Chapter Thirty-Three: Rowboating is so Much Cooler Than Cleaning
Usually I’m opposed to cleaning. I hated the smell of Windex and I hated trying to get rid of the streak that was on my mirror, but I couldn’t stop. No matter how hard I tried to convince myself everything was clean, I couldn’t stop.
I finally realized that I was trying to distract myself because every time I left alone with my thoughts, my mind always returned to Uranus’s words, “I could never like a stupid, pathetic, attention whore, who lies on a daily basis.”
It played in my mind like a breaking record again and again and again. And every time it did, my heart would drop just a little bit. I wasn’t even sure why I still had feelings for him. What he did to Sam was horrible, but he resolved it. Maybe Cupid was just being an asshole.
“Rena, what are you doing?” Kurt asked as he sleepily walked into the bathroom, where I was cleaning.
“Making milkshakes,” I said sarcastically. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Being crazy since it’s nine in the morning on a Saturday and you’re cleaning an already clean mirror,” Kurt answered me, looking kind of worried. “Is this about what happened yesterday?”
“No, it’s about our house being so unclean. I just couldn’t take it anymore,” I lied. Our house was clean the majority of the time since my dad went all dad-mode on us when we didn’t do our daily chores.
“Sure,” Kurt said, but didn’t sound too sure. “Can you just get out so I can pee?”
I glared at him, but I got out. Knowing Kurt, he would have probably just gone anyways.
Thirty minutes later, I was mopping the kitchen vehemently. But then Kurt came in a tugged me out of the room.
“What?” I snapped at my brother who continued to drag me somewhere.
“We’re going,” Kurt said simply. “You might want to leave the mop here though.”
“I don’t want to go,” I told him, yanking my arm out of his grip.
“You’ve been cleaning all day, Rena. The house looks great and it smells like lemons now. So, let’s go,” Kurt tried to reason with me, tugging on my arm again.
“I don’t want to,” I said, a little whiny this time. Actually, I did want to go. I needed another distraction besides attacking the air with air freshener, but I didn’t have to deal with what Kurt had in mind. He’d probably make me yell at fire hydrants until ‘the bad feelings are gone’.
After another ten minutes of Kurt trying to shove me into his car and me yelling at him that I didn’t want to go, Kurt got frustrated and left me half into the passenger seat. He went to the driver’s side and started the car.
“Either get in or have half of your body,” Kurt said rather darkly and to show he was not messinaround, he started to reverse.
“Okay, okay!” I finally gave in and pulled my upper body into the car. “Where I we going?” I asked and shut the car door.
“You’ll find that out soon enough, but what I want to know is what’s up with you?”
“The urge to punch you,” I responded.
“What?”
“You know. You asked me, ‘what’s up with you’ so what’s rising is the urge to punch you,” I clarified.
“I’ve already told you, Rena,” Kurt said patronizingly. “Jokes that you have to explain aren’t funny.”
“Then you have no sense of humor,” I said lamely, but glad that I successfully diverted him from the quest—
“So, what’s wrong with you? Like in all seriousness,” Kurt asked me, looking at me with genuine concern as we were stopped at a red light. “ I know it has something to do with that cashier,” he said, softly urging me to tell him.
I was about to call him stupid and tell him to leave me alone, but I realized that Kurt wouldn’t let up. “I think I have—or had—I’m still not sure—a crush on Uranus,” I admitted, not even finding the ‘Uranus’ joke amusing this time. “And yesterday when he came to pick up his brother. I was upset and mad at him and said something stupid and then he said—” I paused, feeling that drop in my stomach again. “He told me that he could never have feelings for a lying, pathetic attention whore,” I said quickly.
Kurt was quiet for a really long time. We passed by two lights and we were stopped by another red light. My brother’s lips were pressed in a thin line and he was clutching onto the steering wheel a bit too tightly.
“Kurt?” I said his name, trying to break the silence. “That might seem like a horrible thing to say, but I kind of do act like—”
“Don’t, Rena. Why are you justifying what he said? He’s just an idiot who knows nothing about you,” Kurt spat bitterly and floored it when the light turned green.
“I don’t know,” I said quietly. “Yeah, he’s a jerk—an asshole, but he has his moments and he’s really not that bad of a guy.”
“After what he said to you, you still think that?” Kurt asked me incredulously.
“Sort of,” I replied after a long time staring at some asshole change lanes without signaling.
“It sounds to me like you’ve kind of forgiven him.”
