Chapter 17: Fifteen

Liam pulls into the driveway and parks the car. He grabs his bag and gets out. He walks up to the front door of Chris's house and feels the nerves set in.

He'll be okay. He has to remind himself. He goes up the steps and knocks his knuckles against the door.

No one answers the door. Instead, he hears a familiar voice shout. "Come in!"

He opens the door and takes a step in. Chris, Ember, and Ian are already there. Nobody else is though.

"Hey!" Ember smiles widely at him from her seat on the chair. Chris is sitting in the chair next to her, the one Paige had sat in last time Liam was here.

"Hey." Liam smiles and takes his shoes off. This place is only vaguely familiar to him but he feels okay.

"You're wearing the shirt I got you!" Ember exclaims.

"Heh. Yeah." Liam nods once. He was dressed in black basketball shoes and a green shirt. The shirt has three cartoon sunflowers on it.

When he starts to walk into the living room, Ian pats the spot next to him on the sofa. Without a word Liam walks over and sits there. Ian's arm lays loosely around the back of the sofa behind Liam.

"You doing okay?" Ember asks suddenly. She's looking at Liam with a serious look, which is rare for her. "You look tired."

Liam sends her a smile and is surprised with how genuine it feels. "Yeah. I forgot about the English essay due tomorrow so I had to stay up last night to finish it."

"Oh." Ember starts nodding. "Yeah, I've just accepted that I'm never gonna finish that. The lady can fail me."

"This is why all our teachers hate you." Liam rolls his eyes. Next to him, Ian chuckles.

The door swings open then. Paige and Lucas walk in quietly. Paige catches Liam's eyes and smiles.

"You're already here, hey."

"Hey." Liam smiles.

"Izzy and Javi the only ones we're waiting on?" Lucas sits on the couch and stretches his legs out.

"Yep." Ian nods.

Paige glances at Lucas's legs and goes to sit on the other side of the couch. She stretches her legs out too.

"Paige, babe, did you finish the English essay?" Ember looks over at the blonde girl.

Paige blinks at her. "Yeah, I finished it Thursday."

Ember groans dramatically. "Why do you got to be so damn smart?"

"Didn't you finish it Liam? Why am I the only one getting hate?" Paige looks over at Liam who shrugs.

"I forgot about it."

"Are you serious?" Paige's mouth drops open but she closes it quickly. "You never forget about stuff."

"I've been slacking lately I guess." Liam shrugs. "I did it last night so I'll get it in on time."

Paige nods then turns back to Ember. "Did you finish?"

"Do you even know me?" Ember deadpans.

"So you didn't finish." That causes Paige to roll her eyes.

"Of course not." Ember grins widely. The door opens again and Izzy walks in. "Baby!"

Liam doesn't miss the little fade of pink he sees before Izzy turns her back to them while taking off her shoes. His eyebrows raise.

"Hey!" Javi walks in behind the girl and he kicks his shoes off too.

They both walk into the living room. Izzy walks in and sits down right on Ember's lap. Ember is overjoyed by that, she quickly wraps her arms around Izzy's waist and rests her head on the girl's shoulder. Javi walks over to the couch. Lucas lifts his head up and Javi sits down. As soon as he sits down, Lucas rests his head on Javi's thigh.

"Is your mom not home? I didn't see her car." Javi says, his hand going down to play with Lucas's hair.

"No, she's going out with her 'girlfriends' today." Chris shrugs.

"Damn. Good for her." Izzy mumbles. "I would love a girls night out."

"Dude." Ember gawks up at her. "We can have one. You should've said you wanted one."

Izzy just waves her off. "Next weekend maybe."

"Wow. Glad to see we're still under appreciated." Ian shakes his head like he's disappointed. His hand wraps around to grip Liam's shoulder and he lightly massages the area. "Oh well. We'll just have a boys night in. It'll be cool to finally get some peace and quiet."

"Okay, rude." Ember flips him off.

Liam smiles warmly. He envies the relationship between the two.

While his older sister and he never had any big fights or arguments, they still weren't very close in childhood. They would play games together when they were younger but she was always going around with their dad or attending school events.

