Here Comes the Sun | ✓

Chapter Nineteen - Liam

Chapter Nineteen.

It's hard to deny the awkwardness in the room - especially when Jere goes upstairs to go to sleep. Now it's just Jimmy, Libby, and me. One would think I am slayed with excitement and absolute joy - there is a friggin' girl in the same room as me that's actually here for me - but, really, I'm nervous as hell.

When we had gotten inside after eating at Ben n' Jerry's, I faced the inevitable: Libby had to meet Jimmy.

He had opened the door before I could even get the keys out of my pocket, asking quite scandously how our little outing went. And then, without a word, I stepped aside and Libby came into his view. His pursed lips made her giggle, and he nodded his head slowly, as if judging whether she was hot enough or not. And then, finally, he spoke. "She'll do."

After coming inside we went straight to work, Libby slipping the package of multi-colored balloons out of her back pocket and Jere running into his room to get a notebook with blank pieces of paper for each of us to use.

"The hell are you doing?" Jimmy asked behind them, peeking over their shoulder as they each sat at different sides of the table and tapped their pencils in concentration.

"Shh!" Jere chaschised, and Jimmy glared, scoffing at the five-year-old. I thought about shooing him off to the couch, but he seemed determined to stay and figure out what we're doing.

"I'll tell you later," a soft voice said from across the table. "Right now we have some business to take care of."

Jim laughed. "What, are you suing someone?"

Jere's brows furrowed and he looked up from his paper. "What does "suing" mean?"

Jim smirked. "It's when you get money from stupid people."

Jere nodded, as if understanding completely. Libby hid a smile behind her hand, staring down at her paper as to not make any eye contact. Then, all of a sudden, she looked up and met my eyes with her milky brown ones. Heat rising, I grinned at her and then quickly looked down. I could feel Jimmy looking at me - no, staring at me - from the head of the table, smirking that stupid smirk of his.

Then I'd remembered something: I had to reach deep inside for a secret - a secret that I'm too afraid to tell. Rolling my lips inside my mouth, I wrote down the inevitable, folded it up, and then stuffed it inside a deflated balloon. And when I couldn't take it anymore, I looked to my side and met Jim's know-it-all stare.

"What." It wasn't a question - more like a reprimand.

His mouth curled. "Nothing." He looked away slyly, and Libby stifled a giggle across from me.

My brow jerked. "You read it, didn't you?"

He shrugged, reaching over to the notebook and tearing out a piece of paper himself. "Maybe I did," he said, his voicing portraying innocence. "And maybe I didn't."

I sighed, no longer caring. "Whatever, ya douche."

His eyes widened, feigning shock. "Be careful with your words, Liam," he kid. "Your son's right there."

And that's when it happened.

The secret on my paper was let out, and Libby's eyes were locked on mine. Shock. Sympathy. Pity, Anger. Heartbreak. Betrayal. Aghast. Probably thinking every profanity in the book, all pointing straight towards me.

"Cra-"

"Holy shit," Libby breathed, her hands sliding to the edge of the table and her wooden chair screeching on the tile as she slowly pushed herself farther away from the table. Farther away from me.