Chapter 14: Twelve

Thursday rolls around quicker than Liam thought it would. He was slightly nervous the entire day.

He isn't sure what to expect. He doesn't get to hang out with people often. He doesn't know how to act.

He's actually scared. Yeah, he's hung out with these people before. They're chill and he's a little more comfortable with them now, but he's still scared.

What if he does something stupid? What if he says something wrong? What if they realize he's just a boring kid and there's nothing special about him?

He tries not to think about it. Instead he tries to focus on his class work and the ridiculous questions Ember asks during lunch.

When the final bell rings Liam feels relieved. Ember stands up and sends him a smile. "I'll see you later?"

"Yeah." Liam nods. They both leave the classroom and go separate ways.

Liam goes to his locker and starts gathering his stuff. Paige walks up at some point with a friendly smile.

"Are you excited?" She asks kindly. He gives her a very weak smile back.

"Terrified."

She laughs lightly at this and pats him on the arm. "It'll be okay."

Liam lets out a sigh. "Yeah, okay."

"I'll see you later." She smiles.

"See you." Liam says back and then she leaves.

A few seconds later Liam throws his bag over his shoulder and shuts his locker. He walks out of the school and tries to not lose his mind from nervous jitters. He really shouldn't be this nervous.

It would be okay. Besides, they were just a bunch of other kids like him. How scary can teenagers be?

Very scary. Liam reminds himself.

He ignores it all in favor of sliding into his car and starting it up. Instead of focusing on nerves, he focuses on the dread settling at the prospect of going home. He focuses on the fact that he knows his mother will be home.

The drive home is short like always. He parks at the end of the house and shuts his car off. He doesn't go inside right away though. He sits in his car and lets out a sigh before finally getting out.

He opens the front door and hears his mother's voice immediately. She's in the dining room and talking to a man and a woman. The woman has a clipboard and is writing things down.

"I want white roses and peonies. Nothing else though, I can't stand orchids and anything else wouldn't match our color and decorative schemes." The woman looks over just before Liam started up the stairs. "William! Good, good, come here."

Liam stuffs down the sigh and doesn't let it escape. He walks over and stands next to his mother who is smiling proudly.

"This is my son, William. William, these are our party planners. This is Lianna and Ryan."

"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you." Liam smiles and reaches over to shake Ryan's hand and then Lianna's.

"You're going to help me, go put your bag up and hurry down." His mother shooed him away. He doesn't need to be told twice.

He runs up the stairs and when he gets to his room he drops his bag before groaning loudly. "Dammit."

He doesn't swear all that much because his mother slaps him for vulgar language when she hears but he doesn't care. The last thing he wants to be doing is helping his mother plan a party. However, he knows if he doesn't go back down there then she'll come up to get him and be mad.

So, he sucks it up and leaves his room. He's got about an hour before he should be expecting anyone to come pick him up anyway. He goes back down the stairs and finds his mother in the kitchen talking to the chef with the planners.

"Oh, Will, what do we think of salmon puffs? We can has some servers going about to distribute them among the guests." His mother says. It's clear she's very excited about this.

"That's sounds nice, Mom."

"Yes, yes. Oh! And red wine, we'll need red wine of course."

"Might I ask, do we want to do more than just salmon puffs? We could have an array of small things being passed around, make it have a bit more variety." Lianna suggests.

His mother nods and her and Ryan begin tossing ideas around. Liam stands there silently. He'd much rather be up in his room.

"And what shall we do for the meal? I was thinking four or five courses should suffice." His mother looks at the two and they nod.

"Five courses would be divine." Ryan says and his mother quickly agrees. Lianna writes it down.

"Will, do you have any ideas on the food?" His mother looks over and he's actually surprised she's asking his opinion.

He doesn't have an opinion though. Not for this party anyway. It's just his father's business associates that will be attending. He doesn't plan on staying all night.

"I think your ideas are always better, Mother." Liam smiles in order to get the attention off him. He doesn't actually think that but it's what she wants to hear. She never uses his ideas anyway.

"Oh of course." She smiles and then is discussing things with the chef.

Liam sits there for awhile with a dull look in his eyes. After awhile they move on to decorations. Everything is to be white in different shades and his mother gets so specific about it it makes his skin prickle. She's going for a white, pink, and red theme but of course she uses different words for it. She wants Eggshell white, and rose. She can't just say the damn color.

Eventually, Liam sees an opening. They've gotten a fair distance away from him and his mother hasn't addressed him in 15 minutes. So, he goes up the stairs and disappears into his room.

With the newly found freedom he walks into his closet and changes. He feels so relieved to finally get out of the stupid uniform. It's terrible having to wear that for any longer than he has to.