When she comes back from college for visits they talk. They only get to have a couple short conversations here and there though. She usually gets dragged to business things with their dad or tea with their mom. Since Liam can't stand either of those things he usually gets left out.

"Is it too early to head down to the lake?" Izzy asks. "Javi's car doesn't have a working AC."

Javi glares at her. "Hey, don't shit on my car like that. It's a great car."

"It's a hand-me-down car from your older brother." Izzy says and gives him a judgemental look.

"Watch your mouth. I love that car."

"Okay, moving away from the argument now please." Lucas speaks. Liam looks over at him to see Javi is still playing with his hair. His eyes are closed and he looks really relaxed.

"I mean, I guess we can head down there if no one objects." Chris shrugs and looks around. No one says anything.

Liam looks over when he feels Ian's gaze. He shrugs at the boy and Ian slowly smiles. "Let's go ahead then."

After Ian stands everyone else follows his lead. Liam tags along. They all get their shoes on and leave the house.

Liam follows the group as they cross the road and go to the woods. They walk down a path they had taken the other day on fourwheelers. Javi is leading the way and about halfway through he breaks off the path and goes left.

They go one or two at a time, navigating through the trees since there isn't a path. Liam follows Ian closely. They reach an old barb wire fence that's coming apart. Ian ducks under one part where the wire stretches up so he won't get scratched. Liam follows his lead.

When he gets on the other side of the fence and starts to stand up he steps on a big rock. It goes sliding and takes him with it, knocking him off balance. Just as he thinks he's about to go tumbling down the rocky hill they're walking down, Ian grips his arm.

"Thanks." Liam mumbles, looking down where all their friends are walking down the hill.

"Yeah. We're almost there so just be careful coming down here." Ian warns, slowly retracting his arm.

Liam nods and begins to follow him again. The trees lessen out and at the end of the hill is a short strip of land before it connects with a long lake. Up the sides of the lake and the field is land, it towers up and is made completely of dirt and rock. Ember was right, this little spot is hidden from the world.

Izzy takes her shirt off first and she's wearing a purple bikini underneath. She takes her shorts off too and runs into the lake. Ember giggles before taking her shirt off too and kicking off her vans. She's just in a black sports bra so she leaves her shorts on.

Paige has her red bikini on under her shirt and keeps her shorts on. She keeps her old converse on too. The boys all just throw their shirts off and run in. Ian smiles at Liam before taking his shirt off and taking his sneakers off.

Liam takes off his shirt and then glances down at his shoes. He's only got three pairs of shoes. Two are dressy shoes and then these. His black old skool vans.

Ian seems to sense Liam's hesitation because he throws his old black and red sneakers over. Liam looks up with wide eyes. Ian just smiles.

"Those shoes are old, you can wear them in the lake. I can swim without shoes." Liam opens his mouth to protest. He'd feel bad if he wore Ian's shoes. However the boy just shakes his head with a smile. "It's fine."

"Um, thank you." Liam smiles and slips his shoes off to pull Ian's on instead. They're about a size too big but they work.

Liam follows after the rest and heads into the lake. The water is muddy and there's rocks under his feet that he slips on sometimes. But, everyone's laughing, him included, and having a good time.

At some point Ember and Izzy climb out. They hold hands and take a walk, trying to scale the wall to the left. They're failing but giggling about it.

Javi walks around the lake, right next to the wall on the right, and finds a big rock. He takes stand on it before diving in. He pops his head back up over the water with a laugh and a cheer.

Lucas swims over towards Liam once Ian goes to try what Javi did. "Hey dude."

Liam smiles. "Hey."

"If they decide to play chicken, you gotta get on someone's shoulders. You're the only one about equal in size to me and I'm kinda sick of losing." That got a laugh out of Liam. Lucas smiles at it. "Yes, ha ha, but I'm serious."

Liam nods. "Okay."

"Okay? Good." Lucas grins wide. He then looks around the pool. "You and Ian have become good friends haven't you?"

"Uh, I guess." Liam shrugs.

Lucas nods. "He's chill. You seem to be too."

