Life After Life

•C h a p t e r F o r t y - E i g h t•

The past few months were bliss and they passed by in a blur of exams, papers and studying. Of course, I'd spent most of my time doing that with Liam, or more like I tried to bite back the urge to make out with him every time we tried to hunker down and get work done. Unfortunately, we failed most of the time and may have even gone further than that.

I also studied with Avery — whenever she was up for studying. Sam and Avery had become great friends, bonding through corn dogs and surfing, so it was safe to say that I saw my best friend a little less than before. Only a little since Avery needed her fill of girl time quite often.

On the plus side, I hadn't heard from Hunter since that party. My injuries had also healed completely, and I could finally laugh without being in pain.

Now, we were just a few hours from summer vacation.

Things were smooth sailing between Liam and I, and I couldn't see anything going wrong, ever. We were both determined to end the semester with a 4.0 GPA, or at least close to it. It was a struggle for me, but it seemed so easy to Liam.

I'd asked for help from Liam more times than I'd like to admit, simply because his brain absorbed the information that mine couldn't.

Finals had come and gone and after many sleepless nights, I hoped that my hard work paid off.

Liam and I sat at my kitchen table. It had been a couple weeks since our finals and we waited with baited breath for our final marks. Later, we'd go to the beach to meet up with Avery and Sam.

I hung around my student centre on my laptop, refreshing my page every few minutes even though ideally, the grades wouldn't be in so quickly. Liam on the other hand, was stuffing down a sandwich that I'd made for him when he got to my place.

"I swear Ophelia, you make the best food," he said, swallowing. I grinned, flattered. Then, he cackled, "Not as good as I am though."

Liam had started to teach me how to cook, or at least make some basic meals for when I wasn't going out with my parents to dinners, or when our chef wasn't in. It was helpful, and I didn't have to resort to fast food on those days.

"Please, you think too highly of yourself," I rolled my eyes, even though a smile played on my lips. I stretched out my feet, lightly bringing them into contact with his under the table.

My finger pressed down on the mouse to refresh the page again and my heart skipped a beat, my eyes widening.

"Liam, it's up!" I vigorously tapped on his hand with my own as I scrolled down on my student centre page. My heart hammered against my chest and anxious butterflies swarmed in my stomach as my eyes scanned the web page for my final grade.

"Ophelia, calm down," he chuckled. "It'll still be up a second later." Liam opened his laptop calmly.

A gasp escaped my lips when I finally saw it at the bottom right corner of the page. My final GPA was a 3.98. My final exam grade for the class Liam and I shared was a perfect score.

I squealed, shutting my laptop, beaming like a maniac. I peered up at Liam, "I got a 3.98! How did you do?"

His eyes darted across the screen, swallowing hard. I watched as his brows creased in concentration.

"I'd still love you no matter how bad you did on the final," I teased, a slow smirk spreading over my lips.

He finally met my eyes, an amused eyebrow raised at me, "I got a hundred on the exam and a 4.0 final GPA."

"What the hell?" the smirk immediately wiped off my face and my jaw slackened. "How does one get a 4.0? That's— that's impossible."

He grinned cockily, "Definitely not impossible."