chapter five: *Always Like This*
“Look, I don’t care what you say; you’re going to eat that pancake even if I have to shove it down your throat. You like pancakes. I know you had brain trauma, but that doesn’t just magically change your taste in food and-,”
Liam interrupted her ranting, “Okay, I’ll eat the damn thing if you just stop being so annoying about it.”
Leslie smiled smugly. So he hadn’t been nice about it and it was just a pancake, but after seven days of being with Liam she was at the point where she would take anything she could get.
She looked at him expectantly and he groaned before taking a bite of the blueberry pancake. Leslie watched happily as Liam’s face lit up for the briefest of seconds. He liked it. Whatever he said, she knew he liked it. She had gotten pretty good at catching the very short glimpses of emotions he now showed.
“I hate it.” He replied rather bluntly.
For a second Leslie wanted to laugh. Sure. He hated it. Sure.
“Okay. Whatever you say,” She replied as she started to head towards the kitchen exit. She didn’t really have anywhere to go, but she learned that spending short bursts of time with Liam was much more rewarding than trying to be around him for too long.
“Leslie.” He called after her right before she left.
She immediately stopped and turned around trying to hide her surprise and elation quickly. She didn’t want to seem desperate. She had to control the amount of power she gave him.
“Jonah and Leo want to go to the beach for the weekend since it’s summer and all, but they won’t let me go unless I ask you and Sam to come along. So, don’t get all excited because I’m only asking because I have to.” He emphasized the last part. In fact, he’d said the whole thing through gritted teeth and grudgingly held her gaze.
Lately, Leslie had learned to ignore his bad temper and mean attitude and most of the time it made her want to laugh-the entire ridiculousness of it.
“Well, Sam will be happy; she’s been dying to get out of the house.” She replied.
He simply cocked an eyebrow in response.
“But you guys can go without me. I need some time for myself,” She added knowing he’d be happy.
She kind of wanted to go. The beach sounded great, but she also knew that where beaches existed, so did pretty girls in skimpy bikinis and she could not handle them flaunting all over Liam. Despite his accident, Liam was as handsome as ever and only traces of his scars remained. In no time they’d be gone completely and although she was happy he had recuperated so fast she did not want to see him flirting with someone else.
“Really?” He seemed surprised.
“I know you think I’m going to fall all over you and stuff, but my life doesn’t revolve around you [okay, so she was lying because it totally did, but…] and I’m here because I genuinely care about you, not because I’m some desperate girl who can’t get anyone else, okay?” She answered and winced a little at how harsh she sounded. But after an entire week of being picked on she felt that he deserved a little bit of his own medicine,
“Okay,” was all he said.
She almost groaned in frustration. That’s all he said lately. “Okay.” So fucking passive, it drove her insane. Okay what? Okay, I understand you? Okay, I don’t give a shit about what you’re saying? Okay, okay?
Instead, she walked out of the kitchen and went to tell Sam about the news.
***
Sam was reluctant to go. She didn’t want to leave Leslie, but Leslie herself insisted she wanted to be alone and she secretly wanted to spend more time with Leo. She wasn’t sure if she liked him or anything, but she enjoyed spending time in his company and a weekend at the beach sounded great. She was dying to go outside.
“You really don’t want to come? Look, I’ll spend time with you? You won’t even know this little douchebag,” Jonah gestured at Liam who was sitting on the couch waiting for Leo to come down with his bags, “is there. We’ll have loads of fun. Plus, I kind of want to see you in a bathing suit.”
Leslie coughed a little, although she couldn’t say she was surprised. Jonah turned out to be quite the flirt and she kind of appreciated his bluntness. It was refreshing to have someone just say what they meant all the time. It was easy.
“Look dude, I know you’re like being nice or whatever, but I’m your friend, so be nice to me.” Liam complained without taking his eyes off the TV screen. An old rerun of wipeout was on.
“Sorry, hoes before bros, that’s my policy,” Jonah commented before grinning cheekily and saying, “Not that I’m implying you’re a hoe or anything, you know that’s just how the saying goes,” He explained as Leslie laughed.
“Yeah, okay, whatever, you guys leave without me. I didn’t want to guys to feel bad, but I’m the one who need to be away from all of you.” She joked winking.
“Well then, that’s cold. Let’s go Liam. You were right, bros are so much better,” Jonah joked grabbing Liam’s arm and pulling him up. He threw his arm over his shoulder and together they started walking out.
“Sorry to tell you this, but that sounded a little gay!” Leslie called out teasingly.
