Sweet Southern Thing

“We have to be more careful.” I swung my legs slowly from the top of the desk I was sitting on.

Zayn raised an eyebrow back at me as he slouched in the desk across from me. Liam nodded from the desk next to him, while Blythe, Eleanor, and Harry stared back at me in confusion.

“Blaine was asking me earlier why Zayn has been talking to me lately.” I explained. “I told her the truth.” I said, turning my gaze back to Zayn. “I didn’t tell her that we were all a part of it, but I told her we were talking about her.”

He sighed and nodded, probably agreeing that it was for the best.

“Am I the only one who thinks Blaine is gonna be pissed when she finds out we’ve been scheming behind her back to get her together with the douche bag who took her virginity?” Harry raised his hand from his desk in the second row next to Blythe.

“Haz, shut up.” Blythe rolled her eyes.

“Bly, she’s your sister.” Harry leaned forward a little. “Surely, you don’t want him to hurt her again.”

“No, I don’t.” Blythe replied, glancing between Harry and a curious Zayn. “But I don’t think he will.”

Harry shut up after that, opting to slouch back into his seat. I watched everyone become comfortable and turn their attention back to me before I spoke again.

“So, be more careful. She can’t see us talking to each other anymore.” I spoke directly to Zayn. He nodded slowly. “So stick to texting and we should be good.”

Eleanor raised her hand, “Is that all?” she asked timidly.

I nodded. Everyone stood from their seats and walked out of the classroom. I left with Liam and watched from down the hall as Zayn left by himself and turned to go in the opposite direction as everyone else, even though I knew for a fact he had his next class with Blythe. It felt wrong sneaking around behind Blaine’s back to talk to Zayn.

When he was given the chance to explain himself, he actually wasn’t a bad guy. He could keep up with our group’s strange humor easily enough. He was quiet when he didn’t have anything to say. He was very observant, though, and picked up early on how to interact with everyone individually. He’d easily made friends with Liam and Blythe, two of the most protective people ever when it came to Blaine. Eleanor and I were both easily won over by anyone we met, so it was less surprising for us to befriend him. Harry, however, had still yet to completely agree to the plan to get Blaine and Zayn together.

“So, um we haven’t exactly decided what the next step for the plan is going to be.” I turned from watching Zayn to see Liam rubbing the back of his neck and smiling shyly down at me.

I smiled back and nodded, indicating for him to continue.

“Did you um, wanna come over tonight and…talk er uh, plan?” he stumbled with an embarrassed smile.

“Yeah!” I nodded.

“Yeah?” he asked, his smile widening.

“Yeah.” I smiled. “Six, okay?” he nodded. “See you then, Golden Boy.” I winked and then turned and walked to my class.

I chewed on my lip to keep myself from grinning as I walked into my history class. I took my seat in the back row and lowered my head down so that my chin was resting on my folded arms. I grinned slowly and shook my head.

Everyone else began filing into the room and to their desks around me. I barely noticed when Eleanor sat down on my left and Paisley sat on my right. The grin didn’t leave even after the bell rang and our teacher began calling the roll.

“What’s that grin about, Ray?” I turned to see Paisley raising an eyebrow at me and smirking.

“Probably Liam.” Eleanor piped up from my other side with a small smile.

I glared playfully at my cousin and turned to roll my eyes at Paisley’s growing smirk.

“It has nothing to do with that. Can’t I just be happy?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“Not in history, you can’t.” Paisley replied as she turned back to the front of the room.

I stared ahead of me, pretending to pay attention to the lesson. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that I wasn’t paying any attention at all. Instead, I was thinking about going to Liam’s house. Would it be weird? Would his parents make a big deal about it? I already knew that mine wouldn’t care that I was at a boy’s house, they’d probably tease me for ages over it, but they wouldn’t be upset. Maybe his parents are different. Maybe they don’t like it when he brings girls over. Had he brought any girls over before? Or was I the first? Were we only going to discuss Blaine and Zayn or would we talk about other things as well? Should I bring my homework? What should I wear? Would he think I was trying too hard if I changed? Did he even like me?

