MasukLiam's POVShe went still the moment I said her name.Not completely still. Just that small tightening across her shoulders that told me she had heard me and she knew exactly who it was. She did not turn around. She took two steps toward the bar counter like she was planning to order something and let the moment go, like I was not standing right behind her.I waited.She stopped walking.For a second she just stood there and I watched the back of her head and the straight fall of the wig and I thought, she is going to turn around. And then she did.She turned around slowly.She looked at me from behind the red mask and for a moment her expression did something she clearly had not planned. She looked flustered before she pulled her composure back together. Something that looked a lot like the feeling I had been trying to keep off my own face ever since the day I met her right at this bar.Scarlett was never flustered. Every other time I had seen her she was the calmest, most controlled
Liam's POVShe went still the moment I said her name.Not completely still. Just that small tightening across her shoulders that told me she had heard me and she knew exactly who it was. She did not turn around. She took two steps toward the bar counter like she was planning to order something and let the moment go, like I was not standing right behind her.I waited.She stopped walking.For a second she just stood there and I watched the back of her head and the straight fall of the wig and I thought, she is going to turn around. And then she did.She turned around slowly.She looked at me from behind the red mask and for a moment her expression did something she clearly had not planned. She looked flustered before she pulled her composure back together. Something that looked a lot like the feeling I had been trying to keep off my own face ever since the day I met her right at this bar.Scarlett was never flustered. Every other time I had seen her she was the calmest, most controlled
Liam's POVShe went still the moment I said her name.Not completely still. Just that small tightening across her shoulders that told me she had heard me and she knew exactly who it was. She did not turn around. She took two steps toward the bar counter like she was planning to order something and let the moment go, like I was not standing right behind her.I waited.She stopped walking.For a second she just stood there and I watched the back of her head and the straight fall of the wig and I thought, she is going to turn around. And then she did.She turned around slowly.She looked at me from behind the red mask and for a moment her expression did something she clearly had not planned. She looked flustered before she pulled her composure back together. Something that looked a lot like the feeling I had been trying to keep off my own face ever since the day I met her right at this bar.Scarlett was never flustered. Every other time I had seen her she was the calmest, most controlled
Liam's POVI was three blocks from the library and still talking to myself.Who the fuck does she think she is?I kept walking with my hands deep in my pockets and my jaw so tight it ached. I had gone over it three times already and the answer was the same every time. Jade had stood on those steps and called me a parasite. Called my dad one too. Like she had us all figured out after five days. Like the fact that her mum fell in love with someone and chose to build a life with him was somehow something me and my dad had done to her personally.I pulled out my phone and called Jace. He had been my best friend since kindergarten and we played football on the same team in my former college. It was such a bummer to leave him to move with my dad.He picked up on the second ring. "What's up bro?""I need two minutes," I said."Talk."So I told him. The girl on the steps, the word parasite, the whole thing. He listened without interrupting and when I finished he was quiet for a second."Bro,"
Avery's POVI went to the window and looked down.Dean was at the curb in his jacket, moving toward a dark saloon I had never seen parked on our street before. It was not one of the neighbours and it wasn't a cab. It was just a car, engine running, waiting for him like it had been arranged.I picked up my phone and opened the camera.I made sure to get a picture of the plates before he pulled away, along with the make and the colour of the car. I had no single trust when it concerns Dean so I was taking precaution.The car turned at the end of the road and was gone, and I stood at the window in the dark for a moment.Then I went back to Liam's unanswered message. The cursor was still blinking. ‘Would you want to go for a drink sometime?’I typed ‘Maybe’ and sent it before I could think about it more than I already had, then plugged my phone in, got into bed, and stared at the ceiling until sleep eventually came.Sleep came late and I was up before my alarm, tired in the way of someone
Avery's POVI sat on my bed in the quiet of my room and listened to Dean's voice finally trail off somewhere downstairs. I didn't give a shit about whatever he was saying. He was useless to me and didn't deserve any respect from me.Then the house went quiet. Maybe my mum succeeded in calming him down, I didn't care.I looked at the ceiling and let it be quiet for a while.My wrist hurt faintly where Dean had grabbed it. Not badly. Just a dull reminder around the joint. I pressed my thumb into it and thought about his expression when the slap landed. The way the certainty had gone out of his face all at once, like a light switching off.I thought about my mum standing in the doorway once again like a coward.I thought about Jade. It's been a while since we had a fight. Besides that, we had never fought about boys. It was annoying that we were fighting about one now, and the worst part being that she even hated him.I thought about Liam and the things Jade said to him.I looked at my p







