Chapter 03_Being too close

I pretended to gag. “Kate, that’s my brother and his as**ole friend! How on earth can you get past the man-whore behaviour? Both of them are jerks.” I shrugged. I didn’t get why, but every single girl in this school was in love with them. Jake was a great person, but he treated girls like objects, and Liam, well Liam was just an all-round jerk.

“They are the two best players on the hockey team and look like sex gods, and I wish I could get past it,” she said suggestively, waggling her eyebrows with a grin, making me laugh. She hooked her arm through mine and pulled me towards our first class.

School was good, as usual; I was quite popular due to the fact that my brother and his best friend were the most wanted boys there. They looked after me of sorts, which basically meant that they warned all the guys to stay away from me, which actually suited me fine because I didn’t want to date. Most of the girls wanted to be my friends so that they could get closer to my brother. The girlfriend wannabe’s were pretty easy to see through though, mostly you could tell if they wanted an introduction, by what kind of clothes they were wearing - if they weren’t wearing much then they were after my brother or Liam.

I loved my classes, I was quite popular amongst the teachers too because my grades never went below a B. I always did my homework, and was never tardy; I prided myself on it, though I wasn’t a nerd. At lunchtime I was sat with my friends when I heard the usual whispers and giggles. Girls started checking their hair and fixing their make-up so I knew that my brother and his friends were arriving in the canteen. I sighed as Kate and Sarah started lusting over them as usual.

“Oh yay, hot piece of ass number one is coming over!” Sarah giggled, elbowing Kate in the ribs.

I rolled my eyes as a hand shot out from behind me stealing a handful of my fries. “Hey, Angel,” Liam breathed down my neck.

I slapped his hand as he went to steal some more. “Liam, for goodness sake! Go buy your own food, you tight ass,” I ranted, annoyed.

He laughed. “Oh you know you want to share with me,” he replied, plopping down next to me on the bench, shoving me over with his hip.

“Liam, what do you want?” I asked with a sigh, moving my plate away from him.

He threw his arm around my shoulder. “I just wanted to visit with my girl. I know you’ve been missing me not seeing me all morning, and all,” he said cockily.

My friends all sighed and stared at him longingly. “Will you get your man-whore arm off me, Liam, for goodness sake; I don’t want to catch anything!” I scolded, shrugging him off.

He chuckled again. “Don’t be like that, Angel. I just wanted to let you know I’ll be driving you home today. Your brother has a date, so….” he trailed off, smirking at me.

Great, just great! He was driving me home. Fantastic. He always made the drive home as long as possible just to annoy the life out of me. Then, he insisted on waiting at my house until my brother came home, which meant that I had to cook for him too. Damn it, he is so annoying!

“That’s great, Liam. Run along now, I’m sure you have some more STD’s to spread around,” I said, waving my hand in a buzz off gesture.

He laughed and kissed me on the cheek as he stood up. “Pretend all you want, Angel, we both know you’ll be wanting me to sleep with you tonight.” He winked at me slyly, giving what he said a double meaning, and I prayed no one else picked up on it.

“Of course I will, Liam, because I’m so in love with you.” I sighed, rolling my eyes and rubbing my cheek where he kissed me.

“I love you, too.” He smirked at me as he walked off to the same girl from this morning. He slipped his arm around her shoulder, his dirty, slutty lips lowered onto hers. I frowned and looked away back to my friends when he started making out with her in the middle of the canteen.

Kate and Sarah and half the girls in the canteen were staring after him lustfully. “Jeez, that guy is so freaking annoying! Why couldn’t my brother choose a nice best friend, someone who isn’t an arrogant, self-obsessed, asshole?” I ranted, throwing my hands up.

“Oh stop whining! Liam James just had his arm round you and kissed you on the cheek, I would give anything for those sweet lips to be on me,” Sarah said dreamily, making me laugh.

“Whatever. Come on, let’s get to our next class,” I suggested as we picked up our trays and headed out.