Jonah turned his head around and winked at her, his thick lashes more noticeable than ever, and responded with a sincere, “See you soon, Leslie.”
Liam did some sort of backwards wave without turning around which was more than Leslie was expecting in the first place so it made her feel pretty good. Sam hugged her tightly and then raced after the boys just as Leo ran down the stairs, promising to be back soon, and then racing outside. She watched as they shuffled into the car, Liam in the passenger seat, and Leo driving.
She caught Liam’s gaze as Leo started to pull out of the driveway. Now, she could have been mistaken because they were at a considerable distance but she could have sworn he winked at her.
***
“I’m telling you, you have to be optimistic about this. I mean, he’s obviously been talking to girls and stuff, but no matter how willing he hasn’t hooked up with anyone yet,” Sam told Leslie.
They were FaceTiming. It was about eight o clock at night, one day after they had left, and Leslie had decided to go out for a smoothie. She needed to do something to preoccupy her time.
“Sam, I don’t need to hear it,” Leslie replied before adding, “So how’s the beach?”
They had gone back to Rhode Island and Sam excitedly explained about their Jet Ski experience. She babbled on about how they had raced each other.
Despite going back to Rhode Island Liam hadn’t wanted to meet up with anyone he had once known, so they had gone to south of the state and luckily hadn’t run into anyone that would know him. According to Sam, he seemed a lot more at ease and she almost forgot how awful he had been lately. Which made Leslie both happy and sad: happy to know that Liam was feeling better and sad to know that he felt better when she wasn’t around.
For at least the thirtieth time she asked herself what she was doing.
Finally she said goodbye to Sam and put the phone the in her pocket. She sipped her smoothie in silence.
“Hey, why so blue?” The boy behind the counter asked while whipping down the table in front of her.
He had an aloof kind of appearance. His shirt, part of his uniform, was somewhat wrinkled, but he offered her a playful and sincere smile. His pale blue eyes seemed trustworthy enough.
“Boy troubles,” She said sounding like a fourteen year old girl.
He chuckled and ran his free hand through his messy blond hair. She figured he was about her age.
“Got it,” he replied, “I guess guys are just as complicated as girls, huh?”
She smiled, “You got that right.”
He scrutinized her face, “Let me guess, mixed signals?”
Leslie snorted out some laughter before blushing in embarrassment. “I wish,” she exclaimed after catching her breath.
“So, the typical ‘he doesn’t know I exist’ thing?” He mused.
“You’re nosy, you know that,” Leslie replied avoiding his question.
He just grinned, “So I’ll take that as a no?” He questioned.
“It’s beyond complicated,” she answered, “But I’m guessing you’re going through something too.”
He nodded thoughtfully, “The whole mixed signals thing, you know typical girl thing. Drives me insane.”
Leslie smiled, “And who are you exactly?”
“Oh yeah, I’m James not to be called Jamie.” He winked.
“Well, James not to be called Jamie, go ahead and tell me about your girl issues. I’m sure you’ll find it helpful to get a girl’s perspective.”
Plus, it’ll take my mind off Liam for a while.
***
“I don’t know, there’s just something that irks me about her, okay?” Liam responded rather harshly.
He was somewhat tipsy, lounging sleepily on a bean bag chair that he had dragged out to the balcony. He was looking at the ocean while he talked to Jonah.
“I don’t know man. She’s not that bad. She’s not bad at all,” He countered trying to get his friend to understand what he was doing to the poor girl. Obviously, she loved him deeply to take all of his shit and just want to constantly help him.
“I-you, it’s just, you wouldn’t understand,” Liam replied getting up. He suddenly wanted to get up and go somewhere.
“I think you don’t understand.” Jonah said getting up himself.
“You don’t have to be a smart ass all the time, you know,” Liam replied inside the room. He threw on an Abercrombie & Fitch dress shirt and started heading out the door.
“Now you and Leo get your asses out here, we’re going to party,” he announced.
Jonah dropped their previous conversation and shrugged. For now he couldn’t do anything and they had gone out to have a good time.
He told Leo to get up and asked Sam if she wanted to come along. Being the type of girl she was she accepted, went into the bathroom, threw on a classy, yet appropriate beach wear romper, and started walking towards the elevator.
Liam, despite being the one to decide to go out, lagged behind. He looked at Sam and pursed his lips in thought.
He finally knew what he had to do to get Leslie to leave. And if that didn’t work- then-then, maybe he’d at least try to be more civil towards her. Or not. Because what he had in mind would most definitely work.
Evelyn's Note: Please vote and comment! :D
P.S Like always, the song is on the side >>>>>