One Chance (17 page)

“He didn’t have anything to do with the party, that was all Meg.”

“Sure, like he didn’t know about it,” I say annoyed.

“He didn’t.  He wasn’t even in town; they had an away football game Haley.  I can tell you he was pissed when he found out.”

“Whatever, it doesn’t even matter anymore.”

“Why doesn’t it?” she asks as she drives us home.

“
Everything went to hell.  People are going to look at me and judge me for shit, maybe I should transfer.”

“Absolutely not.”

“It’s still going to be hell.”

“No it won’t.  Trust me okay?”

“What aren’t you telling me?” I ask my best friend.

“Nothing, I just know things will get back to normal for you, hell for all of us.”

“If you say so,” I say as we pull into the driveway.  I get out of the car and we make our way inside.  The place is spotless and it looks deserted, but then again, I guess it is.  The girls that are still in the house come and greet me, welcoming me home.  I couldn’t be happier to see them.

For the rest of the day
, the girls and I hang out and catch up on what I’ve missed for the last week.  No one mentions Liam’s name and I’m thankful for it.  I wish I could hate him for as much as I want to punch him.

School gets back to normal for me.  I go from class to class and no one says anything to me, it was like nothing ever happened.  I’m not sure how, but I’m grateful for it.  My professors all knew what was going on and have given me extra time to complete my assignments.

So for the next two weeks, I do nothing but study and homework.  Catching up on work sucks, but if it keeps me in my current standings, then it’s worth it.

“Do you feel like going out tonight?” Quinn asks.

“Sure,” I say surprising her.

“Really?”
she asks shocked.

“Yeah, it’s been a few weeks and things seem to have calmed down a lot.”

“Yay,” she chants.

“Where are we going?”

“A frat house down the road.”

“Sounds good.”

“Have you heard from Liam yet?”

“No, I don’t plan to either, why?”

“Just curious.”

“He won’t say anything to me.  I’m sure he feels somewhat guil
ty, but he’ll go on like nothing ever happened.”

“Do you think he’d say anything to you at home?”

“Honestly, probably not.”

“Huh,” she says surprising me.

“Why?”

“You both are stubborn as hell.”

I can’t help but laugh, “Actually you’re right, we are, which is why it would never have worked out between us anyway.”

“No, it couldn’t work out because you never told him how you felt.”

“Have you seen Liam?” I ask as serious as I can.

“Yes, who hasn’t?”

“Then you know as well as I do, that it wouldn’t matter what I told him, it wouldn’t happen, I’m not his type.”

“And how do you know that?”

“Have you looked at Meg?”

“Yeah, and she’s a dumb bitch.”

“But she’s beautiful.  She has that perfect skin, perfect body; she fits the role of a hot quarterback’s girlfriend.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m just me.”

“You are seriously delusional.  Again, you can have your choice of any man you want, yet the
one you want, you won’t let him know.”

“I’ll find a new one.  I’ll move on.”

“Because it’s worked out so well for you so far,” she says before laughing.

“Shut it, I will move on, starting tonight.”

“I think you should talk to Liam.”

“Why?”

“I just think that there’s some things you guys need to settle first.”

“There’s nothing to settle Quinn.  I lied to him, he got angry, and he
got me back.  It sucks, but its life.”

“But how do you know that’s all?  You never came c
lean to him about how you felt,” she says sounding frustrated.

“Seriously?  It doesn’t
matter; he’s with that vicious bitch.”

“I think you should talk to Liam.”

“You can think what you want.  It’s not going to happen; he hates me for what I did to him,” I say harshly.

“What he thinks you did to him,” she reminds me.

“Well, I’m not going to tell him otherwise,” I snap.

“Fine, I give up.  You are such a stubborn woman,” Quinn says
, throwing her hands up in the air.

I grab a quick shower and throw on a pair of jeans with a sweater because it’s getting colder by the day. 

“You look cute,” Stacey says as I walk down the stairs.

“Thanks, are you coming along too?”

“No, hanging out with the boyfriend,” she says with a smile.

“
Have fun then,” I say as I head towards Quinn who is already ready to walk out the door.

“Ready to go?”

“Yep,” I say as I follow her out, saying goodnight to the other ladies.

We make the short walk down a few houses towards Liam’s house.  I stop walking immediately, “Is this some kind of joke?”

“No, there’s something you need to know.”

“What?” I practically yell for all to hear.

“You know I wasn’t a fan of Liam, I thought he was an asshole.”

“Yes, so then why are you bringing me here?” I ask pointing to his house.

“You need to talk to him.”

“There’s nothing to say.”

“You’re wrong Haley.  You both have a lot to say to one another.”

“
I haven’t seen or heard from him, what makes you think he wants to talk to me now?”

“Because you didn’t see him at the hospital.  You didn’t hear him
, when he was talking to you when you were unconscious.  As mad as he was at you for hurting him, nothing can get the image out of my head of how he talked and watched you Haley.”

“What are you talking about?  Liam wasn’t at the hospital.”

“He didn’t leave.  He slept night after night in the chair until the day you woke up, making sure that when you woke up, you wouldn’t be alone.  He does care Hails.”

“Then why didn’t he come back?”

“Because he knew you’d blame him, and his brother was against it.”