I thought about what Kurt said for a moment. It did sound like I somehow had forgiven him by the way I was defending him. And maybe I was just hung up over the fact that he could never like me and I didn’t really care about the ‘pathetic, attention whore’ part. I scoffed. Two years of high school bullying had really made me immune to those kinds of insults, hadn’t it?
But then maybe I am pathetic for letting something as miniscule as someone not returning my feelings get to me. It was just a little crush and yet I was moping about it.
And I’m still not over it, which was the sad part.
“Kurt, can we go home so I can wallow in self-pity?” I asked, but I already knew the answer.
“Nope,” Kurt said, popping the ‘p’.
I slumped into my seat and looked out the window. We were now turning into a neighborhood. I quickly sat back up once I realized it was a very familiar neighborhood.
“Kurt, I saw him yesterday. I think that’s enough face time for the both of us,” I protested as I saw Liam’s house in the distance.
“All I know that when I drove you home yesterday, you had a smile on your face and I’m pretty sure babysitting screaming kids wouldn’t do that.”
“Hey! My kids are awesome,” I defended my daycare kids.
“You’re not denying he made you happier,” Kurt sung with a knowing smile in his face.
“Shut up, Kurt,” I mumbled.
Kurt just laughed at me as he pulled into Liam’s driveway. “Get out,” Kurt ordered, putting the car in park.
“You’re not coming?” I asked, in the middle of taking off my seatbelt.
“No, I have things to do.”
“Then why do I have to go?” I whined.
“Okay, fine,” Kurt said in an exasperated tone. “I’ll go.” Kurt turned off the engine off the car and I relaxed a bit. At least Kurt will be here too. “Oh, crap,” Kurt exclaimed when he knocked over a water bottle as he was trying to get out.
“Idiot,” I insulted him and got out of the car, closing it behind me. As soon as I stepped away from the car, I heard Kurt starting it back up. “Kurt?” I called from outside the car.
Kurt was smiling deviously at me. “Who’s the idiot now?” he shouted as he locked the doors of the car so I couldn’t get back in.
“I’m so telling Dad you left me at a guy’s house,” I muttered to myself, knowing it was useless trying to tell my stupid brother that as he back out of the driveway without me.
I glared after my brother’s car. This was definitely payback for hiding his Dr. Pepper.
I sighed. My phone still hasn’t been replaced after I dropped it in my cereal. I looked behind me at Liam’s house. I guess there was nothing else to do.
I went up to the doorway and rang the doorbell. I bet Kurt didn’t even tell him I was coming. Oh god, what if one of his parents get the door?
I had a mini panic. I guess I could say I was here for a project. But what if they asked in what subject? I’ll just say physics. But what if they ask what’s it about?
“Hello?” Sure enough, I found myself staring at Liam’s dad. I recognized from the time he was at the hospital.
Now realizing that I was just standing here looking like an idiot, I started talking. “Uh—physics project—Liam—Hi, I’m Serena,” I jumbled all of my thoughts together into a incomprehensible sentence.
Liam’s dad stared at me like I was crazy. “What was that?” he asked me to repeat myself.
“Is Liam here?” I finally got out what I wanted to say.
Mr. Nelson looked at me shocked for a moment. “What was your name again?” he asked me curiously.
“Serena Davidson?” I answered, but it sounded more like a question. I was nervous and the way he was scrutinizing me wasn’t helping.
A look of acknowledgment flashed across his face and he looked shocked again. “Oh, Liam’s told us a lot about you. Please come in,” Mr. Nelson invited me in, stepping aside.
That’s odd. Why did his attitude change when he heard my name? Why was he so suspicious in the first place?
“Liam’s lounging about in the living room,” Mr. Nelson informed me as he gestured to his left. “Just tell me if you need anything,” he said and walked into a room that I assumed was the office.
That was really weird.
I vaguely remembered my surroundings as I walked to the living room. Liam was right. His house did change. Last time I was here, the walls were a light gray and now they were beige. And the furniture was different.
The living room was still in the same format though. There was a nice-looking fireplace there that looked like it had been used recently. Above it a flat screen was mounted, showing a rerun of Spongebob quietly. In front of the fireplace and TV, was a sleek coffee table. On it was some books and a cup full of coffee. The table was set on top of a rug that had an interesting tribal design on it. Surrounding the tables were two couches that were adjacent to each other.
