Chapter 32 ~ Liam

“C’mon, Brit, go for it!” I try for the fifth time that night. It’s hopeless, Brit refuses to move, she’s way too comfortable on the sofa next to Andy who doesn’t stop laughing at my attempts to make her do some exercise.

When I can’t take Brit for a run, Darcy helps me, but today she had a lot of things to do as her mum is coming back, reason for which she is extremely happy, which makes me happy as well. It’s like a domino’s effect. Anyways, the thing is that Brit hasn’t gone out today and she needs to do some exercise, but if Andy is petting her, she’s not moving. I know her too well already.

“You’re not helping, mate,” I tell one of my best friends and he keeps laughing as he rubs Brit behind the ears.

“I’m not trying to help,” he mocks me and I give up, sitting on the floor. “Plus, she’s fine here. If one day she doesn’t do some exercise it won’t be the end.”

I sigh. He’s right, I just wanted to play with her a bit too. I’ve been out the whole day, just got home a few minutes ago with Andy that was whining because I’m too busy now and we never hang out. He reproaches me that if I have a wee free time, I spend that with Darcy and that I’ve forgotten about my other mates.

He’s just a drama queen.

“Yeah, you’re right. Still, you’re a dick for sabotaging my attempts to make her move.” He only laughs. “What do you wanna do?”

“There’s a party this weekend. You should totally come, considering as you missed the Halloween party,” he states offhandedly and I roll my eyes.

“Well, I wasn’t exactly up for a party on Halloween, you know, being in the hospital and everything,” I snap and he chuckles. “Anyways, I think it would be nice. I haven’t gone out in a long time.”

“Yeah! And you’re doing great so this would be an excellent reward. And you can even take Darcy with you!” He adds and I raise my eyebrows, even more interested now. I know that if Darcy is with me in the party, I won’t feel bad for everyone drinking like there’s no tomorrow. With my body still adjusting to the medication and the new diet, I have to be considerate to my liver.

“Great. I’ll ask her tomo–” I’m cut off when the bells rings. I frown as I’m not expecting company this late. It’s raining cats and dogs outside and I don’t think the lads are there. God knows how much they hate getting wet in the rain.

I jump to my feet as Brit stirs next to Liam when, raising her nose and sniffing. I wonder if she recognises who’s at the door. Ignoring that, I walk over to the door to see who’s actually there and I can’t hide my surprise when I see Darcy in front of me, soaking wet and with red eyes, breathing heavily as if she just ran here, but she couldn’t. Her home is far away from mine.

“Darcy!” I call out taking her hand to drag her inside. She’s dead cold and she’s shaking, her eyes lost in the nothingness. I shake her a bit as I close the door. “What happened, babe? You okay?” I inquire but she still hasn’t reacted. “Darcy!” I shout her name and only then she blinks up at me, finally taking notice of where she is.

“Liam?”

“Darcy?” Andy asks in the same moment that my girlfriend says my name. “What’s happening?” He asks and I hear Brit running towards where I’m standing with Darcy, still taking her by the shoulders. My dog whines and that makes Darcy fully come back from the trance she was lost in.

“I– I didn’t– I– I didn’t know where to go. I–” She mumbles, confusing me.

“Uh… I think I better leave. I think you have some things to talk about. See you soon, mate. Bye, Darcy,” Andy says walking past us, and soon Darcy and I are along with the only company of Brit at our feet.

“Darcy, what happened?” I ask her again. “Wait, you need to take off those clothes first. Come along,” I instruct passing my arm over her shoulders and making her walk with me.

She is so cold and she can’t stop shivering. I rub my hands over her arms to give her some warmth as I lead her to my room. Quickly, I look for a towel, a pair of trousers and a hoodie and lead her to the toilet so she can take a shower and get off those wet clothes.

“Here, take a shower and then change into this. I don’t want you to catch a cold. I’ll be waiting outside,” I tell her and she nods, her lips are getting purple and I can’t keep wondering if she walked from her house to my place.

I leave her alone in the toilet and wait outside, passing around the room, trying to think of what may have happened, but I can’t figure out. It has to do with her mum, there’s no other choice. Why else would she be here instead of with her family? Maybe something happened. Maybe something happened to Lizzie!

Panic takes over my body and I start hyperventilating, until Darcy opens the door and walks into the room wearing my clothes. In any other circumstance, I would’ve got very distracted at the sigh of my girlfriend in my clothes, but I’m so worried I can’t have those kind of thoughts right now.

“Darcy,” I call her in a whisper and before I can say something else, she lets her wet clothes she’s carrying in her arms hit the floor and runs towards me, throwing her arms around my neck. I hug her back immediately, tightly wrapping my arms around her waist. “Shh, it’s okay. I’m here with you.”

She doesn’t say anything and for a while I only hold her. I hear her soft sobs and it’s breaking my heart not knowing what’s happening, what has caused this. I can’t bear seeing her this sad and miserable.

After what it seems forever, she finally says something. “I don’t wanna leave, Liam. I– I like in here.”

