And two, I’m pretty much a regular here with all the times I’ve rushed in with Mom. Then there are the numerous times over the years when I needed to get my feet checked out for what they call excessive damage to my toes due to dancing ballet.
It really is a brutal dance but no sacrifice, no victory and I was running out of time to even say that sentence with the conviction it deserves like that dude in the last Transformers movie that flopped.
I walk down the hall to a private wing, almost a replica of the one where I met Julian. My palms are sweaty. I feel like I shouldn’t be here, but I need to get this shit off my chest. I clutch the necklace Mom gave me when I turned thirteen like a lifeline, hoping against hope like a coward that Liam’s asleep.
I hope he won’t recognize me. I mean, it’s possible that he suffered a concussion and maybe even brain damage. It’s possible.
But I can’t keep this up. With trembling hands, I knock on the slightly closed door. A grunt greets me in response. I suck in a breath, nervous for so many messed up reasons.
Calm the hell down, Mia. He’s just a guy you kissed and almost lost your V-card to. Nothing major about that.
With that boost of faux confidence that makes me even more ill, I push the door open, but keep standing there, unable to breathe.
“Are you going to come in or just stand out there like a freaking statue?” a disgruntled, hoarse voice says, and I open the door fully, stepping in. He’s awake, watching the door with clouds of pain in his eyes as he stares at me. But he’s not surprised to see me.
Liam tries to sit up but groans with each move he makes.
“I was wondering when you were going to show your cowardly face,” he groans in pain, shifting in his bed.
“I didn’t come here to be insulted.” I frown at him.
“Did you come for a spanking from daddy because you’re naughty as fuck and dressed like a little vixen schoolgirl in that uniform?” He smirks then grimaces in pain.
“Is your head always filled with porn clips or you are just a messed-up asshole?” I fold my arms, watching him.
“Oh, but you bring my porn clip fantasies to life, Mia.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me. “Come ride my dick, baby.”
I shake my head, fighting a smile at his adorable smile. Then I watch in horror as he tries once again to sit up straight, but fails miserably and moans in pain.
“Stop moving around like an earthworm genius; you’re hurting your ribs.” I rush to his bedside and help him but stop myself when I get closer to his bed, uncertainty creeping into my bones like a poison.
Liam watches me for a moment, like he knows what’s going on with me, but he doesn’t say anything.
“My ribs are just fine, cupcake,” he mutters.
“Liar.” I mutter, feeling weird about all this and trying to look away from his intense gaze. “You have fractured ribs on your left side.”
“They taped them.”
“But they’re not healed.”
Liam tilts his head to the left, studying me. The hostility that I was expecting isn’t there in his eyes. Instead, there’s genuine curiosity mixed with pain and mischief. If I ever thought that Liam was a simple character, that’s all gone now. He’s complicated. Sexy, playful, intense, serious, and so damn captivating. He makes me feel his energy without him trying at all.
“You’re a smart little thing, aren’t you?” he questions, but I know he’s not looking for an answer. “Bet that’s why he hates your guts.”
Well, here we go.
“Please, my intelligence isn’t the reason you and your brother hate me. It’s because of my aunt marrying your dad. Now, you’ve both got these bitter, twisted up, antagonistic feelings, like I’m somehow responsible for ruining your stupid lives.”
Liam shakes his head, now looking pissed off.
“That’s not it at all, cupcake,” he says with a smirk on his gorgeous face that’s marred with a few bruises and scratches.
“I’m not your cupcake.” I want to sound angry, but I manage to sound like a kicked puppy. I cringe and Liam laughs.
“I don’t know, Mia. Your lips look so damn sweet; all I want to do is devour them and see if they taste as sweet as a cupcake.” He looks so serious as he says that, I stop breathing. “But then again, I’ve tasted them before. They were sweet once.”
“Liam, there’s no need to bring up—”
“But that was when you were just blooming into your flawless role as a cold, indifferent ice queen,” he mutters, watching me. ‘That’s what they say about you.”
