Side by side Liam and I walked inside the school and took an immediate right hand turn, facing a double door. The heavy doors were propped open exposing the medium sized gym inside.
As Liam and I walked inside the wooden floored room, my eyes zoomed right to the middle of the room where two groups of girls were separated by a tall net. I found Cassie on the home team dressed in a baby blue and gold jersey with very short black shorts on, her long hair pulled back in a pony tail. She had the volley ball in her hand, and her position told me she was serving the ball.
I felt a sense of pride swell in my stomach as I watched her hit a mean spike over the net. The other team fumbled to hit the ball, but when one of the girls did, it veered off out of bounds. Already immersed in the game, I clapped my hands loudly and cheered for Cassie. Liam jumped at my sudden raise of volume, and as someone passed the ball back to Cassie she turned her head towards me with a big grin. I beamed back and took Liam by the hand, pulling him along with me up the bleachers.
I saw Joni before I saw Greg, due to her baby blue foam finger. I snorted when she waved at me, and just about peed my pants when her eyes fell onto Liam. Already I could see the questions forming in her mind as she glanced smugly at our connected hands.
"Hey Joni! Nice foam finger." I giggled as Liam and I slid into the row she and Greg were sitting in. Joni was always very supportive of Cassie's volleyball playing, and was very, very, very zealous about it. She was like a football fan at the super bowl at every one of Cassie's games. Her enthusiasm easily rubbed off on me, too.
She gave the foam finger a little wiggle and flashed us a smile. "Thanks. Who's your friend, Aub?" she asked brightly and Greg leaned over Joni to look at me with a grin.
"Hey Aubrey! Glad you could make it!" he said and I beamed at the both of them, happy that I had come as well.
"Me too. Guys this is Liam, and Liam this is Joni and Greg Mitchell, Cassie's parents." I introduced them, gesturing with my hand at each person.
Liam nodded his head once. "Hello." He said with a small smile, though his eyes fell back onto me intently. I blushed slightly as he continued to gaze at me, though I turned away like a coward and tried to focus on the game. The other team now had the ball, and when they served, Cassie and her team moved with such skill and precision to send the ball back that the opposing team looked like a train wreck when they let the ball hit the ground on their side.
Our school volleyball team was pretty good, and Cassie was definitely one of the best players. They were completely shutting down the visiting team, who seemed to get worse as their chances of victory faded. By the time the game was over, the score was 9 to 21, ending earlier than the games usually did.
When the ending buzzer sounded through the gym, all the girls on Cassie's team rounded up together in a group hug, celebrating gleefully. It was a good way to start the season, and when the girls broke apart Cassie looked up in my direction, her expression so touched that I felt like we were reuniting after 20 years of being apart.
After the team had a quick talk with the coach she grabbed her water bottle and equipment bag from the bottom row of the bleachers and jogged her way up to us, her eyes only on me.
I moved towards her and hugged her tightly with a squeal, patting her back. "You came!" She gasped with a grin as she pulled away.
I jumped up and down energetically on my toes with joy. "I couldn't just not come!" I giggled, and she looked at me with a touched expression. "But look, Liam came too!" I perked up even more, reaching around for Liam's arm. I pulled him onto the bleacher's stairs where we were standing and Cassie laughed at his overwhelmed expression.
"Good game, Weepy." He said to her politely, nodding his head.
She laughed again, used to the nickname. "You look all shook up." She commented, and his face melted into a teasing glare.
"I think Aubrey and your mom owe me a hearing aid." He said, putting a finger in his ear and twirling it around.
Joni laughed with a booming laugh as she came up behind us. She clapped a hand onto Liam's shoulder and he looked slightly surprised at her gesture. "Keep coming to these games and I swear I will have you up on your feet and cheering with us by the end of the season, little man." She teased and Liam laughed such a free laugh that I could hardly believe it came from him.
We all moved down the bleachers together and a few girls from the volley ball team hollered goodbye to Cassie. I suppressed a frown at this though, because those same girls were the ones who never gave Cassie the time of day outside of the court.
I hooked my arm with hers as we exited the gymnasium and walked towards the doors that led to the parking lot. Joni and Greg walked passed us in pursuit of their car, hollering a goodbye to me and ruffling up my hair as they went. Cassie slowed and hugged me again with a smile. "It really means a lot that you came, Aub. Thanks." she sighed, pulling away and squeezing my forearms.
I chuckled and shrugged. "No prob. I'll text you later." I said when I saw her eyes float towards Liam who was turned away, staring off into the distance and subtly giving us some privacy. She grinned and waggled her eyebrows at me.
"You'll have to tell me everything." She smirked just before she rushed after her parents who were close to their white escalade.
I chuckled to myself and approached Liam, setting my hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at me and I saw that he had a funny expression on his face. "What?" I asked him with a faint smile, confused by his struggling expression.
He shook his head as we made our way to my car. "It's nothing, I was just wondering about something." He confessed and I raised my eyebrows. "Your friend was so happy just because you showed up to her volley ball game..." he trailed off, bewildered.
I surprised him by laughing. "Cassie had always been very sensitive. The smallest thing can upset her, and the smallest thing can make her happy." I explained to him as we walked to our separate sides of the car. We got inside and the both of us buckled our seatbelts. "Plus she didn't think I was coming tonight because I told her I was having dinner with you." I said as I started the car. I backed out of the parking spot and felt his gawking stare on me.
