Tryst (noun)

- an appointment to meet at a certain time and place, especially one made somewhat secretly by lovers.

~*~

I stepped even closer, jabbing him in the chest. "Well then, you have no right to be jealous," I said firmly, words laced with virulence. "You have no right." This time my words were shakier and he noticed, concern swimming in his eyes. "You are the one who decided to kiss another girl after I practically spilt my feelings to you -"


"Blondie-"


"My name is Charlie," I cut him off with a glare. "Say it."


Liam shook his head. "No." His words were firm, leaving no room for discussion. I stared at him in exasperation. "You're Blondie to me."


"Well, clearly I'm no one to you since you don't give a shit about my feelings," I snorted humourlessly, tugging at the ends of my hair to keep from decking him in the nose. "But you know what, I'm over it. I was stupid and I've accepted it."


He groaned, running a hand through his hair and messing it up further. He didn't take my bait and it pestered me because I was in the mood for a fight. I wanted to tackle him to the ground, or better yet, use that balls between his legs to do a free-kick. "Look, Blondie. Something happened after you left the party and it made me pissed-"


"So you kissed Laura because you were angry?" I ridiculed, feeling my shoulders sag with exhaustion. He went speechless at that and I scoffed. "Have you ever considered that maybe while you were making out with Laura, I was at home wondering if I maybe pushed you too hard?" 


Liam snarled. "You didn't do anything, Blondie-"


"Don't call me Blondie," I interposed, feeling my heart rate pick up as it always did when he was near. "Call me Charlie."


He overlooked my words and recommenced speaking, backing me into the tree with his arms wrapped around my waist. His touch burned and part of me couldn't help but miss having him this close. But I refused to give in so easily. 


"Something happened that night," he said softer this time, looking down at me with an affectionate expression. There were so many emotions shining in his eyes, vying for dominance. "And I just lost it. Add on the fact that I hurt you and that made me feel ten times worse. I should've gone after you but I just couldn't because I knew I wasn't in the right mindset to speak to you."


I listened to him speak, taking note of how precarious his voice sounded. He must've been referring to the phone call that Nolan mentioned. It had to be something pretty big if it caused him to lose it. I'd witnessed it myself, how Liam repressed his anger and then became neutral - so why didn't he do it this time? Perhaps that could've been the reason why Jeremy described him as a ball of anger this week.


Liam used one hand to slowly tug up his t-shirt, exposing his muscular torso. He used the other hand to guide mine to trace the tattoo inked into the skin by his right rib. Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.


"After I left the party, I was so fucking angry. I showed up to Maya's house bitter and I couldn't even look at you because I knew that I'd hurt you," he muttered, moving my hand from the tattoo to place my palm flat against the bare skin of his chest.

I could feel the rapid beating of his heart as he leaned down, placing his forehead against mine. Unsure of what to do, I stayed still. "Plus I got jealous when I heard that Simon had a crush on you and my fucking anger got the best of me - as it usually does. But the truth is, I didn't kiss that Laura chick. I thought you'd already moved on and I felt like an insecure little bitch. It was stupid of me but I wanted you to feel that jealousy running through me. After I saw your tears - I realised how much I fucked up. I'd rather cut off my leg than see you cry again."

There was a ringing in my ears. The only words dancing along to the tune was the ones where he said he didn't kiss Laura. Sudden humiliation washed over me due to the fact that I wept over nothing. But wait - I did cry over something. He had me believe he kissed Laura so I had a reason to be upset.


My eyes narrowed as I thought back to my phone call with Tammy and why she seemed so jittery - why she wanted me to speak to Liam. "Tammy backed you up-"


"To put Jeremy in his place," he cut me off with a meaningful look. "She had no idea what I was talking about but she just wanted to shut Jeremy up. After you disappeared upstairs Tammy came outside to apologise to me even though everything was my fault."


"You are stupid," I murmured, feeling relief hug me with open arms and he chuckled softly. I sighed softly, closing my eyes and trying to calm down my racing heart. He held me tighter as if he was afraid that I was going to disappear. "You can let me go," I mumbled, afraid to open my eyes and be greeted with the boy who was constantly on my mind. "I promise I won't storm off."

Liam chuckled, the sound causing his chest to vibrate against mine. "That's not what I'm afraid of, Blondie. I'm afraid that if I put enough distance between us - you're going to kick me in the balls."

