I know everything about you

I don't wanna live without you

Chapter 28 ~ I'm Only Me When I'm With You

Max Caldwell

I hardly slept the weeks following the car accident.

It wasn't because I was traumatized; in fact, I don't really remember much about the accident aside from the fact that it happened. It wasn't because I was battling insomnia or anything, because I'm sure I had the power to get a full night's rest of sleep. It was because I had spent most of my nights wrapped in Liam's arms, talking about anything that came to our minds.

It was perfect, really. His parents approved of us and my dad agreed to tolerate us, so we were allowed to spend as much time together as we wanted. Sometimes, I would spend the night at his place or he would spend the night at mine. Whatever the case, it was nice to have him around and it was nice to know he loved me as much as I loved him. We did almost everything together. I could tell him anything and know it would be safe with him.

For the first time, I truly understood what it felt like to be in a relationship. It was everything I had imagined, and more.

So when I ran into my house with a beige envelope pressed tightly against my chest, I expected Liam to be just as excited as I was about the news. I nearly ran into him and he caught me in an effort to keep us both from tackling to the floor. "Whoa, there," he chuckled softly. "Where you speedin' to?"

I couldn't contain my excitement, not with the exciting news sitting at the top of my tongue. "Guess what!"

"What?" He asked with a comical grin.

I showed him the address printed on the envelope and squealed, "I got in!"

Liam's brow furrowed in confusion and his bottom lip stuck out in a slight pout. "Got in what?"

"The art summer camp!" I exclaimed as I allowed the giddiness to take over my body. Carefully removing the fancy, printed, congratulations letter from its safe place inside the envelope, I held it up for him to read and squealed a little bit more. I wanted to do more than just squeal, but the frown slowly making its way onto Liam's face stopped me from doing so. "What?" I questioned. "What is it?"

He shoved his hands into his front pockets and pulled a non-committed half smile. When he finally spoke, he was slow and reluctant with his answer, "Well, are you gonna go?"

"Of course I'm going to go," I said with a slight scoff. I didn't even think about how my words must've affected him until his a look of concern flashed over his face. "Liam, I've been dreaming about this school since forever. I-I have to go."

No matter how hard I tried, Liam just didn't seem to reciprocate my excitement. He only stared back at me with expressionless turquoise eyes. "You'll be gone for the whole summer," he pointed out as though the thought hadn't crossed my mind before. "I won't see you."

"But you can call me," I tagged on quickly, before he could get discouraged. I took a step closer to him and twisted my hands into his shirt, pulling him closer to me, "and text me and send me pictures."

He raked a lazy hand through his spiky hair, and sighed. "It's not the same."

I understood where Liam was coming from. After all, he had just gotten himself to move on from Scotty, if even in the slightest, just so he could fully commit himself to me. Now that he had, I was going to leave him alone for a few months. But there wasn't much I could say or do to console him. I had been dreaming about art camp way before I met Liam and it would be stupid of me to pass up the opportunity just because I loved my boyfriend too much.

I grabbed Liam's hand and wiggled my fingers between his, gently pulling him to the couch. He had a bit of trouble because the cast on his leg didn't allow much movement, but he finally managed to plop onto the edge of the couch beside me.

"I have to go, Liam," I said softly as I brushed my thumbs over his knuckles.

He nodded. "I know, it's just-I don't want you to go. I won't have anyone to talk to or anyone beautiful to look at."

I pulled my lips into a smile. "You have your parents and your brother."

"Owen is never around," he stated like it was a fact. I didn't know much about him other than he was Liam's half-brother and he was an apparent pothead who didn't like hospitals. As much as I wanted Liam to have someone to confide in while I was gone, I certainly didn't want it to be Owen.

"There's always Trey," I added, just for the hell of it.

Liam's face hardened. "You're kidding."

I broke into full-on laughter at the thought of Liam and Trey hanging out as friends, but Liam was obviously not getting the humor. He kept staring at me with those sad eyes, which made me instantly feel horrible for laughing.

"The only friends I've ever had were Scotty and Marcy, but Marcy..." He broke eye contact and looked away, "...She killed him."

I clutched onto his hands a little tighter. "Come on, Liam, we don't know that."

"Then what do we know?" He retaliated in a slightly bitter tone of voice. "We know that Scotty would have never killed himself, we know that means he was murdered, and we know that Marcy has anxiety-which is something she never told me before. She killed him, Max. She killed..." He couldn't finish his sentence because she broke down into tears.

I chewed on my bottom lip and wrapped my arms around him, not knowing what else to do or say.

"And now ... now you're leaving and I-" He choked on his words.

"Liam," I rubbed his back in small circles, "art has always been something that's important to me. I don't want to leave you alone. I wish I could take you with me ... but I'm still going."

