We Were Right From The Start

The next day Sue came over at 7 a.m. I had phoned her the previous evening asking if she would look after Sam until I could get home. She said that she would be, of course, happy to help. So, at 6 o'clock on the dot, she was at the door. I let her in and informed her that Sam was still in bed. She just nodded and I took her into the living room. She had brought some things over with her, so I left her to herself while I quickly went upstairs, printed the speech and got ready for school. I had stayed up last night putting the finishing touches onto the presentation. I had divided up into who says what and so we had an equal amount to say. I hadn’t checked this with Liam, but I'm sure he would agree with how I've done it.

At 7.45 Liam pulled up outside the house. I said bye to Sue and quickly left. I smiled at Liam when I got in the car and he smiled and kissed me softly. "How's Sam?" he asked and I shrugged.
"He misses mum," I said miserably. "I wish she would phone or something. Or I wish I knew when she was getting home. But I don’t have anything to say to Sam to cheer him up."
"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be fine," Liam said and I smiled and nodded. The car journey was silent, both of us wrapped in our own thoughts. "You got the presentation, right?" he asked when we pulled into a car park space. I smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, and I've divided up who's saying what."
"Great," he smiled and kissed me again. "Thanks." I smiled and nodded and then we got out of the car and headed into school.

We had biology first, but I wasn’t nervous because I knew our speech was good. It should be after the hours we'd spent working on it. We got to the classroom and I passed Liam a copy of the presentation. Mr Peatry came in seconds later and clapped his hands. "Right, we have a lot of people to get through, so I suggest we get started immediately," he announced. Liam took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I turned to him.
"You okay?" I asked and he smiled weakly and nodded.
"Nervous, thinking about what's at stake," he said and I smiled and held his hand.
"Don't worry, the essay is good, and we did our best, we can't ask anymore of ourselves than that," I said and he nodded.
"Frankie, I...I wanted to tell you that-"
"Frankie, Liam?" Mr Peatry said and we both turned to him. "Were you listening?" We both shook our heads embarrassed. Mr Peatry sighed. "You're first." I felt my stomach flip, so I could barely imagine what Liam was feeling.

We stood up and made our way to the front of the room. "You have 5 minutes, impress me," he said. I took a deep breath and then started talking, reading the essay off the paper in my hands, but looking up occasionally as well. Once we got into it, the words just flowed from our mouths and we used our written work less as we remembered the essence of what we had said in the essay. In total we spoke for 4 minutes, 37 seconds, but Mr Peatry said that it was 'acceptable'.

Once we had sat down, Liam sighed deeply and rested his forehead against the wood of the desk. I put my hand on his back and he relaxed slightly under my hand. Now that our turn was over we had to listen to four other groups' speeches. It wasn’t boring exactly, but I knew I was needed at home so I was agitated the whole time. The last group finished exactly as the bell went and then the class stood up to leave the room. "If any of you want your grades, you can get them later today, I just need to think about the last group," Mr Peatry said and we all left the room quickly. I turned to Liam and he kissed me deeply.
"Thank you," he whispered as he stroked my cheek. I smiled and pecked him on the lips again.
"I've got to go phone Sue, see if she's ok, I'll catch up with you later, okay?" I said and he nodded and smiled at me tenderly.
"Frankie," he said softly before I walked away. "Thank you." I smiled and wrapped my arms around him and leant my forehead against his.
"Don't worry about it, I liked helping," I said, kissed him once more and then walked outside.

I had dialled the number before I was outside, and then as soon as the door shut behind me, Sue picked up. "Hello, Tyler residence," she said.
"Hey, its Frankie," I said. "How's Sam?"
"He's watching Finding Nemo," she said. "He's a bit pale and..." she sighed. "...miserable. He misses his mum."
"I know..." I said sadly. "But I don’t know what to do."
"Why don’t you phone her?" she asked and I nodded.
"I guess I have no choice now," I said. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Ok, honey, bye," she said and I hung up and went back in.