That feels like an achievement to Liam. His smile becomes a little bigger and he relaxes his shoulders. Lucas thinks he is chill.

"Anyways, I just came over here to tell you about the chicken game thing." Lucas says.

Liam nods. "Okay."

With that the boy closes his eyes and dunks himself under water. He pops up a few feet away with a smile. Liam is smiling too. This is alright.

"Hey." Ian's arm comes around Liam's shoulder and he leans against Liam's back.

"Hey." Liam smiles.

Ian wraps both arms around Liam's shoulders. "Is this all it takes to get a piggyback ride?"

"Sure." Liam laughs.

He ends up just floating around with Ian on his back. Javi trips him up and he falls in once. He comes back up the same time as Ian and they're both laughing. Ian goes to chase Javi down while Liam continues to just swim around.

"Liam." Ian comes back, laughing. "C'mon, I wanna show you something."

"Uh okay." Liam nods and follows him out of the lake.

"Wait for me!" Lucas swims over and joins them.

Liam looks over his shoulder to see Paige, Javi, and Chris still deep within the lake swimming around each other. He leaves and goes back on the shore with Ian and Lucas.

"We're going to the field, right?" Lucas raises his eyebrows while looking at Ian.

"Yeah. I wanna go up the top of the wall too."

Ian picks up his socks and looks at Liam. Right. Liam slips off the shoes and grabs his own. His socks are wet so he takes them off and puts his vans on without them. He then looks down at his shirt and then at the water trailing down his body.

Ian picks up his shirt and uses it as a towel for his legs. He passes it to Lucas who does the same before handing it to Liam. Liam accepts it and wipes his legs off too.

Ian smiles. "You can go shirtless. I am."

Lucas nods as if to say he is too. Liam would normally pull his shirt on and ignore them because he doesn't like how thin and pale he is but neither of them seem like they care. So, he shrugs.

They begin walking back up the hill. However they split over to the right where the trees are still thin and there isn't very many. They go up a little hill and reach a long, green field. The sun is shining down on them and Liam smiles as he looks around. It's really pretty.

"The deer stand!" Lucas shouts and takes off running forward.

"There's a deer stand up here and you just almost see the lake from the top of it. Then, on the other side you can see the fence which is the end of the property line." Ian explains, grabbing Liam's wrist and lightly tugging him forward before dropping it.

Liam follows them and climbs up the deer stand when they reach it. He really can see to the end of the property line. It's just as pretty as down there was and he feels in awe for a moment.

"After this, we can go for a little hike up the wall. You can see most of the lake." Ian comments.

"Just don't dive in from way up there." Lucas joins in. "We've never tested it but it seems kinda high and the lake isn't that deep."

Liam chuckles and nods. He'd never have the guts to do that anyway.

They go over the top of the wall and when they get over the lake Paige shouts and waves to them. Liam laughs. Ian pretends to shove him off but grabs him quickly before he can actually fall. He and Lucas laugh loudly while Liam tries to calm down his heartbeat.

Eventually, they have to head back. Liam throws his shirt over his head while waiting for Paige, Javi, and Chris to get out of the water. They complain about being wet the whole walk back.

Liam smiles when they get inside. The three that were in the lake the whole time have to wrap towels around themselves and dry off before sitting on any furniture.

Whem they turn on a movie, Liam melts into the couch next to Ian. Paige is on his other side with her legs kicked up on his lap. She's got a towel wrapped around her back even though she's already eighty percent dry.

Overall, when he goes home that evening, he's smiling. It was a good day. Not even his mother scolding him for being gone all day can get to him.

He goes up to his room and showers. He changes and throws his lake clothes into the hamper in his bathroom. He walks back into his room refreshed and sits on his bed.

He has friends other than Ember and Paige. There's no doubt about it after today. The thought makes him grin while he lays down.

He still has go go to family dinner tonight so the happy mood probably won't stay. That doesn't mean he chases it away though. He keeps the smile all the way until he has to walk down to join his parents at the dinner table.

He had a good day.

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The next chapter is when it all really starts.

Love you ♡

- Z