Life After Life

•C h a p t e r T h i r t y - S i x•

I stepped out of Liam's car, shutting the door behind me. Yesterday, there was a quiz in the one class Liam and I shared and we had no time to say as much as one word to each other.

For some reason, the sun was extra bright this morning, warming my skin and causing the car door handle to burn. The lot was already almost full.

It was now the middle of the week, and Liam had surprised me with a ride to school. By surprise, I meant that he honked his horn at me while I was still getting ready. I slipped out just before my mom had noticed who was in the car on our driveway.

I'd also narrowly escaped my mom's interrogation after our date since I sprinted up to my room before she even noticed I'd returned.

"So, what do we tell Avery and Sam?" I asked, glancing over at Liam as he shut his door. We hadn't talked about where we stood yet, or whether we were together or not. I was dying to have that conversation and I could tell Liam was itching to as well.

"Maybe nothing for now?" he answered, though it sounded more like a question. I nodded in agreement, my eyes meeting his over the top of his car. He grinned, "We will once I ask you to be my girlfriend."

Immediately, my cheeks heated up from his words — or more so after hearing that magical word.

"You're confident that I'd say yes," I muffled my laugh.

"Well of course," he scoffed, a cocky grin on his lips as he approached me. I only rolled my eyes in response.

"So, if you drove me to school, is it implied that you'll pick me up too?" I asked, smirking as we headed towards the school.

Liam glanced over at me, an eyebrow raised, "Well, yeah."

"Oh, so this was just a trick to get me alone with you?" I grinned, teasingly.

"I can get you alone in many other ways," he said mischievously, his eyes glistening. I rolled my eyes again, even though a smile played on my lips.

Liam slipped his hand over mine and instinctively, I curled my fingers to clasp over his hand. My heart skipped a beat from the contact and I bit back a smile. I didn't want to seem like a creep in the halls.

We walked down the hall together, weaving around other students who were all rushing off to their classes. I glanced around, not even surprised to see a few napping on the benches leaning against the wall.

My eyes landed on Avery, who was jogging towards us from across the hall. She was grinning from ear to ear, her backpack smacking against her back as an a ran.

"Is-is that Avery?" Liam asked, his eyes narrowing slightly as he stared down the hall at my best friend.

"Yes," I said, releasing Liam's hand. I stuffed them into the pocket of my jeans and Liam did the same. Within seconds, Avery was in front of us.

"You can't hide that Thalia, I saw that," she wheezed, pointing at our hands that were once intertwined. She was breathing heavily, winded from her short run.

"Well, in that case..." Liam reached over, clasping his hand over mine again, raising it to be level with Avery's eyes.

"Liam!" I snapped my head in his direction, scandalized. He shot me a sheepish smile. What we'd talked about had lasted a good two minutes.

Avery's eyes bulged out of their sockets, her lips spreading out into an even larger grin than before.

"O-kay!" I piped up before Avery could say anything. I turned to Liam, "I'll meet you in class, Avery and I will go get coffee. Want anything?"