We Were Right From The Start

The next morning, by the time I had woken up, dad had already left for his work thing. I went downstairs but Sam wasn’t around. I frowned and went back upstairs into his room. He was playing with his ninja turtles. I smiled at him and then sat next to him. "Hey, Sammy," I said and he sat in my lap. I picked up a blue turtle and fiddled with it for a while. Sam didn't appear to want me to do anything, just liked my presence in the room. "Do you want some breakfast?" I asked him after a while and he nodded.
"Cereal, like yesterday," he said and I nodded.
"Ok, but you're not eating up here, you'll have to come downstairs," I said and he nodded and followed me downstairs, turtles still in his hands.

I quickly made his cereal and some toast for myself and Sam sat in front of the television eating slowly. "I'll be upstairs, alright?" I asked and he nodded. I went up and had a shower and got dressed in jeans and a green hoodie. I went onto my computer and decided to do some research for the presentation. I knew Liam and I had to get a move on, but we had all the material, we just had to turn it into a speech. I got out my notes and numbered them in the order I thought we should say the information.

A while later, Sam came up to my room. "What's lunch?" he asked and I looked at the clock and was shocked to see it was 12.30.
"What do you want?" I asked as I turned away from my computer.
"Cheese sandwich," he said. "Oh, and cucumber." I smiled and nodded and went back downstairs with him. While I was making the sandwiches the doorbell rang. Before I could get there, Sam had opened it. "Hi," he said happily and I guessed it was Sue or someone like that.
"Hey, is your sister in?" a low, familiar voice asked and my heart skipped a beat. I quickly left the kitchen and went into the hallway. Sam was staring up and Liam, and Liam was smiling at me. I smiled back and then shook my head at Sam.
"Sam, this is Liam," I said and Sam looked at me and then back at Liam.
"Do you like Ice Age?" Sam asked and I suppressed a smile.
"Are you kidding? I love it," Liam replied with a grin and I smiled.
"Come and watch it with me," Sam said and then ran into the living room. I watched him and then turned back to Liam.
"You don’t have to if you don’t want to," I said but Liam just smiled.
"Hello," he said and pecked my cheek softly. I smiled. "I thought that we could do some of the project today, but seeing as Ice Age is on, I'd much rather watch that." I laughed.
"Have you had lunch?" I asked and he nodded.
"Yeah, before I left home," he said and I nodded.
"I'm just making ours. Go in and I'll be in, in a minute," I said and Liam nodded and went in the room.

I went into the kitchen and hurriedly made the sandwiches. I passed Sam his and then sat next to Liam. "Are you sure you don’t want anything?" I asked and Liam smiled and put his arm around me.
"Positive," he said, not taking his eyes off the television. I smiled and then settled back and started to eat.

About an hour later, once the film had finished Sam went up to his room, leaving me and Liam downstairs. I wondered briefly what he was doing, but I was very aware of Liam and soon forgot. I turned to him and saw him already looking at me. I smiled slightly and he smiled back. "So, did you want to do some biology?" I asked him and he smiled and nodded.
"Sure," he said and we both stood up. On the way upstairs I put mine and Sam's plates in the kitchen.

I got to my room and saw Liam sitting at my computer. The stuff I had been working on earlier was still on the screen and Liam was reading it. He took a deep breath and then opened a word document and I sat on the edge of my bed and watched him. "Ok, so how shall we start?" he asked me, swivelling on the chair to face me. I contemplated the question for a while but came up with nothing.
"Why don’t we write it first and then fix the beginning and end," I suggested and he nodded. I got the notes out of my bag and glanced at them. Liam was reading a website as well. "Okay, how about I dictate to you and you type and then add any bits that you think of as we go," I said and he nodded.
"Alright, do you mind, though?" he asked and I smiled at him tenderly.
"No, of course not," I smiled and then looked at the notes beside which I had previously written a large 1.

I started talking and eventually the words just flowed. However, soon enough I started drying up and didn't know how to phrase anything anymore. I trailed off one sentence with an "umm..." and Liam moaned with frustration and heavily banged his forehead against the desk. I frowned at him slightly, worried whether he had unintentionally hurt himself. "Liam?" I asked softly but he didn't respond. "Are you okay?"
"I have to get an A," he said automatically.
"Liam, this isn’t that important, you can make it up later if we do badly," I told him but he shook his head.
"No I can't, you don’t understand," he said angrily and I frowned with hurt. He sighed and picked his head up and looked at me. "I'm sorry." I nodded.
"Maybe we should take a break," I said and lay back and stared at the ceiling. Liam came over and sat at the end of the bed, facing away from me. He was looking down at the floor. He then lay back slowly, his head coming to rest on my stomach. We lay at a right angle on the bed, our legs hanging over the edge. It felt natural for me to reach down and slowly stroke Liam's hair. I felt him relax after a few minutes and I smiled. "Liam," I said softly.
"Mmm," he mumbled.
"Why is this coursework so important to you?" I asked and he sighed. He reached up and took my free hand, entwined his fingers with mine, and then held my hand over his chest.
"Mr Peatry said he would change my predicted grade from a B to an A if I get an A in this coursework," he said and I frowned slightly.
"It's for university?" I asked and he nodded slightly.
"I want to get in on a rugby scholarship to study history, but I still need 2 As and a b at least. I'm getting an A in history and a b in maths, so I need an A now," he said.
"That's why you've been so desperate," I said softly to myself but Liam heard and nodded. I looked down at him but he was looking up at the ceiling. "I'll help you, Liam. I promise." He turned and looked at me. He then got up and turned over so he was leaning on his elbows and raised himself to his knees. He then crawled closer to me.
"I wanted to wait until we went out properly to kiss you, but I'm going to do it now," he said softly and I felt thrills run through me and I smiled.
"Okay," I whispered and then Liam pressed his lips softly, tenderly, lovingly against mine and I felt like I was flying. He pulled back too soon and I frowned at the loss but he didn't move back.

I opened my eyes and looked up to see Liam gazing down at me. "What?" I asked but he just smiled.
"I was remembering the last time we did that," he said and I frowned.
"What?" I repeated, but this time in complete confusion.
"Don't you remember?" he asked and I frowned but thought back. Suddenly it came back and a smile worked its way onto my lips.
"I dared you to kiss me," I whispered and Liam grinned.
"Double dared me," he said.
"And you did," I whispered, still remembering. "Oh, my God." It was then that I had fallen in love with him. The second he had kissed me when we were 7 years old I had fallen head over heels in love with Liam and I had never stopped. I smiled and looked at Liam, who was smiling as well.
"I think we're much better at it now," he smiled and I laughed lightly.
"I think that first kiss was the best kiss of my life," I said as I gazed into Liam's green eyes. He laughed and stroked my cheek gently.
"It's gets better," he whispered and then his mouth was on mine again and he kissed me with a passion. He was right, it got a lot better.