk, holding the fork in his hand.
"With a big spoon," I replied, reaching across the counter for a spoon, "You take the bottom of the spoon, which is smooth, to spread the sauce around."
"Aren't you a genius," he remarked sarcastically as I spread the sauce.
"I'd like to think so," I replied with a grin.
I didn't have to tell Liam that the whole situation was bothering me, he just knew and he didn't say anything about it either because he knew I'd talk about it when I was ready to talk. He knew that what I really wanted and needed was too get distracted enough to have fun for a little while before I decided I wanted to deal with reality.
Liam understood me like nobody had before, even Nikki who had been my best friend my entire life. He made me look forward to stupid things like going grocery shopping with him or even just riding all the way to Canada on a whim with him just to go out to a club for my birthday. I'd give anything to be able to spend every waking minute with him like this for more than just a few days before break started to end and we had to go back to practice and classes sooner than later. I was already thinking about all the times over summer that I could escape to Canada to go see him for weekends at a time.
I never thought I could get so attached to someone in such a short amount of time, but here I was, never wanting to leave his side and loving doing anything with him from watching stupid TV movies to making dinner together.
"I should not have ate that much," I sighed as we sat on the couch after eating and cleaning up our mess, well more like Liam's mess, in the kitchen.
"Me neither," Liam laughed, "But it was really good."
"It was," I yawned.
"Are you ever not tired?" he asked.
"No, I don't think I've slept appropriately since eighth grade," I laughed halfheartedly.
"High school can really screw up your sleep schedule," he laughed, "Especially while playing junior hockey for two of those years."
"Very true," I said, my head on his shoulder.
"It's been a long day," he said.
"That it has," I sighed, "Thanks for coming in the middle of the night to pick me up."
"Anything for you," he said, leaning over and kissing my cheek, "I mean it Liv. I'm sorry your break had to end like that."
"Me too," I sighed.
"Speaking of break," he said, getting up off of the couch, "I've got your Christmas present in here somewhere."
"I left yours under the tree," I sighed, "I'm sorry."
"It's all good," he said, handing me a shiny red gift bag with sparkly silver tissue paper in it, "Now you should open it," he smiled.
"Oh my gosh, Liam you didn't have to get me something like this," I gasped as I unwrapped the tissue paper to reveal a red velvet box with a beautiful silver necklace that had two silver charms on it, one of my number and one of his, "This is beautiful, oh my God."
"I take it you like it," he said, grinning ear to ear.
"I love it," I said, taking it out of the box and into my hands.
"I'll put it on," he said, gently taking it from my hands and undoing the clasp as I pulled my hair to the side so he could clasp the necklace.
"Thank you so much Liam," I said, putting my hand over the necklace, "This definitely makes my gift look shitty," I laughed.
"Nah," he replied, "It's the thought that counts."
"You don't have to say that to make me feel better," I laughed.
"I don't say it to make you feel better," he said, "Whatever you get me is going to be great because it's from you," he smiled, kissing me on the cheek.
"That's so cheesy," I laughed.
"It was," he grinned, "But it's still true."
"My gift is totally lame," I laughed, "I got you a shirt and a hat, nothing this cool," I laughed.
"Why did you get me those things?" he asked.
"Because I thought of you and thought you'd like them," I replied.
"Which is exactly why I got you the necklace," he said, "Don't feel bad babe."
"I can try," I sighed, leaning my head on his shoulder.
One of the biggest things that had hurt me so bad about Nikki turning on me like she did was the fact that she ignored the fact that Liam made me happy. It wasn't just a stupid giddy kind of happy that made me overlook any red flags that might appear, it was real and I loved him for it and I hated that she couldn't see that.
I hated that the fact that I'd had sex with him made my mom ignore how happy I was with him and how much she liked him after he spent Thanksgiving and my birthday with my family. I didn't know how I was going to get myself out of this situation and it was a daunting thing to think about, being so isolated. I knew I had him by my side no matter what, but I did know I didn't want to be that girl that isolated herself from everyone because of her boyfriend even if he wasn't really the reason I was isolated. That's how everyone would see it
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Liam's POV
About an hour into the movie we had begun watching that night, Olivia fell asleep, her head on my lap as I ran my fingers through her hair.
"Let's just go to bed," I yawned, turning off the TV and gently moving her off of my lap.
"What are you doing?" she mumbled, not bothering to open her eyes.
"Carrying you to bed," I said quietly, standing up and scooping her up in my arms and off of the couch.
"I love you," she smiled as I set her down in my bed.
"I love you too," I said, crawling in next to her, "No matter how shitty you think the Christmas presents you buy me are."
"Shut up," she retorted, a sleepy grin on her face.
"Now I want to see them," I smirked.
"Maybe when my parents aren't pissed at me for being a whore," she replied.
"You're not a whore," I laughed softly.
"Yeah, yeah," she yawned, "I'm going to sleep, shut up."
"Goodnight Liv," I laughed, switching the lamp on the nightstand off before pulling her in close.
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