He choked on his laughter, and shook his head. “No, Angel. The reason I went with all those girls was to try and get over you. I wake up next to you every day. You send my mind and body into a frenzy. I can smell your hair when I close my eyes, or I can imagine how your hand feels when you lay it on my chest. It kills me every day to be so close to you, but be so far away,” he said, shaking his head and taking a deep breath, looking at me hopefully. “I thought maybe if I met someone else that I’d be able to stop thinking about you, but it didn’t work. Nothing works. When I’m with them, I wish it was you. When they laugh or talk, I can’t help but compare it to your voice or your laugh. It’s always been you; it’ll always be you, Angel.”
I couldn’t speak. What on earth do I say to that? I mean, I know he’s a player, but I was killing him? That speech was so freaking adorable! “Oh,” I choked out.
He burst out laughing. “Oh? That’s all you can say?”
I nodded and laughed too. I still had no words to answer that little confession he’d just made. My head was still spinning and I knew if I said something now I would just make myself sound like an idiot. I leant across the table and took his hand, he smiled happily at me and that seemed to be all that was necessary.
My head was spinning with thoughts; I really didn’t know what to believe. He just made that huge confession about how he feels, but does that mean he’s not going to cheat on me? Well actually, we weren’t even officially a couple. Liam only ever did dates; he’s never had a girlfriend, so technically I have no claim on him anyway. I needed to be really careful, the more time I spent with this nice Liam, the more I liked him. I was in real danger of having my heart crushed.
My cellphone rang, saving us from the slightly weird silence. It wasn’t an awkward silence though, just strange, like he seemed perfectly content just to hold my hand and look at me. The caller ID said it was Kate. “Hey, Kate, what’s up?” I said cheerfully.
“Hey, Amber, want me to bring a movie for tonight?”
“Yeah sure. Nothing scary though.” I smiled and slapped Liam’s hand lightly as he tried to steal one of my spring rolls from my plate. ‘What?’ he mouthed to me innocently. I rolled my eyes at him and passed him my plate.
“I was thinking, Dawn of the Dead,” Kate replied.
I gasped; is she kidding me? “No way! I’m not watching that, it’ll scare the crap out of me!” I cried, horrified at the thought of watching a zombie movie. They made me so scared that I couldn’t be alone for days afterwards; I had to pee with the bathroom door open for goodness sake!
I could hear her chuckling. “Please, Amby? I really want to see it,” she begged, I could imagine the puppy dog look on her face right now.
Liam was giving me a quizzical expression so I put my hand over the mouthpiece and whispered, “Dawn of the Dead.”
He widened his eyes slightly before giving me his smirk. “Don’t worry, Angel, I’ll protect you,” he whispered confidently, making me smile.
“Amby, please?” Kate begged again.
“Oh jeez alright fine, bring that damn movie,” I muttered, defeated.
At least Liam would be there, he always kept my nightmares away. It would only be bad when I was on my own, like in the shower or something. I guess I could always make him stand outside the door and read to me or something while I was in there, it’s not like he hasn’t done that for me before. I looked at him a little shocked, actually the more I thought about it, the more this sweet, funny Liam, popped into my mind. He quite often did little things for me that I never took any notice of before. Had he always been sweet to me, but I was just too prejudice to see it?
“So, what do you think, is that OK?” Kate asked.
I snapped back to reality. Crap, I hadn’t been listening to her at all! “Sorry, Kate, what? I didn’t hear you, sorry. I was panicking about that stupid movie.” I winced just at the thought of it.
She sighed. “I said that my mom and dad are going away for the weekend so do you think it would be alright if I just slept at yours tonight and tomorrow night? I don’t really want to stay on my own,” she said in a small voice. I looked at Liam and winced. If Kate stayed over that meant that he couldn’t, because she slept in the camp bed on my floor.
“Um sure, Kate, you can stay over for the weekend. Jake won’t mind,” I agreed reluctantly.
Liam shot his eyes up to mine, and he shook his head. ‘NO!’ he mouthed to me pleadingly. I just gave him an apologetic look and shrugged, I couldn’t say no to her, she was my best friend.
“Great. Well I’ll come over at about seven then, OK?” she chirped, sounding excited.
“Yeah, OK. See you.” I snapped my cellphone shut and looked back at Liam.
“The whole weekend? I don’t get to sleep for the whole weekend?” he whined, as soon as I had shut my phone.
“Sorry, but I couldn’t say no. Her parents are going away for the weekend and she doesn’t want to stay on her own.” I looked at him apologetically.
He sighed looking defeated. “OK sure. But you do know you’ve just agreed to watch a scary ass zombie flick and I’m not going to be there for the next two nights,” he stated with a cocky grin.
I gasped. I hadn’t thought about that! I didn’t sleep very well without Liam there, I had nightmares, bad ones, about my father, and now on top of that I would have zombie dreams too? Since I was eight years old I had only ever spent a few weeks away from Liam, like if one of us went on vacation, or one time he had chicken pox and I had to stay away from him for four days. Every time I was on my own, my dreams would be so bad that I would wake up screaming. I’d asked Jake to sleep in with me a few times when I was younger, but he didn’t stop the dreams so I just stopped asking him.
I knew that Liam didn’t sleep at all when he wasn’t with me. He literally laid there awake, not being able to get comfortable. He always said that his bed felt strange because he hadn’t slept in it since he was ten years old. He hated it when my friends came to stay and bitched about it the whole of the next day, dropping not so subtle hints that he wasn’t impressed at having to sleep in his own bed.
