What I like most about Sundays is that I can wake up whenever I want, grab a book and spend my whole day reading it. So you imagine I am not quite happy when early in the morning someone knocks on my door waking me up. My parents are out of town again and this means I have to get up from bed to open that door possibly killing the person that wakes me up so early on a Sunday. I put my robe and my slippers on, not even opening my eyes as I go down the stairs seriously thinking about grabbing a knife to stab someone.
When I open the door a perfect-looking Liam stares back at me with a huge smile, two cups of coffee in one of his hands and a box of donuts in the other. He wears his usual all-black outfit, black jeans, a bleak shirt, black boots, and his obviously black leather jacket. His hair is a mess, but I know damn well he spends a lot of time making his hair look like that, and his dark eyes are way too awake for this hour.
"If no one is in trouble and you woke me at fucking 6 AM, you're going to be the one in trouble."
I say walking back inside the house, collapsing on my living room couch without even looking back to see if he came inside.
"It's 7, not 6."
He says from behind me like that hour makes a huge difference. I almost fall asleep again, but of course, he can't just come in, take a seat, drink his coffee, and shut the fuck up. No, he walks into the kitchen to do I don't know what, but it sounds like he's breaking all of my mom's plates. He then walks into the living room and starts talking and talking and talking. I don't know about what, but he won't just shut up.
"Do you even hear me? "
He sits next to me, lifting me to place me on his lap, holding me like I am some freaky giant baby, and brushing away the hair on my face. I manage to open my eyes to find his beautiful dark eyes staring back at me and his lips dangerously close to mine.
"Can we please go to bed now? "
I say with a sleepy voice and an even sleepier brain because it takes me too much time to understand the words that just got out of my mouth and register the cookie smile on Liam's face.
"I mean, go to bed to sleep..."
He sighs in a fake relief when I explain myself feeling my cheeks burning.
"Thank God, cookie! I should at least take you out on a date before you invite me to your bed."
I hit his shoulder playfully as I always do when he makes fun of me, and he always does, but we always end up laughing about it two seconds later, just like we are now. He puts one of the coffee cups on my hands and brings one of the chocolate donuts to my lips.
"Eat," Liam instructs me and I do as he asks, unable to resist donuts, they are my favorite thing ever. And since I told him this two months ago or so, he always buys them for me even if he hates them and I bet he also hates driving 20 minutes to the other side of town to get them from my favorite donut shop.
I know it's the kind of thing a very nice boyfriend would do for his girlfriend, just as I know the way we always seem to touch each other is not normal for friends and just as I know almost everything we do screams 'relationship'. But he makes me feel so good that I decided to just enjoy what we have for as long as it lasts without questioning or asking for explanations. We both know now what we can and what we can not offer to each other so as long as we keep that in mind everything will be fine.
"Now, take this coffee upstairs, take a shower, change your pink pajama to something comfortable and let's get out of here. We are already late."
I frown at him taking another bite from the donut and washing it up with a sip of coffee.
"What are you talking about? It's 6 in the morning, we can't be late for anything except a very nice lazy Sunday. Plus, where the hell should we go?"
Liam rolls his eyes making the exact face that my mom used to make when I or Criss would act like a child.
"I've already told you, it's 7. It was early when I woke up at 5, not it's almost noon for me. Go dress, please, and you will see what plans I have for you today."
"It's a surprise? Do you have a surprise for me? "
I ask with big happy eyes and get up jumping in a place like a 10-year-old, but he seems to enjoy me acting just like that because he always laughs looking at me with shiny eyes.
"Go change or there will be no surprise for you, missy, because we are going to be late."
I kiss his cheek before running upstairs with another donut in my mouth and the coffee cup in my hands. I take a fast shower, brush my teeth and comb my hair, before going to my wardrobe to find something to wear.
I have no idea where we are going, but he told me to dress comfortably so that's what I do. I grab a pair of black leggings, a comfy sweater, and my own black leather jacket that I always wear this time of the year. Before going out of my room I grab my black boots and my crossbody purse that matches my shoes.
I run downstairs to find Liam putting a note on the fridge for my parents, I get up on my toes to see over his shoulder what he wrote down.
I took Nataly to Aquis to visit the set of Faces, we will be there all day, but I will take her home before 10 PM.
Liam
"Are you taking me to Aquis?" I say scarring him because he didn't realize I came down and stood exactly behind him.
I start jumping around him, dancing, pulling his hands, trying to make him dance too, but then it hits me... We have to drive there, he's trying to help me get over my fear of cars by giving me something to feel excited about at the end of our trip. But as soon as he sees the worry on my face he comes to cup my head between his hands.