And on one of them was Liam. Sleeping. One of his arms was hanging off of the couch and the other was resting on his chest. His hair was sticking out in a bunch of directions.
Okay, I’m not the type of person to call things other than puppies, bunnies, and other baby animals cute, but this was an adorable sight.
Liam just looked so peaceful with his eyes closed and the corner of his mouth slightly curled upwards. It didn’t even matter that he was snoring. He was just that cute when he slept.
“I’m such a creep,” I told myself quietly when the fact that staring at people when they slept was weird dawned on me. I looked away, deciding what to do.
I debated on whether I should just go home because I didn’t want to wake up Liam. And it’d be pretty awkward if he found me here when he woke up. But I didn’t have my phone and, as sad as it is, I didn’t know my way back home even though I’ve lived in this town for a while.
But it looked like my answer was made up for me as I took a step back. I felt something underneath my foot and before I knew what was happening, I fell backwards, giving a shout as I fell.
I groaned as I landed on my butt. That was going to bruise. I looked for what I tripped over and it was the TV remote. I glared at it for a moment, but that was interrupted when I heard rustling rom the couch.
A sleepy looking Liam sat up with a confused expression on his face, searching for what had made the noise. He became even more confused when his eyes landed on me.
“Um… hi,” I said unintelligently, still sitting on the ground.
Still perplexed, Liam rubbed his eyes and looked at me again. He blinked a few times and then squinted at me. And then he gave up and took a pair of glasses from the end table next to the couch and put them on.
“Rena?” Liam looked at me in surprise.
“I was just . . . feeling how comfortable the floor was,” I said as if that explained why I was on the floor of his living room. I quickly got up.
Liam still looked confused, but then he smiled at me. “Did a fat man in a red suit stuff you in a bag and bring you here?”
I stared at him like was crazy. “What?”
“It’s a little late, but I asked Santa for you for Christmas,” Liam said grinning.
I averted my attention to the ground for a second, trying to recover from my flustered state. “I didn’t know you wore glasses,” I said trying to change the subject.
“I was so blinded by your beauty that I made to start wearing them,” Liam, once again, gave me a pick up line.
“You’re going to give me diabetes with all this sweetness,” I replied, averting his gaze again.
“So, why are you really here?” Liam asked me, starting to get up.
“I don’t know. Kurt just threw me in his car and drove me—whoa,” I cut myself off when I saw Liam stumbling once he tried to stand up. I quickly went to his side and steadied him. “Are you okay?” I asked, concerned.
Liam closed his eyes for a moment, frowning. He blinked a few times before he looked at me again, but they looked like he was staring at something far off.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he assured me, giving me a wry smile.
I didn’t believe him, but he was balanced now, so I let go of him and took a step away.
“So, why did Kurt drop you off here?”
Because you apparently make me happier.
“I don’t know. Kurt’s just weird,” I told him instead.
“O…kay,” Liam replied. “That’s a bit odd, but I have an idea how we can hang.”
“I’m not a bat . . . or an executioner,” I joked. When Liam gave me a weird look, I tried to explain. “Get it? ‘Cause bats hang upside down. And executioners used to hang people?”
“Oh, ha-ha,” Liam let out a fake laugh.
I rolled my eyes at his laugh. “So, how are we going to ‘hang’?”
“You’ll see,” Liam told me with a mysterious glint in his eye. Before I knew what was happening, Liam took my hand and ran, dragging me along with him.
:::x:::O:::x:::
And see I did. Aha, Yoda moment.
After I yelled at Liam for making me run unnecessarily, I couldn’t help but forgive him once I saw what he was talking about.
Apparently, on the other side of Liam’s neighborhood, was a small manmade lake. It was made for the people who bought the houses around it to enjoy, so there were many boats docked to people’s backyards.
The lake itself was really clear. And along the lakeshore there were tiny little lights, but they weren’t on because it was still day outside. And in the middle of the lake was a huge fountain that blasted water every ten minutes.
“That’s not all I wanted to show you,” Liam said, taking me away from my amazement at the lake. “I know this is supposed to be for the rich people with lakeside houses, but I’m a rule breaker,” Liam said comically, trying to act tough.
I rolled my eyes. Yeah, right. I bet Liam couldn’t even break the rule of no using pen on your homework.
“Whatever,” I said, following Liam as he led me to someplace. “Should I be scared?” I asked suspiciously as we continued through a path with a bunch of trees.
“It depends. How scared of snakes are you?”
