Shadows of Yesterday

Chapter 29: The Little Sunshine That Couldn't

Once we were done eating, Liam gathered all the leftovers into the cooler and led me back to the car. I trailed after him like the lovesick puppy I'd apparently turned into, my brain inserting invisible hearts and sparkles every time the dappled sunlight hit his figure. It was like this morning had magically unlocked the seven-year-old girl inside me, and she refused to be locked up again. I felt ridiculous.

He--of course--insisted on opening the passenger door for me, and that did things to me that I wanted to clobber to death. Every part of me that still had logical sense was scrambling to come up with a way to avoid him finding out about my feelings. "Thank you," I mumbled. "Today has been... actually kind of great."

He pulled out of the parking lot with a teasing grin. "You sound surprised. I think I should be offended by that. Besides, the day's not over yet."

"There's more?" I raised an eyebrow and prayed that my face was a normal color.

"Please. I'm not the kind of guy who makes you wait two hours for one hour of fun. Rookie mistake." He shot me a smirk. "Besides, everyone knows you have to balance boredom with at least twice the fun."

My lips twitched in a smile. Apparently, everything he did now was endearing, and that obviously included his made-up life advice. "Wow. I've been doing life all wrong."

He tutted at me and shook his head in mock disappointment. "First your vocabulary, now this. We have got to spend more time together. Think of all the valuable life lessons you could learn!"

I scoffed. "You are so full of it."

He laughed, and my mind drifted back to the last time I was in this car on the way back from the woods. It seemed so long ago that I had thought of him as nothing more than the worst person on the planet, just another entry in a long list of unfortunate incidents in my life. If the version of me from back then could see me now, she would be horrified by the excitement I felt hearing Liam suggest that we hang out more.

Liam pulled into a little parking lot I didn't recognize and stopped the car in front of a cute little line of shops. I read the sign on the nearest building and chuckled. "'Kiln Me Now?' Really?"

He led me to the door and opened it with a grin. "The owner has an... odd sense of humor."

I understood what he meant immediately upon entering. Everything that could be decorated with a face did have one, whether that face be googly eyes and a Sharpie smile or a fully painted mural. All the available tables and counters were painted different neon colors, and the walls were covered in old memes that someone had printed off and framed. The floor was made of epoxied paperclips. Odd sense of humor, indeed. 

Liam led me to the front desk, where a student from our school was painting a little ceramic figurine of a rubber duck. I didn't remember the girl's name, and I felt slightly bad about that, but I also figured that it was probably too late to try and fix it. "Hey, Liz!" My date announced our presence.

The girl--Liz, apparently--looked up from her painting and grinned. "Hey, Brown! Hey, Jackie! You here for your Homecoming date?"

 I froze, then tried not to blush as I muttered, "Not a date." 

 The look that crossed his face was one I willfully chose not to decipher as Liz hummed in response and asked him about payment. It was probably nothing.

Liz led us to a table near the front window and set two plastic palettes in front of us. "Paint is right there," she pointed to a table off to one side, "and the thingies are over there." She pointed to an assortment of organized shelves on the other side of the shop. "Let me know if you need anything!"