“Can I be a bird?” I asked wistfully, closing my eyes as the breeze tickled my skin.
“A bird?” He sounded shocked I’d ask such a thing. “Why a bird?”
“So I can fly away.”
I opened my eyes and looked over at him. He was leaning against the wall, his hands clasped together, and he appeared to be taking my words very seriously. His full lips were turned down into a frown, and there was a crease between his brows.
“What are you flying away from?”
“Memories,” I whispered, my lips barely forming the word. I’d already given him one truth that day, but one more couldn’t hurt anything. Not one as ambiguous as that, anyway.
He pressed his lips together and met my gaze. His eyes… His eyes told m
e he understood what I was saying, but he didn’t ask me anything else. He didn’t try to pry, and for that, I was thankful.
Liam was right.
We were made of the same stuff.
That’s why we understood each other, and why we attracted and repelled against one another.
He stood beside me, and we both grew quiet as we watched the waves crash against the sandy beach. Down below there was only one person walking along the shore. Their golden retriever ran beside them, and every once in a while they’d throw a ball for the dog to run after. It was such a simple sight, but it filled me with peace.
Liam cleared his throat, and I dropped my gaze to where he was bent beside me.
“My mom wants to go to the pier,” he wrung his hands together, almost as if he was nervous, “and she wants you to go with us.”
I raised my brow at him, and he chuckled.
“Hey,” he held his hands up in surrender, “she likes you.”
I glanced behind us at the door, expecting to see her standing there watching us, but instead, I was greeted with the reflection of clouds and birds in the sky and the two of us.
“Your mom thinks we’re a couple,” I stated, and he winced.
He rubbed awkwardly at the back of his head. “Sorry about her.”
“I like your mom.” I shrugged and lifted my hands to shield my eyes from the sun.
“You just don’t like that she thinks we’re together?” He grinned at me, waiting for my response.
“Well—”
“She knows we’re not together. I set her straight, and I think her exact words were, ‘Of course she’s not your girlfriend, Liam Maxwell, you’re too much of an asshole to have a nice girl like that. Act like I raised you to behave and then maybe she will be.’”
“She did not.” I giggled. Actually giggled. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done that.
“She did.” He nodded and smiled. When he smiled like that, wide and without a care in the world, he looked his young age of nineteen. His perpetual scowl always made him look so much older and more intimidating. “So now she’s hoping you will be my girlfriend.”
I laughed and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “And what do you have to say about that?”
“Never going to happen.” His smile disappeared, and his eyes darkened from icy-blue to a gray color. “I don’t have time for hearts and flowers shit.” He glared out at the ocean like it had personally offended him somehow. His shoulders were bunched taut beneath his thin cotton shirt, but they slowly relaxed as he let out a breath. Scrubbing a hand over his face, he turned to me once more. “But maybe I do have room in my life for one more friend.”
“Friend?” I repeated the word like I’d never heard it before.
“Yeah.” He stood up straight and crossed his arms over his chest. “Maybe we can be friends.”
I nodded, mulling over his words. “Maybe,” I agreed.