Addiction

-- 14 -- Falling --

 The next morning Liam dragged me to the rink at 7:30 for his practice despite my attempts to convince him that we didn't need to leave until that afternoon and not 10 when his practice ended but he insisted we leave after his practice.

"I'm so tired, why did we have to leave so early?" I groaned as we drove out of Aladine.

"Because," he replied, "There's nothing else to do anyway."

"Liam I do not want to spend a solid three days with you and my family," I groaned, "I don't want the 100 questions."

"Then take me around Waterford," he said, "Show me your favorite spots."

"I don't have any," I replied, looking out the window.

"C'mon, you're lying," he smiled.

"I'm not, we moved there at the end of June, I moved out in August," I replied, "I mean, we've spent time in Waterford but not like I grew up there."

"Then take me where you grew up," he said, pulling into a gas station parking lot, "The wheel is yours, take me wherever you want to show me."

"Liam, I don't' think-," I began to say.

"I want to know you Liv, I want to know where you spent your time as a kid, I want to know what your favorite place to be on a Saturday afternoon is, I want to know everything about you," he said, looking me straight in the eye with his piercing green eyes.

It's like he knew I couldn't say no when he looked at me like that.

"Okay," I said, a smile creeping onto my face as we switched places and I took the wheel.

@@@

"My cousin and I used to come here with my grandma all the time," I remarked as we pulled into an old city park in the next town over from Aladine, "We lived three miles from my grandparents growing up and my aunt worked so my cousin and I were always at my grandma's."

"Where's she live now?" he asked.

"Still a block away, on the corner right before the city limits," I replied as we got out of the car and walked into the park, "That was my favorite swing, my cousin Emily and I would always swing here," I said, walking over to the rusty swing set, "When we started going to school, we'd come down here afterwards almost everyday and swing here."

"Do you still see your cousin?" he asked.
"Not really," I said quietly, "She went to college down in Ohio, we both switched schools in middle school and saw less and less of each other as the years went on."

"That sucks," he said.

"Yeah," I said quietly, taking the cold metal chain that held the swing up in my hand.

It was a familiar feeling, the chain was, I can't even begin to estimate how many hours I spent on this very swing with my tiny hands gripped on the chains. It seemed like a lifetime ago, everything that happened before we move and everything changed did.

"Want to see if they still work?" he asked with a smile.

"Yeah," I smiled as he brushed the snow off of the old worn seats that probably had an imprint of my butt on them.

We sat there for a good half an hour before the wind picked up and it began to sleet.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, dragging my feet to stop the swing.

"I think that's our cue to head to the car," he laughed as we jumped off and ran back to his car, "Damn it's freezing all of the sudden."

"Good thing I know a good place for hot chocolate," I smiled as I started the car once again.