“I’m not surprised on that one; Brody seemed pretty pissed anytime Liam’s name was brought up.”

“Oh, he was more than pissed.  They got into quite a few arguments.”

“So
, what do you want me to do Quinn?  Walk in there and pour my heart out to a man who will never be able to give me what I want?”

“I want you to talk to him.  You both have secrets and you both hurt each other.  Yes
, what you did was wrong, but what he did was also wrong.  Two wrongs don’t make a right Haley.”

“I can’t,” I say.

“Can you listen to me then?” Liam asks out of nowhere.  I turn so fast not expecting him to be standing there, yet there he is in all his sexy glory.

“How did you know we were out here?”

“I asked Quinn to bring you by.  No one’s here Haley, I just wanted us to talk.”

“Fine,” I say giving in.

“Great, I’ll let you two get to it then,” Quinn says excitedly, before continuing on her way.

“Where are you going?”

“To a party two houses down.  If you get bored, come down,” she says with a smile.

“Com
e on,” Liam says as he ushers me to the door.  We head inside, neither of us really saying anything.  “Would you like something to drink?”

“No, I’m good thanks,” I say, deciding it’s best to not have any type of alcohol in my system.  Who knows how this conversation is going to go.  I take a seat on the couch and wait for Liam to say something.

It feels like eternity, though it’s probably only a minute or two before Liam finally breaks the silence. “Shit, I didn’t think this would feel so awkward,” he says as he runs his hands through his hair.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” I say as I go to stand up.

“No,” he yells, “We need to clear some shit up.”

“Where do you want to start?”

“I want you to know that I had no idea about the party.  Haley, I would never do something like that to you,” he says with apologetic eyes.

“But what you did wasn’t much better.”

“You’re right.  I was pissed off at you and I did take it too far and I am really sorry about that.”

“Liam
, you had the freaking school calling me a whore.  I had eggs thrown at me.”

“The only thing I did was get a rumor to be started, and the rest of it I didn’t know, but I will take blame for it because I started it.  Haley
, I am really sorry.  I know I was pissed at you, but I took it way too far.”

“You had a right to be pissed; I just wish we could have talked about it before making it a war between us.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s my fault.  I don’t usually talk, as you can see.”

“What happened to you?”

“What do you mean?” he asks with a surprised look.

“I’ve known you practically my entire life and I’ve never seen this
kind of mean side of you that I’ve seen here.”

“
Shit,” he says as he runs his hands through his hair, “When I was a freshman I was picked on, normal shit being a freshman and all, but since I was on the football team I had to keep a certain edge to myself.  A guy started messing with me and I fucked him up, after that it was kind of one of those things to not mess with me.  It just kind of stuck, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Alright, it more than stuck.  People don’t piss me off; if they do, there are consequences.”

“But why?  You’ve made people switch colleges, move off campus, why would you do that to someone?”

“Haley, I can’t say I’m proud of it because I’m not.  I was wrong.  People do stupid shit.”

“But you’re still making the same choices.”

“No, I’m not.  When I saw you lying in your bed all pale and sick, I knew what happened was my fault, even though I wasn’t here.  I take full responsibility, but I want you to know that if I could go back and change it all, I would.”

“How do you know what I looked like at home?” I ask shocked at hearing that revelation.

The look Liam gives me is pure confusion, “Quinn didn’t tell you?”

“No, so fill me in.”

“You were sick, it was a few days after the party, she came downstairs to bitch at Meg, I think, but saw me arguing with Meg about the party.  I guess she thought it was my doing and she mentioned you were sick, that you wouldn’t eat, sleep, hell you couldn’t even really get out of bed.  I followed her up the stairs to check on you myself and you were completely out of it.”

“How do I not know this?”

“I don’t know, but we took you to the hospital because it was obvious something was wrong.”

“Well
, thank you for that,” I state.

“How do you feel now?”
he asks as he pierces me with his smoldering blue eyes.

“Pretty good, back to normal
, as far as I can tell.”

“Good,
” he says with a smile.

“I need to tell you something Liam,” I
say nervously.

“What’s that?”

“I lied to you before.”

“Lied about what?”
he asks looking confused.

“When you realized that we had sex and I told you it was because of a bet,” I say feeling myself getting even more nervous, “I lied,” I say looking anywhere but at Liam.

“So it was or wasn’t a bet?  Because Quinn was bitching about it that night in the hospital.”

“It wasn’t a bet,” I say
now looking at the floor.

“Then why did you lie to me?  Haley you know me, you’ve known me for years.  What would make you do something like that?”
  I sit and ponder, trying to come up with something that makes sense and doesn’t make me look like a complete loser, but I have no idea what to say.  “Haley?” he interrupts my spacing out.

“Sorry, I did it because I wanted to.”

“But why lie to me about it?” he asks sounding frustrated.

My head snaps up, allowing me to look straight at Liam, “Because, it’s not like you would have slept with me
, if you knew it was me.”

“What?”
he asks looking irate.

“God Liam, I’ve had a freaking crush on you since before I
can even remember.  So when I ended up coming to school here and I changed my hair, bought colored contacts, I was trying to be someone else, someone different.  I didn’t think I would run into you at a party and end up getting the chance to sleep with you, but I sure as hell wasn’t passing it up.”