“What?!” I nearly shouted, as I looked around frantically. “Why would you bring me here? Does animal control know about this? This can’t be safe!” I began to rant I carefully surveyed every step.
Liam laughed at me. “Rena, I’m kidding.”
I stopped walking to give him a look of disbelief. Jerkwad. “That wasn’t funny.”
“It was to me and I can’t believe that you would be scared of snakes, Miss Animal Lover.”
“Yeah, my vegetarianism is more directed towards animals that are eaten everyday, like cows. Who eats snakes? Plus, do you know what they eat? People keep dead mice in their freezers just to feed those scaly things,” I said disgusted.
“So if you only care about animals that are eaten on a daily basis, does that mean that you don’t care if cute little puppy dogs are eaten?” Liam questioned, giving me a hard time.
“…Shut up,” I said lamely as Liam laughed at my lack of response.
“Okay, we’re here,” Liam said, stopping in front of a rowboat that had some paddles and life vests in it.
“Are we going to go in that thing?” I asked, kind of scared of the answer.
“Yeah, it’ll be fun,” Liam said, giving me a smile. “I go out here and do it all the time. It gives me some thinking time.”
But thinking time is the last thing I need.
Liam started dragging it towards the water and I had no choice but to help him.
We finally got it the rowboat to the water and after Liam practically forced me on the thing, we were just paddling through the lake. It was actually really relaxing. Though, I kind of felt bad for Liam. He was doing all of the paddling.
At times, we would just have this silence. It wasn’t the bad silence though. It was a comfortable silence where I would just be looking at the water or the sky …or Liam.
I noticed how he actually looked good with his glasses. I noticed how his hair was really light in the light and how his eyes were brighter. I noticed how he would shift his attention frequently. …And not to mention how his biceps would flex every time he rowed. I thought he played soccer. How is his upper have so defined. Well, he was a goalie, so maybe he did have to be fit all around.
“Rena, can I ask you a question?” Liam asked suddenly, snapping me out of my ogling of him. Oh God, I hope he didn’t notice that.
“You just did,” I said smart-alecky, but I nodded anyways.
“When I asked if you okay yesterday, why did you no?” Liam asked, looking like he actually cared.
“It’s nothing,” I dismissed, frowning at the thought of yesterday morning. “I just wasn’t feeling well, I guess,” I lied.
“Really?” Liam asked, not believing me.
“Yeah, really,” I said, hoping he’d get off my case.
“Rena.”
I gulped at the way he was looking at me. Like he was reading into my soul or something.
“Someone’s mad at me,” I answered him, not being able to withstand that gaze anymore.
“Who would be mad at you?”
“Just someone stupid. I didn’t even do anything.”
Well, you know except for the fact that I insulted his girlfriend, told him that his girlfriend could do so much better than him, and questioning his eligibility of being an older brother.
Liam raised an eyebrow. “They’re mad at you because you didn’t do anything?“Well, I insulted him. A lot,” I said honestly.
“I’m sure you had a reason to.”
I thought back. Did I? All I remember was being really mad at him for what he did to Sam. Shit. Was I being a hypocrite for yelling at Uranus for yelling unrelated things? I think I was.
“Shit,” I swore again softly.
“What?”
“I think it’s my fault.”
“Rena, I may not know what you and this person were arguing about, but usually both people are to blame. If you feel a bit guilty, then chances are the other person feels guilty too. So, if I were you, I’d go and work things out with them,” Liam told me.
I gave him a smile. “What if they don’t forgive me?”
“Then they’re stupid,” he replied.
My smile widened. “I think I’ll try to patch things up with them,” I said honestly. “But who knows, they are pretty stupid.”
“It’s okay if they don’t forgive you. That means there’s more time for you to hang out with me since there will be one less person in your life.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not a bat?”
“Hey, Rena,” Liam said, totally changing gears.
“Yeah?” I asked confused.
“It’s 11:10,” Liam said, giving me a mischievous smile.
“Okay?” Now I was more confused.
“The fountain goes off every ten minutes,” Liam reminded me and pointed to the pipe that the water for the fountain came out of.
As if on cue, water spurted from the pipe and water was drenching me.
“Liam!” I shouted angrily as water poured on me. I tried to shield myself with my hood, but it did no good.
Liam just sat there looking contempt as the water pelted us.
“Liam!” I shouted again, trying to get him to move us. “You’re a jerk,” I told him as he laughed at me. “At least give me the paddles!” I shouted at him and tried to take the paddles.
