Boys Becoming Men - 3. Chapter 3

Paul was running deep in the woods. The winds were strong, whipping the tree branches about, almost ripping them apart. He looked above to see raindrops slowly descending to meet the earth, some landing on him.

Wiping away the moisture on his face, he looked ahead and kept running. Yet he was unsure of what he was running away from.

He suddenly tripped on a tree branch. Raising his arms and closing his eyes, he fell to the ground hard.

It didn't hurt.

He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on a mattress. In the middle of nowhere. How very strange, he wondered.

He cast his eyes around.

It was then he noticed a figure moving away from him deeper into the woods. It was a familiar figure, someone he knew. Someone he felt very strongly for. Yet he couldn't place who it was exactly. Then he realized he wasn't running away from anything… he was, in fact, running towards something. Someone. Chasing someone. Urgently. Before they slipped away from him. Just before the figure completely disappeared, it turned around and faced him.

It was Liam.

There was a sudden loud bang, and Paul woke up with a start.

***

"Paul, get up! We need to move!" Liam said with urgency, shaking Paul awake. The ceiling of his room had begun to leak, and he suspected the roof had been damaged by whatever the wind brought smashing into it a few minutes ago.

Paul woke up groggily and wiped the wetness from his face. His eyes adjusted, and he looked up to see spots in the ceiling dripping with water, some directly onto him. Shaking the sleep away, he got up swiftly.

They flipped the bed and moved it to a corner of the room and placed buckets that Liam had brought up from the kitchen under the areas where the water was dripping.

The other adjacent rooms had also taken on water, and they worked efficiently to move around furniture to place more buckets.

"There's a chance the ceiling might cave in if the roof is badly damaged. The ceiling could collapse if the water becomes too heavy, so let's hope it's not as bad as I think," Liam said while surveying the rest of the landing for more leaks. "In any case, we should move downstairs."

Armed with flashlights, they lugged two of the mattresses downstairs and placed them side by side in the living room. Liam shivered visibly. Not only was he freezing, but he could feel the beginnings of hunger pangs.

"Here, wrap this around you," Paul said throwing him a thick duvet he brought down with him.

"Thanks."

Paul lit a few candles and placed them nearby, then hopped onto one of the mattresses.

"You feeling hungry? I'm starved," Liam asked sheepishly, only realizing that Paul also hadn't eaten anything since they arrived.

"Yeah man, I could eat a horse right about now."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Liam asked without waiting for a reply. He was on his feet and headed for the kitchen. He came back a minute later with a heap of junk food as well as Coke and Sprite. He flopped down next to Paul and smiled.

"So how about a Dorito sandwich?" Liam asked.

"Don't need to ask me twice!"

They ate in silence, listening intently to the storm outside. They were both well aware that with the storm upon them, their situation could take a nasty turn. The house creaked precariously as it took a battering from the strong winds.

Liam studied Paul from the corner of his eye. He was still coming to terms with the fact that, in the space of a few short hours, he had fallen deeply in love with this guy sitting next to him. It seemed silly considering he'd only met him a handful of hours earlier. But it didn't change the fact that he was irrevocably smitten.

He noticed how Paul's mouth tensed while chewing, emphasizing his strong jaw. He felt his heart give an involuntary flutter. He knew exactly why… the way Paul's jaw tensed, it was so masculine, and so downright sexy, he was fighting for control of his senses that wanted nothing more than for him to lean over and kiss Paul. Or in the least touch him.

Paul suddenly looked at him and smiled. "Look at us! Isn't this romantic?"

Liam froze. "What do you mean?" he barely managed to ask. His throat felt suddenly dry. What Paul said caught him off guard, and he painfully swallowed his half chewed food.

"Just that we're sitting here having a candle lit dinner. And even better, we're having it together in bed!" Paul said humorously. "Who said there wasn't a silver lining with being holed up in a house with a stranger, in the middle of nowhere, with a storm raging outside?"

Liam couldn't help the school girl giggle that welled up within him. He fell backwards onto the bed, his giggles slowly turning into hysterical laughter.