"You canceled on her to have dinner with me? You could have told me and we could have rescheduled." He demanded, looking appalled. I laughed and shook my head.
"Liam it's okay. It all worked out fine. I stuck to both of my promises tonight." I waved off with a grin. He still looked bothered though as I drove out of the parking lot with his arms folded over his chest and pursed lips.
He shook his head. "You chose me over your friend." he sniffed, and my smile faded. He was making me sound like a bad person, and I was starting to feel guilty, and maybe a little angry.
"What, would you have wanted me to just not come at all tonight?" I asked, sending him a weak glare. His face melted from stubborn to warm, though I thought I could still see a bit of resentment in his expression.
"That's not it at all, I'm just... surprised." He said finally and I sighed.
"I felt bad about having to cancel on her, I really did, but I just really wanted to see you... I guess it was selfish of me, wasn't it?" I asked, more to myself than him. I did feel a little ashamed, even though I knew he hadn't meant for me to.
He let out a small chuckle. "Well I'm glad you didn't cancel on me, which is pretty selfish of me too, I suppose." He mumbled and the butterflies in my stomach danced.
We drove in a tranquil silence to his house. When we made it to the gate I rolled down my window and pressed the intercom bottom. A bored voice asked me for my name and I answered automatically. The gates opened and I drove through them when they opened up all the way. I felt a twinge of sadness twist through my gut as I drove up the black drive and came to a stop near the front entrance of the mansion.
I looked up at it through my windshield and was just as baffled by the mansion's beauty as I was the first time I saw it up close like this. "God, I am never going to get used to this." I said in a low whistled and he cocked his head to the side.
"What?" he asked and I chuckled lightly.
"This damn house. It's beautiful." I sighed, letting my hands fall from the steering wheel and into my lap. I looked over resignedly at Liam and he smiled faintly at me before jerking his head to the side as he got out of the car. I figured that meant he wanted me to come outside too, so I put the car into park and shoved my door open, sliding out to meet Liam's gaze as he stood near the hood of my car.
I came to his side and we walked together towards the threshold, walking under the large roof over it and stopped by the beautifully carved doors. I resisted the urge to reach out and stroke the glossy wood so I could on Liam.
He was staring at me intently, although he looked sort of puzzled. I watched his glacier eyes look my face over before he stepped closer to me.
My breath caught in my lungs.
He took another step closer, still not saying anything. I felt my whole body trembling now with nerves. Was he going to kiss me?
Stopping maybe an inch away from me he raised his hand and hesitantly put it on my cheek. I let a small sigh escape my mouth as his warm hand fell on my frost bitten cheek, the air so cold it would have frozen water in a matter of minutes.
I lifted my hand and set it atop his, leaning my cheek deeper into his palm. "Thanks for tonight. I have all these weird... feelings inside me. I can't tell what they mean though." he said, and when I opened my eyes I saw that he was looking deeply at my face.
I waited for him to elaborate, relieved when he did. "I feel happy, I guess. This was all so new to me. It's a relief having you know about me and my family, but at the same time I feel like none of this can last. It's like-"
"The calm before the storm." I finished his sentence for him, all too familiar with the strange peacefulness that often lingered between us.
He face twisted with a small scowl, and I chuckled lightly. I took his hand on my cheek into my hands and kissed the center of his palm. When I looked up at his face to see his reaction, I was surprised to see that his eyes were closed.
I wanted to pull him close to me and breath him in. I wanted to run my fingers through his air, feel his warm cheek against my cold one, and listen to him breathe in my ear. I had never been so aggravated with a mere inch of distance before in my life, but the distance he kept from me felt like we were standing on two different sides of a wide valley.
He must have been feeling those feelings too, because before I could do anything else he rushed towards me, pulling me to him with one lithe movement. His arms wrapped around my waist and my hands fell onto his chest as he held me there, one of his hands at the back of my head as he burrowed his face in my hair.
I closed my eyes and breathed him in, suddenly feeling a strange sense of completion wash over me as he embraced me. I was bursting at the seams with happiness and so many other emotions that I could hardly breathe. I crushed myself against him still, never wanting to leave the circle of his arms, and felt his arms tighten around me as I did so. His breath tickled my ear as he kept his face in my hair, and my skin crawled with pleasurable shivers.
All too soon though, his arms loosened and his hands found my shoulders, gently prying me from him. I felt physically pained as he put space between us, holding his arms out on my shoulders. I looked at him anxiously, pleading with my eyes for him not to leave. But he just leaned forward and kissed the top of my forehead before hurrying for the door and slipping inside.
The door shut behind him and the slam echoed through the threshold and rattled inside my head. I stood there for a second, dazed and lonely, until a smile found my face. It was a strange smile, one that I had never felt form on my lips before. It wasn't because I was amused, as I so often was, and it wasn't because I was thinking of a rainbows and butterflies.
I walked to my car with jelly-like legs and slipped inside, the heater pulsing warm air over my body as I buckled my seat belt. The smile was still present, and my heart was hammering against my chest. I bit my lip and tried to hold myself together as I turned the car around and headed out of the Gentry gates.
When I had passed through them completely, I stopped in the middle of the road and choked out a laugh. I let my head fall onto my steering wheel as my hands clutched it at 9 and 3, my heart going haywire.
What a strange feeling love was.