He wiped away his tears with the back of his hand and sniffed, reluctantly bringing his turquoise eyes back to me. "I'm sorry," he said softly, so soft that it was barely inaudible. "When are you leaving?"

"A week," I said, short. It pained me to know that I only had one more week with Liam until I went away for two months.

"A week," he repeated as his eyes flashed with disbelief. "Then we must do as much as we can in that week."

I smiled at him. "Your cast kinda prevents you from doing that."

He shrugged. "Fuck my cast. I'm gonna take you to the most expensive restaurant in town and I'm gonna buy you tons of gifts." His lips stretched into a smug grin. "I'm gonna be the best boyfriend ever for this week."

I couldn't help myself from smiling like a little kid. "You're already the best boyfriend ever." Reaching out to cup his face in my hands, I planted a quick kiss on his soft lips. It didn't take him long to let his guard down and melt into the kiss.

Moments later, we found ourselves in a heated make out session as I snakes my arms around Liam's neck and tugged him closer to me. His hands fell to my waist, carefully placed to steady himself, and I adjusted my body position so that he wouldn't have to move too much. As we kissed passionately, the thought of sex entered my mind. It was something I thought about all the time now.

I knew Liam was the one and I wanted to give my everything to him, but so couldn't just ask him to have sex. It had to happen naturally and that obviously wasn't going to happen while his leg was still wrapped in a cast.

"Ahem," the sound of my dad clearing his throat made us pull away from each other. He was standing the foyer with a skeptical eyebrow raised and his toned arms folded against his chest.

"Oh, um ... sorry, uh, Dad," I apologized quickly.

Liam cleared his throat as well and straightened his posture. "Good morning, Mr. Caldwell ... I was just heading out."

"Were you?" He questioned with a hard stare.

"Yes, I was," Liam affirmed as he snatched his crutches from the end of the sofa and used them to stand to his feet. He flashed me a brief smile before hopping over to the front door, brushing past my father on the way. Before he left, he glanced over his shoulder at me. "I'll see you later, Max."

I nodded. "Yeah, see you later."

He tipped his head in gratitude at my father and exited the house. As soon as the door closed, I flicked my attention to the man who created me. "That's called being a cock block," I pointed out in an obviously bitter tone.

He tilted his head to the side at my comment, then wrinkled his nose in disgust. "I don't want him touching you inappropriately."

I smiled. "Too late for that." He snapped his dark eyes to me, but before he could reply, I raised my hands in mock surrender. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding!"

He looked at me a little longer than necessary, but he finally let go of a heavy sigh before saying, "Anyway, someone's on the phone for you. Says it's urgent." He retrieved the landline from behind his back and waved it in the air before tossing it to me. "Make it quick. Your mom wants to go out to eat for lunch."

I watched as he swayed out of sight and shook my head in disbelief. It came to my attention that it was going to take a very long time for my father to be okay with my gay relationship with Liam; however, that didn't mean I was going to respect all of my father's rules when it came to him. If I wanted to suck Liam's dick, then I would suck Liam's dick and my dad wasn't going to stop me.

With a sigh, I pressed the phone to my ear and said, "Hello?"

The voice on the other end belonged to a female, one I didn't recognize. "Is this Max Caldwell?"

"Yes..." I drew out. "Who's this?"

"Marcy," the girl responded with an oddly optimistic tone of voice. "I heard about what happened and I saw it fitting that I tell you how much I truly hate you. It's bad enough that you took Liam away from me, but you had to hurt him, too?"

"Um?" I couldn't fully process what she said, because I was still trying to wrap my mind around how she could have possibly gotten my number. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't," she scoffed obnoxiously. "Whatever, what's done is done. I'd watch my back if I were you, Max. No one gets in the way of my relationship with Liam without suffering the consequences."

My jaw fell open at that. "W-what? What does t-that mean?"

"It means that you shouldn't expect to be with him any longer," she spat bluntly. The line went dead only seconds after her final statement, leaving me in shock and awe.

I knew nothing about this Marcy girl, other than she used to be a good friend of Liam and Scotty. I hadn't wanted to believe she actually murdered Scotty, because the idea seemed too far-fetched, but there was one thing I knew for certain.

I was scared out of my mind.

**

a/n: Ahhh, I finally updated. It's short, I know, but an update is better than no update. I suffered severe neglect with this story because I didn't know what to write and that's probably because it's ending soon and I'm too attached to let the story go just yet. But all good things must come to an end and I'm more than excited for BTR and Breakable.

So what are your thoughts on Marcy? Even after all this, I still really like her haha. On a side note, do you think Max and Liam will ever seal the deal? (cough, do the frickle frackle, cough)

If you liked this chapter, please give it a vote and a comment. Again, I apologize for being away from this story for so long but I do plan on getting it done sometime soon.

Until next time,
Lara <3