I reluctantly blinked in the early morning sun beams that penetrated through my window, I could already smell moms cooking wafting through the air. I loved waking up to my parents being home. Shaking Tia awake who slept next to me, straightened hair that slowly turned back into the natural fuzz covered my pillow like a furry black blanket, she lay looking peaceful, her mouth slightly ajar.
"Tia, wake up. Breakfast is getting cooked."
"No. Go away."
She doesn't do mornings very well especially when she has had too much to drink the night before. Last night she wasn't drunk but she was rather tipsy. I only had two cups of beer, always limiting myself so I can be the one to get us home safely. Tia on the other hand doesn't limit herself at all. I pulled myself out of bed and got her a glass of water from the bathroom, she's going to need it.
"drink this."
"Liv, stop it. My head hurts."
"drink this." I pushed with more authority reaching my voice.
Tia finally complied and downed the water in one gulp, we got up and followed the aroma to the kitchen where we found a pile of blueberry pancakes with maple syrup waiting for us .
"How was the party last night girls?" my mom questioned while she multi tasked doing the dishes.
"Great Mrs C, Olivia played seven minutes in heaven and ended up hugging a guy." Tia exclaimed so casually as she bit into her pancake. See, queen of gossip!
My eyes shot to the sky, why would she tell my mom that. I could feel a flush of pink spreading across my face. My mum whipped around fast, dripping wet hands everywhere.
"I hope a hug was all you did Olivia Charles, I know what these teenage boys can be like."
Oh mom, if only you knew. I shot daggers in Tias direction and she looked at me with an apologetic look. Mom dried her hands and left the room, leaving me to fully express my disapproval to Tia which resulted in me forgiving her and us making a joke out of my moms reaction.
"Oh I have a favor to ask you." Tia fluttered her eyelashes in my direction, trying to appeal to my sweet side.
"What?"
"So you know the soccer team has a big tournament coming up across state next week?"
"Yeah" I bit into another pancake, not thinking too much of where this conversation was going.
"Well Principal Jenkins is giving me extra credit to help out with the equipment, making sure everyone knows where they are needed at what time, that kind of thing. It will look really good on my college applications under team management and organisation skills. I have to go and spend the week with them and he asked me to pick one other person to help. Please come Liv. It will look good on your college applications too and we can share a room, it could be really fun."
She shot me a fake smile because she knows that one those sport weeks away would be anything but fun and for a person like me it was just asking for trouble.
"A week away with the jocks and the cheerleaders? I think I'll pass." I scoffed "besides, my parents are home that week and I actually want to spend time with them."
"I figured as much. But hey, if you change your mind the offer still stands."
***
Loading my locker with heavy textbooks I turned around when I heard a familiar voice.
"Do you need a hug?" Jordan teased in my direction.
I rolled my eyes, here we go again. There's not a day that goes by when he doesn't make fun of me, some days are easier than others and I prayed to all of the Gods that this was today. Tia still pleaded with me to reconsider my decision to turn down sports week but there was no way in hell I was going to change my mind.
Liam avoided me all day. There was a brief moment we crossed in the hallway, he didn't even look at me. During psychology Liam ditched and I knew it was probably because that was the lesson he couldn't not face me in. The whole situation was deflating, I would feel like I had inched closer to Liam slowly, but then he would take a massive step backwards, pulling further away from me. The bell rung and I gathered my things ready to move onto English Lit.
The hallways were busy as everyone scrambled to their next class. Preparing my mind for Tias bombardments of bribes and negotiations to try and get me to come with her on the sports trip I searched in my locker for my English lit book.
Out of nowhere I felt a sharp grip on my arm, fingers digging into my flesh causing my skin to turn pink. I looked around alarmed to find Jordan holding onto me tightly trying to pull me away.
"Olive, Liams freakin' out he's in the boys bathroom and he's smashin' it up. You need to go in there and stop him." His face was wild with urgency as he pulled me away from my locker by the death hold on my arm.
"Me? Why me? What can I do?"
My voice cried out extremely high pitched, and I matched Jordans urgent expression. He stopped dead in the middle of the corridor and looked at me like I had two heads.
"Don't you see it?" He searched my face trying to figure out if I was playing him and I just stared back at him blankly, feeling beyond confused. "Liam is..." He paused, thinking hard about how he wanted to finish the sentence "Liam is... different around you."
