CHAPTER EIGHT
LIAM
As much as I hate to admit it, this girl has made me almost smile twice, and I want to know what spell she’s got me under. She’s looking at me, and even though I don’t want to . . .
I shamelessly stare back.
“Liam! Been looking all over—” Chase’s voice rings out into what was previously a quiet space, and her expression deepens. I grimace as he shoots me a smirk, but my attention gets sucked back to her as she runs her eyes up and down the length of me.
Under her scrutiny, my skin warms, and for the first time in a long time, my heart speeds up slightly.
“Harrison?” Chase asks, confused.
My head snaps to him as he looks at her and heat pools in my stomach.
This can’t be—it’s been years since I’ve even heard her name uttered.
Yet, the way I want to get closer to her, since I can see how badly her ankle is hurting, to see those freckles she has .
. . I remember when I was little, Bianca loved to watch romance movies with Ms. Kate.
Said that since she was never going to find her Prince Charming, she’d settle for seeing love in movies.
The one time she dragged me into their little movie marathons, almost every single one had some semblance of the same scene.
When the guy and girl reunite, time stops.
It looks almost like it freezes slightly; the only indication that it’s still running are the sounds that continue around them.
Personally, I thought all of that was a load of crap.
But today, the day I saw her again, was when I realized that those movies got at least one thing right.
Time freezes, everything blurs, and it’s just us.
I stand there for probably seconds, yet it feels like it’s been centuries.
My mind plays out all our memories, making me find the connection between that little girl and this beautiful woman in front of me.
Her hair is no longer the pure brown that it was before, but now a long ash blonde.
The dark roots make me believe her natural hair is making a comeback, but it still suits her so well.
She only reaches my chin, and a flicker of a smile blooms. Traveling upward, there’s a tattoo on her collarbone that she tries so hard to mask with her hair, but I notice it.
Then, I meet those bottomless blue eyes and there’s no mistake, it is her.
“Liam!”
I cringe slightly, sighing deeply at who the voice belongs to.
Vanessa stumbles on the balcony, slightly tipsy, and Chase looks downright confused while Bianca freezes.
Vanessa then wraps her arms around me and I recoil.
She babbles and I shake my head. Chase walks over to Bianca, whose eyes widen.
Something pinches in my chest, but before I can even say anything, Bianca winces, accidentally leaning more on her twisted ankle.
“What happened?” he asks her, and my blood instantly boils, not even bothering with what Vanessa is telling me as I approach Chase and Bianca. He hits my chest, confusion coloring me. “She twisted her ankle, dude. Why didn’t you help her?”
I grumble, annoyed, as Vanessa gasps at Bianca’s ankle turning redder by the minute.
“I was gonna,” I say.
Bianca nods, backing me up. “Yeah, he was.” She gives me a small smile.
“Come on, Harrison, I have some first aid stuff in my room.” She limps as Chase helps her, and I’m stuck, even more frozen. The words are going around in circles in my head.
I just saw . . . Bianca Harrison . . .
My ex-best friend Bianca Harrison.
Vanessa snakes her arms around me again and I flinch. I turn around and she smiles, but I back away instantly, huffing in annoyance.
“What are you doing here?” I ask as she twirls her finger around a strand of her hair, and I do my best not to shudder at her attempts at being seductive.
“It’s a Sigma Mella party. You know I never miss one of these.” I sigh, knowing she doesn’t. “I always hope we can have a repeat of what happened during our freshman year.”
I look at her in disgust, and I’m on myself for how I could ever think about sleeping with her.
“Vanessa, we’ve talked about this. Please leave,” I say sternly, grabbing her arms and pushing her away slightly. She looks up at me, her eyes glossier than before.
“Why?”
I scoff at that, pinching my nose in frustration, wanting to be done with the conversation as I think about Bianca being with Chase. Vanessa won’t leave me alone and I truly don’t know what to do.
“Vanessa, you’re drunk, and I told you already, we’re done.
We weren’t anything to begin with. It was one freaking time.
How are you still hung up on that?” Lust clouds her eyes, and even more disgust fills me.
“I’ve told you multiple times. I don’t want a repeat, and I’ve tried to be nice, but I’m this close to filing a restraining order against you.
