Not Your Average Cliche Love Story (Wattys2015)

1. The Confession

1. The Confession

The sun was shining. The birds were singing. The grass was green and shining with new color. The students were out, happily munching on their lunches. The teachers were happy, and not grading the homework they were supposed to be grading. So, therefore the Rachel and the Allison were perched on a bench, feet up against the wall, looking at the clouds.

"What the hell are we doing?" I asked after having been in that awkward position for five minutes straight.

"I don't know. I read an article that it was supposed to help with concentration and it was supposed to calm you down." Allison answered, not taking her gaze off the sky above us.

"Well, my legs are kind of numb if that counts as being calm." I answered, swinging my legs back down to the ground, feeling a sense of relief as the blood rushed back through them.

Allison Bruce-Williams. My best friend since kindergarten. Gorgeous with her morning coffee brown hair and hazelnut eyes. But quirky. She always found things in articles I'd never read or even heard of and made me try them out. This was not the worst of the bunch. There was one time where we'd poured honey over our hair. It was supposed to make it softer and more voluminous. I was sure that that was not the way it worked and that we were not supposed to be using two jars each, but I did it anyway. Suffice to say, after the event we both took a trip to the hairdresser. But no matter how weird I loved her all the same. I just didn't love the next words that came out of her mouth. Allison, being Allison, didn't prepare me for the shocker. As usual.

"I think I'm in love with Liam Lion."

"What?!"

Liam Lion. Despite the good connotation of his last name he was bitter. Stupid. Mean. An evil snail. My arch-nemesis. We'd been at it since kindergarten. Even the teachers knew to never ever seat us together when we were little. They were well past the point of "Oh, come now, make up." They'd just accepted the fact that Liam and I, although apparently very much alike, were never going to get along. So they kept us as far away from each other as possible in case the school was set on fire due to the fury coming from both sides.

"You're crazy! Out of all the people in the universe you picked Liam Lion?!"

"He's hot, okay?!"

"He's also a jackass!"

"He can be sweet."

"Yeah, when he wants something!"

"He's really nice to Clara."

"That's because Clara has her boobs on display as if she were a museum and they were a work of art!"

"He doesn't flirt with all the girls. Come on, Rachel, be reasonable."

"Name one girl that he hasn't flirted with."

"Uh..."

"Exactly!"

Silence descended upon us like the calm after the storm as we both sat on the bench, legs crossed.

"Are you mad at me?" Allison asked after a few minutes.

"No." I replied grumpily.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Promise?"

"Yes."

And that takes me to numero dos. The Meeting.