On the way I walked passed Mr Peatry who was on his way to the staffroom. "Do you want to know your grade?" he asked, grinning down at me. I could guess from his look, but I smiled and nodded anyway. I thought that I probably should have Liam with me, but I couldn’t see him nearby. "A*," he said and I grinned. Liam would be so happy!
"So you're changing Liam's predicted grade?" I asked and Mr Peatry grinned and nodded.
"He is a smart boy," he said and I nodded.
"I've got to go find him," I said and Mr Peatry nodded and let me go. I walked away quickly to find Liam to tell him the good news. I went to his locker first but he wasn’t there so I started wondering around looking for him.

After several minutes, I saw him and Brad talking at the end of the corridor. I was grinning as I walked over to them but as I heard their conversation my smile was wiped from my face. "I can't believe I lost," Brad said as he handed Liam some money. I didn't see how much but there were several notes in his hand. Liam didn't say anything. "I would've sworn Dom was smarter than Frankie. He gets top grades in like everything."
"Yeah, well, not this time," Liam said. Brad sighed in frustration.
"I can't believe I lost a bet, I never lose a bet," he said. He sighed and then looked at Liam again. "What are you going to do if she finds out?"
"She won't find out," he said and I frowned.
"But maybe you should tell her-"
"What? That I used her? Don't be stupid," Liam said and I felt my heart shatter. He had only used me to get the A*. He lied. I can't believe I fell for it. Tears ran silently down my cheeks.
"Yeah but you'll hurt her," Brad said, showing a sensitive side for once.
"Which is why I won't tell her," he said. "She doesn’t need to know. Things will just go on like normal." Brad shook his head and looked away from Liam and his eyes met mine. He paled slightly. "What?" Liam asked, noticing his friend was distracted. He turned and looked at me and when his eyes met mine I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. "Frankie!" he shouted as I turned and ran away from him. I went to the bathroom, the one place where he wouldn’t be able to get me.

I went and leant against the wall the furthest place away from the door. "Frankie!" Liam shouted from outside. I slowly slid down the wall and hugged my knees to my chest as I sobbed. "Frankie! Listen to me!" he shouted and banged on the door.
"Leave me alone!" I shouted through my sobs.
"Frankie! Please!" he shouted but I just cried harder and he stopped.

I don’t know how long I sat there, but several girls came in, saw me and left quickly. I thought over all the things I had said to him. God, I felt like such an idiot. The whole time he must have been thinking, 'poor, gullible Frankie, she believes I really like her...' I hated myself for falling for his act. The door opened for about the tenth time but I didn't look up. "Frankie?" a voice asked softly. I recognised it as Mandy but I didn't respond. She came and sat next to me and put her arm around my shoulders and hugged me to her side. "Liam told me you were in here," she said softly and more tears trickled down my cheeks. "He needs to talk to you."
"No, I'm never talking to him ever again," I said and pulled away from her and left the bathroom, only to run straight into Liam. He grabbed hold of my arms and forced me to look up at him. I defiantly stared into his eyes, looking at him with nothing but hatred. However, the pain I saw in his eyes made it harder.
"Frankie, please just let me explain," he said desperately.
"No need," I said, pulling myself out of his hands. "I understand everything fine. You used me. You lied to me. The whole time you were lying, everything you said... You're exactly who I expected you to be. But I convinced myself that you were different, that you weren’t like the other jocks who made fun of me. But you are. You're worse and I hate you." I saw Liam flinch and I walked passed him and outside.

The day was only halfway through but I couldn’t stay there anymore. I started walking, thinking about what I had just said. How could I accuse Liam of lying when I had lied as well? I don’t hate him. Unfortunately I'm still completely in love with him. I walked away from the school and towards a park. It was empty at this time of day so I just sat there in the peace and quiet and let my tears run down my cheeks in a never ending stream.