After school I reluctantly made my way to the parking lot, where a smirking Liam was leaning against his car waiting for me. “Hey, beautiful.” He winked at me flirtily and opened my door for me.

“Hello, Liam.” I climbed into his car, already annoyed with his flirty ass, if Jake was here he would have slapped him for that one.

He climbed in next to me. “So then, Angel, I just need to stop by the store on the way back.” He put the car into drive and pulled out of the parking lot.

“Great,” I mumbled. I decided to look out of my window and ignore him; I was still annoyed with him for the whole ‘ten more minutes’ thing this morning.

He pulled into the parking lot of the store a few minutes later. “Come on, Angel,” he said, getting out. I just sat there and crossed my arms over my chest refusing to leave the car. He walked around the car and opened my door for me. “Come on, Angel,” he repeated, holding his hand out for me.

“It doesn’t take two of us to go in, Liam. I’ll wait here,” I countered. He reached into the car and picked me up easily, slinging me over his shoulder, laughing. He kicked the door shut and started walking towards the store. “Put me the hell down, asshole!” I shouted, slapping on his back.

He just laughed at my meager attempts to get down, and continued walking. Once we were in the store he finally set me on my feet. I looked around, embarrassed, checking to see if anyone saw that, but it appeared that they didn’t. He reached out his hand and tucked some of my loose hair behind my ear, his fingers lingering on my cheek.

I slapped his hand away from my face and gave him and looked at him angrily. “That was so embarrassing!” I hissed.

“What’s the problem? Most girls would love for me to do that to them,” he replied, shrugging and walking off towards the magazines.

I stomped my foot, then blushed because I had just stomped like a child; thankfully Liam wasn’t watching otherwise I would never hear the end of it. He grabbed a sports magazine and a bar of chocolate and stalked off towards the counter to pay.

I was happily flicking through Teen Vogue when two boys walked over to me. I stiffened. “Well hello there,” one of them purred. I nodded in acknowledgement, and put the magazine back, walking off quickly to find Liam.

“Hey, where you going?” the other guy asked, grabbing my hand.

My heart started to race as I looked around, frantically. “I’m looking for my boyfriend,” I lied, trying to sound confident.

“Boyfriend? I don’t see a boyfriend,” the other guy said, sneering at me. “How about we go somewhere and get to know each other better?” the boy who was holding my hand offered, pulling me towards him slightly.

I felt sick. Oh God, Liam, help me please! I know I’m pathetic but I just hate confrontation and I hate people touching me, especially people I don’t know.

“Hey, Angel,” Liam said, slinging his arm around my shoulder and glaring at the two guys who immediately dropped my hand and took a step back. I moved closer to Liam’s side and pressed into him so hard that it actually hurt. “I hope you guys weren’t hitting on my girl,” he said casually, but I could hear the anger in the tone of his voice. Liam has always been protective of me; one time a boy pushed me over into a puddle when I was seven, and Liam went straight round to the boy’s house and punched him in the face.

“No way, man. We were just talking, that’s all,” the guy lied, holding up his hands innocently.

“That’s good. Come on then, Angel, let’s get you home,” Liam said, guiding me towards the door. Once we were outside, he turned to look at me. “You OK?” he asked, looking at me concerned. I was OK; my heart had stopped trying to break out of my chest as soon as I heard his voice.

I nodded and smiled at him gratefully. “Thanks,” I muttered. He opened the car door and waited for me to climb in, before going around to his side again. Once he was in he tossed something into my lap, I looked down it was a bar of my favourite chocolate, I couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks, Liam.” He was always doing sweet things like buying me candy, it was just a shame he was such a man-whore jerk, otherwise he would probably be a nice guy.

When I got to my house, I went straight to work making a lasagne for dinner. Liam hovered around the kitchen behind me, making me feel violated as he stared at my body. “For goodness sake, Liam, my eyes are up here!” I cried angrily, pointing to my face.