“Then you can stay the night. Don’t worry,” I tell her soothingly. I really don’t mind if she stays here, though I don’t understand why she wouldn’t prefer to stay in her home with her mum now that she’s back.

“I don’t mean that,” she clarifies pulling back a bit, just enough to look me in the eyes. “I don’t wanna leave London, Liam.”

My furrow my brown, trying to understand why she is saying this but I can’t come up with an explanation and she must see my confusion because she closes her eye sand sigh deeply.

“You remember I told you about Mum’s new job, right?” She mentions and I nod. “Well, that new job is not here in London as I thought first.”

I blink a couple of times letting her words sink. Not London. That means she’s moving, that means she’s going farther away from me. She is like this because she doesn’t want to move, because she likes living in this city.

“It’s okay, you’ll be fine. You’ll be with your mum and you can always visit us back. I know for sure I’ll go to see you every time I get a chance. No matter where city you’re in,” I tell her with a smile.

She’s helped me a lot, now it’s my turn. I won’t make things harder for her. If she has to go, I’ll help her as much as I can. I won’t stop her, I know we can make it work no matter where she is. I believe we can have a long-distance relationship. Also, it’s not like I’m here all the time either. Though I don’t think she doesn’t want to leave only for me. She has Carter as well and he is here all the time. He has always been.

“You don’t get it,” she adds, her eyes getting teary again. “It’s not just any other city, Liam. It’s another country. Another continent.”

I feel my own heart stopping when I hear her. Other continent? Where is she going? How far?

“Mum got her dreamt job in Chile, South America,” she replies to those questions I didn’t utter.

Chile. We went there for our world tour, extremely loud crowd, nice people. That’s all I remember.

“And she’s taking us with her because this time she can. She’ll be a professor in one of the best universities of the country, plus, a leading role in a research project about earthquakes and volcanoes. She told me the country is the place for any geologist, but… but I don’t know anything about the country, Liam. I don’t even speak Spanish!” She cries out and I’m not sure of what to say, I’m still in shock.

I pull her closer again, hugging her even tighter as if I can’t prevent her from going away with that. Chile. That’s so far away. It’s not like I can go and visit her every weekend. To get there takes many, many hours. It’s not just another city, I have to cross the whole Atlantic Ocean to get there!

I force myself to calm down, if I start hyperventilating again that won’t help Darcy and I know this is hard for her, I can tell by the way she holds on to me for dear life.

“I don’t wanna leave, not now that I– that I started to live, you know. Not now that I found you. I’m really happy here with you, the lads, the girls… I don’t wanna say goodbye! I was even thinking of starting Uni!” Darcy cries out and I hug her tightly.

I don’t want her to leave either, but it’s her mother. It’s Lizzie. She can’t be apart from her little sister.

“But I can’t keep my mum from following her dream. She’s always wanted this and now she has the chance,” my girlfriend carries on as if she could listen to my train of thoughts. “And I can’t stay behind either. Lizzie needs to be with Mum, this is her chance to have a normal life, and I can’t stay away rom her. I need them, Liam. But I need you as well!”

I hug her so tightly I may even hurt her, but she doesn’t complain, she just hugs me back with the same strength. I really don’t want her to leave so far away. If she does, I may get to see her every few months. Maybe once a year only! How… how can a bear that? I love her and it’s already difficult with my busy schedule. What would happen if, atop of that, she is in another country so far away from me? How are we going to manage to find the time to be together?

But I can’t keep her away from her family. I can’t be that selfish, not with the most selfless girl I’ve ever met. She doesn’t deserve that and even if it’s hard, I have to do what’s best for her.

“You should go,” I whisper and she pulls back to look at me surprised. “You need to be with your family. You haven’t had your mum with you for so many years and we both know Lizzie needs her as well. I’m not gonna lie, I hate that it’s so far away, but this is a huge opportunity for your mum and for you all as a family.” I stop for a second, just to take a deep breath before carrying on. Darcy still looks surprised. “We’ll be fine. We can video-call every night, no matter the time difference. I’ll fly to see you every chance I get. I can even get a private jet just to make things easier!” I add and that makes her giggle, though I’m being serious. If that’s what it takes, I will do it. “We can make it work, of that I’m sure. It doesn’t matter if you’re in another planet, we can make it work.”

She looks at me for a couple of seconds and I see the change in her eyes, the relief and confidence that my words have brought upon her. Finally, she smiles heart-warmingly at me. She raises one of her hands and cups my face softly, her eyes shining now so differently.

“I love you, Liam,” she whispers right before she stands on her tiptoes and kisses me, not giving me the chance to answer to that.

-:-:-:-

Due to those over 1k votes, here you have an early update.  And aww, Darcy told him she loves him! aren't they cute? And I know, things seems really dark now but, trust me, I'll always give my characters a happy ending. No matter how sombre it looks by the moment.

Dedication to @AbbiLDaic and @JessicaBurton6 because today is their birthday!

Bel, xx