My heart’s pounding so hard in my chest and the whooshing of my simmering blood isn’t any better.
“They say a lot of things about me,” I murmur, dropping my bag and keys on the chair facing his bed.
“And they’re all wrong,” he says, eyeing me. “You’re many things cupcake, but you’re not cold.”
I can’t help but let out a little laugh at that. It’s bitter and tastes a lot like the shambles of my broken heart that Julian gave me.
“Well, no one will believe you about that.”
“Unfortunately for you, you’re right. No one would believe that you have a caring bone in that flexible body,” he smirks but quickly grows serious. “But this little shocking discovery isn’t for other people. It’s for you and me.”
I’m stunned into silence, not knowing what to say to that. For a moment, he looks so serious, like he means that but then his face transforms into another evil smirk.
“How high are you right now?” I mock, rolling my eyes.
“Not high enough.” He smirks. “And thank God for that because I, for one, would like to hear your side of the story before the cops put you in handcuffs.”
“What?” I yelp and he chuckles. “What do you mean the cops will put me in handcuffs? What did you hear?”
“I hear a lot of things, cupcake,” he starts, wheezing in between words. “I heard that you tried to blow me up.”
“I would never do…”
“Whoa, you look like you’re about to have a stroke,” he starts. “Calm down, will you. I don’t want to be responsible for your death. That’s Julian’s job and we both know my brother wants to skin you alive.”
“What?” I shriek again, but he just bursts out laughing then quickly groans in pain. Serves him right!
“You need to get a life,” I huff, then walk over to the highboy in his private room and pour him some water with ice chips and grab a straw.
“And you need to get laid,” he counters, accepting the cup with his uninjured hand. “See, caring bone.”
“Excuse me?” I frown and he smirks.
“You. Need. To. Get. Laid.” He elongates each word like a mockery. “I mean, I almost did that, but I have a feeling my brother and I would be mortal enemies if I did. Good God, did we both dodge fatal a bullet.”
I feel like I’m being hit with one shocking statement after another, like the guy literally doesn’t have a filter. If he has one, it’s fucking faulty.
“But then again, we did kiss, and I sucked those delicious tits like a starving man in front of a free buffe.” He groans low in his chest, but I can see the mischief in his eyes.
“You’re horrible.” I shake my head.
“Because it’s the truth, cupcake.” He starts laughing but coughs instead, groaning in pain.
“You deserve that pain,” I say, folding my arms. “I don’t even feel sorry for you. You have a trashy mouth.”
“It’s so fucking fun to make you blush,” he admits, then drinks his water. “I know no one ever gets close enough to do that to the almighty Ice Queen of Clintwood Academy.”
“Will you stop that,” I huff, then drop down into the chair, tired and weary all of a sudden. “I didn’t try to blow you up.”
We stare at each other for so long it feels like time expands and shrinks between us.
“I know,” he admits after such a long time, I don’t think I’m breathing at all right now.
“Yes.” He watches me, then he frowns, effectively murdering the hope that was starting to bloom in my chest. “But that doesn’t mean others are on the same page.”
“Oh God.”
“There are people who actually believe you did it,” he says, and I stand up, unable to remain sitting.
“Then he’s winning,” I murmur, and my vision blurs, my heart is pounding away so fast that I can’t catch my breath. “He framed me, and people are believing it.”
“What?”
“Oh my God,” I gasp, clutching my necklace with a death grip, it’s digging into the flesh at the back of my neck. “What am I going to do?”
“Mia, seriously, calm down.”
But I can’t calm down. If anything, my heart’s knocking against my ribcage and it’s so painful; I feel like I’m about to pass out with the pain.
“I didn’t do anything,” I whisper, but the room is shrinking around me, the walls closing in on me. “I didn’t touch his car.”
“Mia!” Liam snaps and I jerk around only to see him struggling to get out of bed.
