Me & My Invisible Guy (14 page)

I stopped by my locker after school and found Liam waiting there again. Twice in one day.

“Can I take you home after practice?” he asked.

“You want to wait that long? We usually don’t get finished till four thirty, sometimes later.”

“I’m staying, anyway. I’m helping out with an assembly with some kids from my church.”

My stomach fell. Lexi would be there. “Okay. Well, if you don’t mind waiting.”

“I don’t.” He leaned down and kissed me on the cheek but lingered, pressing his cheek against mine. “I love the way your hair smells.” Then he stepped back and was gone.

I trudged to practice and tossed my stuff in my locker.

“What’s with the scowl?” Tess asked.

“Lexi.” I told Tess about Liam’s project.

Tess snorted. “He likes you, Mallory. I wouldn’t worry about it. Of course, I still think I need to have another talk with her.”

“Oh, no, you don’t. I’ll deal with Lexi.” But I knew that I wouldn’t say anything to her unless forced to.

I had already won.

That was enough, wasn’t it?

CHAPTER 10

Practice was extra long because we were learning a new dance routine for homecoming. I really was trying to learn the steps, but I kept staring at the clock, wondering how much alone time I was giving Lexi and Liam.

Tess wagged her finger at me. “Quit stressing.”

And I wanted to, oh, how I wanted to. But having a pretend boyfriend in no way prepared me for the feelings of insecurity and outright jealousy that were flying through me. Lexi wasn’t going to go away, though. She came with the territory. I’d have to get used to it or, well, I didn’t really want to think about the alternative. I wanted to have a chance with Liam.

Finally Tara told us we could go home. I took a quick shower and told Tess I’d be over later. Then I went looking for Liam.

I heard him long before I saw him. The music from a guitar echoed through the hallways. I turned the corner, and he was sitting by himself in the lobby, strumming the guitar. I stopped and watched him, his full concentration on the instrument in his hands. Light streamed in through the window behind him. I wasn’t that into music, but the song sounded beautiful.

He looked up and placed his hand across the strings to stop the sound.

“Don’t stop. That was amazing.” I walked over and sat beside him, dropping my bag on the floor. “Keep playing.”

He looked at me sweetly, then began strumming again.

The music wrapped around us and then he began to sing.

“I have been to California,

and flown across the sea.

I’ve lived through New England winters

and melted in the South.

I’ve seen more beauty in this land

than I ever wished to see;

but sitting right here next to you,

well, there’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

I swear my heart stopped beating. He looked at me with a goofy smile.

“Wow. I’ve never heard that song. I love it,” I said. I didn’t tell him that the melody would be caught in my thoughts for a very long time.

“Of course you’ve never heard it. I’ve been writing it for you.”

Again with the stopped heart. “For me?” I choked out.

He nodded. “That’s all I have right now, though. It’s a work in progress.”

I stared at him, but there wasn’t even a hint of humor on his face.

Pretend boyfriends also don’t write songs and sing them to you in the lobby of your school.

How was I supposed to respond to something like that? I couldn’t muster words, so I leaned over to kiss him on the cheek—but he turned and caught my lips with his. A
real, honest-to-goodness kiss—soft, sweet, but too swift. He pulled back and cringed.

“Sorry ’bout that.”

The warm glow inside me burned and crept up my cheeks. I dropped my head. Was I the bad influence Lexi accused me of being?
Why doesn’t he want to kiss me?

Liam lifted my chin and looked into my eyes. “Mallory, don’t disappear on me. What’s wrong?”

If he likes me so much, why does he keep rejecting me?

Liam sighed and looked at the ceiling. “Girls need to come with a special manual.”

I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or not.

He shifted on the bench and took my hand. “Forget I did that, okay? I just want to be careful, for both our sakes.”

“I wasn’t trying…”

“No. No. Of course you weren’t. I just really like you. I want to kiss you, believe me. But let’s put it this way: I have very little self-control, so I try to avoid situations where I could be… impulsive.”

And he thinks I’m hard to figure out.
“I was just trying to thank you for the song.”

“You’re welcome.”

I decided to shift the conversation. “So, is this your routine?”

“My routine?”

“Writing songs for girls.”

“I’ll never tell.”

I shoved him playfully. “Come on. I should know what kind of competition I’ve got.”

“You don’t have any. I promise.”

I wasn’t so sure about that, but in the moment, I was
willing to accept it. Liam gathered up his things and placed his guitar in its case.

“So where to?” he asked.

“Tess’s.”

I gave him basic directions as we walked to his car. It was just a small, two-door hatchback, but it was neat as a pin inside. For someone who ate garbage, he seemed to keep it out of his car.

On the way to Tess’s house, Liam said, “Okay, I hate doing this kind of stuff, but Alex wanted to know if you thought Tess would say yes if he asked her to homecoming.”

“No way. Tell him he can go with Cammie.”

“Cammie?”

“Why do you hang out with him, anyway? He’s kind of a jerk.”

“He’s lost.”

I looked over at Liam, whose eyes were on the road.

“Lost, like, going-to-hell lost?”

“Well, I wouldn’t put it that way. Alex can’t help the way he is.”

