Page 96 of Liam

It’s my new normal.

I cry and cry and cry, and there’s no end to the misery.

Punishment for my crimes.

A knock on the door has me glaring at it from the couch. I wait. Another round of knocks.

“Fuck off, Victor!” I shout. “I told you next time you knock on that door when my brother’s not home, I’m going to blow a hole through it with a twelve gauge and claim self-defense!”

“Uh… it’s Liam.”

Shit.

Shit shit shit.

I stand quickly, ignoring the way my head spins at the sudden movement, and open the door. I don’t get a word in before Liam asks, “Who the fuck is Victor?”

The forty-year-old creep two doors down who has a penchant for teen girls who throw anger-induced fits.“No one.”

Liam looks around, and I steal the moment to take him in. It’s been five days since I’ve seen him, and he looks… like Liam—the kindest boy in the world. He also looks pissed. And… worried?

“What’s up?” I ask.

He refocuses on me, and now it’s his turn to take me in. I realize, too late, that I’m in one of Roman’s shirts—the same one I’ve been in for days—and practicallynothingelse.

“When,” Liam says.

I tug down on the bottom of my shirt and achieve nothing. “When… what?”

“When,” he repeats.

“No, I saidwhat’sup? Not?—”

“When,” he says for the third time.

My head tilts to the side. “Huh?”

Liam stands to full height, leveling his shoulders, causing his gray tee to stretch across his broad chest. “When I asked you if you’d show me your favorite place in the world, you said, ‘Just say when’. So… I’m here, saying ‘when’.”

Any other time, this interaction would be sweet. Romantic, even. But I know why he’s here, and Ihateit. “I take it you’ve seen the video?”

Liam crosses his arms, leans his shoulder against the doorframe. “Linc and I were gone for a few days, and I didn’t have a phone. Still don’t. But yeah, he showed me when we got back yesterday.”

I nod slowly, looking down at the floor, wishing it would miraculously open up and swallow me whole. “That’sgreat.”

“Addie…”

Reluctantly, I peer up at him.

“Will you show me?”

I heave out a sigh. “Why?”

He reaches over, takes my hand in his. “Because I’m asking you to.”

I force Liam to wait a solid fifteen minutes for me to shower, dress, and make myself presentable to anyone other than the imaginary strangers I talk to in the apartment. When I get to the parking lot, Liam is waiting beside a truck, not his usual minivan. He answers my unasked question, “Linc’s using the van for his driving test, so I borrowed my dad’s.”

“Don’t you have a truck you don’t use?”

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