Not Your Average Cliche Love Story (Wattys2015)

2. The Meeting

2. The Meeting

"Why are we here? More importantly, why am I here?"

"Because you love me."

"Remind me of all the reasons why I do, because I am going to need to remember them all for tonight. You've used up all your joker cards."

I turned to Allison, who was standing next to me in a tight black dress and cheeks flushed with excitement. I, on the other hand, was dressed in a blue sleeveless dress, paired with Converse sneakers. And so there we were. One freakishly excited and flustered friend and one freakishly bored and annoyed friend, standing in the foyer of Liam Lion's house.

"Come on. Smile." Allison said, as we started walking through the crowd of people.

"Haven't I done enough?" I groaned, but nonetheless smiled anyway.

"Oh, hey! Nice to see you!" The voice was from somewhere behind me, but I didn't need to see him to know that it was him.

Allison and I turned around and there he was. Liam Lion was standing in front of us in his best frock. Blue buttoned up shirt and jeans. Fancy, but not too fancy. Suitable, but definitely not original.

"Hi, Liam!" Allison said in such a dreamy voice that I had to physically stop myself from rolling my eyes.

"M'lady..." Liam said, taking her hand in his and kissing it. She giggled nervously and I had to stop myself from slapping her.

"Rachel," he said, as if suddenly spotting me. "You look pretty when you smile. All you need to work on now is your attitude."

"I see you've dressed well. All you need to work on now is taking off that mask so we can see your handsome face too. Oh, oops! I guess that is your face. No hope for you then."

He glowered and Allison pulled me away. "Oh-kay, let's not cause a scene."

I grumbled, but let her lead me away anyway. The rest of the party I spent trying to hide my fiery temper that usually comes with being a red-head behind a fake smile. Allison spent a lot of the time dancing with Liam and giggling and I spent a lot of the time replacing eye-rolls and groans with fake smiles and less audible huffs.

But I guess I was happy in a way. Liam and Allison seemed to be really hitting it off. That's what she wanted, right?

Yeah... Next up. Numero tres. The Heartbreak.