He gets a text and grabs his phone. It's from Paige.

Liam replies 'okay' quickly. A few moments later he gets another text telling him that Paige is here. He walks down the stairs and looks around to check that his mother isn't around. He then opens up the front door just as Paige is walking up the sidewalk. The red car behind her drives off when they see him.

Paige follows him inside and they bound up the stairs. She looks around but tries not to make it obvious that she's gawking.

They get to his room without any sightings of his mother and Liam lets out a sigh of relief. He then looks over at her and raises his eyebrows.

"What did you have to talk to me about?"

"Oh." Paige surveys his room. "Where's your closet?"

That catches Liam off guard. "What?"

"Ember told me I had to stop by and help you get ready. She thinks you'll have no idea what to wear and will show up in your usual plain T-shirt and shorts." Paige gives him a once over and then raises her eyebrows.

Liam rolls his eyes. "Of course she does."

He walks over and opens the closet door. Paige's eyes widen a bit at the size and she walks in. She looks around and nods.

"This'll do. I'm definitely taking you shopping with me and Ember sometime in the future though."

She rakes through his pants. It's all slacks and dress pants. There is two pairs of jeans at the very bottom shelf though. He bought them, wore them once, and then his mother shunned him so they got put at the bottom of his closet.

Paige pulls out a pair of light wash jeans and hands them to him. "Wear these. That's about as normal as you can get."

She leaves the closet and shuts the door behind her. Liam puts on the jeans and leaves too. He looks a bit like a cartoon character with his blank red shirt but he doesn't say anything about that.

"See? Now you look perfectly casual." Paige smiles. "I don't know what Ember was talking about, you have normal clothes. You just need a couple more pairs of jeans and maybe a few new shirts."

Liam just nods a little. He has no complaints, he'd love new clothes. They both go over and sit on his bed. Paige surveys his room.

"This is really depressing." She says after a minute.

"I am aware." Liam hums. "I hate it."

Paige gives him a sad look before smiling a little. "What do you think of the group?"

Liam smiles a little too. "They seem cool. Ian's nice. Chris and Javi are too. Lucas seems nice but I haven't got a full read on him yet."

Paige nods. "They're all nice. I'm not close with Lucas but Javi and Ian are definitely good guys. Chris has been around forever, he's almost like a brother to me."

Liam didn't know that. It's good to know. He hums and lays back. "I'm scared I'm gonna mess something up. I don't know what there is to mess up, but knowing me I'll find something."

Paige frowns. "What do you mean? You don't mess things up."

"My parents would disagree."

"Your parents want one thing and you're not giving it to them. That's the only reason they're like that." Paige reasons.

"I've given them everything else. They just won't accept it."

"Liam, you're a great person. You care about others and you don't try to be anyone you're not. If your parents can't accept that, then maybe they don't deserve it." Paige says. She lays down next to Liam and they both stare at the ceiling. "If it helps, I don't think you'll mess anything up with the friend group. Ian and Chris seem to like you."

Paige's phone chimes then and she grabs it. She looks over at the text and then sits up. She turns over to smile at Liam.

"That's Ian, they're almost here."

Liam nods and sits up too. They both get up and Liam leads the way downstairs. Just as he opens the door he hears his mother's voice and freezes.

"William?"

He turns and smiles politely. "Hello Mother."

"Where are you going?" Her eyes narrow and she looks over at Paige with a glare. "Who is this?" Then her eyes scan over Liam's outfit. "Are you wearing jeans?"

The way she says it has Liam cringing. "I'm just going out Mom. I won't be home in time for dinner."

"Where are you going?" She asks again, this time with more malice.

"A grand opening party. I'm going with some friends." This doesn't deter the woman, she continues to glare. A honk comes from outside and Liam looks to see the red car from before parked outside. "That's our ride. See you later Mom."

Liam then gently pushes Paige out the door and quickly shuts it behind them. She gives him a look and he just continues to walk quickly towards the car. He opens the backseat and slides in while Paige opens the front.

Ian who was sitting in the passenger seat previously doesn't even say anything to Paige and just gets out. She takes his place and he opens the back so Liam scoots over. Ian slides in next to him and smiles.

"Dude. You have a big ass house." Chris says from the driver's seat. "It's really cool."

"Yeah. I guess." Liam nods a little in the back. All his anxiety is returning to his stomach now.

"Living in it probably makes it less cool, huh?" Ian looks over and Liam smiles and nods.

"Pretty much."

Ian hums and then the conversation about his house is over. He didn't want to talk about it any longer. He did however, want to talk about what they were going to be doing now.