“Oh God, what are you doing?” I gasp.
“Trying to get to you so you calm down,” he snaps, brow furrowed in pain.
“Well, I’m alright,” I whisper. His face smooths out, growing soft.
“Cupcake, come here,” he whispers too. “Help me get back in bed. You did this.”
Shaking my head, I quickly walk over to him, then help him back into bed. He groans, clearly in a lot of pain, cursing under his breath. But when I tuck him back in, he watches me silently.
“You’re good at that,” he observes.
“I’m good at a lot of things,” I murmur, fluffing his pillow. The move is so natural to me that when I finally register the silence, I freeze.
“You’re good at taking care of sick people.”
I quickly step away, images of my mother flooding my mind. Liam watches me silently, but I can see that he knows everything.
“Like I said,” I murmur. “I’m good at everything.”
Like he knows I want to drop this, he clears his throat, then glances at my face. It’s then that I feel the wet trails on my cheeks. With a gasp of surprise, I quickly wipe the traitorous tears away. Liam studies me quietly but neither of us address that.
Good. I’d hate to kill him when he’s still useful.
“Okay, Mia,” he starts. “Why are you here, cupcake?”
For some reason, that damn pet name has come to mean more than just ridicule in the space of a few minutes since I’ve arrived. It’s like we just rode a roller coaster of sorts. Now I need to get to the point.
“I think Shane Matthews and his brother are after you and Julian, and they’re using me as the fallout,” I start, making the nightmare before us so damn real. We both stare at each other for a minute. “Which means they did try to blow you up.”
“Yeah,” he says but looks away from me.
“What?” I almost yell. “You know?”
“Calm down, Mia,” he sighs. “I’m saying I had a suspicion.”
“How?”
“I saw you two talking that night.” He stares at me.
“It’s not what you think.” I sigh.
“It’s not me you need to convince about that.”
“Your brother hates my guts, Liam.”
“Yup, that’s true.” He sighs, then stares at the jug of water across the room.
“Just ask.”
“No, I want to get it myself,” he stubbornly says, determination in his eyes. I study him for a second, trying to figure him out.
“You do know you don’t have anything to prove, right?” I murmur and he snaps his head to look at me.
“Oh, sweet cupcake, there’s always something to prove,” he says, watching me. “You yourself have something to prove to the rest of the world. I bet it’s not all roses and shit living in the shadow of the awesome Nancy Montague.”
“You know my mother?” I gasp.
“I know everything about you.” He narrows his eyes at me. “Like how you sold Aiden to the tabloids.”
Oh my God.
“Liam—” I start but he cuts me off.
“Something happened that day. Julian’s probably never going to forgive you for that one, and honestly, I’m not sure if I will either.”
I guess I deserve that.
“Is that why he’s willing to agree with anything he hears about me? For God’s sake, he wants me arrested for what happened to you!”
“That’s where you’re fucking wrong,” he growls. “J doesn’t believe gossip and rumors. He finds answers for himself and you, cupcake, did something to aggravate him to a point where he sees red whenever you’re around.”
“That makes two of us,” I grumble.
“Still, in all my life, I’ve never seen him snap the way he did with you.” He eyes me with curiosity. “What did you do to each other?”
I kissed him. He said he felt nothing. It broke me. Then I snitched.
“Nothing,” I murmur.
“Sure.”
I can hear the skepticism in his voice but I’m not going to address that. Not today, not ever. Clearing my throat, I eye him.
“Either way, I just told you who’s after you.”
“So, you’re here to recruit me to help you make my brother see that, aren’t you?”
“Well…” I start. Damn, he’s freaking smarter than the streets give him credit for. “I just wanted to see if…”
“I’ll help you,” he agrees so quickly I feel dizzy for a second.
“Really?” I say, skeptical of him all of a sudden.
“What?” He smirks.
“Why are you being nice to me all of a sudden?” I question.
“Are you always this skeptical and suspicious?”
