This Is Our Love Story

6: "Let Me Help"

"L-Liam?" I stutter, my face starting to bead with sweat. I watch as his soft lips leave my rough wrist. A shiver runs around my body like a dog chasing a cat. My eyes widen when Liam looks up slowly. He stares into my eyes and I feel my blood start to boil inside. "A-are you done?" I grumble and look away. Liam shakes his head and still holds onto my wrist. 

"Let me help you." He whispers. I furrow my brows and look back at him. 

"What do you mean by 'let me help you'?" I inquire with an edge to my voice. Liam sits up straight and runs his thumb over my cuts. 

"I mean exactly what I said. Let me help you learn to love yourself as much as I- Marcus and your family, and friends love you." Liam smiles gently. I tilt my head. Why did he stutter over his words? I shake my head and try to forget about it. 

"That's sweet, but do you think I haven't tried that before?" I chuckle darkly. Liam smirks and leans in. 

"Yeah, but you haven't tried it my way." He raises a brow and then winks. I furrow my brows and glance away from him. 

"What... what do you mean?" I ask. Liam smiles brightly and squeezes my hand. 

"Say 20 nice things about yourself or we won't get any ice cream and I'm not driving you and Marcus to school tomorrow." Liam blurts. His face goes blank and my eyes go wide. 

"What?"

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Kat: You guys have been gone for a long time. What are you two doing? Having kinky sex at the ice cream stand?

I groan and toss my phone behind me. "I guess I have nice eyes." I raise my brows as I roll my eyes. 

"You guess?" Liam prods. I blink rapidly and sigh. 

"I have such beautiful eyes." I raise my hands and shake them. Liam smiles and nods. 

"You're eyes really are gorgeous. I'm sure they express a lot of emotions of all different types. I'd like to see if that's really true." Liam leans in with a devious smirk. 

"Back up you flirt." I huff. Liam sighs and puts the back of his hand to his brow. 

"And here I was trying to compliment the beautiful maiden princess." He closes his eyes and grimaces. "I am deeply wounded by her rude comment." He whines. I roll my eyes and press my lips into a thin line. 

"Good, maybe you'll leave me alone." I pause. "How many do I have left to go?" Liam opens his eyes slowly and tilts his head with a smirk. 

"12 more to go princess." My eyes go wide and I look away from him. Jeez! Why'd he have to flirt so much!? Can't we just have a regular conversation without him teasing me! He freaking called me princess! That's a shit move and he knows it! What the hell dude! Gah!

"I'm an extraordinary person." I mumble. 

"You got that right. I bet you're amazing at a lot of things." Liam smiles at me again. It's that smile he only uses around people he knows. A growing warmth in my heart builds up. That must make me... special. 

"I'm special to a lot of people." I tilt my head and smile. Man... this was working. I felt a lot better already.

"Yes, but only a few out of that lot actually matter." Liam laughs through gritted teeth. I can't help but notice that he's really close to me. He's also got his arm up on the back of the seats, his hand fiddling with my hair. I turn away from that very... very... make me blush situation and look at Liam. His gaze is trained in on me and somehow I know he knows that I know that he's playing with my hair. Did I even know? Wait... what? I decide to go in for the kill.

"And my lips, they're so full and luscious." I breathe. Liam's eyes that were once looking into mine drop down for a split second before meeting mine again. "I'm pretty sure I'd be good at kissing." I roll my eyes and smirk. 

"Yeah." He whispers. That seems to be all he can manage to get out. I chuckle and decide that it's my turn to tease Liam. He's had the upper hand all this time, but now it's my time. I reach my hand out and place it on his knee. He tenses and this makes me feel slightly uncomfortable. 

Your touch made him do that. He doesn't like you. Obviously, he's just being a friend. Get over yourself.

I'm about to retract my hand, but before I can Liam stops it. He tangles our fingers together for what feels like the millionth time today. For some reason, I feel like this isn't something best friends do on a normal basis. "W-what are you doing?"

Liam glances down and then back up. He has a sheepish look on his face. "I don't know? Keeping you from running away?" I quirk a brow and then look away. 

"O-okay." Just let go of my hand already. You're making this harder than it has to be. 

"You still have 9 more things." Liam blurts. I raise my eyes to his and then stick my tongue out. 

"Gimme ice cream and maybe I'll finish." I narrow my eyes and squeeze his hand. He sighs and then smirks. He yanks me in close to his body. 

"Only if you promise that we'll do this every Sunday until you realize how perfect you are." Liam gives me the smolder and I almost melt. 

"As long as you let me bring my 12 cats when I'm 34." I raise a brow, but Liam shakes his head. 

"Hopefully you'll be ma-" He pauses and backs away from me a little. His face turns from confident to the shy little boy who hides behind his mom's leg. "Married." He quickly says. I shrug. 

"Probably not. No one wants to pro-"

"If you say one mean thing about yourself I'm going to make you say 20 more nice things." Liam's eyes go dark and I instantly shut up. 

"Yes, sir! Now let's go get that ice cream!" I giddily open my door and jump back and forth from one foot to the other. 

"Man, I wish you were this excited to see me when I come over." Liam furrows his brows and frowns. 

"Oh come on, you coming over is the greatest." I wave a hand in the air, but Liam gives me a pointed look. 

"You sure don't act like it's the," He reenacts what I just did with my hands, "greatest." I giggle.

"I get excited on the inside." A smile curves the corners of my mouth upwards. Liam smirks and he raises a brow. 

"Excited on the inside, huh?" Liam repeats. 

"Yup!" I pause and my smile drops. "Wait..." I trail. Liam claps me on the back. 

"Good to know." He then winks at me. 

"Hey!" I yell. Liam takes off in a sprint and I chase after him. "Get back here you coward!"

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I furrow my brows as I watch Liam devour the ice cream he got. I squish my face in a disgusted manner and then hand Kat her ice cream. "I swear sometimes that boy really worries me." I shake my head and then look back up at Kat. She has that 'I know you love him for it though' look on her face. "Oh shut up," I growl. She winks. "I hate you all." I then turn on my heel and head towards the stairs. 

"Bell is trying to escape!" Kat yells. She then starts to make siren noises. Marcus looks up at me and shakes his head. I raise my brows and look at the three of them. 

"W-what?" I ask. 

"Get her!" Marc screams. My eyes widen as Liam bolts after me. 

"What?!" I screech. 

"We need backup! She's a runner!" Liam yells. I shake my head and take the stairs two at a time. 

"This isn't how I planned on eating my ice cream!" I yell over my shoulder.