My mind worked hard trying to comprehend what he just told me but I didn't fully understand it. Either way I continued to get yanked through the school hallways like he was the dog and I was his chew toy. The second bell rung out and the hallway immediately cleared, with every student piling into their classes. Jordan & I stood alone outside the boys bathroom. He nodded his head towards the door wordlessly telling me to enter.
Anxiety coursed through me, Jordan was way off base here. There's no way I could rein Liam under control when he was spiraling into a bleak pit of anger. Liam was unpredictable at the best of times, I could get hurt. Jordan tensed next to me, sensing my hesitation.
"Olive, if you don't help him he'll be suspended from school and kicked off the soccer team." He looked at me like I was the only hope and as an afterthought he added "please." Something Jordan Peers has never, ever said to me.
I stood in the quiet of the school noise, listening to the muffled sounds of crashes and bangs coming from behind the door. In that moment I realized I had to try. The only time Liam is completely carefree and happy is when he's playing soccer. If I had an opportunity to try and prevent him from getting kicked off the team I needed to take it.
Sheepishly I pulled the door open and peered my head inside before stepping fully in and closing the door behind me leaving Jordan waiting on the other side.
The stench from the boys bathroom hit me first, thanks to the urinals it felt very unsanitary and I didn't want to touch anything. As I stepped in further Liam stood with his back to me, panting. In the mists of his meltdown I don't even think he noticed I was in the room with him. I surveyed the damage. Several mirrors which sat above each individual sink were shattered in circular shapes of broken shards as if the impact had come from the center, flakes of glass scattered across the counter tops. One of the blue cubicle doors had been kicked in, it was bent and half hanging off the hinge.
BANG!
I was pulled into the reality of the sound of Liams fist pummeling the brick work of the walls, throwing consecutive punches one after another. I feared he was too far gone and opted to stand back and talk to him instead of approaching him up close.
"Liam?" I said quietly.
His shoulders tensed and he froze, his fist mid way in the air. Good. I'd caught his attention.
"Get out of here Liv." He shot me down abruptly, voice full of warning but I did the opposite. I moved closer to him.
"I'm not frightened of you Liam, I'm here." I spoke with soothing low tones, like I was trying to calm a crying baby. I still tiptoed around him but I was telling the truth. I wasn't scared unlike the last time he lost control.
"I.. I don't want you to see me like this." The back of his neck flushed pink and I knew embarrassment was settling in for him as he continued to clench his fists.
I reached forward and tugged on his arm to turn him around so he was facing me. Blue, sad eyes enclosed inside a purple bruise blinked in my direction and the pink flush continued to cover his cheeks. I grabbed his hand and brought it to my face for a closer inspection. It was all scratched up and bleeding pretty badly. Liam was inaudible but watched me intensely as I ran his knuckles under the warm water. He winced as soon as it hit him but he willingly complied with everything I was doing. Fishing inside my bag I grabbed a gauze bandage and wrapped it around Liams bloodied knuckles whilst he watched in silence, impressed, I think by the fact I keep a first aid kit in my bag.
Ripping off the corner of my notebook I quickly scribbled my number down and handed it to him. "You don't have to hide away from me. I want to help you. This is my number, you might not use, you might not want it but just know that you can call me even in your darkest hours and I'll be there."
He didn't say anything but the sorrowed look in his eyes reassured me that he understood. I gripped his arm and we walked together to the door where Jordan was waiting leaning up against the wall opposite looking panicked. As soon as he spotted us he darted upright and approached us.
"Liam, you ok bro? Go wait in my car, I'll drive you to mine and we can hang out." His eyes were filled with concern for his friend, something I don't often see on Jordan's face. Liam took the car keys and walked out without looking back.
"There's a lot of damage in there, I don't know what we're going to do about that." I pointed out as Jordan ran his fingers through his hair.
"Don't worry about the damage, it's sorted. Zaks going to say he did it. Nothing will happen to him because his folks pay Principal Jenkins a lot of money. He won't wanna lose out on that. Failing that his dad bought Jenkins a hooker and there's this whole blackmail thing going on... it's complicated." Jordan stopped himself.
There was an awkward silence filling up between us as we looked at each other, wanting to say something that wouldn't quite come out.
"Ok... well I better get to class." I broke the silence and turned around to leave.
"Olive?"
"Yeah?"
Jordan stood, rocking slightly on his heels and rubbing his finger nails together with nervousness. I waited patiently for his next words to follow but they never did.
"Never mind." He shook his head like he was disappointed in himself and I continued walking in the opposite direction to English Lit.