He wouldn’t budge, so I had to pry his hands off of them, but when I finally managed to get him to let go, the paddles slipped through the holes and started to float away.
“Stop laughing and help me!” I whined at Liam, who just laughed harder now. “This isn’t funny anymore.”
When I realized Liam wasn’t going to help me, I cursed under my breath and leaned on the edge of the rowboat to get the paddle, but my arms were too short and I couldn’t get it. Being stupid, I leaned more.
And do you know what happened next? Guess. You’ll probably get it right.
Yeah, the freaking boat freaking tipped over.
I screamed as we fell into the freezing cold lake. The only good thing about this is that Liam finally stopped laughing.
“Rena, are you okay?” he asked swimming to where I was.
“Yeah, just peachy,” I said, scowling at him and swimming to collect the two paddles.
But then he started laughing again. Idiot.
“You’re such an idiot,” I echoed my thoughts, but when I turned around from retrieving the other paddle, I couldn’t find Liam anywhere.
“Liam?” I called.
No reply.
“Liam? Okay, now is not the time for—” I was suddenly cut off when something pulling me under the flipped row boat.
It was pretty cool. It was like a cave on top of water.
“Hi,” Liam said, giving me a grin.
“You nearly gave me a heart attack,” I scolded him, hitting him lightly on the shoulder.
“Does this count as rain?” Liam asked me suddenly.
“What?” I asked, confused on what was going on, but then I remembered our ‘date’.
“It has to rain sooner or later.”
“No,” I answered quickly and tried to put more space between us, but I only managed to hit my head on one of the seats on the rowboat.
“Aw, come on it’s precipitation in the sky.”
“It has to be from the clouds though,” I said, now feeling very awkward.
“But—”
“Liam?” I called to him, but he had that look on his face from earlier when he got up from the couch. “Liam?!” I called more desperately.
He looked disoriented.
I started freaking out. I lifted the rowboat and I pulled Liam and myself out. What was going on with Liam.
“QUACK!”
“Holy shit!” I cried, startled by the duck that was swimming by. “What the—Liam?” I forgot about the stupid duck and focused back on Liam.
“I—I just need,” he finally started speaking and I felt relief go through me. He was looking normal again and his dizziness seemed to have faded.
“Need what?” I asked, getting closer to him.
“A hug,” Liam said before he reached out and embraced me in a tight hug.
Out of relief that he was okay, I hugged him back.
“You’re an idiot,” I told him again as I hugged him.
“Sssshhh, let me enjoy this.”
He’s lucky that we were wearing life vests. I might have drowned him for being a jerkwad.
I pulled away when I realized how weird this was. We were hugging while floating in freezing cold water as ducks were forming around us all after Liam had a random dizzy spell. Thank God the fountain stopped.
“I think we should go back,” I suggested, pulling away from the hug and looking at our flipped rowboat.
“I think so too,” Liam agreed and helped me flip the boat back over.
We managed to find one paddle, but the other one seemed to disappear.
We went back in almost near silence. Well, my teeth were chattering, but yeah silence. I was too busy thinking about what happened back there and who knows what Liam was thinking.
When we approached Liam’s house, another car was parked in his driveway.
“Whose car is that?” I asked Liam, breaking the long silence.
“Oh crap, I forgot,” Liam said and suddenly seemed really stressed.
“What?”
“My sisters are coming back today.”
“The ones at college?”
Speak of the devil, and the devil will come.
“What happened to you, Liam?” A tall dirty blonde female came out of the house and rushed to her brother.
“Why are you wet?” a brunette my height, who followed the dirty blonde, asked.
“Who’s she?” two very similar looking girls asked, pointing at me.
Liam looked at me with an apologetic expression.
Shit… does this mean I’m staying to meet these people?
:::x:::O:::x:::
Author's Note:
You guys know that I'm really, really, extremly truly sorry, right? I didn't mean for it to take this long. I just couldn't think of ANYTHING. I literally wrote this chapter three times. I decided I didn't like any of them, so I had to delete them.
But, some good news is that I'M DONE WITH MY FINALS AND I'M ON WINTER BREAK. IT'S SO AWESOME. So, MAYBE some more updates?
So, what's up with Liam and his dizziness?
And OMG she's gonna meet his FAMILIA.
Speaking of families, my heart goes out to those families affected by the Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting. What that guy did is so horrendous, hopefully he'll get what's coming to him. May the twenty-six lives he took rest in peace.