“Pretty much.” I tuck a loose tendril of hair behind my ear, then make myself comfortable in the chair again.
“Daddy issues triggered your trust issues?” He smirks but it’s not funny to either of us.
“You might know all about that too,” I counter and we both grow sober. “Why, Liam? Saturday night you were making an example out of me, letting everyone knows what happens to anyone who dares to come for your brother’s freaking parking spot, dissing the hell out of my family, and now, all this? Did you hit your head that hard when you jumped out of the car?”
Liam watches me silently as emotion takes over my perfect exterior.
“You were in my face about shit I had no idea about. I didn’t even know about my aunt and your dad, but you called me a whore. My mom and my aunt… well, let’s just say my life’s been turned upside down from the moment you came for me and now we’re what, friends?”
My words are bitter, filled with hurt and they taste like a mental breakdown. I watch him, waiting for an answer.
“Why, Liam?” I stress. I need this. I need him to tell me why. I’m not good when it comes to genuine, authentic acceptance so this is unsettling the hell out of me.
“You saved my life.”
The answer is as simple as those four words. He holds my gaze, never looking away.
“I heard what you did. How you helped the paramedics and the way you bravely told Julian off when he wanted to pick me up like a sack of potatoes.”
“Yeah, well, your brother is an angry asshole,” I say grumpily, flipping my hair over my shoulder. God, I need a thorough oil massage, now that my aunt can afford it. I’m so tense.
“He’s my big brother with more responsibility than you can ever imagine.”
That shouldn’t make me mellow, but it does.
“There’s nothing you can say that will make me think any better of him.” I roll my eyes, a small smile on my face. But when I glance at Liam, he’s not smiling.
“Have you ever experienced someone dying of leukemia?” His voice is damn raw, scratchy with emotion that he’s trying to fight. “Have you ever had the burden to take care of someone wi
th Down syndrome all your life, then watched that person, your first best friend, die from a blood cancer without a cure?”
My heart starts beating slowly, harder, the pain in the room so thick, you could cut it with a sharp knife.
“Have you ever been raised by a dickhead of a father and a mother with the maternal instincts of a steak knife?” he goes on. “Have you ever had to take care of other people, putting their needs before yours?”
He holds my stare, and in that moment, we understand each other.
We see each other. It’s more than just rivalry, or cars blowing up, or parents and aunts bumpy freaking uglies. It’s life on a bed of nails.
“You do, don’t you?” he says it so softly, like a whisper in my soul. “You know exactly what I’m talking about even if it’s not exactly the same.”
“You and I aren’t the same,” I grit out, but he smiles, a genuine, downright boyish adorable smile that melts my damn heart, the anguish and grief in his eyes making it that much more bittersweet.
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that, cupcake,” he says. “Keep acting like you don’t need anyone in your corner.”
“Who says I need someone in my corner?”
“Well, the reason why you ditched school to come here.” He smirks now, that glint back in his soft green eyes. “And let’s be real here, the Ice Queen of shitty Clintwood doesn’t allow people to get close to her. You don’t have friends, Mia.”
“I do.”
“Who?”
I’m rendered mute. I can’t even say one name, not Kristine or anyone, so I look away, unable to say anything.
“Don’t get in your feelings about that one, cupcake,” he grits out. “Friends are overrated anyway. A real tribe is as small as broken hearts allow.”
“That’s heavy, Liam.” I try to smile. “You sure you don’t have a concussion.”
“I wish, but anyway, about your thing, I’ll help you but only on one condition.”
“I knew it!” I shake my head. “It’s like making a deal with the devil.”
“Better the devil you know, cupcake,” he says with a smirk. “Better the devil you know.”
Seriously? Insert eye roll right here, please. Fuck boys suck.
“What is it that you want to save my innocence in all of this?”
Devious Kisses: A Bully Enemies -To-Lovers Romance (It's Just High School Book 1) Page 26
