CHAPTER FOUR

He got home few minutes past seven after going straight to the hospital after school.

 His mum was being extra inquisitive about how his first day at school went and even after her told him several times that it was fine, she kept on asking.

 He groaned as his alarm clock rang again. It was 7:00am already and he wasn’t ready. He skipped just two weeks of school but it felt like two months. There were notes to be made, assignments and most importantly books to be read.

 He stepped out of the bathroom, hair soaking wet by 7:15am. He already had his natural outfit of the day laid down on his bed. A blue t-shirt and light colored jeans. Hair blow dried and brushed, he grabbed his backpack and fled downstairs.

 “Did you have breakfast?” was the first thing Brian said to him as he got into the car.

 “Yes,” he lied.

 “Oh,” he eyed him suspiciously. “Well, here then.”

 Liam slowly collected the brown paper bag Brain was handing over to him.

 “What’s this?” he asked looking inside. “Oh, thanks.”

 He was starving.

 He took out the large size burger, hungrily taking a bite and mentally thanking Brian again.

 “Here,” Brian passed a bottle of water to him. “You definitely had breakfast.”

 His mouth was to filled for words to come out.

---

Liam couldn’t find two things. His map and his way to the physics lab.

 Having less than five minutes before his first class of the day began, he really did not want to be late.

 “Hi,” a fresh voice said to him.

 He turned around to meet a guy standing in front of him. It seemed like he appeared out of nowhere. Almost the same height as Liam, had skin color that was in between light and dark, his hair partially shaved with the unshaved parts having glossy curls. He wore a sleeveless top, showing off well built arms with black colored jeans.

 “Oh, hi.”

 “You’re Liam, right?” he asked, Liam nodding. “I’m Nick. Nice meeting you. Oh, I was in class yesterday when you arrived.”

 “Oh,” Liam replied, unable to remember seeing him yesterday. “Cool. Nice meeting you too. Um…i’m sorry but…where’s the-”

 “Physics lab?” he asked, Liam gushing a ‘yes’. “Let’s go. I have physics too.”

 Physics class went fine. The teacher was humanly and just like Liam, hated noises and distractions. Geography was fine too and English was perfect. Nick was nice enough to walk with him to all his classes and fill him on all the necessary things he needed to know. His day was going fine and he just hoped it remained like that till the end.

 “We meet again!”

“Hi,” his reply was short and unfriendly. Walking next to Nick, he walked past Steve Reeds.

 “You guys talk?” Nick asked. “That’s nice. You seem to be fitting in well.”

 “No, we don’t talk,” Liam ordered fries. “You talk?”

 “Er, no, not really,” Nick replied, emptying a bottle of ketchup on his fries as they got to their preferred table. “I mean he’s Steve Reeds.”

 “What’s Steve Reeds?”

 “Liam, why are you so cold to me?” Steve appeared out of nowhere, plopping into the seat next to Liam. “Hey.”

 Liam breathed out. “What do you want from me?”

 “I told you already,” he replied, smiling like an idiot. “I want to tease you. I want to see you get angry.”

 He just had to be crazy.

 “Why?”

 “It’ll be fun!”

 Liam wasn’t sure Nick was enjoying the drama as he remained in his seat drowning his fries in more blood.

 “Nick,” Liam called out. “Can we go sit somewhere else?”

 Nick was a dream come true.

 “Sure.” He got up, grabbed his backpack and tray.

 Liam did the same not bothering to spare Steve a glance.

 It only took seconds for every single soul in the cafeteria to turn their necks towards the guy sprawled across the floor.

 There were exclaims, sounds of pity, murmurs and laughter.

 He fell to the floor with a loud thud. The tray he was holding and his backpack both went flying in the air, their contents accompanying him on the floor.

 Liam just wanted the floor to open up and swallow him. He looked up to see Steve’s foot slowly curl back under the chair.

 “Oops,” his face had a blank expression.

 “Oh my God, Liam, are you okay?” Nick rushed towards him. He bent to the floor trying to help him up.

  His thighs felt sore. They hurt like hell and he just wanted to cry.

 Nick quickly helped pick his things scattered on the floor back into his backpack and helped in up. Liam winced in pain as he got up, the pain shifting to his left hip. He held on to Nick as they both walked out of the cafeteria, all eyes on them.

 “Here, sit,” Nick gestured to Liam helping him sit as they got to an empty classroom. He handed him a bottle of water immediately collecting it back to open it and then handing it back to him.

 Liam collected the bottle of water and took less than a gulp. He murmured a ‘thanks’ and dropped the bottle on the desk in front of him.

 “Was it an…accident?” Liam asked. It was obvious he was searching for the right words to say and when they finally came out of his mouth, he bit his lip. “Of course, it was an accident.”

 “You think?” Liam’s mind was finally getting settled. “He definitely had his leg stuck out on purpose.”

 “No…I mean why would he? I thought you guys were fr- talked.”

 Liam breathed out, running his hands through his hair. “I honestly don’t know. What’s his deal? Really.”

 “You know I found it strange that you guys even talked,” Nick said, taking a seat next to Liam.

 “Why?”

 “Because like I said earlier he’s Steve Reeds,” Nick said in a tone that assumed Liam was supposed to know. “Fine. Steve Reeds is one of the most popular students here and considering how huge this school is, I mean he’s popular. Of course, the reasons aren’t far-fetched. He’s hot, smart, rich, has his way with words and one of the best  players the football team has. Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t mean he’s an arrogant, cocky jerk or a bully of some sort cause I know those characteristics tend to go well with all the mentioned but no. If anyone’s a total asswipe, it’s gonna be his best friend. Weird, right? Steve just doesn’t talk to a lot of people. His whole friend circle consists of just the popular kids so I found it weird he was talking to you.”