Come to these parties if you want, or don’t, I couldn’t care less. Just stop looking for me.”
She whimpers slightly at my choice of words and I roll my eyes.
Leaving the balcony and her behind, my heart beats rapidly as I head back to Chase’s room, to the little corner of silence and solitude, and punch in the code.
Opening the door, I look around frantically, not seeing a now-familiar blonde.
Chase is lying on his bed, one of the readings we have to do for class in his hands, and shock comes over me.
I shake my head. “Where is she?” He looks up at me, a smile on his face, and I raise a questioning eyebrow.
“She left.”
Scoffing at him, I walk back out, searching for her, ignoring when he calls for me.
Glancing at about a hundred faces, my heart drops slightly when I don’t see hers.
Defeat washes over me and I leave the hustle and bustle of the party, going back to the bedroom.
I shut the door, preparing myself for Chase to bombard me with questions.
“I knew I recognized her from somewhere.” He points to the small framed photo, one of the only things in his room that belongs to me. “Glad to see you’re using the room.”
Ignoring him as always, I lie down in the extra bed as my brain cycles through everything that’s happened.
My best friend, whom I haven’t seen in eight years, showed up at my university.
Coincidentally at a frat party I happened to be at, even though I’d been hiding in this room the whole time until I needed some fresh air.
I’ve had years to think about what I would say if I saw her again, and yet, I had nothing.
I was going to ask what happened between us; was I that bad of a friend that she stopped talking to me because of it?
In the midst of the war in my head, my phone rings, and I answer without even looking at the caller ID.
“Hello?”
“Hey, amorcito,” Mom says, and I instantly feel suspicious. She only calls me her “little love” when something is up. I glare at Chase, and he raises his hands in surrender before leaving, thankfully.
“Hi, Mom. Are you alright?”
“Me? I’m good. Amazing. Really good. Great, even,” she spills out, and I roll my eyes and smile.
“Mom, I know you. Something’s up.”
She tries to hold out a little longer, but then she sighs. “It’s nothing really.”
I clutch the phone harder to my ear. “We talked yesterday. So, either something really good or something really bad happened. What’s up?”
“You’ll never guess what I heard.” From the sentence alone, I know what she’s about to say, and it makes everything that much more real.
“What?” My voice wobbles slightly. Her lack of an immediate response probably means she’s contemplating whether or not to actually tell me.
“There’s a slight possibility that Kate Harrison is back in LA.
” I take a deep breath. “Now, I’m not one hundred percent sure, but Patty was telling me all about her new neighbors when I went to her house for book club.
They moved in across from her, I think, based on how she described the woman at least. I tried to see her today, but she doesn’t seem to be home. ”
My heart beats even faster. Orientation. She’s here for orientation with Bianca, that’s why she isn’t home.
“Liam?” The word is muffled, and I zone back in, blinking harshly. “Li—”
“I’m here, Mom.” Not only has she infiltrated my school, but now she lives in the subdivision next to mine?
We love the universe, don’t we?
“Now, I didn’t see Bi—well, Kate’s daughter, but I assume she’s there too.
I mean, those two were attached at the hip.
” My mind flashes back to a bit ago, and I want to tell her that I saw her.
Yet, I keep quiet. “Liam, I was thinking . . . and well, now with this. We should’ve talked about it a long time ago.
” When I stay silent, she takes it as a sign to continue.
“It’s been years, son. You’re both adults now.
Maybe this is a sign. You could finally get the closure you always wanted.
” I listen to her cautious yet hopeful tone and my heart recoils at the thought.
She sighs once again, probably frustrated with my silence and with the whole situation.
“Look, Liam, you’re hours away, so you probably don’t care about what happens here—”
I cut her off instantly because that couldn’t be further from the truth. “Mom, don’t say that.”
“I know it’s a touchy subject for you.”
Scoffing at that, I lean my head back against the wall, groaning in frustration. “No, it isn’t.”
“I’m not stupid. I know she’s a touchy subject, and I don’t blame you. I wanted to tell you, so you wouldn’t be caught off guard.” She blows out a nervous breath. “Maybe, if I ever prove this, we can go over and say hi one day.”
Something bubbles up in my chest. The irony being so ridiculous, I burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” she asks, obviously confused.