I scoffed.

“You don’t agree, huh?”

I shrugged. “Turn left here. I don’t know. I think we all make our own choices and can’t blame the consequences on anybody but ourselves.” I should know.

“I like Alex. I mean, I know he hurt your friend, but just because we’ve messed up doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t get the chance to make it right.”

He had me there. “It’s that one, with the red door,” I said.

Liam pulled up to the curb and shut off the car. He shifted toward me. “So tell me your story.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not worth the energy it would take to tell it.”

“C’mon. I want to know.”

“The simple version is that all my friends started sleeping with their boyfriends, and I was the last virgin in the group and didn’t want to be. So I made up Todd and told everyone I slept with him. End of story.”

“Why didn’t you want to have sex?”

I pulled at my long-sleeved shirt, feeling itchy and hot all of a sudden. Only having this conversation with my dad would make me more uncomfortable.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Doing a report on me?”

“I’m genuinely interested. I just want to know why.”

“Because I wasn’t ready to.” Not the complete truth, but enough. “So fair’s fair. Tell me something I don’t know about you.”

Liam leaned back in his seat and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel—and got very quiet.

“What is it?” I had never seen Liam with that sad expression before.

He turned to me and shrugged. “Things at home, they’re kind of tough.”

I could relate to that. I waited for him to continue.

“It’s just, I thought moving here would be so great, and being with my brother—he lives close by—has been awesome. But my dad… you don’t want to hear all this.”

“I do.” I reached over and rested my hand on his arm. He smiled weakly and put his hand on top of mine.

“My dad expected both Brian and me to go into the
military. He was furious when Brian decided to go to medical school instead. He cut him off financially and told Brian that if he was going to turn down a free ride, he wasn’t about to give him one. So now being near Brian has been great and horrible at the same time ’cause Dad can’t let it go.”

“What about your mom?”

“She just wants everyone to get along and love one another.” Liam shook his head. “I thought Dad would ease up once he saw how great Brian was doing.”

“I’m so sorry, Liam.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s not even mine. But Dad is so fixated on Brian’s decision that he’s pressuring me to decide what branch I want to go into.”

“Do you want to?”

Liam got quiet again and took several slow, deep breaths. Finally he said, “I don’t know.”

I felt like I did with Tess. Helpless.

But then I considered the little I knew about Liam. “Guess they don’t have many music programs at military schools, huh?”

“Not the kind that I’m interested in. Dad thinks the music I like is a silly hobby. ‘What kind of moron thinks playing for his country isn’t good enough?’ He doesn’t get it. If it wasn’t for my mom, music lessons would never have happened.”

I glanced over at Tess’s house. I knew I should go in, but I wanted to stay with Liam, too. It was the closest I had ever felt to any guy. “So what will you do?”

“I have no idea. But I’m certainly not gonna figure it out today. Go see Tess. It’s okay.” He smiled at me and brought
my hand to his mouth and kissed it. “You know. You’re the first person I’ve told that to.”

“Not even your friends at church?”

“Not even them.”

I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek and then climbed out of the car, my heart feeling both full and sad at the same time.

Tess was at the door when I got there. She looked me up and down, taking me in, reading my body language. She crossed her arms. “You okay?” she asked.

“I
really
like him.”

She grinned and threw her arms around me, but a loud crash from inside the house stopped us cold. Tess bolted inside, leaving the door wide-open. I stepped through, knowing that there was no turning back.

I wandered down the hallway toward the sound of sobbing. Tess was standing over her mom in the bathroom, broken glass around them and bright-red blood on the mirror, sink, and floor.

“Get a towel from the closet. Behind you,” Tess said.

I pulled open the closet. Ashley slipped in beside me and grabbed a dark-blue towel from the shelf.

“Use this one,” she said quietly. Ashley tucked her blond hair behind her ears and stuffed her hands into her pockets. She glanced in the bathroom.

“Go to your room, Ashley. I’ve got this,” Tess said.

Mrs. Howard kept sobbing. She reeked of alcohol, and she was dirty. It was hard to tell how hurt she was. Tess tried to get her mom’s hand under the running water in the sink,
but her mother refused to stand. She was just dead weight on the floor.

“This is all your fault,” Mrs. Howard cried.

“Yep. All mine. Mallory, grab one side and push. We’ll use the tub.”

Between us, we pushed her toward the bathtub, trying to move the bigger chunks of glass out of the way. Tess ran the water and got her mom’s hand underneath. The cuts seemed small except for a big one across her palm.

“Does she need stitches?” I asked.

“Probably.” Tess put her hand on her forehead. “I can’t take her to the hospital like this.”

“Why do you hate me?” Mrs. Howard yelled.

“I don’t hate you.” Tess spoke quietly, as if she had said it a million times before.

Tess pulled back the towel to look at the palm again, and blood oozed out. She covered it quickly and squeezed.

“We’ll just have to bandage it up. Here, hold this.” Tess gave me her mom’s hand and the towel, and Mrs. Howard rolled a little, her head wrapped in her other arm. She kept sobbing. Tess stood and yanked open the medicine cabinet.