"I will try to take you there, yes. Today is the first day, we might not even get out of your drive alley, which is fine, that's why I have in my truck all the junk food in the store, in case we stay home. But maybe we will get to our first stop, the coffee shop to get you the second dose of caffeine. Or maybe, just maybe, you will find this trip so exciting and my company so good that you will not even realize how fast we got there. It's a 30 minutes drive, cookie, do you want to give it a try?"
No! It's my first thought, but then I remember I said I will go to the mountain on New Year's Eve and that's a 2 hours drive. I remembered I said I will try to get over my fear because all of my friends would like to go there, but they wouldn't go because of me. I remembered how good Liam was to be the last couple of months and how good he makes me feel. So I take a deep breath and nod as I start walking out of the house with Liam behind me holding his hand on my waist.
Liam drives a big car, I don't know its model, only that it's a Ford and it's black and it's quite huge. I know nothing about cars, it took me two years to know what car I am driving so I don't see myself becoming a car expert shortly. But he drives a nice beautiful car, it looks brand new because he's crazy with taking care of it, he even has a name for his car, Consuelo, and don't ask me why, because I have an idea, but it seems more like a guy thing to give woman names to their cars.
"Do you want me to wait for you to get inside the car or I should get in first?" he asks with concern on his face. "Tell me how you want to do this, Nataly."
I know it's not about getting inside the car, but actually staying in the car when it's moving, because I've already been inside one without freaking out.
"Let's just get inside together. I am afraid of the car moving, the streets, the other cars, and the flashbacks that I have from that night, not getting into one."
Liam pulls me in his arm kissing the top of my head.
"You got this, Nat. You're strong and you can do it, ok?"
I nod and he lets go of me, both of us walking towards the car. We get inside and he turns to face me without starting the engine, he just waits for me to adjust to my surroundings.
"We can go," I say looking at him.
Liam starts the car and it starts moving backward getting out of my driveway and to the main road. Tears start falling down my cheeks as flashbacks from that night come back to me, imagines with my sister smiling and singing that song, Luke laughing about her voice, the way their eyes were glowing when they were looking at each other, the love they had in their eyes...
"Cookie! "
Liam's voice brings me back to the present. His eyes are even darker with concern, his body all tensed up and his hand squeezing my left thigh.
I feel hurt, I feel this pain that eats me alive, but I don't feel like having a panic attack, not yet.
"Keep driving, I am fine. I am not having a panic attack, I am just sad..."
Liam keeps his hand on my leg moving his eyes from the road to me and then the road again. He does that constantly, always making sure I am fine. Both hands clench on his and I know I look like a mess right now, hell, I actually am a mess right now, but feeling his strong hand under my fingers makes me feel like I have to power to overcome it.
I feel sad, I feel like I am reliving that night again, my words to Luke, his words, my sister's cry, the worry in his voice when he told me to move. The loud noise of the car and the truck collapsing, the way the car's metallic parts sounded when they were bending, the windows broking spattering pieces all over like it was raining on us. My sister turning her head to search for me after everything went silent, the smile she gave me when she saw I was fine, that relieved look on her face. Luke's loving words for my sister trying to reassure her that everything will be fine even if he was covered in blood with several car parts sticking his body and Criss's scream. God, the way she screamed when Luke died, he died in her arms telling her he loves her, and she died in his crying and screaming for him not to leave her here. I never got to chance to scream to tell them to take me too...
"I miss them," I say not to Liam, but myself. "I miss both my sister and Luke, they didn't deserve to die."
I look out the window to realize the car is no longer moving and we are not in our town anymore since I don't recognize anything around us. Liam looks at me with a cocky smile placing his hands on my cheeks forcing me to look at him and I smile back like a crazy person would with her eyes still red from the crying and my cheeks still covered in tears.
"Told you, cookie, I am the best company ever and you didn't realize how fast we got here, right?"
I nod turning my head so I could kiss both his hands and Liam gets closer to me looking at my lips like he was about to kiss me, but he turns his head at the last minute, kissing my cheek instead. He pulls me in a hug breathing hard as he whispers to my year.
"You did amazing, Nataly, I am so proud of you. And your sister would be proud of you too, I know it."
At his words, another tear escapes my eye, but he brushes it off with his thumb.
"No more tears, cookie. Now let's just go and have an amazing day together, we have to take a ton of pictures and walk around the entire city. Let's see which one of us knows Faces better."
We get out of the car smiling, we hold hands all the time we stay there, Liam kisses my cheeks every ten minutes making me weak to my knees and I kiss his neck every time he pulls me in an embrace making him shiver. We take a million photos, we drink our coffee where the actors drink theirs, we eat at the restaurant that was shown in the TV series and laugh so much that our stomachs hurt.
This day is the best day I have ever had in my life and not because I visited the set of my favorite show, but because I did it with Liam. Everything with him is better...