Meeting Liam Pierce

Chapter 10: Words Cut Deeper Than Knives

I didn't have time for them to give me misleading answers, so I took my stuff and left to go find him. When you live in a small town like ours, there are only so many place you can hide. I never thought about losing Liam until just now; he had always just been a phone call away and suddenly he wasn't. I went to his house, but no one was home. I was in a panic that Liam would normally help me out of; my breaths got quicker and quicker. My hands started to shake. I knew I needed to pull over until I calmed down, but my heart told me to keep going, so I did.

I had felt like I had gone everywhere in town, but there was still no luck. All of the sudden, I remembered the only place I didn't go, the old apartment building across from our neighborhood. When I was younger, I remember walking home with my friends from school and always seeing him on the second-story balcony just sitting there listening to music. I never even bothered asking anyone who he was, but in my gut, I know it was him. Pulling into the parking lot of the building I saw Liam dangling his feet from the rails on the balcony with a backpack and guitar sitting beside him. My hands stopped shaking, and I finally felt like I could breathe again.

As I walked up the stairs, I noticed most of the rooms had missing doors and broken windows. Finally, I made it up to the balcony, but Liam didn't even notice I was there. "Liam, what are you doing here?" Liam jumped a little bit being startled by my voice; he had blood on his hands and bruises everywhere. "I didn't feel like going to school today." I sat down next to him and put my feet through the rails too. "We both know that's not why you are sitting in an abandoned apartment building with blood on your hands. Liam, you can tell me the truth." He got up and shook his head at me. "You're always talking about the truth, but you didn't even tell me the truth about you, Cassie. You let me fall in love with you, and I fell really hard. Why wouldn't you tell me? Is that why you felt the need to help me that day? Because you felt guilty about what you and your stupid friends did."

"Liam, I honestly don't know what you're talking about. Please just tell me what nonsense Leah, Jessica, and the rest of her idiotic friends told you, so I can tell you that they aren't true." Liam paced around for a second trying to gather his thoughts. "Last year, my sister, brother, and I were sitting up here just talking about random crap no one really cares about. My sister used to be friends with Leah and Jessica, and I guess she did something to really piss them off because they ran up those stairs you just ran up and started yelling awful things to her. I tried to step in, but I moved out of the way when Jessica tried to push me away. She ended up pushing my sister, and my sister fell off the balcony and died. Jessica has always been out for me; she's been trying to gather dirt on me, so if I told anyone she's the one that killed my sister. She would have stuff on me. Cassie, I know that you're the one that gave my sister's name to the girls. They probably ran to you asking for help, and you thought why not just throw some innocent girl under the bus, right? Well, she's dead, and it's your fault!"

I didn't know what to say or how to react; I had tears running down my face and started shaking from head to toe. "I'm sorry about your sister, but I didn't even know you had a sister, Liam. I told Jessica it was Leah who was saying bad things about her not the sister I didn't know you had. I had nothing to do with your sister dying, so the next time you want to go blaming me for deaths I don't even know about will you give me a heads up." I sat down in the corner of the balcony knowing I was to upset to even make it down the stairs lead alone drive home.

"Cas, I'm sorry I let them get to me like that. They knew bringing up my sister would be the perfect way to break us up. I know what I said was unforgivable, but please try to forgive me. This morning, their whole little group cornered me when I was walking to school. They told me that story about my sister and you, and at first I said I didn't believe them. Right when I said that they decided to beat the crap out of me until I believed it. I am really sorry, and if you want me to never talk to you again, I won't. If you want me to stop breathing, then I will. Just please say something."