Unbreakable (Book #1 - Liam Payne Trilogy)

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

I woke up that morning to the sun peeking through my window. I stretched, another beautiful day, I thought. I got out of bed and walked to my window seat. I sat down, picking up my laptop from the place I had left it last night. I opened it and saw I had left my story open, I finished off that chapter and wrote about what had happened between Liam and I after the sun set. I wrote it all with a smile on my face, so far, this was a great story. I closed my laptop and looked out the window again, I would never get used to the beautiful view I get to see every morning when I come here. I headed down stairs and grabbed a bowl and took out the cereal and milk. I walked outside and joined my dad at the table, “Good morning sweetie.” He said to me. I sat down at the table, “Morning, dad.” I said with a smile. “Sleep well?” he took a sip of his coffee as I prepared my bowl, “Yep, never better.” He smiled at me over his reading glasses; he put down the book he was reading. “You know,” he said, “Guess who just arrived.” I looked down at my watch; it was barely 10:00. “Who?” I said, taking a bite of my cereal. He picked up his book again, “Talia.” He said simply. I swallowed hard. “WHAT?” I said, almost screaming. “Yeah, her parents stopped by earlier, she's looking for you.” I got to my feet, almost knocking over my chair. I looked down at my dad, “I’ll be right back.” And I jumped off the deck and ran down the path, still in my pyjama’s I ran all the way to Talia’s house. I passed the Americans next door, the locals beside them, and I didn’t even slow down as I passed Liam’s house. I hadn’t seen Talia in almost a year; this greeting was long overdue. I ran up her path and across the lawn, and just as she was coming out the door, I ran up to her and tackled her in a hug. We almost fell over, but managed to keep our balance. “Brooklyn!” she exclaimed. I laughed, “Oh, my god! I’ve missed you so much.” I said, pulling away, but then pulling her right back in, hugging her again. She laughed too, “I missed you too… but…” she paused, “Brooklyn … you’re squishing … me…” “Oh, sorry,” I said, letting her go. She smiled up at me. I was already 5ft 10’ and she was barely 5 feet off the ground. “Don’t worry, I missed you too,” she said. She looked down at what I was wearing, “Did you just wake up?” I looked down at my outfit, “Yup,” I said smiling down at her. She laughed, “Still the same girl I left behind.” I laughed, “Still the same height I see,” I teased her. She stuck out her tongue at me, “how’s the weather up there?” “Oh, it’s beautiful, too bad you wouldn’t know.” We both burst out laughing, “Things haven’t changed at all,” Talia said, “Come on, let’s go sit in the hammock, I want to know everything that happened this year.” We linked our arms together and walked down towards the beach. We went over to the hammock and sat in it, under the shade of two big trees. Talia faced the water, and I faced her house and that’s when I realized, she and Liam were neighbors. I quickly glanced over her shoulder to see if Liam was up yet, I did not want him to see me in my pyjamas. “What?” Talia said, looking over her own shoulder. “Oh, um nothing.” I said turning back to her. She gave me a look, “Anyways,” she said, “Spill.” Talia was more of a popular girl. She was big on fashion, and even though she was barely ever near boys at our summer houses, she still insisted on putting on makeup. Whenever we went into town, all of the local guys where always watching her, whispering about her. She was always flirting with them, but she's never had a real summer fling. I told her stories from back home, she is originally from Brazil, and so she found my stories of Canada fascinating. It was a wonder how we ever got along. We were complete opposites. I was tall, she was short. I had long blonde hair, she had short black hair. I had blue eyes, she had green eyes. She’s popular, I’m a nerd. She was a knock out, I was just, me. I listened as she took her turn telling me stories; she had a strong accent so I soon got lost. I watched over her shoulder as Liam came out of the house, I giggled as he stood there with only boxer shorts on sipping a glass of orange juice. Talia looked at me, “what?” she said, following my gaze. “Oh. My. God.” She said turning back to me, “What a hottie.” I snapped out of it, “what?” I said. Talia looked at me, “Do you not see his gorgeous body. Why didn’t you tell me I had a new hot neighbor?” “I, uh, I um,” I stuttered, this was what I was afraid of. If Talia liked a guy, she wouldn’t stop until she got him. “Oh, he’s looking this way, act cool.” I glanced up, and sure enough he was looking right at, me. “Don’t look,” Talia said slapping my leg, “Ouch,” I said looking back at her, “What was that for?” “Rule number one; never look at him when he’s looking at you.” “But-but,” “Rule number two;” she continued, “Don’t