"Okay, I know it was a joke, but it wasn't that funny…" Paul said perplexed, yet beginning to laugh himself. "Or maybe I'm more funnier than I give myself credit for."

But this only made Liam laugh even more. He realized the full irony of the situation. Here he was crushing on Paul, and accepting the fact that there was probably not going to be any reciprocity in his feelings, yet Paul had to crack a joke about the two of them having a romantic dinner. Together. In bed. He was yet again painfully reminded of the reality that they'd be holed up together ALONE in the next few days. How he'd be able to manage to keep his hands away from Paul, he didn't know.

His laughter eventually subsided, and he sat up wiping a stray tear from his eye.

Paul smiled and playfully punched him on the shoulder. "You know what, Liam? You're okay."

***

Exactly three weeks had passed since the storm passed. It had caused widespread damage as predicted, yet his home only suffered minor cosmetic damage, for which Liam was extremely grateful to the cosmos for.

Life seemed to have gone back to normal in the extremely short period of three weeks. It was hard for Liam to imagine that only a few weeks earlier the town was almost unrecognizable from the destruction. And now everything was almost fixed, and the town had gone back to looking almost exactly the same as it did before. Except maybe newer looking.

But something was bothering Liam. Something he had tried for three long weeks to forget. Those three days he spent being holed up with Paul were exceptionally magical, yet all they did was just hang out and talk. And laugh. A lot.

But he had to go and ruin it. On the third day when the storm began to subside, when he had become so unbearably smitten he couldn’t help himself, he decided to do something extremely stupid.

He kissed Paul.

Paul was in the middle of a sentence when something took over his body, and he leaned over and kissed him.

And Paul didn’t respond.

Liam cringed remembering how Paul stood up silently, grabbed his belongings, and left while it was still pouring outside. He tried to apologize profusely but Paul just shook his head and kept walking away. And he knew a lost cause when he saw one. So he stopped and watched Paul disappear into the cold pouring rain.

There was brisk knock on his door and he was brought back to the present.

“Son? It’s seven thirty a.m, come down for breakfast,” his mother said attempting to hide the worry in her voice. Her son was usually up at six a.m. every day without fail to do chores. Mrs. Miller was very much aware of the change in her son the moment she returned. She could tell he was preoccupied with something, something that bothered him a lot. And as the days wore on, the more obvious it became.

“Yeah mom, I’ll be out in a minute,” Liam replied quietly. He spent the last few hours just lying in bed once again thinking about the events of three weeks earlier. Sleep had evaded him during the night. In fact, it had evaded him since he last saw Paul. Three long weeks had passed, but it felt like only yesterday when he had tried to kiss him. And what made him feel even more aggravated was that, despite feeling remorseful for ruining what would’ve turned out to be a great friendship, he wasn’t exactly regretful for the actual kiss. Feeling his lips connect with Paul’s was pure magic. His stomach felt like it was doing flips just thinking about it.

He closed his eyes and recalled the brief few seconds of his lips on Paul’s. They were as juicy as he had imagined. Pliable and soft. Dreamy.

But Paul didn’t respond, he told himself. He didn’t. You should be ashamed of yourself.

_­He pushed the thought out of his mind, and got up to get ready. He didn’t go through his usual routine of doing chores. He thought he’d be early to school for once. He skipped breakfast and harassed his sisters to hurry up so he could give them a lift.

“We’re mighty early, aren’t we?” his younger sister, Liz, complained.

His other sister, Mary, who was up extra early thought otherwise. “It’s nice for a change, we’re always late. Plus once we’re there we can catch up with friends, I haven’t seen quite a few of mine since before the storm.”

“R-iiiight, you just can’t wait to see Jesse, huh? It’s obviously why you were up extra early. Excited much?” Liz teased.

Mary blushed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said glibly. Jesse was one of Liam’s best friends whom Mary had been ‘secretly’ crushing on. But it wasn’t a very well kept secret. Anyone who ever saw Mary whenever Jesse was around could easily tell how love-struck she was.

