Letters to Rome

(4) Sam

Mr. Auclair was staring and that's never a good sign. When he stares, that means you're in trouble. But when he stares at Liam, he's asking for a favour with his eyes because apparently the boy is Mr. Auclair's favourite student and he never gets detention. 

Although, his stares were making him uncomfortable and, if anything, the teacher's "favours" were always things that required a ton of work which made Liam absolutely hate doing things for him. However, he never refused to do the favours because he didn't want to get on Mr. Auclair's bad side. 

"Alright, class dismissed. We'll continue this in tomorrow's class," he said with a sigh, closing the textbook in his hands and placing it on his desk. He was about to tell everybody to leave but everyone was already packing up by the time he opened his mouth. "Mr. Black, come here." 

With a sigh, Liam rose from his seat and dragged himself toward the teacher's desk. "Yes, Mr. Auclair? Do you need me to give more papers to Mrs. Singh?" 

The man wordlessly shook his head with a small smile evident on his facial features. He didn't say anything, though. Instead, he handed the boy a piece of blank paper and a clipboard. "I need you to go around the halls during lunch and see how many people are going to the October Halloween festival next month." 

"But it's next month! Why are we doing it now?" 

Mr. Auclair narrowed his eyes, making Liam shut his mouth and take the clipboard. "I need the paper to be filled by the end of the day. If not, I'll see you in detention tomorrow." 

Receiving detention would not be good for Liam. His parents would get annoyed at him and most likely say, "It's Rome, isn't it?". Which was why he asked, "Do I have your permission to skip History class?" 

He looked up, confusion written all over his face. "Why are you asking me? Do what you want, kid. Just get the work done." 

"Got it." 

              ***
Asking students the same question over and over again was beginning to get boring. Well, it made sense. Liam was unwillingly stepping out of his comfort zone to ask people he didn't know if they were going to the festival next month. One thing the boy hated about the teachers was that they tended to do things far too early. Most teachers would begin preparing for the festival during the first week of October but the teachers at Liam's school were weird. 

He skipped History class to try and fill even half of the page but the only people roaming around the hallways that skipped, too, were the popular people and Liam was too scared to talk to them because they were intimidating. Well, that was, until he saw Melissa Collins by her locker, talking to someone that Liam recognised. He was sure that Rome had hung out with that person before; the brown-haired, blue-eyed tall boy that played basketball but was in the soccer team. 

With a deep breath, the boy made his way toward the girl and the boy, his fingers clenching the clipboard in his hands. Melissa noticed him and waved him over, despite knowing that he was already walking toward them. Once he was there, she threw her around his shoulder with a grin on her face. "Hey, Liam! You're Rome's best friend, right?" She asked but received no response. Her grin faltered but she still continued speaking. "What's a good student like you doing out here in the halls during class?" 

Raising his clipboard, he shrugged off the girl's arm and backed away. "Um... a-are you going to the October festival?" 

"Maybe. Why?" 

Liam hesitantly gave her the pen that he was holding in his left hand and flipped over the clipboard. "C-can you write your name... here?" He asked, pointing underneath a random name. 

She nodded with a smile, signing her name before giving the pen back to him. "Are you going to the festival, Sam?" 

The guy beside her flinched. He hadn't said a single word since Liam came over and it made the boy wonder whether or not "Sam" hated him. If he did, Liam wanted to know why. Although, it wasn't exactly a mystery. Rome was popular and he never doubted that girls might've hated his best friend because he always hung out with his sunshine instead of other people. After all, to each other, Rome and Liam were each other's only friends. The former only hung out with others when the latter was busy but, otherwise, they were always with each other. 

"Sorry?" Sam paused, trying to remember what Liam said to Melissa before clicking his tongue. "Oh. I'm going, where do I sign?" 

"Uh... here," Liam mumbled, handing him the clipboard and the pen. Sam signed it before giving it back to him, his lips twitching into a smile. "Okay, thank you." 

Before he could turn around and leave, Melissa wrapped her arm around his shoulder once again. Although it was meant to be a friendly gesture, Liam wanted nothing but to just get away from her. He didn't like her. She smiled way too much and Liam hated it when strangers touched him without his permission. "Wanna hang out with us for today? Y'know... Rome isn't the only hot guy in the world. Sam is a piece of cake, too." 

The boy stared blankly at her before taking a big step away from her. "Um... no, thanks. I have to ask more people." 

Melissa nodded, about to let him go before snatching the clipboard out of his hands. "You skipped class to, what? Do more work? Work isn't all there is to life! Hang out with us. Please?" 

"Give it back." 

"Not until you hang out with us." 

Peer pressure was one way to get inside of Liam's head but what surprised him was when he didn't feel pressured but instead, he felt weak. He wasn't weak but he wasn't strong, either. Emotionally and physically. Standing in front of a girl like Melissa, a popular, seemingly kind person that was on the basketball team, made Liam feel small. He didn't like her but he was too scared to talk back to someone on a higher level than him. 

She didn't come across as a bully but maybe she was. At the moment, Liam was beginning to believe that Melissa wasn't the kind of person that he thought she was.  

"Melissa, just give him his thing back," Sam chimed in, forcing her arm down and grabbing the clipboard back. He gave it back to Liam and smiled at him. Melissa just scoffed and walked away from them, obviously annoyed but Sam was still smiling, almost as if this had happened before which wasn't exactly a good thing. "Sorry about her, Liam. When people don't hang out with her, she tries to force them to." 

"Why?" 

He shrugged. "I don't know, honestly. She's just a bitch that hates it when things don't go her way. Anyway, don't mind what she said about Rome. She's had a crush on that guy since middle school and she's just sad that he moved away." 

Liam nodded, ignoring the throb in his heart when Sam told him about her crush. Ever since Mrs. Brown and Angela's lectures about him being "too obsessed and clingy to Rome", he was beginning to believe that maybe he really did like him. In a romantic way. However, at the same time, he had trouble believing it. "Um... t-thank you, Sam." 

"No problem." He grinned. "Oh, by the way, I can do the clipboard thing for you. I've hung out with Rome before and literally all he talked about was you. He told me about how adorable you were and that you were really shy. So, I'll do it. Plus, it's really obvious that you hate doing favours for Mr. Auclair." 

Once Liam had processed, an evident blush formed on his face. "He called me adorable?" 

Sam chuckled, ruffled his hair and took his clipboard. "Yeah, he called you tons of things. Like... he called you smart, beautiful, tall and all that. He even accidentally slipped out a nickname that he had for you! It's cute how he calls you his sunshine." He tucked the clipboard in his armpit and smiled once more. "Anyway, I'll see you later." 

With that, smiling boy walked away from Liam, the clipboard still in his armpit. The boy didn't even bother saying bye to him as well because he was far too invested in thinking. 

"His sunshine?"