I Never Meant to Fall in Love

3.3

"You know the understudy filled in," Grace told me.
"Who cares."
"Izzy, it's your show. It'll also look good on your resume and stuff, you know?"

I held my books to my chest and walked through the halls with Grace. Nia's whereabouts were unknown.

"I'll show up for the last few things and maybe the performance, I'm not ready now."
"I'm pretty sue you can't do that," she told me with a concerned look on her face.
"Then so be it."

✱✱✱

At the beginning of the rehearsal after school, there was already an unbelievable amount of tension.

Grace had managed to convince me to at least show up to the rehearsal to practice my lines.

As soon as Brooklyn waltzed in I wanted to sprint out of that room as fast as my legs could carry me. However if he were to chase after me, he'd catch up, wrap his arms around me, and scoop me up into his arms. I shook my head to get rid of the thought.

"Izzy, I-"

He looked awkward and uncomfortable as he shifted from side to side and placed his hand behind his head.

"No, Brooklyn."
"Just please," he begged.
"Don't make this any worse than it needs to be. Can we just get through this without any conflicts. Please?" He nodded, "Thank you."

The group of us involved in the play went through the script twice before wrapping things up. Turns out the understudy only filled in temporarily until my return. It wasn't permanent, at least yet. I wasn't sure if I was going to go through with this.

Brooklyn didn't try to make any moves towards talking to me after our small chat at the start. After, I left the drama room to be surprised by who I saw.

He was leaned up against the lockers and came out of his daze when he saw me, "Oh, hey Izzy. I was waiting for you."
"Me? Not Brooklyn?"
"Nah," Liam said.
"So then, what's up?"

Our conversation paused when Brooklyn emerged from the room. He locked eyes with me.

"Hey Brooklyn!" Liam called.

His eyes diverted from me to Liam for one second before he turned the corner and disappeared from our sight.

"Anyway, you want to hang out?"
"With me?"
"Why not?"
"It's just because we never really hang out unless it's all of that."
"Some things change," he smiled.
"Alright, I'll just text my mom and say that I'm going out."
"Are you usually not allowed?" He asked after I told him I needed to tell my mom first.
"No, it's because she'll be happy. Lately I haven't been going out because of... You know. So I wanted to check in."
"Oh ok, that's cool."

We stopped off at my locker first to collect the rest of my things and then we left. He walked down the streets beside me with his hands stuffed into his pockets. Occasionally, he'd take them out to cup them around his mouth and blow into them. It was his attempt at warming his hands up because he didn't have any gloves.

"Are you sure you don't want my gloves?"
He looked up and shook his head, "Nah, it's cool."
"So... Where exactly are we headed?"
"Wherever you want, but we're going in the direction of my house anyways, so why don't we go there?"
"Anywhere warm please," I laughed.

The two of us got to his house right before we both froze. Inside his house was warm and comforting. It wasn't as large as Brooklyn's, but it was still a pretty good size house and it was nice.

"I'll take your coat, you can head upstairs. First room to the left," he told me.

I walked up the stairs to see the hall go both ways. To the right, there were two doors, the second being closer to in front of the staircase. On the left, I saw three doors. I entered the first one like I'd been told.

His room was plain. The walls were painted dark blue and he had a simple bedspread to match. He had his dressed and desk off to the other side of his room and away from his bed which way under the window.

I didn't see his own bathroom or a tv or amazing pieces of furniture in his room. It wasn't as big and spacious as Brooklyn's luxurious room.

"Hey, Liam!" I heard a loud voice yell, "You home? Give me my fucking socks back, I got practice tonight!"

I was sitting on his bed when the door was kicked open and I was startled to see a taller boy. His face fell when he saw me.

"Uh- uh, sorry about that..."
"He's downstairs."
He stuttered for a second, "Ok."

I heard him thump down the stairs and finally get to Liam.

"Liam, what the fuck?! There's a girl in your room!"

I laughed as I heard them argue about socks. Finally, Liam made it upstairs.

"Sorry, that's my older brother."
"No worries," I laughed.

After we heard the door slam shut, the house was pretty quiet. There were no noises asides from our voices.

"It's so silent," I whispered during a gap in the conversation.
He looked up at me, "That's a first."
"Is anyone else home?"
"Not right now. But man, you should see the three of us all together, it's like a bomb went off."
"Three?"
"Yeah, my two older brothers and I."
"Wow... It's only me at home with my mom and grandma."
"Guessing it's all good there, right?"
"No! Are you kidding?! My grandma is always being so loud and disruptive, it's horrible."

He stared at me with a blank face before I punched him in the arm.

"I'm just joking, it's maybe a bit too quiet at home."

His face still didn't change.

"Liam? Are you ok?"

His eyes met mine as I bit my lip. He was awfully still and didn't react to anything I had said.

I looked away because I didn't like the eye contact. I felt his hand brush up against and cup my face. Now I looked back at him, but his eyes were closed. Liam exhaled before moving in and placing his lips on mine.

His lips were soft and he let them linger a little longer before finally pulling back. He looked shocked and kind of shrugged his shoulders.

"I-" he stuttered, "Sorry, it's just- I really wanted to do that... For a long time now."

Without thought, I went back and kissed him. This time, I let it last longer than before.

"Don't apologize..." I said.