Ever since Liam's best friend died in a car crash where Liam was driving he has never smiled again. He gives himself the fault for his death eventhough he only died a few days later in the hospital due to the medication the doctors gave him. Liam got away with a black eye.
Today is the first day he's back in school since the accident as he hasn't felt well enough to leave the house. He walks in and everybody startes at him as they all know about what happened. "They say he killed him!" "He killed him on purpose!" "See, he survived, I bet he wasn't even really his friend and had planned it all along!" and more comments like that are whispered when he walks through the hallway.
Liam keeps his frown on the entire time and tries to ignore everyone. He's wearing a dark hoodie and dark trousers. All of a sudden Helaine bumps into him and like in litterally every movie drops her books. The two of them bend down to pick them up. Helaine smiles when she looks at Liam but he just continues to look all grumpy. When she touches his hand by mistake she gets a fright.
"Oh god! You're hand is so cold!", she says and he just shruggs and answers "What do you expect? It's winter!" She places her hands on his to warm them up for him. "The better question is why are yours so warm?", he adds with an unimpressed face not showing any emotion. "They're always warm! I don't exactly know why!", she answers with a big smile on her face.
She let's go of his hand and picks up her books. "I'm Helaine by the way!", she introduces herself "And who are you?" "Liam. Are you new here?", he asks still not showing any emotions. "Yes! We moved here last week!", she answers. "And you? I haven't seen you around?", Helaine adds and he shakes his head and walks off as he doesn't want to talk about it.
The two of then go their separate ways and in the lunchbreak Helaine looks for Liam in the cafeteria. She finds him sitting all on his own so she walks over to him. "Why are you sitting all on your own?", she asks him sitting down next to him already. "Because I don't want to talk to anyone... and nobody wants to talk to me!", he answers rolling his eyes. "Why?" "I don't like anyone here and nkbody likes me anymore..."
"Anymore?" "Yeah, I was one of the popular ones but I hate everyone now and they do the same so it's fine!" "It's not fine! That's probably why you're so grumpy all the time..." "No! It's something completely different which, no, I don't want to talk about before you ask!" She doesn't ask but they spend the entire lunchbreak together. Helaine doesn't accept it when he says "Just go away! I don't want to talk!" and hangs out with him anyway.
She talks on and on about her family and why they moved here and what she misses about her old town. At first Liam can easily ignore her but it gets harder and harder with everyday she sits down next to him during lunch and talks to him in the hallway. He feels like he an open up to her a bit more since he litterally knows everything about her.
"So uhm...", he starts still debating if he should tell her. "Did you hear about this guy who soposedly killed a guy who he was pretending to be best friends with?", Helaine interupts Liam who looks down at her question. "Freak!", a guy says walking past the two of them and another guy asks "Why are you even sitting here with him? If I were you I'd keep my distance from him!"
"What are they talking about?", she asks still trying to smile. "Uhm,... as K was trying to say... uhm... it's me..." "I know it's you..." "You do?", he asks confused. "Of course I do! It's you Liam. But what were they talking about?" "About... the incident... the accident...", he says ashamed. "Oh god! That was you?" "You just saud you knew it was me?" "I knew it was you they were taklking about but I didn't know why!", she explains and Liam looks more ashamed than he did before.
"What happened?" "We were in a car accident and we went to hospital. The doctors told us they'd like to keep an eye on us for a few days to see if we have anything. They gave us medicine but he... he couldn't take the medication... he was allergic but they didn't know that before and... and he..." Helaine comes around the table and puts her arms around him.
"That's terrible! Is that the reason...?" "Yes! I just can't stop remembering the car crash and how I killed him!" "You didn't kill him! The medicine..." "But I was the reason he had to take the medicine!", he answers blaming himself and then pressing his head into her shoulder. "Don't blame yourself! It was not your fault! Look at me!", she starts and waits till he looks at her. "You're the nicest person I've ever met! You listen to me and you make me feel understood and good! I've never felt this close to any other person... not even my parents or my best friends in my old town... You're the best!"
He tries not to cry at her words but doesn't succeed. Helaine sees the tears starting to roll down his cheek and wipes it away with her finger. She hugs him tight and tells him "It's totally ok to show your emotions! You don't have to hide them! Sometimes you just need a good cry or shout or whatever you feel like doing when something gets too much!" It stays silent for a while and all she can feel is Liam's chest moving up and down as he breathes hecticly. She lays her hand on his back and rubs it to comfort him.
"You're like a sunshine, only giving good vibes! Everyone's trying to be the same, yeah... 'til I met you, I was on that wave but you really on something different... you do you, it must be nice and I think it's rubbin' off on me. Oh,... I was feeling so invisible, yeah
I didn't know this could be possible but you really on something different. What really matters is the journey that we're on! Yeah,... talking with you, I finally know where I belong! Pullin' me out, never lettin' me down and I wanna make sure you know it. Can't believe that I found my sunshine!", Liam responds taking many breaks where he has to think of the right way to say the things he wants to say.
"Omg, Liam! You're so cute!", she says hugging him and kissing him. "I love you...", he replys and she presses her lips on his again in response. "I love you, too! And remember... it's absolutely not your fault!", she says when the bell rings to signalise that the next lesson is about to begin.