“Don’t lie now, you looooove him, don’t you? You want to get married and have babies with him, don’t you?” Liz continued relentlessly.

“Oh, shut up. If you continue on like that, I’d almost think it was YOU who wants to have babies with Jesse!” Mary snapped back.

“Ooookay ladies, let’s put a lid on it, shall we? Jesse’s my friend. Hearing a debate on which of my sisters will have his babies doesn’t make for appealing conversation,” Liam smoothly cut in.

Liz turned her attention to her brother. She paused thoughtfully before she spoke. “You’re different somehow. You’ve become a bit of a spoil sport, you know that?”

“Spoil sport? Are you from last century? Nobody says that anymore.”

“Now you’re just trying to change the subject.”

Mary jumped in too. “Yeah, Liz is right, you’re different somehow. Are you in love?”

Liam almost swerved into oncoming traffic. He looked over to his sisters and was met by their steely gazes. Sometimes he forgot how intuitive they were.

“On second thoughts, why don’t you girls go back to talking about Jesse? You can both have his babies, I’m sure he won’t mind.”

Thinking of Jesse, he realized how he didn’t once think about him in the last few weeks. He guiltily realized that Jesse had left him messages on his mobile that totally slipped his mind to return.

Their jeep pulled into the semi full parking lot, and they were just climbing out when a Red Lexus pulled into a few parking spots over.

Liam froze in horror.

Out hopped none other than the incarnation of his dreams. The person whom had taken up permanent residence in his brain. And the exact person whom he had hoped not to run into anytime soon. The cosmos could be so good to him, yet be so cruel at the same time.

Paul swung out of his car with ease looking every bit like a movie star on a mission. His expression was neutral and hidden behind dark shades. His hair was mussed up, almost as if he didn’t fix it when he woke up, yet it looked so unbelievably hot that Liam’s mouth started to water involuntarily. He was casually wearing tight fitting jeans that accentuated his powerful legs and round firm buttocks. His t-shirt was loose fitting, but left no mistake that he was powerfully built underneath.

“Oh my God, I’m having his babies!” Liz squealed enthusiastically as soon as she caught sight of Paul.

Mary turned around and caught sight of him too and was rendered speechless. She had never seen such a fine specimen of a man before and she begrudgingly admitted to herself that even Jesse, the boy she’d been obsessing over since forever, didn’t come close to looking THAT good.

“Isn’t he such a hunk?” Liz said turning to Mary looking for confirmation she didn’t really need.

Mary pushed her glasses higher up the bridge of her nose. “Yes, he’s good looking… but he isn’t all that,” she replied back dismissively. Have some loyalty to Jesse, she told herself. “Do you think he’s new?”

“What a dumb question! Of course he’s new! You don’t see a guy like that walk the halls of our school and NOT take notice. Besides, if he wasn’t new, I’D be dating him. Duh.” Liz said with an air of emphatic confidence.

They both turned to Liam to hear his input only to find that he was back in the jeep.

They momentarily forgot about the mysterious new boy.

“You okay?” Mary asked.

“I’m, uh, fine… You girls go on ahead, I just need to sit for a minute.” Liam fumbled for nothing in particular in his bag, hunched down low in the hopes of not being noticed.

“See? Something’s up with you,” Mary said with concern.

“No, trust me, I’m fine. I just forgot something I needed to do today… just need to sit here for a minute and try and remember what that something is. I think I wrote it in a notebook,” he answered lamely.

“In THAT case,” Liz said grabbing Mary’s hand, “Let’s go introduce ourselves before the vultures descend on Mr. Sex on legs.”

“You know you’re one of those vultures, right?” Mary replied yet allowing herself to be pulled along. She couldn’t help but be curious of the new boy. She wasn’t going to cheat on Jesse, no. She just wanted to have a look. And looking wasn’t cheating, right?

It was a full minute later that she realized how silly her rationale was. She only spoke to Jesse a handful of times, and most of them were passing “Hello’s” and “See you later’s”. “Meh”, she said aloud. Mere details.

Liam was still hunched low on his seat when someone snuck up on him and landed a solid punch on his shoulder.