“Well, I don’t know why you’re looking so cocky about it; you’re not going to sleep too brilliantly either.” I grinned, sticking my tongue out at him.
“Hmm, is that an invitation?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. I instantly realised what he was talking about, he was asking if I wanted to kiss him again because I showed him my tongue. I sure as heck did.
“Sure,” I purred, looking at him seductively, knowing that he couldn’t reach me over the table so he would have to wait until after we left the restaurant.
He immediately jumped out of his chair and bent down next to me, taking my face in his hands and kissing me, not seeming to care where we were or if people were watching. I took the initiative this time and traced my tongue along his bottom lip, he opened quickly and I slipped my tongue in. He moaned into my mouth, pulling me closer to him. The kiss was so good that it was making me slightly dizzy. He didn’t once try to touch me other than holding my face, which I was surprised about. Maybe he wasn’t just using me for sex after all. I smiled against his lips and he pulled away, smiling at me too.
“Thanks,” he whispered, kissing me again quickly and then sitting back down opposite me as if nothing happened. OK, I am so not used to this whole dating and making out thing! “We’d better get going; I need to speak to your brother.” He frowned, looking sad and a bit scared.
“You’re not going to tell him, are you?” I asked, horrified at the thought of Jake knowing and going crazy.
He nodded. “Yeah, Angel. He’s known that I’ve liked you all this time, but he didn’t think that you liked me, so I need to talk to him about us actually dating.” He winced as he spoke; I would imagine that he was thinking about the ass kicking Jake would give him when he told him.
“Liam, why don’t we just leave that for a while, and then maybe in a couple of weeks, if everything is going well, then we can talk to him together. I mean, we don’t even know if it’s going to work out, do we?” I asked with a shrug. I didn’t really see the point in talking to Jake and upsetting everything if this wasn’t going to work out. In reality, how long would it last once he realised that I really wasn’t planning on sleeping with him anytime soon? When he got bored or desperate, he would run away from me to the nearest easy lay, screaming as he went.
He looked a little scared. “You don’t think it’ll work out?” he asked, his voice sounded hurt.
“Honestly? I just don’t think that you can wait, Liam. How long is it going to be before you decide that you’ve had enough and sleep with some bimbo?” I replied, hating the hurt expression that crossed his face.
“I promise I will never cheat on you, ever. I’ve waited too long for this chance; I’m not going to screw it up.” He took my hand and I could see the honesty in his eyes, he truly believed that he wouldn’t cheat, but he was a boy after all and his body would say something else eventually.
“Let’s just wait a while, OK?” I suggested, pulling my hand away and waving for the waiter. He came over immediately. “Hi, can we get the check please?” I asked with a smile, he nodded and walked off.
“I’m just going to go to the bathroom. If he comes back before I’m back, then use this, OK?” Liam instructed, handing me his wallet and walking quickly to the bathroom.
I winced; I think I really hurt his feelings saying that. Damn it, I could be so stupid sometimes! I watched him as he walked away, my eyes unconsciously focused on his ass. Wow, he really does have a nice ass! Someone cleared their throat next to me making me blush because I had just got caught staring. I looked up and the waiter was standing there with the check.
“Oh, sorry! I didn’t realise you were there,” I muttered, embarrassed.
“Don’t worry about it.” He handed me the receipt and bent down next to me so we were at the same level. He put one hand on the back of my chair and one on the table so I was trapped. My heart started to race. He was too close. “So, I’ve not seen you around here before. I definitely would have remembered a face as beautiful as yours,” he said, his eyes were boring holes into me, as he looked like he was imagining me naked.
I squirmed in my seat. “Er no, I’ve not been in here before,” I muttered uncomfortably, looking at the amount that was due and grabbing Liam’s wallet from my lap.
“I’m Simon.” He held out his hand for me to shake. I looked at it and gulped; I really didn’t want to touch him so I just fiddled with Liam’s wallet and pretended to be looking at something. I felt him playing with my pony tail and I felt sick. “So, what’s your name?” he asked, with a flirty smile.
“Her name’s touch her again and I’ll break your face,” Liam growled possessively from behind me. I physically relaxed.
The guy stood up immediately. “Sorry, I was just talking to your girlfriend that’s all. No harm done,” he said innocently.
“Right,” Liam replied, sounding really annoyed. He reached out and took the receipt and his wallet out of my hands, looked at it and then handed the guy the money still glaring at him. My breathing still hadn’t returned to normal, my heart was still racing. Liam held out his hand to me. “You ready, Angel?” he asked, not taking his eyes off the waiter. I took his hand and stood up, following him as he led us out of the restaurant. Once he closed the door he turned to me. “You alright? You look a bit pale.” He stepped closer to me and put his lips on my neck. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed myself against him, letting his smell fill my lungs, his breath blew down my back and shoulders, making everything in my body relax.
I pulled away after a couple of minutes. “I’m fine now.” I smiled at him reassuringly and he stroked the side of my face lightly. “Come on let’s get back. I need to help Jake clear up so he’ll buy pizza tonight,” I teased.
He smiled and as we walked to his car, he slipped his hand in mine. I couldn’t help but smile. It felt right for some reason; his hand just seemed to fit mine perfectly. It was so natural that it was almost too easy.