P.S. I Pinky Promise

Chapter 5: Explosive

My first day was awful.

I was late to my first class, and I am never late, which forced me to sit near the back since all the front seats were taken. Then, in Ecology, instead of paying attention to what my professor had just said, I was thinking of my run-in with stupid Liam that morning despite my attempts to forget, causing me to be unprepared for the question I was asked. I stumbled out an answer, surely looking like an idiot.

Oh, but it doesn't stop there.

Because the black pen I had been nervously chewing on...yeah, it exploded in my mouth.

Gagging sounds quickly followed causing heads to turn, and the horrified expressions witnessed was surely due to the fact that I looked like a possession demon was spewing from my mouth.

Superb day.

Explosive, really.

I threw my bag down on my floor back in my dorm and fell onto the bed. I covered my face with my hands and groaned.

"Stupid Liam and his stupid face!"

"Who's Liam?"

I screamed, jumping up, banging my knee against my desk in the process.

"Holy crap Savannah! How long have you been in here?" I shrieked, rubbing my sore knee and mentally adding it to the top-notch day I was having.

She was sitting on her bed with her legs folded and her laptop on her lap, looking at me over her pink glasses.

"Well, since before you got in here. I watched you walk to your bed, throw your bag down in a huff, then toss yourself dramatically onto your bed."

"First of all, I did not toss myself dramatically. I simply fell with flair."

She laughed, moving her laptop to the side of her on the bed and leaning over her folded legs with interest.

"So, who's this Liam and why does he have you all flustered? I thought I was the socially inept one. Especially with guys."

I sighed and crossed my legs, leaning back against the wall. "He's just some boy from my past. And the last person I expected to see."

"Boy from your past? As in, you dated?"

I scoffed. "He wishes! No, Liam Tucker was my best friend and next-door neighbor until I moved when I was fourteen."

Her eyes bulged out of her head, and she sat up, nearly coming off her bed.

"Did you say Liam Tucker!? As in, Liam Tucker!?"

"Um, yeah...one and the same."

"You mean to tell me Liam James Tucker, as in L.J. Tucker, used to be your neighbor!?"

L.J. That's what Aaron called him too.

"Do you want to tell me what's going on here, or are you just going to keep screaming his name all night?"

She immediately blushed. "Well, I wouldn't mind..."

My jaw dropped in the same moment I grabbed my pillow and threw it at her unsuspecting body. "Savannah! You dirty little girl!"

Laughing, she threw my pillow back. "Well come on, he's just about the hottest guy on campus! The guy might as well have the word cliché stamped to his forehead. Everyone knows him. Most of the guys want to be him, and all the girls want to be with him, and from what I hear, most have. But he doesn't ever actually date, just sleeps around."

I do my best to ignore the twinge of jealousy that erupted in my chest all the way down to the pit of my stomach. The Liam I knew wouldn't jump around from girl to girl. Maybe he really had changed. Maybe he had become so unrecognizable to himself, no one else was recognizable to him either.

"Why not?"

She looked at me puzzled. "I mean, why doesn't he date?"

"Oh. I'm not sure. He's got the whole broody, bad boy thing down though. He's the nicest guy though, he just tries to fool you. I mean, not that I've ever really talked to him. But he did give me a pencil in class one time when I had none. I stared at him like a fish out of water. I felt so stupid that I started rambling in class and Professor Hanson called on me to give him the answer for the equation on the board, and I was so nervous, I almost puked. But then, L.J. caused a scene just so the attention was off of me. It was the sweetest thing. He even got kicked out of class that day. I would have spent the rest of class rambling if he hadn't done that. I know, it's hard to picture, but it's true. It was so embarrassing!"

I had pressed my lips together so I wouldn't laugh. "You? Ramble? Nah, I can't picture it at all."

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at me but quickly started giggling. "See! I'm the worst!"

"No, I love it. And that's actually weirdly sweet of him."

And it was. That sounded more like the Liam I knew. The Liam that would come to your rescue at all costs, no matter what. Even if there was a time where he had stopped being that Liam to me, it was nice to know he was still rescuing others.

"So where did you run into him at? Did you guys have a class together?"

"No, I was meeting Aaron, this guy I've been talking to, at Bean Me Up, and I literally ran into him." I flustered at the thought of being so close to him again. "But he didn't recognize me, or at least, he acted like he didn't."

"Oh, I'm sorry." She gave me a half smile, suddenly looking uncomfortable. "Wait, did you say you've been talking to Aaron?"

I got up from my bed and sat down in my desks chair, swiveling it to look at Savannah. "Are you about to keep repeating my potential boyfriend's name too?"

She laughed and shook her head. "No. It's just a small world. Aaron's his brother, isn't he?"

"Yeah, stepbrother. I mean, I obviously knew Aaron had a stepbrother named L.J. but Liam never went by L.J., so I had no idea it was him. His parents were still together when I moved."

"Yeah, they've apparently been stepbrothers since high school, right before his senior year, I think. I have talked to Aaron a handful of times, but I really only know because people talk and almost everyone tries to know everything they can about Liam."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "People are ridiculous. We're here to educate ourselves on our studies, not the people that go here."

"Trust me, to some women here, L.J. Tucker is their studies."

I shook my head and faced my laptop. "Well, I've had just about enough Liam talk I can handle. I'm going to try to get a start on some of my assignments."

She nodded and pulled her computer back on her lap, following my lead. I plugged my headphones in, putting on my favorite playlist, and became determined to concentrate.

So what if Liam didn't remember me? So what if every girl wanted him?
So what if he slept around?

And so what if he broke every promise we ever made.