After Dark

Fifteen

Liam pulls into the driveway and parks the car. He grabs his bag and gets out. He walks up to the front door of Chris's house and feels the nerves set in.

He'll be okay. He has to remind himself. He goes up the steps and knocks his knuckles against the door.

No one answers the door. Instead, he hears a familiar voice shout. "Come in!"

He opens the door and takes a step in. Chris, Ember, and Ian are already there. Nobody else is though.

"Hey!" Ember smiles widely at him from her seat on the chair. Chris is sitting in the chair next to her, the one Paige had sat in last time Liam was here.

"Hey." Liam smiles and takes his shoes off. This place is only vaguely familiar to him but he feels okay.

"You're wearing the shirt I got you!" Ember exclaims.

"Heh. Yeah." Liam nods once. He was dressed in black basketball shoes and a green shirt. The shirt has three cartoon sunflowers on it.

When he starts to walk into the living room, Ian pats the spot next to him on the sofa. Without a word Liam walks over and sits there. Ian's arm lays loosely around the back of the sofa behind Liam.

"You doing okay?" Ember asks suddenly. She's looking at Liam with a serious look, which is rare for her. "You look tired."

Liam sends her a smile and is surprised with how genuine it feels. "Yeah. I forgot about the English essay due tomorrow so I had to stay up last night to finish it."

"Oh." Ember starts nodding. "Yeah, I've just accepted that I'm never gonna finish that. The lady can fail me."

"This is why all our teachers hate you." Liam rolls his eyes. Next to him, Ian chuckles.

The door swings open then. Paige and Lucas walk in quietly. Paige catches Liam's eyes and smiles.

"You're already here, hey."

"Hey." Liam smiles.

"Izzy and Javi the only ones we're waiting on?" Lucas sits on the couch and stretches his legs out.

"Yep." Ian nods.

Paige glances at Lucas's legs and goes to sit on the other side of the couch. She stretches her legs out too.

"Paige, babe, did you finish the English essay?" Ember looks over at the blonde girl.

Paige blinks at her. "Yeah, I finished it Thursday."

Ember groans dramatically. "Why do you got to be so damn smart?"

"Didn't you finish it Liam? Why am I the only one getting hate?" Paige looks over at Liam who shrugs.

"I forgot about it."

"Are you serious?" Paige's mouth drops open but she closes it quickly. "You never forget about stuff."

"I've been slacking lately I guess." Liam shrugs. "I did it last night so I'll get it in on time."

Paige nods then turns back to Ember. "Did you finish?"

"Do you even know me?" Ember deadpans.

"So you didn't finish." That causes Paige to roll her eyes.

"Of course not." Ember grins widely. The door opens again and Izzy walks in. "Baby!"

Liam doesn't miss the little fade of pink he sees before Izzy turns her back to them while taking off her shoes. His eyebrows raise.

"Hey!" Javi walks in behind the girl and he kicks his shoes off too.