“OW!” Liam howled.

“There you are!” Jesse said sliding into the vacant seat next to him. “Serves you right! Why didn’t you reply to my messages, punk? Found a new best friend?”

“Bastard, that hurt,” Liam replied rubbing his shoulder.

“You sound like a pussy. And you haven’t answered my question. Why haven’t you replied back to a brother’s messages?”

“I’ve been a bit busy,” he replied.

“Okay whatever. So how’ve you been?”

This was one of the things about Jesse that Liam was especially fond of. His ability to not hold grudges. “And why are we in your jeep? Are we skipping first day of school?” Jesse asked getting excited.

“You wish… No, I was, uh, just looking for something I dropped. In my jeep, I mean.”

“Need help?”

“That’s okay, just found it.”

“Then let’s get a move on!” Jesse said hopping out. Liam followed suit.

He cautiously followed Jesse into the main entrance of St. James High. He was very careful to scan the halls looking for a hint of a Grecian God, but he was thankfully nowhere in sight. But his high school wasn’t exactly big, and sooner or later he’d run into him.

Was he enrolling for school? He wondered. He couldn’t make up his mind whether that was a good thing after all. He couldn’t imagine how he’d deal with the awkwardness of having someone around whom he tried to come on to, and failed. Miserably.

They plopped themselves next to their crowd of friends in the cafeteria and he began to relax. He realized how he missed this weird bunch of people and also realized how they missed him too when he became inundated by demands of his whereabouts during the past three weeks. Unlike Jesse, most of them were unforgiving and also demanded he make time to hang with them or “be hanged”.

The bell finally rang signaling first period, and he still hadn’t seen Paul. He was unashamedly relieved. Maybe he didn’t enroll after all.

He walked into Chemistry and found himself a seat. His teacher, Mr. Finch, strode in not long after with a cup of steaming hot coffee in hand. He dropped his suitcase on his desk and turned to his class.

“Morning folks, good to have you back,” he said in a voice that suggested otherwise.

“Morning Mr. Finch,” the class responded in unison.

He was about to continue when there was a tentative knock on the door.

“Come in!” Mr. Finch called out.

For the second time that morning, Liam froze in horror.

In walked Paul, and he swore he could hear an audible intake of breath, especially from the girls in his class. He, like everyone else in the room, couldn’t take their eyes off this Grecian God.

Paul took off his shades and a broad smile crossed his face. He reached out a hand to Mr. Finch, and Mr. Finch took it reluctantly.

“Aaah yes, Mr. Kennedy, we’ve been expecting you. Why don’t you introduce yourself?”

Paul turned to the class looking like a deer caught in headlights. His warm baritone voice flooded the room. “Hi, I’m Paul. Uh, not much to say… I’m from New York, been here for a few months. Thought I’d give high school a go. Heard great things about St. James High so looking forward to… well, looking forward to meeting you all.”

Liam could hear the excited chatter amongst his classmates, and some who were asking curiously about why the new student had moved from New York to come to a small town. Some were asking about why it took him so long to enroll for school.

“Settle down, settle down,” Mr. Finch said over the chatter. He turned to Paul, “Why don’t you take a seat? Right over there next to Mr. Miller.”

Liam could feel the blood rush to his face. He didn’t know how to react. He didn’t know how to respond. He wished for the floor to open up and swallow him. He looked up to the cosmos and cursed under his breath.

Recognition crossed Paul’s face, and Liam was taken aback when he smiled at him. He didn’t expect that. He expected repulsion.

Paul slid into the seat next to him and turned around with a proffered hand. His smile was warm and genuine. It left Liam feeling extremely confused.

He slowly took the proffered hand. A warm tingling feeling made its way up his arm and spread to the rest of his body.

“Great to see you again, Liam, hope you’ve been keeping well.” Liam couldn’t help but notice the raised eyebrows from his classmates. Everyone was surprised to find that Liam seemed to know who this stranger was, and some girls had already planned to corner him at some stage that day to ask him questions about what he knew.