He glances at Paige in the front seat. Then he glances over at Ian. He looks at the side of the boy's face for a couple seconds before Ian turnes and makes eye contact.

Ian raises his eyebrows in a silent question and then leans over a little to talk quietly. "We're gonna head over to Chris's and just chill out until the new arcade opens. Then we're gonna go there and check that out."

"Oh." Liam whispers and nods a little. He offers Ian a weak smile and the boy returns it with a more genuine one.

The rest of the drive Liam didn't say anything. The radio was playing pop songs and Chris kept asking to change it but Paige would simply say no and he'd accept the loss. Ian would say a few things to Chris about school or something but it wasn't ever anything Liam was particularly interested in.

Finally, they pull into the parking lot of a house. Liam looks out the window and smiles. It was smaller than Ian and Ember's, definitely a one story house. It looks just like all those suburban houses but it was still nice.

Liam likes it.

"Come on." Ian smiles and gets out of the car. That's when he realizes Paige and Chris are getting out too. He opens his door and steps out.

"Looks like Javi and them are already here." Paige says, looking at a gray Toyota in the driveway.

Chris opens the front door and the sounds of teenagers fills the air. Liam smiles. There's laughter and talking inside.

"Hey! They're here!" Ember smiles from her seat beside Izzy on a couch.

Liam looks around the room as he walks in. There's a hallway in the right corner and a few feet away on the same wall is a sectional couch that leans into the corner and stretches onto the next wall. The TV is mounted on the wall across from it. There's a sofa on the same wall that the sectional wraps around to and then two chairs a little but away from the sectional not touching any walls. The door they walk into is on the wall opposite of the couch a few feet from the door. There's a big coffee table in the center on top of a very fluffly, white rug.

Ember and Izzy are side by side on the corner of the sectional. Lucas is laid down on the sofa and Javi is in a leather chair.

Paige went over and sat down in the chair next to Javi's, after taking her shoes off. Leaning against the doorway is a woman with long black hair - that's probably dyed because it doesn't look the most natural, but it doesn't look bad either - and striking green eyes. She gives Liam a smile when she sees he's looking at her.

"This is my house and Paige takes my chair. How lovely." Chris rolls his eyes and starts taking off his shoes. Paige gives him a little grin. "I should sit on you."

"Calm down there Tiger." Ember says from the couch. "Sit on Javi. My ship will sail."

"Shut up." Chris glares at her and she snickers.

Chris ends up making Lucas sit up and he sits on the sofa. Lucas lays down again and uses his thigh as a pillow. No one seems to care.

At that moment the woman with black hair speaks and she's looking at Liam. "Hey. You must be Liam, I've heard about you, I'm Chris's mother, Macy."

Liam smiles as politely as he can. "Nice to meet you."

"You too." She smiles kindly, the sides of her eyes wrinking. She then turns to the kids scattered around her living room. "Alright, I'm gonna head back to my room. Don't make a mess and just come find me if you need anything."

There's a chorus of "yes ma'am"s before she leaves.

Ian slips off his shoes too and walks over to the sectional. He sits on the end and stretches out. Liam gets the hint and takes his shoes off as well before going to join Ian and Ember on the couch.

He sits in the middle and sinks into the cushion. Then, because Ember patted her thigh, he lays down and uses it as a pillow. In the process his feet get kicked up on Ian who, other than grunting upon impact, didn't say anything.

"So," Ian begins, hooking his arms around Liam's legs to hold them in place. "What's the plan?"

"I don't know." Chris shrugs. "We got like two and a half hours before we should be at the arcade."

"I say movie and then fourwheelers." Ember grins. Izzy lights up at the idea next to her.

"I mean, I have no complaints." Ian shrugs.

After they all seemed to agree, Chris grabs the remote. He turns on Netflix and they scroll for awhile. Izzy and Paige want to watch a cartoon movie at some point but get immediately denied.

Finally they decide on some action movie. Liam settles on the couch and Ember plays with his hair since his head is on her lap. They've never really been that affectionate before so it's kind of a surprise but Liam doesn't mind. They've hugged about ten thousand times so it's okay to him.

She's holding Izzy's hand throughout the movie as well. The dark skinned girl is leaning her head on Ember's shoulder and her other hand is rubbing soothingly up Ember's arm. So, all in all Ember looks like she's having a crisis but is trying to hide it. She probably wasn't watching the movie at all.

Liam likes it here. He decides that about halfway through the movie when Lucas yawns and Chris starts rubbing a hand through his hair. He likes these people.

He feels okay. Maybe not entirely, but this moment is okay. He slowly smiles and his attention goes back to the fast moving screen.

Yeah, it's okay.

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Liam's starting to get comfortable.

Love you ♡

- Z