Childhood best friends to enemies to lovers.
Alina wants nothing to do with the rebellious bad boy, Liam Somner.
Which is difficult, because he goes to her school. And lives on her street. And keeps showing up at her apartment, and sitting in her ki...
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It's cold outside, but Liam's apartment is warm and permanently smells like cookies, although I think it's even stronger right now because Liam's mom has been baking even more in the lead up to the holiday season. The smell reminds me of my childhood. There's something so comforting about it.
Liam puts a black-and-white movie on the tv and we sit on the rug in his living room, with two presents between us. I was certain that he wouldn't have gotten me anything, so I'm pretty surprised to see the pretty wrapping paper.
"Is it a book?" I ask, holding my present.
"It's not not a book."
"Okay so..."
Liam is holding my gift to him, which is wrapped in brown paper. "But I'm pretty certain I can guess what this is," he says, raising it up and shaking it a bit. It's big and square and flat.
"Just open it."
Liam does as he's told, ripping the paper off to reveal a record. It's Heroes by David Bowie, in all its vinyl glory.
Liam looks up at me. "Did you know this was recorded in Berlin?" he asks.
"I heard that," I say with a smile.
Liam flips it over to see the track list. "See? This song, Neuköln? I've been there. To that district." He leans back against the couch, grinning. "How'd you even know that I didn't have this album?"
"Because I searched through your room," I admit. "And I got Julia to help me. She knew what was the best one to get."
Liam grins. "Thank you," he says. "This is perfect."
"Can I open this now?" I ask.
"Now I feel bad," Liam says. "Mine isn't anywhere near as good as yours."
"I'm sure it's fine," I say lightly, and I pick up the prettily-wrapped gift and tear into it. I expected books, but I didn't expect notebooks. There are two; good quality moleskin notebooks, and an expensive-looking pen to go with them.
"Notebooks," I say.
"I know, I'm sorry, now I feel bad that it's not as good as your gift," Liam says.
I open the black notebook and realise that he's written a message inside.
"Dear Alina,
To write down our stories. Both past, and those still to come.
Love, Liam."
Next to both of our names, he's drawn a star.
I look up at Liam, who is watching me with those dark brown eyes.
I close the notebook and place it down, before crawling across the floor and settling myself down next to Liam, so that we're both leaning against the couch, and then I pull him into a hug. He hugs me tight.
