Addiction

-- 17 -- Feeling's Mutual --

The night we got back from Waterford, I stayed with Liam because Nikki wasn't coming back until Sunday night and I didn't want to be home alone, especially when not a lot of people were back to campus yet. Just when I had been okay with the answer they'd given us a few weeks ago about the attempted break-in I got jumped walking home from Liam's. They'd pinned both incidents, both that had been one of a handful over the semester, on a few members of the JV football team that were from a nasty neighborhood in Miami that brought their gang shit up to Michigan with them. They were all academically ineligible with or without final exam scores so they kicked them out of school. I still wasn't completely cool with being home alone even if they'd kicked the assholes out of school but I was more than okay with spending almost every night with Liam by my side.

"How come you didn't tell me that Friday was your birthday?" Liam asked me as we laid in bed late that night.

"I don't know," I replied, "Didn't think it was a big deal."

"Well it is," he laughed.

"When's your birthday?" I asked.

"May," he replied.

"May what?" I asked.

"May 2nd," he replied.

"Good to know," I grinned, "Why's your favorite color blue?"
"What?" he asked his face, a confused look on his face.

"You told me your favorite color was blue, you just never told me why," I replied, "The first night we hung out."

"Well that isn't my favorite color anymore," he remarked after a minute.

"Then what is?" I asked.

"Right now it's brown," he said, "because I'm pretty sure your eyes are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"That's honest to God the sweetest thing that anyone's ever said to me," I said, a huge smile creeping onto my face.

"Was it really?" he laughed.

"It was," I replied, scooting closer to him and resting my head on his chest, "Even if it was cheesy as all hell."

"Oh come on," he laughed.

"But I said it was sweet," I beamed.

"This is very quickly becoming my favorite thing to do," he remarked after a minute, my head on his chest and his fingers running through my wet hair.

"Mine too," I sighed, "Liam."

"Yeah?" he asked.

"You know how you said you love me?" I asked, "And I didn't believe you?"
"Yeah," he sighed.

"I believe you now," I said.

"Good," he said with a half hearted laugh.

"The feeling's mutual," I remarked.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" he asked.

"Not quite," I replied, "I need some time to think about it."

"Okay," he sighed.

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"So what are we doing for your birthday?" Liam asked on Wednesday as we ate lunch together in the dining hall.

"Nothing," I groaned, "My family is coming to take me to dinner after the game. That's enough for me."

"You should get a tattoo," he remarked.

"What?" I laughed.

"You showed me that one you wanted to get with the laces a few weeks ago," he remarked.