If He Hurts You

Chapter 1 - Best friend

“Liam!” I yelled, walking through the doors of my best friend’s house. “Liam, I’m here!”

“Izzy!” Someone screamed, running to me, knocking me to the ground

I lay, face down on the carpet floor, no breath, wondering who had run me down.

“Hey.” The person said to me. 

I lifted my face and saw the beautiful eyes of my best friend Liam.

“Hey man!” I said, throwing my arms around his neck.

Liam stood up and I took his hand, lifting me up from the ground.

No, Liam hadn’t been away for like, 2 weeks and I had missed him, this is our normal ritual when we see each other.

I was staying at Liam’s house while our parents were out of town. They were completely for this, Liam’s mum, Karen and my mum and dad, Sandy and Peter.

“Look what I found!” Liam hinted, taking my bags and running into his room.

“Liam!” I called. “Wait for me!” I ran after him, running into his room.

“Look!” He picked up a photo album and shoved it into my hands.

I ran my fingers over the album, rubbing off the small amount of dust that lingered on it. There was a picture of Liam and I on the front, we were 6. It was his 6th birthday party, we were spending it at a small indoor playground called ‘Giggle Kids.’ 

Liam and I had birthday hats over our mouths and had our arms wrapped around each other. Liam was a little taller than me in the photo, but that might have been because I was bending over due to him tickling me. 

At the top of the cover of the book, there was some writing. ‘Liam and Izzy’ was scribbled over the book, with tiny smiley faces spread around the page.

I opened the book and there were 6 photos on each page. 

The first few photos were our mums sitting next to each other, with Liam and I on their laps, we were only little, barely 5. It seemed like so long ago when were were that little. We’re now both 16. It’s crazy to think we’ve been best friends for this long.

The next few were photos from Autumn when we were about 6. Our parents had raked a whole lot of leaves into a pile and Liam and I had jumped in them, sending red, orange and yellow leaves everywhere. We had run around with leaves hanging from our shirts.

Some others were from our first day at school together. I had my school dress on and Liam had his t-shirt and shorts. We were both wearing our wide brimmed school hats and had our small backpacks slung around our shoulders.

The next page had photos of Liam and I at the town pool, we were about 8. I was wearing my tiny polka dot bikini and Liam was wearing some short board-shorts, his small, plump stomach poking out. Liam was splashing me and I had my hands shielding my face.

This page had my 9th birthday on it. We were all sitting around my Bratz cake. I was ready to blow out the 9 candles, but Liam, who was sitting next to me, lent forward and blew them out before I had a chance. Another photo had him blowing the candles and my arms crossed over my chest.

Liam and I looked through all the pictures together. Others were him and I playing our DS for the first time, we were 10. 

Sliding in the mud on a stormy day. 

My first day in my new house, we went swimming in my new pool for the fist time together. 

Liam taking a present from me on Christmas day, about to open it.