 “I must be a special one then,” Liam’s voice was laced with sarcasm.

 The door opened slowly, the two guys turning to the see who the uninvited guest was.

 Speak of the devil and the devil says hello.

 “Oh, you were here.”

 Liam sighed. He contemplated answering him and eventually did. “What are you doing here? What do you want?”

 Steve shut the door behind him, walking towards where Liam and a Nick were seated.

 “Liam,” he breathed out. “It wasn’t intentional.”

 “Oh, was it not?” Liam asked, raising his head so their eyes could meet. He stared at him wondering what does eyes meant.  He looked like he had a thousand things running through his mind and yet Liam couldn’t place a finger on one.

 “No, it wasn’t,” Steve repeated. “God, Liam, do you really think I’ll be here if I did it on purpose?”

 “Yes,” Liam got up. “As a matter of fact, yes cause you’re here and you stuck your leg out on purpose. To make me trip, intentionally.”

 Steve groaned. “Fuck. Fuck, Liam. Yes, it was intentional. I did it on purpose.”

 “I know,” he replied, obviously not surprised by his words. He shook his head again, returning to his original position. “Just get lost.”

 “Look i’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have done that but I did. My bad.”

 “Are you even listening to yourself?” Liam was beginning to feel irked. “Just leave, please.”

 They stared at each other for a while before Steve muttered something under his breath and turned to leave.

 The room immediately felt less suffocating.

 “That was..intense,” Nick commented, reminding Liam of his presence. “But you know, he actually cared to come back to apologize. Maybe it-”

 “Nick,” Liam cut him short. “Don’t.”

 Nick nodded. “So what are you going to do now?”

 “Visit the nurse’s office,” he grabbed his backpack. “My hip’s killing me.”

  To think it was just his second day at school.

 ---

 “It’s hard, isn’t it?”

 Liam didn’t need to answer, his mum already knew the answer to his question.

 Liam had asked Brian to drive him straight to the hospital after school. Noticing the look on his face, he said nothing and just drove him to the hospital.

 His mum wasn’t up when he got to her room. Quietly, he dropped his backpack, sat on the chair next to her and rested his head on the bed.

 He quickly fell asleep and was later woken by her gentle taps. “Liam.”

 He uselessly tried to smile. “Mum. You were asleep when I got here. I didn’t want to wake you.”

 “You should have,” unlike his, his mum’s attempt to smile was a successful one. “How’s school?”

 “There’s so many things to catch up on,” he lamented.

 “How are the kids? Nice?”

 “Not bad.”

 “I hope so,” his mum replied. “You know you can always tell this oldie anything, right?”

 “Of course,” he held his hands. “Of course, I can.”

 “You seem tired,” she pat the side of her bed. “Rest for a while.”

 She smiled, brushing his hair from his face as he rested his head. She watched his eyes slowly close realizing how much he’d grown. They said children grew farther from their parents as they grew older but the case wasn’t such for her. Maybe it was because she fell sick while he was growing up and wasn’t able to be just a normal mum.

 She looked at the clock on her bedside table. It was 6:23pm and Liam was fast asleep.

 Just a 30minutes more nap shouldn’t hurt.

---

 Liam’s eyes flew open.

 He looked around his room to find what was making the sound that interrupted his not so peaceful sleep.

 9:53pm.

 It was his laptop. It was on his reading table, turned on and had Jasmine’s ID flashing signifying an incoming video call.

 He got up, sat on the chair of his reading table and picked the call.

 “WERE YOU DEAD OR SOMETHING?!” Jasmine yelled through the screen immediately they got connected. Her squeezed face automatically softened on seeing Liam’s face. “Damn, I missed you.”

 “Me too.” So bad he could actually cry. They hadn’t spoken for close to two days and Liam felt so guilty. “I’m sorry.”

 “No, I’m sorry,” Jasmine shook her head. “You’re the one having to adapt all over again. You’ve definitely been busy. I should have called. Yeah, I tried to skype you but I just have just tried harder. There’s facetime. I should have-”

 Normally, he’d place his palm over her mouth to stop her from her uncontrollable talking. But this time, he couldn’t.

 “Stop it,” he laughed. “How have you been?” 

 “Man, school’s dry without you,” Jasmine groaned. “Honestly, it feels like you were the only reason I still attended school.”

 “Oh, shut up,” he replied, playfully. “Is it really that boring?”

 “Yes,” Jasmine pouted, Liam bursting into laughter. Jasmine joined in and the laughter lasted for a while. “So how are you? How’s school?”

 “Tiring, tiring,” where was he to start from? He honestly missed his best friend but he was tired and all he really wanted to do was sleep. “Really tiring.”

 “Tell me about it. Absolutely everything about it.”

 There were a lot of things to say about Crawstar but only one person came to his mind. The one person that decided to make his two days at Crawstar feel like two decades.

 It was annoying that he came to his mind. Maybe it was because every time he turned and his hips hurt, he couldn’t help but remember the dude that did him the favor. Or maybe it was because he saw someone that really looked like him at the hospital and immediately ran without even looking again to confirm.

 He raised his head to meet Jas eagerly waiting for a response. “Let’s talk later, Jas. I’m exhausted.”