chantelle & liam

chapter 14.

16th April  - thursday

chantelle is standing in the english corridor by the water fountain waiting for liam.

she's leaning against the wall her eyes closed, thinking.

"hey, pretty lady." a raspy voice calls out to her. she opens her eyes and sees callum standing in front of her. she smiles, weakly.

chantelle watches as he pulls out a navy blue glittery mask. he holds it up to his face, slowly.

"remember me?" he asks teasing her. she gasps and furrows her brows.

i knew he looked familiar

she snaps her fingers and smiles, "i knew it was you. you seemed so familiar."

callum laughs and places the mask in her hands. she looks down at the soft navy silk material covered is course navy glitter. she looks back up at him a small grin on her lips.

"it suits you." chantelle says watching as his brown eyes stare at her. callum shrugs, smugly and rolls his eyes.

just then, liam walks over to chantelle. chantelle looks over to him, a dazed smile on her lips. he  smiles back, softly. his eyes flicker to the left and he sees callum smirking at him. his eyes darken and narrow at callum's smug face.

"what is he doing here?" he asks looking back over to chantelle, annoyed. chantelle frowns at liam's absurd behaviour.

"it turns out he was the guy i met yesterday at collin's party." she explains watching as liam's expression gets darker by the minute.

he touched her with me even knowing. bastard!

"aw, how nice." he says sarcastically dragging chantelle away from callum. but callum pulls her back, softly. callum's arm rests around chantelle's waist.

chantelle crosses her arms, annoyed at liam. liam looks at her, with pleading eyes.

"why are you behaving this way?" chantelle asks her voice low and serious. callum looks at liam, waiting to see what he'll say.

liam sighs, "i don't know.."

callum laughs at his pathetic answer. chantelle looks back at callum, perplexed.

"why are you laughing?" she asks totally confused. callum leans down and his smile falls, faster than lightning. chantelle looks at him, nervously.

"because that's what he said when i asked him why he made lydia cheat on me." he says darkly. chantelle's expression drops as she looks towards, speechless.

"what?"  her voice barely above a whisper. chantelle slowly turns her head to liam whose eyes are full of sad nostalgia. "that's not true, is it?"

liam lets out a shaky breath and looks up at her, "yes it is,"
chantelle struggles to respond as she looks between the two boys.

"that can't be right.." she whispers in disbelief. "liam would never do that."

callum sneers and looks at chantelle, darkly. she looks at him, unsure.

"i think it'll be best if liam told you the full story." he says still holding onto her waist. she turns back to liam, waiting.

liam sighs, ashamed and closes his eyes all the memories come back.

"i met lydia.. six months ago, we were great friends at the time. i had fallen in love with her within the space of two months. but i knew that i couldn't be with her because callum was her boyfriend." he says running his hands through his messy dark brown hair, avoiding eye contact with chantelle. "back then i thought that playing with other girls would make her jealous, but it didn't; her love for callum was pretty strong."

"at some point in their relationship, callum hit lydia in a fight-" chantelle immediately turns to callum and realises that his arm is wrapped around her waist.

"please, remove your arm from around my waist." she asks quietly. callum slowly removes his hand and steps back.

"she came to me for support and it wasn't until that point that i realised that i cared for her so much." liam says his voice sad. chantelle looks at him, trying to figure out what went wrong.

"somehow, we.." he hesitates. chantelle's eyes widen and she covers her mouth in shock. "we ended up sleeping together and i don't know why."

"you're kidding, right?" she says confused. liam shakes his head and covers his hands with his face. callum shrugs and looks at him.

"tell her what happened next." he says watching as liam's hands clench into fists. liam sighs, heavily and opens his eyes.

"the next day, callum had found out what we had done and he.." liam stops as callum looks towards the ground. "he was livid, and we ended up getting into a massive fight. i couldn't find the strength to fight back because i knew what i did was wrong..."

"so you beat him up? you hurt him because he hurt you." she says turning to callum. her eyes slightly teary at the thought of liam getting beaten.

"yes." callum says pursing his lips and looking up at chantelle. "but i wasn't in the wrong, he-"

"you were both in the wrong!" she shouts closing her teary, brown eyes. "both of you are absolute idiots."

"liam.. you should have never done those things even if you were trying to get lydia's attention-" she stops when she sees liam eyes well up with small tears. she looks away, quickly.

"that's what my mum said when i came home that day with bruises all over my body, i had told her the whole story and she was so disappointed in me." liam says looking up to the ceiling. chantelle sighs and squeezes her fists, tightly as the memories of her untold past flicker in her mind. callum snickers.

"i'm pretty sure that if both of your parents were around at the time, they would both be disappointed in you.." callum starts, with a small sadistic smile on his face. "especially your dad."

liam's face turns to callum and his breathing starts to get heavy. chantelle notices and her eyes flicker to callum, who is looking all smug.

"you have no right to talk about my dad." liam whispers while his eyes start to darken as his fists pale. callum glances up at him, nonchalantly.

"he's hardly your dad, you don't even know him." callum sneers, slyly. chantelle gasps at his disrespectful comment.

suddenly, liam lunges at callum, in anger and goes to land a blow to his face. chantelle screams in fear as the two fight, uncontrollably.

"stop!" she screeches trying to get between the two of them. callum almost hits chantelle but she quickly moves out of the way. her eyes fill with tears and she starts to cry.

callum's fist makes contact with liam's lip. liam's lip gets cut and he winces as he tries to land another blow to callum's smug face.

"both of you stop it!" she says trying to pull them apart as salty tears roll down her brown skin. liam notices that she's crying and starts to stop but callum hits his cheek, harshly with his fist. liam's head snaps to the side from the massive impact.

chantelle looks to callum in disbelief. he looks at her his breathing heavy and out of control.

"why did you do that?!" she says wiping her tears away. callum doesn't respond. "you had absolutely no right to say those horrible things!"

she looks at liam and moves closer to him.

"are you okay?" she asks softly, touching his face. her warm hand rests by his swollen cheek. the prickling sparks run through her body again.

he doesn't respond as he looks at her, carefully. his mind is spinning, he can't think straight.

chantelle continues to observe the bruise that callum left on liam's face. it's a black and blue funny looking shape that just rests on the side of his cheek. she sighs as she pulls, lightly on liam's arm.

"let's go get some ice for that nasty bruise."