Childhood Friendship

2.1 - Gifts & Surprise

~~~Emma's POV~~~

I woke up and saw that I was in my bed with a blanket on me. But Liam was not there. He must have brought me to my bed as I fell sleep in his arms the previous night.

I didn't know why but all of a sudden I started to feel incomplete. I felt that I'd lost something that was never mine. I missed the warmth Liam's arms were giving me a few hours ago.

But didn't think about it too much. After breakfast I noticed dad had gone to a business trip for a month. I texted Liam in the afternoon asking if he wanted to hangout in the evening but it was showing error sending the messages.

I didn't care about it much. After 2-3 days, I saw Liam at a party which was held at one of our common friend, Lia's farm house. It was not the first time I had come to this place.

She was a good friend of mine. And I had been to her farm house a lot of times. She was 2 years older than me.

But she still treated me as there was no age difference between the two of us. I wanted to talk to Liam as I had not been able to contact him after the night I slept while crying but my friends wanted me to stay with them. After sometime, my friends went to the washroom.

But I didn't as I wanted to talk to Liam. I found him with his friends. Most of them were girls.

I felt a little uneasy. I went up to him and waved. His smile disappeared and his eyes darkened.

He stood up and pulled me away from his friends harshly. I was surprised. As it was hurting.

And Liam could never hurt me. But he was. I tried hard not to make any noice.

As I thought he would feel bad for hurting me. And I was actually right. We stopped at a dark place I didn't know existed in that farm house even though I would have been the person who had visited this place the most.

I was a little surprised how Liam knew about this place. He loosened his grip. He must have left a mark on my arm as his eyes widened looking at the same spot.

Before he could say something, I asked “Why am I not able to contact you?”. His worried face changed into a scary one within no time.

“I've brought you here. Let me speak. You will get a chance later.” He spat. I tried not to let the smile on my face fade away.

“I don't want you to talk to me in front of anyone. Actually, you know what? Stop contacting me from now on. I don't even want to talk to you. How did I spend all these years with you. I should have never given you attention. Now look what you have done. You bitch.” He yelled at me.

I was heart broken and confused but didn't want to show that his words effected me as I thought he must have been under pressure because of his upcoming exams. But I could feel my eyes getting watery as he was rude and I didn't even know what I did to him. He didn't give me a chance to speak and left me there all by myself.

I started crying once made sure he had left. After I was done I decided to go back. But unfortunately got lost.

And there was no way I wanted to disturb Liam. I tried calling Lia. But she was not responding.

I then called Brian. He was my class mate and Lia's good friend. So I thought maybe he could help me.

He picked up and I told him I got lost and about the surroundings. He found me after 10-15 minutes. We were walking back to the main building and talked about things like homework and made fun of the teacher almost everyone in the class hated.

As we saw the main building I said “Oh, thank god. Let's go.” I was about to run but Brian held my hand and pulled me a little closer.

I looked at him confused. He then said “Emma, I like you. I really really like you. Will you be my girlfriend?” I smiled with confusion and worry clearly displayed on my face.

I held his hand with my other free hand and said “Brian, I like you too. But as a friend and not something else. You hardly know me. You can not like me as all we have ever talked about is submitting notebooks.”

He tried to protest with disappointment in his eyes “Why can I not? I mean just look at you. You are so pretty. You are just perfect. How can you not expect people to fall for you just like that?

“That's not what you can call love, Brian. Looks aren't everything. You need to talk to the person to love him or her. You need to know each others strengths and weaknesses to love someone. You need to know that person inside out to love. Adoration, care, concern, putting the other person first, becoming each others biggest support, stopping each other from doing wrong things, etc. are the things that are most important for a relationship. Not looks.” I was describing someone without even realizing.

“I'm sorry buddy. But we are better off as friends” I patted his shoulder and went inside the main building. I saw Liam making out with Lia.

That too in front of everyone. That's when I understood the reason why Lia was not answering her calls. And Liam was maybe avoiding me as we were pretty close and almost everyone knew it and he didn't want Lia to feel insecure.

They looked at each other and were smiling. I was hurt as none of them told me they were in a relationship. I was happy for them.

A little disappointed too but didn't know the reason. I found my friends and decided to go home as it was 9pm. On our way home, I asked Ava, friend who was driving, to stop the car at a shop.

I bought two couple rings for Lia and Liam. I wanted to surprise them. Next morning my mom tells me she had to go for a business trip and decided to send Caden to our grandmother's house as he cannot take care of himself and he also invited Noah.

I had to stay alone. Mom asked me to go to a friend's house if I didn't want to stay alone. And then left.

I packed my stuff quickly. I had two bags with me. One had my clothes and the other had the gift for Lia and Liam that was wrapped in 10-15 layers of gift wrapping paper now.

I was ready to leave. Just then I heard birds chirping sound which was made by our door bell. I went to open the door and found Brian there.

He looked terrified. He said “Emma, I'm sorry. I was just kidding. You are my sister. How could I ever fall for you. Right? Please forgive me.” and didn't wait for a reply.

I stared at the staircase from which Brian ran down before I started to laugh. I went inside the house and brought my bags to the car not forgetting to lock the house. I reached my friend's house and rang the door bell.

Liam opened the door with a shoked and tensed look on his face. But with in a second it changed to a soft smile and he looked relaxed as he tilted his head a little.

Just then I heard someone say “Liam, I'm going home now. I'd love to come again tomorrow.” from inside the house. That sounded so familiar. And then I saw her.

“Lia”