We Were Right From The Start

The next morning I was in the corridor and Mandy came over to me. "Hey," she smiled. "Dom's doing his biology tonight so I was wondering if you wanted to come over. We can watch movies or something."
"I'm sorry, I can't, I've got to do my biology as well," I said regretfully. "Liam asked if we could do it tonight."
"Oh," she said and shrugged. "No problem. So how is it going? Is he doing anything?"
"Yeah, he is actually," I said, voicing my surprise. "Yesterday he read through at least 5 books while I was on the computer and-"
"Wait, yesterday? What happened yesterday?" she asked, interest glittering in her eyes.
"Oh, um, he came over in the afternoon to work on our presentation," I said.
"Really?" she grinned and I nodded. "Did anything happen?"
"No," I rolled my eyes. "Mandy, we just did science. That's it."
"Oh," she said, looking disappointed.

The bell rang then and she said a quick bye and ran off to her class. I had biology now, so I quickly grabbed my books and headed to the class. I sat down next to Dom just before Mr Peatry entered the room. "Right, before you all get settled, I want you to move and sit beside your presentation partner," he said and I felt my mouth fall open slightly.
"But I thought you said we weren’t doing our presentations during lesson time?" someone in the front asked.
"I know, but I want you to learn to work with your partner, so you will be sitting next to each other for the next week," Mr Peatry said. I looked over at Liam and saw he was already looking at me.
"You're getting up," Dom said and I turned to him. "I can't be bothered." I rolled my eyes and picked up my stuff and moved over to Liam and sat in the seat next to him, which Brad had just vacated. I smiled weakly at him but didn't know what to say.
"So, um, what time can you stay till after school?" he asked and I turned to him.
"Anytime," I shrugged and he nodded. That was the extent of our conversation. The rest of the lesson we listened to Mr Peatry and didn't say any more to each other.

When the bell rang I didn't know what to say to Liam so instead I just stood, smiled weakly at him and left. I went and put my stuff in my locker, grabbed my history books and went to class. Liam was in this class as well but he sat the other side of the room. I didn't look at him when I walked in, but I sensed his eyes on me. I sat down and then pulled out my homework and pretended to add some bits to it so that I wouldn’t look at him. Miss Simmons came in a few minutes later and started talking. I partially listened but I couldn’t concentrate.

An hour and a half later, I left the room and went back to my locker. It was lunch now. I had just closed my locked when a smooth voice behind me said, "hey." I turned round and smiled at Liam.
"Hey," I replied.
"Do you hate this as much as me?" he asked and I frowned.
"This being?"
"This," he said, indicating me and him. "The awkwardness." I smiled slightly and nodded.
"Yeah, I hate it," I sighed.
"So why is it there?" he asked and I looked at him and shrugged.
"We don’t know each other anymore," I said. "We're basically strangers." He frowned slightly, as though the idea upset him but then he nodded.
"I guess we are," he sighed. "Why do you think that happened?" I looked at him closely.
"We're different people," I said. "We grew apart. It happens." Liam frowned again.
"I didn't want it to happen," he said softly and my heart skipped a beat.
"I don’t think anyone wants it to happen," I replied, my voice just as soft. "But it does." We looked into each other's eyes for what felt like an eternity. I didn't realise what a beautiful colour Liam's eyes were. They would first come across as brown, but this close, they looked moss green.
"Liam!" someone shouted, breaking the spell between us. He sighed and looked away from me over his shoulder. Brad and some other guys came over. "You coming?"
"Yeah," he said and I silently walked away without his noticing and blended into the crowd walking down the corridor.

I looked back briefly and saw Liam looking around for me, but I turned away and quickly went to the cafeteria and found Mandy and Dom. "Alright?" Dom asked me and I shrugged.
"I'm not sure," I said, frowning slightly.
"What's wrong?" Mandy asked and I frowned again.
"I'm not sure," I said. They both frowned at me. I shook myself and looked at them.
"What about you two?" I asked and they both shrugged.
"Not much," Mandy said. "We're going to the movies on Saturday. Did you want to come?"
"I can't," I said. "Babysitting Sam, dad's at a work thing all weekend and mum's decided to go visit some friends." They both nodded sympathetically. "I can't wait for university when I can leave home. The only person I'll miss is Sam." Mandy and Dom both knew about the situation at home and they tried to help as much as possible by letting me stay at their houses, but I couldn’t because of Sam.

After eating, we went to the common room because we had nothing else to do. Dom and Mandy sat on the sofa and I sat on a chair. Most of the sixth form were at lunch so the room was nearly empty. "How's it going with Liam?" Dom asked and I shrugged.
"It's going," I said and they both nodded. At 2 o'clock we went to register and then headed to our last lesson of the day. I had Geography, another lesson I shared with Liam. But, as in all lessons we share, he sat the other side of the room. When I walked in I glanced at him and saw him smiling at me. I smiled back quickly and then looked away and sat down.

With a jolt I realised that we were meeting in about an hour and a half to do the project. My heart started racing. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Mr Bilby gave the lesson slowly and leisurely. I relaxed slightly as I listened to his lecture and after about 45 minutes, my mind wondered. I looked over at Liam and saw that he was looking at me. He rolled his eyes and indicated to Mr Bilby and I grinned and nodded. He smiled. "Miss Tyler," a voice said and both mine and Liam's heads snapped to the front. "Am I boring you?"
"Um, no," I replied quickly.
"Then perhaps you can focus all your attention on me rather than Liam," he said and I couldn’t help but blush.
"Sorry," I mumbled as chuckles arose from the class.
"Can you blame her though," a new voice said and I looked hesitantly back to Liam who was talking to Mr Bilby. "I mean, I am gorgeous." I smiled as the class laughed again. Even Mr Bilby's lips twitched slightly.
"Maybe, but leave it for after school," he said and I blushed again. I looked back at Liam and met his eyes and smiled my thanks. He smiled back and then turned to the front.

I looked down at my books, a smile still on my face. He was so sweet. He was not at all what I had thought. He wasn’t a stupid jock type boy. He was just how I remembered him.