Uh… yes, it’s great to see you too,” he replied unsteadily. And with that, Paul pulled out his brand new textbook followed by a notebook and pencil, and looked expectantly ahead to Mr. Finch who had just launched into his prepared lecture.

Liam wasn’t sure how to process what just happened. Truth be told, he was expecting something dramatic when coming face to face with Paul again.

Is that Paul’s plan? To pretend that nothing happened? Ignore him? He wasn’t sure if he should be feeling relieved. He wasn’t a very confrontational person, but he knew that confrontations were better sometimes to resolve awkward situations. And this was one of those awkward situations. While he preferred to not have to talk to Paul about what happened, at the same time, he acknowledged that if he was going to be seeing a lot of Paul for the rest of the year, it was probably wise to sit down and have that talk.

But even so, what the hell are you going to say? He asked himself agitatedly. ‘Uh, sorry man, I momentarily fell asleep with my eyes wide open and fell forward, which resulted in our lips touching for a few seconds.’ Riiight. Or how about, ‘Your lips looked so beautiful, and so feminine, I momentarily forgot you were a guy.’ Or you could say you were actually drunk because you had something to drink earlier that day, he told himself.

He didn’t realize that he began to doze off until someone shook him awake.

“Liam? Wake up buddy.” He opened his eyes to see those familiar chocolate brown eyes peering down at him. The ones that had been dominating his dreams the past few weeks. He felt his heart beat a little bit harder.

He sat up and rubbed his face awake. The class was quickly filing out, with the exception of a few girls who, if he wasn’t mistaken, were slowly packing and eyeing Paul. They were probably looking for an opportune moment to introduce themselves, and walk him to his next class.

“You okay?” Paul asked quietly.

“I’m okay, just been feeling tired lately.” The sleepless nights had finally started to catch up with him, and he saw the irony in having the source of his sleeplessness ask him if he was okay.

“Umm… what’s your next class? Need me to walk you there?”

Another disarming and broad smile crossed Paul’s face. “Yes, I’d appreciate that. I’ve got Geography next, followed by History.”

“You’ve got Mrs. Higgins for Geography and Mr. Tepper for History,” he said leading Paul down the hallway. He looked around to make sure nobody was in hearing distance before he spoke. This was a mission since everyone was paying them close attention.

“Listen…” he whispered.

Before he could go any further, Paul stopped him. “Hey, it’s okay. Let’s just forget about it. I think its best.”

Liam was once again taken aback. But he wasn’t in a position to argue.

“… okay, I think so too. But let me just say I’m sorry, it was a big mistake. I don’t know what came over me –”

“No seriously, it’s okay. Let’s just forget it, ‘kay?”

They soon arrived outside Mrs. Higgins’s classroom, and Liam once again noticed the attention Paul was getting, and by extension, him for just standing next to Paul.

He stood awkwardly unsure of what to say.

“I’ll see you later?” Paul ventured.

“Yeah, sure thing man,” he replied.

His next two classes were a blur since all he could think about was Paul. That disarming smile was too damn… disarming! Three girls actually plucked up the courage to come ask him about Paul, and how he knew him. He gave a vague reply about running into him at the shelter during the storm. They left looking dissatisfied. They were obviously wanting to hear something more substantial.

Jesse found him leaving class for lunch and the first thing he asked was, “So what’s the deal with this new guy everyone seems to be talking about? I heard a few girls call him ‘sex on legs’.” Liam was sure that it was Liz’s doing.

“Yeah, he was in my first period.”

“Well?”

“Well, what?” Liam asked while they lined up to grab food in the cafeteria.

“Well, is he sex on legs as I’m lead to believe?”

“He’s good looking, yes, if that’s what you’re asking,” he replied matter-of-factly.

“But how good looking is he? On a scale of one to me?”

“You being the ugliest and one being the sexiest?” Liam asked with feigned innocence.

“Ha ha, very clever. Now answer the question!” Jesse demanded.

“Why are you even interested anyway?”

“Why am I interested? I’m the best looking human being to ever walk these halls, and I don’t like competition.”

