The Way We Learned to Love ✓

25 - lily

may 2018 : 2 years and 4 months ago

Lily rang his doorbell at 10 a.m. and restlessly shifted her weight back and forth from the balls of her feet to her heels as she awaited an answer. She undoubtedly looked a little odd showing up unannounced, clinging to the plastic cupcake container she picked up from Publix on the way here. She didn't have the courage to do this a couple of days ago, but after last night all of her other problems now felt disproportionately small. So when Izzy texted her late last night while she was still bawling her eyes out about Henry and let her know what today was, she decided to come here. She craved the comfort she knew she could find in the new familiarity of his presence.

She braced herself for the possibility of one of his parents answering the door. She had yet to meet his dad and her singular encounter with his mom was under less than ideal circumstances, but surely she could ask for a minute of his attention even if he was busy. He had asked to see her this weekend, after all.

When the door swung open, Jo was the one behind it. Phew. She smiled when she saw the vanilla cupcake in Lily's hand.

"Hi, um, is Liam here?"

"I haven't seen him yet. He might still be asleep." Jo let Lily step inside and closed the door behind them. "Do you know where his room is?"

Lily shook her head perhaps a little too fervently. She wasn't trying to give Jo any more ideas about the two of them.

"All the way upstairs and it's the door on the right."

She hadn't considered that she might need to wake him up. She hadn't really pegged him as the type to sleep in, although she supposed the occasion warranted it. But she wasn't sure what to do if she knocked and he didn't answer; she wasn't about to just go in his room while he was asleep.

She made her way upstairs as instructed and knocked, holding her breath for a few seconds before she got a response.

"Yeah?" Liam's voice asked sleepily from somewhere on the other side of the door.

Oops. She definitely just woke him up and she felt a little bad about it, but there was no undoing it at this point. "Hi, um-"

"Lily?" He sounded much more awake now.

"Yeah." She felt heat rising to her cheeks. "Sorry, I-"

"No, it's cool," he said hurriedly. "Just, uh, give me a minute."

"I'll, um, wait downstairs." She figured it was a better alternative to awkwardly lurking outside his bedroom.

As she walked back down to the kitchen, she noticed that there was still no sign of his parents. It brought their conversation from that night she accidentally fell asleep over here back to the forefront of her mind. He mentioned then that he never knew when they were going to be home, but she was still a little perplexed by their absence. It was possible that they were around here somewhere, but Lily presumed that her ringing the doorbell would have gotten their attention if that were the case.

She climbed onto one of the kitchen barstools and Jo offered to make her some coffee while they waited on Liam. She gratefully accepted; with how foggy her brain still was from all the crying she did last night, she needed the caffeine boost. Just as Jo was setting two Pinterest-worthy lattes on the counter, one for Lily and one for Liam, he came bounding down the stairs and into the kitchen.

She couldn't help but think that he looked adorable after scrambling to get ready at the last second - his white shirt and jeans were for some reason paired with Christmas socks even though it was May and his hair was still a bit rumpled from sleep. He thanked Jo for the coffee as she gave him a quick hug, but his eyes locked onto the cupcake sitting in front of Lily the second he walked into the room. She watched as the surprised expression on his face morphed after a short moment into a small, almost bashful smile.