Say Hello For Me

t h i r t y - t h r e e || study date

Dedicated to @hyrule because Gabby is fabulous and Once Upon a Bathroom Stall is cracking me up. And thank you to everyone for #19 in short story!

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A soft knock on the door pulls Nessa out of the nap that's taken away most of her afternoon. The night is starting to fall outside her bedroom window, the sun tucking itself behind the horizon underneath the navy sky. She stumbles to the door in sweatpants and a t-shirt that she's had since eighth grade.

Liam's leaning against the doorframe with a black backpack swung over one shoulder when she turns the doorknob. His eyes light up when he sees her, a curve finding its way onto his lips. Even though she's wearing mismatched socks and her curly hair is a frazzled mess in all the wrong ways, he still thinks she looks perfect.

"Did you forget about our study session?" Liam chuckles, his grin growing wider.

"No, you're just early," Nessa responds, folding her arms across her chest subconsciously.

"I made sure I wasn't late this time," he says, the words carrying more weight than any scale in the world could ever measure.

Liam follows Nessa into her apartment, his eyes scanning the photographs and paintings plastered onto the wall. Most of them are monochromatic, a single glance not enough to recognize the depth of each image. As they walk through the living room, she picks up the lone paintbrush sitting on the coffee table, cleaning up her art supplies as she sees them. It's then that he remembers she's an artist. He probably should've guessed it from the paint splatters on the folds of her t-shirt anyways.

"We can study here, I guess," she says, not having come up with a concrete plan beforehand. "I'll bring my stuff out here."

When Nessa comes back lugging her mostly untouched textbook and partially blank notebook, she sees Liam situated on the floor with a binder the size of a mountain sitting on his lap. The rings are physically incapable of holding anymore paper.

"What is that?" Nessa asks, sitting down on the couch behind him. She points at the binder.

Liam twists his neck around, his blue eyes meeting her brown ones. "My notes from calculus a couple years ago."

"And we're supposed to get through all of that tonight?" Nessa can't help but furrow her eyebrows at the amount of material.

Liam nods affirmatively.

"Hell no."

"Why the hell not?" Liam asks as he pulls maroon lanyard off his neck, his keys dangling from the end. It matches the color of the sweatshirt he's wearing, a black t-shirt poking out from underneath the cotton hoodie.

Nessa rolls her eyes, smacking the couch cushion with the palm of her hand. "Of course you drive a Volvo."

"How did you know?" Liam speaks too soon, his eyes falling to the lanyard twisted around his fingers only seconds after the question has left his mouth. "Oh, the keys. Wait—what's wrong with driving a Volvo?"

"Nothing. I mean just who do you think you are, Liam? Edward Cullen perhaps? Are you going to suddenly show me your lightning speed?"

"If I had lightning speed, I'd rather be the Flash."

"But the Flash doesn't drive a Volvo."

"You're meaner in person, did you know that?"

"So I've been told."

Liam laughs through a crooked smile, amusement resonating in his vocal chords. Nessa opens up a notebook in front of her face, but behind the pages, she's smiling, too.

For the first half of the night, the air circulating in the room they occupy is light and easy. Liam teaches Nessa engineering shortcuts to solving problems, bringing down long and complicated questions to a single and simple expression or equation. For once, she thinks she understands math as it is. It's not long before he's sitting there watching her go through the entire packet by herself.

"We're matching," Liam says over the sound of the clock ticking in the background.

Nessa glances up from the textbook page, her eyes following the path of Liam's finger. He's pointing at her old pair of white Vans behind the couch.

"You were at the party on Greek Row." It sounds more like a question than a statement.

"Which party? There's practically one every night."

"Gamma Phi Beta's Annual Night Under the Stars."

"You got that from looking at a pair of shoes?"

By now, his laugh is a familiar sound to her ears. "Most girls don't wear Vans to those kind of parties. Those Vans were the reason I almost talked to you that night."

Almost.

"Do you ever wonder what would've happened if we had run into each other that night? Would that have changed things? Do you ever think about it?"

"No," she lies, forcing the word from the back of her throat. She can't bring herself to meet his burning gaze.

"Well, I think about it all the time now, Nessa. I really miss—"

"Please don't finish that sentence," she pleads because she doesn't know how much longer she can keep her heart together without having it fall to pieces before her eyes.

And the thing is she knows that Liam would be there to pick up all the pieces, but she can't allow that to happen.

"I really miss us," he continues anyways, realizing that he's driving the dagger deeper into his own heart and hers. "I really miss talking to you."

"We just spent the whole night talking, Liam."

"This isn't the same, and you know that."