Chapter 42
Liam and Alison were walking by the sidewalk with her hands wrapped on his arms, she did miss him very much and was clinging on the few last minutes before he had to leave town again. They reminiscence on the memories when they were younger together, how he would annoy Leah and Alison each time they were having sleep over at Leah's house.
"Oh my god, how could he leave her like that." Leah was crying, wiping her tears with the tissue, crumpled them then threw it to the floor.
"I know. How could he be so despicable." Alison tried to say her sentence in between her sobs as they watched Me Before You movie in the darkened living room.
"Boo hoo hoo. It's sad. The boy decided to end his life, leaving the girl filthy rich. It's quite obvious really. You don't have to cry like you don't know how it will end. It is a sad movie, nonetheless she'll be filthy rich!" Liam popped his head into the living room making sarcastic comments, destroying the sad ambiance that was going well throughout the whole movie which made the two irritated girls to throw daggers at him with their eyes.
"Shut up! You're ruining the moment!" Alison yelled throwing a pillow at him which unfortunately landed to the floor.
"Jeez. Can't even aim. Boo hoo hoo!" He yelled triumphantly one last time before running off to his room, knowing that he had annoyed the two girls to the core.
"Take care of yourself, Al. It's really good to see you again. At least I get to go back feeling relieved knowing that you're doing fine. You really remind me so much of Leah." He said turning facing her.
"You, remind me of her. You both looked so much alike. I'm going to miss you. Stay safe and make sure to visit me again when you return home." She hugged him tight wrapping her arms on his waist for a few moments before letting go. From the corner of her eyes she then realized, there was a motorcycle parked at the side of the curb. She turned to see Jason standing at the side of the motorcycle. She must not have noticed him when they were walking. She tried to make her way towards him as Liam followed her gaze and turned to see a huge tall boy looking infuriated at her.
"Jason?" She called out to him with much uncertainty.
"Needed more rest? Or you just needed the comfort from some other guy." He stated sarcastically.
"It's not like that-" She defended before being cut.
"Who is he?" He asked throwing murderous stare at poor Liam who was lost in between.
"He's just a friend."
"You don't need to lie if he's just a friend. I'm not an idiot, Alison." He retorted.
"Hey man-" Liam tried to calm the raging boy in front of him.
"Stay out of it! No one's talking to you!" His voice as scathing as he could.
"Hey! Don't you talk to me like that!" Liam took a step closer trying to intimidate him but instead Jason took another step closer as well showing that he was not backing down.
"You don't get to tell me what to do!" The heat started to rise between the two boys and they were that close to break into a fight.
"Please, stop this the both of you." Alison tried to intervene but her words fell on deaf ears.
"A guy like you doesn't deserve to be with her!" Liam stated causing Alison to be shocked.
"Liam!" She called out.
"I can't believe you." Jason scoffed looking down at her, the disappointment in his eyes were apparent. He shook his head lightly, walking away from them, his expression filled with dismay. He started his bike.
"Jason, please. It's not what you think." She pleaded while he continued to put on his helmet completely ignoring Alison and drove off leaving her stunned in her spot.
"Look, I'm sorry, but he's being such a jerk! He can't even give you the chance to explain without being sarcastic or rude, Al." He vindicated.
"He's usually not like that! He's been through stuff and I did lie to him which makes things worst and you're not exactly helping at all. Ugh!" She vexed folding her arms.
"Yeah, sorry. I guess the times spent in those battles truly forced me to be less tolerable to bullshit." Liam teased.
"Ugh! I really hate you right now." She exasperated.
"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean it. I don't want to leave with you being mad at me, please." He pressed.
"Stay safe and do visit when you return again." She sighed knowing that she would not know when or if he will even return again.
"I will. And before I forget, there's something I wanted to give you. She sent this to me before it happened but I received it a week after I went back to Iraq and I just thought that maybe you should have this." He took out an envelope with stamps and the familiar handwriting, handed out to her which she took and continued to stare at the ripped envelope.
"Take care of yourself. She would've wanted us to move on and live our life, at least live for her." He gently squeezed her shoulder as if giving her the courage to move on.
"I'll try, you too. Thank you. Thank you for visiting me. It really means a lot that you actually came to see me."
"I would never hate or blame you so stop with those negative thoughts, Al. You're like a sister to me. I'm glad to see you." He gave her one more hug before they finally part. Walking inside her home, she took a quick cold shower before bracing herself to face her two current major problems, her possible future and her unsettled past. She tried calling Jason a couple of times but was left to voicemail so she placed her phone down knowing that he was deliberately avoiding her. She then stared at the ripped envelope placed on the desk in front of her. She debated with herself whether to open or not but was too afraid to read the content. She bit the skin around her thumbnail as she contemplated with herself, a bad habit that she had been doing since young. Deciding with her conclusion, she pulled out the box inside her drawer and shoved the letter into the box, closing the drawer and laid herself on the bed.
The next day, Alison was waiting for Jason by his locker in the morning making Layla slightly worried looking at her distressed expression.
Finally, Jason entered the hallway and was walking towards his locker when he stopped and turned around to the opposite direction as soon as he saw her, obviously trying to avoid her which made a few students to stare and whisper among themselves.
"Jason!" She tried catching up to him.
"Please give me a chance to explain." She pleaded trying to catch up with his pace.
"Explain." He stopped his steps turning towards her and waited impatiently.
"He's just a friend. There's nothing going on between us, I promise you."
"Who is he?"
"He's an old friend and we just talked, nothing else." She tried taking his hand and held it, hoping that he would believe her.
"So why the need to lie about it?"
He's Leah's brother. He came to make sure I was fine but I can't tell you this. I don't want you to find out about my past, about him, about her, about how I may have killed her.
"I..." Her mind went blank with countless answers in her mind but was tongue-tied. Without haste, he waited for her to continue but as soon as he realized she was lost for words, he scoffed in disbelief and walked away.
"Wait..." She called out in a whisper and was unfortunately blocked by Ivy, talk about perfectly bad timing.
"Liar, liar, pants on fire. The freak with loads of secrets, huh?" She sneered at Alison who was knitting her brows together. Surprisingly, Ivy smiled triumphantly and walked away without any more hassle, leaving Alison even more wary.
At the end of the day, Alison was completely irked concluding that she failed to find another chance to explain to Jason since he had been avoiding her at all cost. The next day, she was walking in the hallway towards her locker when she saw a group of students already crowded around her locker. Curious, she walked closer while the students parted ways to let her through, at the same time whispering and stealing glances at her. Shocked to see the pictures, she ripped all the photos pasted on her locker.
"Move aside, what's going-" Corey was pushing through the sea of student with Layla and Zoe when they saw the dozens of photos pasted on her locker. They quickly pulled off those printed papers helping Alison who was still in the state of shock.
"Shows over! Move along! Now!" Corey yelled out to the crowd and they slowly started to disperse.
"Are you alright? Has Jason seen this?" Zoe asked, oblivious to the state of shock at the mention of his name. What would he think now? She looked at the picture of a beautiful long auburn-haired sexy girl in a white bikini top and a short jean shorts cheekily, wrapping one arm around Liam's waist, who had his one arm wrapped around her shoulder and was proudly grinning with their heads leaned uncomfortably close to each other. The photo was familiar but the shocking revelation was the note written on it.
"The crazy, wild tramp, Alison Brooke with one of her lovers."