“God, Jesse, your humility is awe inspiring,” Liam responded, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “It’s hard for me to take you seriously sometimes. Have you ever heard some of the stuff that comes out of your mouth?”

They slid into their usual seats at the cafeteria. “Yeah, but with a face like this, I can get away with just about anything I say,” Jesse countered pointing to his face.

Liam shook his head and was just about to take a bite of his sandwich when he was slapped in the back of the head. He turned around to see Liz sliding into the empty seat next to him.

“Why the hell is everyone so physical today?” Liam demanded rubbing the back of his head.

Liz ignored him. “Why didn’t you tell me you knew Paul? For some reason when I introduced myself earlier this morning, he seemed to know who I was and said he was a friend of yours!” She continued to glower at him. “You don’t befriend such sexy people and not tell me!” She then suddenly gave Liam a hug. “And on that note, thanks for telling him about me. The groundwork for his seduction has been laid,” she crooned.

“Your ability to deeply disturb me continuously amazes me,” Liam said with exaggerated horror on his face.

“Who’s Paul?” Jesse cut in. “Is he the new guy?”

“He’s sex on legs is who he is!” Liz answered excitedly. “I’m going to have his babies and live happily ever after! And it’s going to be easy peasy since him and Liam are BFFs!”

It was Jesse’s turn to glower at Liam. “So you know Paul, huh? I KNEW IT! You’ve replaced me! He’s your new best friend, eh?” He said feigning extreme hurt while holding his heart.

“Dude, I don’t even know the guy. I met him once in passing, he remembered my name and I remembered his.” His lie didn’t sound believable even to himself.

“Doubtful. He seems to think you two are pretty good friends,” Liz interjected. “Okay, I want all the deets! Where did you meet him? What’s his background? He MUST be rich! Did you see his red Lexus he came in this morning?” She rattled on asking questions and not giving Liam any opportunity to answer.

A few minutes later his usual crowd of friends filled the table and was abuzz with talk about the handsome new guy. It wasn’t often they got new students, let alone students who looked like they just stepped off the cover of a GQ magazine.

One of them painfully nudged him in the stomach making him drop his sandwich once again. “Look! That’s him!”

He looked up to see Paul hovering at the entrance with his tray of food looking unsure of where to sit. There was a notable decrease in chatter as everyone seemed to have noticed the Grecian God. But no sooner had Liam spotted him when one of the prettiest blondes in their senior class, Katie, walked up and introduced herself to Paul. He watched as she captivated his attention, and from where he was sitting, he could hear her throaty laughter carry across the room at something Paul must’ve said. He suddenly felt a spasm of intense jealousy. And he wasn’t the only one.

“Uh, what a S-L-U-T!” Liz spat venomously. “Look at her, throwing herself all over him. Someone needs to direct her to the nearest GP for an STD test. At the rate she’s going, she must be riddled with them.”

Their table roared with laughter, but Liam wasn’t amused. “That wasn’t very nice.”

“Who cares? It’s true. Plus she’s sinking her claws into MY future husband!” She exclaimed dramatically. Liam couldn’t help but crack a smile.

It was then when Paul’s eyes connected with Liam’s and a broad smile crossed his face almost as if he was exactly the person whom he was looking for. He deftly disentangled himself from Katie and made his way across the cafeteria. Liam could see the flash of disappointment on Katie’s face, one which quickly disappeared as she flounced back to her table populated by her self-proclaimed popular crowd.

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God… he’s heading here, everybody act cool.” Liz whispered to nobody in particular while smoothing stray strands of hair from her face. Everyone seemed to now have their eyes on Paul, curious as to where he was going to sit.

“Hey Liam, how’s it going?” Paul said smiling brightly as he arrived at their table.

“Good man, how was your first day? Wanna have a sit?” Liam replied trying to control the bubble of excitement welling up within him. He turned to Liz and indicated for her to move over a seat.

“Not bad, not bad at all. Mr. Tepper was a bit of a grouch, but otherwise, not bad at all,” Paul replied while gratefully replacing Liz’s seat. Everyone at the table was quiet while they studied the new addition to their spot.