A snort escaped me and I slowly opened my eyes. "Even if it doesn't happen now, it's going to happen eventually."

"Fair enough," he muttered, pulling me closer. "I deserve it."

How was I supposed to stay angry at him? A lump suddenly formed in my throat. If the Laura situation was handled, that left the obvious hanging between us - what I told him at the party. "Liam," I whispered and he hummed in acknowledgement, pressing his face into the side of his neck and placing small kisses there. "Do you-"


"Yes," he said without even allowing me to finish the question. He pulled back, cupping my face in his hands. "Yes. I do like you. I thought it was fucking obvious," he laughed uneasily. "At the party, you were drunk and I didn't want to take advantage of you like that. I want our first kiss to happen when you're one hundred percent sober."


I stared up at him, allowing a minuscule smile to tug at my lips. "Good." Using my right hand, I found the tattoo again. Liam was a very apathetic person. He wasn't in touch with his emotions and I had to understand that this might not be the last situation like this. I had to be patient with him, just like I'd promised myself in the beginning, but I found myself questioning whether he would ever let me in. "Are you going to tell me what happened at the party after I left?"

He pulled away slightly and I sighed, waiting as he tried to form the words. "I can't."

Thinking back to Nolan and how Sabrina had told him everything, I pouted. Perhaps Liam didn't trust me enough, the thought made my heart squeeze painfully. "You can't? Or you won't?" Liam gazed down at me, sensing my trepidation. He played with the edges of my hair, lips pulling into a frown. "I promised myself that I'd be patient with you but I'm afraid that I'm waiting for something that's never gonna happen, Liam."

He used a hand to cup the side of my face, leaning his forehead against mine again. "Whatever you're thinking about me not trusting you - knock it off, baby." He placed a kiss to my nose and it scrunched in response, eliciting a tiny chuckle from him. "I do trust you. I just, I need to get my shit together first." A long sigh left him. "I wouldn't want to burden you with my problems. But I promise I'll tell you when I'm ready. I hate leaving you in the dark."

That was the response I wanted, telling me that I wasn't waiting for something that wasn't going to come. We were getting somewhere. Raising my hand, I held out my pinky between us. "Pinky promise?"

Liam grinned and hooked his finger around mine. "Pinky promise."


He didn't know that I knew but the phone call clearly had a tremendous impact on him and provoked him to spiral. He didn't allow anyone to get close to him and he surely didn't dump any of his problems on them, so I didn't expect him to just spill what the phone call was about at that moment. I could give him time to open up, but I couldn't wait forever. There's a reason people don't continue watering dead flowers.

But deep down, I knew that Liam's soul was secretly a garden of emotions, needing absolute care in order to let the sun shine on them once again. Instead of probing him further, I said, "I'll wait for you."

~*~


I couldn't wipe the smile off from my face as I sauntered languidly towards the parking lot, hands clasping the sides of my backpack. Things with Liam were finally sorted out. Sure, we had a long way to go and even a blind man could see that he was withholding something. But he promised that he'd tell me when he's ready. He pinky promised and I took that shit seriously.

Suddenly, I was swept off my feet and tossed over a broad shoulder, hacking as it made contact with my tummy. I coughed as the shoulder continuously slammed into me and I realised that the person was running. "Put me down!" I screamed, lifting my head to see that we were getting farther from the parking lot. "Hey!"

Abruptly the person tossed me back onto my feet and I staggered before landing on my ass. My head was spinning and I felt like I was going to retch. I looked up, lifting a hand to shield myself from the sun and saw Jeremy standing with his hands on his hips. "You little shit," I seethed, struggling to stand up and whacking away his hands when he tried to assist me. "Why would you steal me like that?"

He snorted, taking off his jacket and using it to wipe dirt from my ass. "I needed to get you away. I have something to tell you, Charleston." I stilled, brows snapping together in apprehension. He rolled his eyes as he put his jacket back on. "It's a message from Nolan, loser. He was called to your dad's office to discuss something about the team but he needed someone to tell you this asap."

"Tell me what?" I asked gently, jaw going lazy.

Jeremy's blue eyes skittered around, making sure that no one was paying attention to what he was saying. "Look, I don't know what's happening between you and Jillian," he spoke and my skin blanched as it always did when Jillian Rooney was mentioned. "All I know is that we were all nine years old and the best of friends, then suddenly high school happens and we're split."