I was brought out of my insane thoughts by the bell ringing. I sighed and stared down at the blank notebook in front of me and realized that I had taken a single note all period.

“Don’t worry, crazy, I took notes for you.” Paisley smirked and handed over her notebook. I smiled at her as we exited the classroom.

“Baby!” I froze in the hallway and turned to see a familiar woman walking down the hallway with a wide grin. She gave me a small smile when she passed and then continued on until she was standing in front of her son.

Liam smiled right back at his mother, not even batting an eye to her calling him a pet name in front of our entire school.

The two of them spoke quietly at his locker. I watched from across the hall as his face hardened. He glanced over her shoulder and caught my eyes. I frowned and raised an eyebrow. Liam shook his head and turned back to whisper with his mom.

I sighed and walked towards the courtyard. I smiled in greeting to everyone that called out for me as I made my way to the same round table my friends and I sat around every day at lunch. The twins were both already in their positions, picking through the lunches Mrs. Berry packed for them.

I smirked as Blythe handed over the entire lunchbox to her sister. Blaine switched with her and smiled down at the small salad. Mrs. Berry sometimes handed the wrong twin a lunchbox, the girls hated upsetting her though, so they just traded when they got to school.

“So Mrs. Payne is here” I greeted the identical twins as I sat down next to Blaine. She glanced up at me with a confused frown before turning back to her salad.

“That’s strange, I’m sure Li will tell me all about it later.” Blaine shrugged.

“Or mom, she’s kind of a loud mouth when it comes to Liam.” Blythe added on as she munched on a potato chip.

Sarah would faint if she ever saw what Blythe Berry ate for lunch every day.

“Scout!” we all turned our heads to the door as the twins’ dad walked out into the courtyard. He marched right over to Blythe and threw down a peanut butter and banana sandwich in front of her. “Give me the good stuff.” He grinned.

Blythe sighed and dug the peanut butter sandwich from her own lunchbox. She handed it over to her father, who winked in response and then walked back inside.

“One of these days mom is gonna find out that you guys switch sandwiches.” Blaine mumbled, not looking up from the textbook she had opened in front of her.

“She’ll realize that the same day she remembers that dad is allergic to bananas.” Blythe responded as she tore a piece of her sandwich and tossed it in her mouth.

“Hello ladies.” I lifted my hand only a little to wave at Harry in greeting and then turned to grab my history textbook from my backpack. I flipped it open to the appropriate page and began copying Paisley’s notes while reading about the topic in the book.

Harry took the seat closest to Blaine while reaching over for one of the carrots from her salad.

“Boring Bessie’s.” Paisley stated as she sat down on Blythe’s other side.

“Thank God you’re both here, now I don’t have to suffer in silence anymore.” Blythe cheered.

I rolled my eyes at her comment, but didn’t respond in any other way. I was so enthralled in my notes, in fact, that I didn’t notice when Paisley and Eleanor joined the table as well. I only pulled away from the writing in front of me when I felt someone sit down next to me, closer than any of the girls would have been. I glanced up to see Liam glancing down at the textbook in front of me, pretending to be interested in the Gilded Age and not noticing me looking at him.

“Where’ve you been, man?” Harry asked, leaning forward so that his arms rested on the table.

Liam looked up from the book and across the table at his friend, shrugging in the process.

“My mom had to come talk to me.” he replied.

No one said anything after that. We all knew Liam well enough to know that we never really talked about his home life.

Everyone else started their own side conversations, so I knew that no one would notice when I reached down and intertwined my fingers with Liam’s. He glanced down at our hands and then over at me with a curious expression.

I leaned forward and scribbled a note to him in my notebook, looking away when I was done so that we didn’t seem too suspicious.

You can tell me, you know? Whatever it is your mom said.

Liam let out a breath and nodded his head slightly. I chewed on my lip and went back to copying Paisley’s notes, reassured that Liam would tell me what was going on when he was ready.