Liam did quick introductions. “Everyone, this is Paul. Paul… this is everyone.”

“We have names, you know?” Liz complained.

Liam apologized. “My bad. This is Jesse, Ricardo, Jacques, Sherryl, Nora and –”

“And you can call me Gorgeous!” Liz interjected playfully, while trailing perfectly manicured nails over Paul’s bicep. “Ooooh, VERY nice,” she said approvingly feeling the muscles on his arm.

“Don’t mind her, she’s a bit of a man-eater,” Jesse apologized to Paul before turning to Liz. “Perhaps you should also take your advice and visit your GP.”

Liz rolled her eyes yet withdrew from touching Paul. “You wound me. Why can’t you get over the fact that I won’t sleep with you? No need to take your anger at still being a virgin out on me.”

“Oh, burn!” Sherryl said while the table broke out in laughter.

Jesse turned to the group, “I don’t know why ya’ll laughing, you’re all virgins too, bitches!”

“Speak for yourself, buddy, I ain’t no virgin,” said Jacques trying to suppress his laughter.

Liz turned to Jacques, “Your left hand doesn’t count.” Another round of laughter broke out.

Liam leaned in and whispered in Paul’s ear, “I’m not friends with these people, I swear.” Paul chuckled. He turned to his sister, “Liz? Don’t you have your own friends to annoy?”

“Why, when I can annoy you guys instead?” she replied without skipping a beat. Liam gave her the evils. She sighed and got up to leave. “You guys are no fun,” she said before she stalked off. She turned around after a few steps and held up a phone gesture to her ear before mouthing to Paul, “Call me.”

Liam turned to Paul. “She’s very… free spirited,” he tried to explain, “I hope you don’t mind, but she’ll be stalking you indefinitely.”

“I’ll… bear that in mind.”

The idea of one of his sisters actively seeking out a guy whom he’d been crushing on was a tad bit worrying. He hoped it was just a phase, like all the other guys, one that she’ll eventually get over.

Everyone then suddenly launched into asking Paul questions, and he sat there looking overwhelmed unsure of which to answer first. After some extensive interrogation, Liam finally cut in and told everyone to give it a rest. Paul looked relieved.

And just like that, he had become the newest member of their group.

Unknown to everybody at their table, across the cafeteria, Katie had paid close attention to them and had earlier eyed Liz all over Paul. It angered her so much that she bled from digging her nails into the palm of her hands.

She wanted Paul. He was hers, even if he didn’t know it yet. She was not used to not immediately getting what she wanted. And she always got what she wanted. There will be retribution to pay, she vowed, looking at Liz and her friends.

She could also tell that it’d be difficult to get Paul to leave that group of weirdos, but he was already too important to her to let that continue. She could never understand why two gorgeous boys like Liam and Jesse could ever hang out with a group of losers. But no matter, she didn’t care about Liam and Jesse, at least not anymore. She had her eyes set on Paul. And she needed a plan.

Being the self-appointed Queen Bee of St. James High, she wasn’t too happy to see someone so valuable to her cause of self-promotion choose not to hang out with her and her crowd. And she was further displeased that someone like Liz, a sophomore, would even DARE talk to Paul when she had obviously laid her claim to him when they spoke earlier in the cafeteria for everybody to see. It was one of the cardinal rules of girlhood; she didn’t need to spell it out. And Liz broke that rule. Her eyes glinted maliciously as she turned to the girls at her table. “Ladies, who’s up for some fun?”

Liam was oblivious to the plotting occurring across the cafeteria. For the first time in three weeks, he felt a load off his chest. He didn’t expect much to happen on the first day back to school, yet it was fast turning into one of the highlights of his senior year. He looked at everybody at the table and smiled. This is how he’ll always remember high school, hanging with this group of admittedly eccentric yet awesome people. And now they had a new addition. He looked over to Paul, and was reminded once again why he had fallen for him. But this time, he promised himself he wasn’t going to mess it up. Even if it killed him inside.