Twenty-Two ➳ l.p.

Chapter Six: Green Leaves

“Green leaves are the prettiest,” Liam mumbled, eyes glancing up at the tree above us.

                  I wrinkled my nose. “But they’re so plain. Why not like, yellow, or red, or orange?”

                  Liam gave me a small smile. “Plain. Maybe that’s what makes them beautiful.”

Chapter Six: Green Leaves

“You’ve been abandoning me.” It wasn’t really an opinion that was coming out of Abbie’s mouth; it was a fact. “Ever since Liam came back—who you don’t even like—I’ve barely seen you.”

She tossed the empty Starbucks cup at me, and I threw it into the bin. “I’m sorry.” And I didn’t really want to point out the fact that I was actually in love with Liam, so I just kind of omitted that part.

But I needed to tell her.

“What do you even do over there?” She asked, shaking her head. “I don’t understand, you don’t even like him, and—”

“It’s because I kind of love him,” I murmured, low and steady and praying that she wouldn’t hear. I wasn’t exactly ready to tell her; not yet, but I figured that I better just get it out of the way. She’d find out eventually, wouldn’t she?

The sentence took a second to process, and I was really grateful that she had already finished her coffee, because I wasn’t really in the mood to have Vanilla Bean Latte spewed all over my comforter.

“You kind of love him.” The sentence came out much more bland that I had anticipated, and I let out a breath, nodding.

“Yeah.”

“As in present tense. And in you love Liam Payne right now, at this very moment.”

I bit my lip, finding the flower design on my duvet to be a lot less breathtaking than looking into the blonde’s eyes. “More or less.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I glanced up to see Abbie shifting on my bed, fiddling her fingers in her lap and a determined pout on her face. “Do you, like, love him or not?”

“I do,” I confirmed, running my hand through my curls and sighing. Automatically, my eyes wandered out through my window, where I spotted Louis and Niall chatting animatedly. The Irish boy noticed me staring, shooting me an ecstatic wave and a grin.

I returned the favor, albeit a little less enthusiastic and whole lot more awkward.

“I really, really do.” And I did. There was no doubt in my mind that I was in love with Liam James Payne. Everything about him captivated me. Everything he did stuttered my heart, and sent my mind hurtling through time and space and whatever else there was. “I’ve loved him for a long time.”

I already knew the question before it even left her pretty little lips. “How long?”

“Forever.” Really, I couldn’t even remember a time when Liam hadn’t owned my heart. I’m sure that even before I knew what love even was I was in love with him. I hadn’t known what the feeling was; the weird fluttering in my heart and blush on my cheeks, but I had eventually pinpointed that it only happened around Liam.

It wasn’t hard for me to see that I was in love with him. And really, there was no way for me not to be. Liam was perfect. Absolutely, impossibly perfect.

And really, I didn’t regret loving him.

But sometimes I’d sit on my bed and wonder what if?