He laughed. “Wow, you really are in a bad mood with me today, huh?” he teased, smirking.

“Yeah I am. I can’t believe you this morning. I hate rushing around; I’ve looked and felt like shit all day,” I cried acidly.

“I think you’ve looked hot all day,” he countered, shrugging.

“Ugh, can you just stop talking to me? I’m not in the mood.” I threw the food in the oven and started to chop up some salad.

“Fine, whatever.” He shrugged again and came to stand next to me, helping me chop up the salad stuff. He was standing so close to me that I could feel the heat radiating from his body to mine, it was strangely calming.

“I’m gonna go start my homework. That lasagne will be done in half an hour; I suppose you’re staying for dinner,” I stated. It wasn’t a question, I knew he would. I’m not sure whether Jake asked him to stay with me when he was out, but Liam always did anyway.

“Sure, seeing as you asked me so nicely.” He smirked.

“I wasn’t asking,” I growled sarcastically as I turned to walk off.

He grabbed my hand and stepped closer to me, he was so close my chest was touching his, I could feel his breath blowing across my face. “Angel, I’m sorry about this morning, I am. Please stop being all bitchy to me, it doesn’t suit you,” he said quietly.

I took a deep breath and sighed. “OK, yeah, I’m sorry too. I guess I have been a bitch to you,” I admitted, trying to look away from his beautiful sky blue eyes that felt like they were seeing my soul.

“So, am I forgiven?” he asked, smiling.

I liked this Liam, he was the one that looked after me, he was different when we were on our own. He gave me his adorable puppy dog face that I just couldn’t say no to, and I felt my will to hate him crumble.

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Whatever. I’m going to do my homework before dinner.” I pulled out of his hold and walked away quickly.

That felt weird being close to him like that, I could still feel the tingles of electricity flowing through my hand where he had held it, I could still smell his sweet breath that had blown across my face. I had no idea what this weird atmosphere was in the kitchen; it was all just too confusing. I shook my head and pulled out my calculus homework, making a start on it at least.

After we had eaten dinner in silence, I finished my homework. It was only eight thirty so Liam decided to put on a movie. He put on The Final Destination and we sat on the couch watching it. I felt a little uncomfortable for some reason but I couldn’t work out why. I was just sitting there the same as usual, but something felt off. I kept sneaking little glances in his direction; he was sitting there watching the movie, one leg folded over the other, his arm casually slung over the back of my chair.

Neither of us moved until the movie finished. I stifled a yawn. “I think I’m gonna go to bed, Liam, I’m pretty tired,” I murmured, getting up and stretching like a cat. When I looked back to him, I noticed that he was watching me intently. I cleared my throat because he was still staring at me with a strange expression on his face.

“Oh right, yeah OK. I’ll just shoot home then and I’ll be back in like thirty minutes,” he said, standing up to leave.

I followed him out and locked the door behind him, a little puzzled. Why was everything so tense and strange between us tonight? It’s was probably just because I was so pissed off at him this morning it’s made things a little awkward.

I changed quickly into a tank top and shorts, brushed my teeth and hair, then slipped into my bed. The bed felt cold and too big, just like it did every night. After about twenty minutes or so, I heard my window slide open and then closed again. Clothes dropped to the floor and then the bed dipped behind me.

“Hey, you asleep?” he whispered.

“No, not yet,” I mumbled.

I lifted my head so he could put one of his arms under my neck. He pressed his chest right up against my back and wrapped his other arm around me, throwing his leg over mine. I heard him sigh as I wriggled to get closer to him, I loved Liam sleeping in with me, the bed didn’t feel right without him there.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, pulling his arms tighter around me and pressing my face into his arm, smelling his beautiful scent that was like nothing else in the world.

“Nothing, Angel. I’m just tired, that’s all,” he mumbled against the back of my head, pressing his lips into my hair.

“OK. Goodnight, Liam,” I whispered, kissing his arm.

“Goodnight, Angel,” he replied, kissing the back of my head.

TBC....