"Jer," I sighed dejectedly. It was easy to forget that I wasn't the only person who lost a friend. After I befriended Jillian and Maya, I introduced them to my brothers and their friends. I'd known Jeremy just as long as I'd known Nolan - since the age of four when we met at daycare. He's my friend too and when Jillian split, she didn't only hurt me.

He shook his head. "It's alright. Nolan overheard Jillian and Mattia talking. They're saying that you're blackmailing her with pictures of her making out with Caleb. They're calling you a bully. And they're planning on letting the entire school know." My heart dropped.

"No," I murmured. "She's twisting what happened. The only reason I'm blackmailing her is so that she can get rid of her fucked up clique rule." My hands began trembling and Jeremy took them into his own, soothing his thumb over them. I marked that the knuckles on his right hand were bruised and I made a mental note to question him about it later. "This school hates bullies. That means everyone's going to hate me."

Bullies were the reason the rule was invented in the first place so of course, everyone hated anybody that was a bully because if it weren't for them - we wouldn't have the fucking clique rule.

Jeremy pulled me into a hug, resting his chin on my head and arms wrapping around me. "Even if that happens, you've still got us on your side." He squeezed my arms before pulling back and gazing down at me. "We'll always be on your side. But, Charles, those students will only be on Jill's side because they have to be. She's an influential person. She's got followers. But she doesn't have friends."

I looked down to the ground, feeling the familiar lump in my throat. "She walked away from us, Jeremy."

He sent me a sad smile. "And we walked away from her too." Breathing slowly, he continued. "After what happened, we still had each other. You, me, Nolan, Astrid, your brothers, Maya and everyone else. But Jill didn't have anyone."

"She had Mattia," I interjected, thinking of the boy that always hovered around her.

"Fuck Mattia and his nosy ass," Jeremy hissed. "The only reason he hangs around with her is that he wants popularity. He wants to be important." He raised his right fist, showing me the bruised knuckles. "See this? I punched Mattia's nose yesterday."

My brows raised in surprise as I suppressed a laugh, trying to think of some reasons why Jeremy would hit Mattia. "Why?"

He scoffed. "Because he's an asshole. A nosy asshole who used Tammy so that he could snoop around us. The girl was sobbing her eyes out so I went to find Mattia." My heart swelled. This group of friends was a family. We'd do anything for one another. And Jillian didn't have that. She was alone. It explained why I didn't feel like I accomplished my goal.

I was silent for a few seconds and the raven-haired boy spoke again. "This whole thing is the result of a misunderstanding that happened years ago and both you and Jill are too stubborn to sort it out. Just speak to one another."

As much as it distressed me to say it, Jeremy was right. One of us needed to be the bigger person or else our feud would never end. I nodded, taking in a deep breath. "Okay. Talk to Jillian. I can do that."

"Good," he grinned, flicking my forehead. "Knew you had brains in there somewhere."

I snorted and punched his arm although he didn't even recoil. " I know that I'm always telling you that I hate you, but you know I love you, right?"

It was his turn to snort before he kissed the top of my head. "You're a disgusting sap. But I love you too, James Charles." I grinned as I stepped away and turned around, praying that my brothers didn't drive away. "Hey, Charlie?"


I turned around, raising a brow at the tall boy. "Yeah?"

His cheeks turned pink and he looked to the ground. The sight was baffling. First Jeremy gives good advice and now he's blushing? What was happening to the world? "Um. I - um." He ran a hand over his face before asking, "has Astrid said anything about me?"

I gasped, hand flying to my mouth and he crimsoned further. "Oh my gosh! Jeremy!" I exclaimed and he shushed me. "You like Astrid!" He shook his head, glancing around for eavesdroppers. "Holy shit!" I felt like laughing until I couldn't breathe.

"Nevermind," he muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets.

A brash laugh left my lips. "I knew it. Classic boy teasing the girl he likes. I knew it since that day at Tammy's ninth birthday party when you pushed Astrid's face into the cake." I kept laughing hysterically as things finally added up. "You know the way to a woman's heart is not by making her angry, right? You better make your move before she declares you as her nemesis."

"Don't tell the girls," he implored as I remained giggling. "Tams will blab immediately and Maya will tell Franny, Franny will tell Tammy and Tammy will fucking tell everyone."

I giggled again. "Okay, Loverboy. See you later alligator." Without giving him a chance to respond, I dashed in the direction of the parking lot. I had to at least tell someone. Someone who couldn't care less about anyone around them - Christian.