Letters to Rome

(2) Empty

It was the first day Liam was living without his best friend and so far, the boy already felt empty and upset. He wasn't sure how he was going to survive the rest of his life if he couldn't even survive a day but he didn't dwell on it much. After all, he was keeping himself occupied by doing schoolwork and reading history books he stole from the school library.

With a sigh, he leaned into his chair, gazing up at his bedroom ceiling in boredom. He ran his fingers through his hair and looked down at the English homework sitting on his study desk. He'd only written a sentence for his essay which made him annoyed. Homework never bored him before but, at the same time, he knew why. 

Usually, he'd do homework with Rome who practically lived at his house but now that he didn't have his best friend anymore, homework was just boring. In addition to that, Liam never did homework for three hours straight so he knew that it was going to bore him eventually. 

He jumped out of his chair and dragged himself out of his bedroom and down the stairs, greeted by Angela who was sitting at her desk in the far corner of the living room. She was a teacher but she didn't teach at Liam's school which made the boy upset. He'd prefer if she was there to keep him company every time he was bored at lunch (because Rome had sports practice or something) but, instead, he always ended up going to the library to study. 

Sitting down on the couch, he laid down on his back with a sigh. "Mom, was life always this boring and I never knew it?"

Angela let out a laugh, spinning around on her chair to face her son who hadn't glanced at her once. "Well ... you're always with Rome, aren't you? I kept telling you over and over again that you were way too obsessed with him but you didn't listen. You just kept clinging to the boy and now look at you. Should've made more friends," she scolded with a click of her tongue. 

"I'm not obsessed with him! And I'm not clingy, either," Liam defended, sitting up straight to face his mother. 

"Are you sure? 'Cause I remember pulling you away from him when he was going to the bathroom because you didn't want him to leave you." 

"Oh, come on, mom! I was six!" 

The woman shrugged. "Still obsessed." She smiled. "Okay ... starting tomorrow, try making new friends, okay? I mean, Rome is definitely going to meet new people in Europe so you should try that, too. It doesn't hurt to make friends, right? Plus ... Rome wasn't going to be in your life forever. You gotta stop being clingy like this, it's not healthy." 

"But the people at school are weird. They talk too much and they're not like Rome. Unlike them, he actually listens to me when I'm trying to say something but they just talk over me." 

"So? Not everyone is like that. And, like I said, your obsession with poor Rome isn't good for you. Meeting new people is the one thing you need, Liam."

Her son rolled his eyes and frowned. He knew that he was way too obsessed with his best friend but, at the same time, he didn't really care. To him, it didn't matter because it was only normal to like your best friend a lot. To add to that, Liam wasn't the kind of boy who found it very easy to talk to someone so casually. He was shy in a way so that was why he stuck to Rome. 

When they first met, Rome was the one who approached him and they became friends afterwards. From there, Liam felt that he didn't really need anybody else in his life. The girls at school were bullies and the guys were, too. They often made fun of Liam for the way he looked, even though he had an average appearance. He had black hair and brown eyes and he wasn't that short. In fact, he was actually one of the tallest people in his class, specifically being six feet. There were only two people who were taller than him; Rome and some girl named Melissa Collins. Melissa was 6'2 and Rome was 6'4. Anyway, Liam wasn't scraggly and skinny. He was pretty lean which made him question why he got bullied.