stare for too long. And rule number three; I call dibs.” She said, and jumped off the hammock, running into the house, probably to doll herself up. I sat in the hammock and watched her go, yup, still the same old Talia. I sighed and leaned back in the hammock, I glanced over to see Liam had gone in to get changed: he came out with a simple baby blue shirt on and an old pair or ripped jeans. I couldn’t help it, I found myself staring, it didn’t seem like a normal outfit a Brit would wear, but then he caught me staring. He smiled and waved at me, I did the same. Oh shoot, is he coming over here? No, no, no, no, NO! “Hi love,” he said. I couldn’t help it, I blushed, “Hi Liam.” He smiled, “So, what are you doing over here.” “Oh,” I said, glancing at the house, “Um, I'm visiting my best friend Talia.” He smiled, “So, my neighbor?” he asked. I nodded my head, “Oh, look, here she comes now.” I was right; she had gone in to get dressed up, was this really my best friend? “Oh,” he said, sounding disappointed, “Wow,” he said, almost as if he was slightly disgusted. “Hey,” I said, hitting him on the arm, “Don’t judge her until you’ve gotten to know her like me.” “Okay,” he said, sighing, “But I still don’t think I'm going to like her.” “HI,” Talia, said, walking up to us, her voice was beyond cherry, the squeak she put into it, just hurt my ear drums. “You must be my new neighbor,” she said, again with the squeaking, “I'm Talia.” “Oh, um, actually, I should really get going, we still have a lot of unpacking to do, but uh, nice to meet you.” He turned around, going to leave, but glanced back at me, “Um Brooklyn, I think your parents are calling you.” I listened closely, “They are?” “I don’t hear anything,” Talia said. “Yeah,” Liam said, “I think you should go see what they want.” Liam said. “Okay,” I said, slowly, not sure what was going on. I got off the hammock, but Talia grabbed my arm, “Remember,” she whispered harshly in my ear, “he’s mine.” I pulled my arm out of her grip. I caught up to Liam a few feet away. He glanced over his shoulder, and just as Talia turned around, he grabbed my arm and pulled me up the path to his house. “Liam what are you-” I tried to say, but he shushed me. He looked around quickly to make sure no one was watching, before pulling me into the house. “Liam, what is going on?” I asked. He sighed, “Is she normally like that?” he said. I shrugged my shoulders, “I don’t know.” “Tell me something, Brooklyn. Do you honestly like her?” “I-I don’t know, I mean we’ve been friends ever since we were little, she can be annoying sometimes,” Liam raised his eyes brows at me, “Okay a lot, but she's still my friend.” Liam sighed and glanced up at me, his big brown eyes making me weak, “Okay, okay,” I said, “I hate her, the only reason I'm friends with her is to keep my mom off my back,” the truth came out. It was all an act, all these years; I had never truly liked her. Liam let out a breath, “Oh thank god,” he said. Silence passed through us, “Did she really call dibs on me?” he asked. I sadly nodded my head, “Oh my,” he said, "Wow,” shaking his head. I nodded, "I know." "Honestly, I really hate that," he said to me, looking up into my eyes. I felt shivers run down my spine, "Hate what?" I asked. "How girls just think they can call 'dibs' on a guy. We're people too and they treat us like a piece of food. Honestly I don't even like her and she just thinks she can have me." he paused taking a deep breath, "I mean I would never date someone like her, let alone even be friends with her." he glanced at the ground, but I kept watching his eyes. "What do you mean someone like her?" I had to, I just had to ask. It was killing me inside, Talia almost always got what she wanted, and now Liam was refusing to give it to her. He looked up at me, "She's too much. Honestly she’s just not my type," he said. I glanced at the ground, it was now or never. "What kind of girl is your type then?" He glanced at the ground and quickly looked back up at me, his eyes bouncing back and forth between my own. "LIAM!" and there it was again. His mom came around the corner, "LIAM! Where are-Oh there you are!" Liam took a step back, "Hi mom," he said watching the ground. She was wiping her hand on a towel, "Who's this young lady?" she asked. Liam sighed, "Mum, this Brooklyn," he said gesturing to me beside him. I smiled politely at her. "She lives about three doors down, she's my, um," he paused, "friend." “It’s nice to meet you, but I'm sorry Brooklyn, Liam has to go help his father unpack some more, but it really was nice meeting you, I'm sure you two will see each other later." Liam sighed, "You know your way out?" he asked. I nodded my head, his mom turned around to leave. "And by the way," he said going to turn around, "The answer to your question, is, you." he turned around and ran out the back door. I stood there. My question, what was my question? I turned around slowly and opened the door, slipping trough. I wasn’t smart enough to look twice before I left, because Talia saw me. I didn't realize she was following me home until she grabbed my arm. I spun around, facing her, "Let. Go." I said pulling my arm back. "What where you doing in there?" she asked, anger in her voice, but I wasn't going to back down. "Talking," I said. "But I called dibs," she said, whining. "Talia, drop it, he would never date someone like you!" "And how would you know?" I took a deep breath, finally remembering the question I had asked Liam earlier, "Because we are SO different!" "What does that have to do with anything?" she screamed. "Because he said he'd date someone like me!" I yelled back. She brought her hand up, and I didn't realized what she was doing until she slapped me right across the face. I gasped, cupping my cheek in my hand, "What is wrong with you?" I screamed. I turned around to leave, but she grabbed my arm again. "I'm not done here," she said. I tried pulling my arm back, "Leave me ALONE." I screamed at the top of my lungs. I pulled but she let go at the same time, I lost my balance, falling to the warm sand. I slowly stood up and glanced back at her, she had taken a few steps back, sneaking looks at the house behind me. That's when I realized I hadn’t walked very far; I spun around to see Liam standing at the edge of his backyard, a large box in his hands, watching us. I couldn't help it, I began to cry, the embarrassment and pain becoming too much. His eyes met mine, he had sympathy in his eyes, but that only made my cry harder, I looked away. I turned around, my back to both Liam and Talia and I ran. I ran away, from Talia, from Liam, from that moment, from the embarrassment, from it all.

I ran to my house, but I didn’t stop there. My dad saw me running, but I didn’t stop when he called after me. I ran until there were no more houses left, just beach. I ran until I finally broke down and fell to the ground, choking on my own breaths. I held my knees to my chest, the tears falling to my pyjama pants. I wanted to be alone. I never wanted to see another human being ever again. That didn’t work very well when my dad showed up, a few minutes later. “Brooklyn! What the hell happened!” he said, running up to me and tearing my hand away from my face. Revealing the red mark, Talia had left there. She had hit me so hard; you could almost see the outline of her five fingers. “Oh,” he said, his voice becoming much softer, “sweetie, I'm so sorry.” He saw my tear stained cheeks; he sat down in the sand with me and pulled me closer. I rested my head on his shoulder, my new-found tears falling there. “Did that boy do this to you?” he asked. “No,” I said, sitting up staring at him, “How could you ever say that?” “Brooklyn, do not lie to, me.” I pulled away from him, “I'm not lying,” I almost whispered. “Brooklyn, if he did this to you-” I cut him off, “IT WAS TALIA!” I screamed at him. He looked at me with wide eyes. I fell back, watching the ground, never in my life had I ever yelled at my dad. He was like my best friend, always there whenever I needed him, but he could turn into my father at any second, ready to protect his little girl. I looked down at my hands, covered in sand and trembling in fear, I looked over at my dad, to see he had stood up and was now towering over me, the 6ft 4’ that he was. He held out a hand to me but I wouldn’t meet his eyes, “Come on,” he said, shaking his hand. Finally I grabbed it and he pulled me to my feet. He gingerly touched my cheek, “That’s going to leave a bruise,” he whispered, before gently kissing the top of my head. He pulled me into a hug, his long arms wrapping around me, my face buried in his chest. “I’ve never liked her sweetie, and now that she had hurt my little girl, she will never be allowed near you or anyone of us ever again, do you hear me? This is the last time she will ever make you cry.” I hugged my dad tighter, he had been my best friend only seconds ago, but I'm happy he became my dad, because right now, all I wanted to be was his little girl.

We walked back to the house, my dad’s arm around my shoulders. As we got to the path way, my dad spoke for the first time since he wrapped me in a hug. "Hey, Brooklyn, you want to head over to Magen's bay?" he asked me. "I-I don't think so dad, not today, I just kind of want to be alone." he sighed, "you want to, maybe, head into town and shop around?" I shook my head and placed a kiss on his cheek, "not today, daddy. Sorry." I turned around and headed into the house. I didn't look back at him; it was hard enough leaving him hanging. I ran up the stairs and to my room. I closed my door and locked it, taking a deep breath. I grabbed my laptop and my iPod and went over and sat down on my bed. I opened my laptop, but quickly, closed it. I wasn't in the mood for anything, except music. No matter what mood I was in, music could change me around, all I would have to do was put in my earphones and my life became a music video.