Not In Love With Liam

46~ History

"No, but I'm serious, she's really been trying me lately."
"Can I try you?" He said flirting.
"Mm.. no."

He smiled. "Look, if you really think he's worth all the trouble, then date him."

That was somewhat noble of Brandon..

"But just remember, you'd be missing out on all this."

Thaaaat's more like it.

"Naah, I'm kidding. If you can put up with his mum, then go for it. But if Blake or Jules ask, you're still my girl, alright?"
I laughed. "Alright. But um, actually.. It sort of slipped out and mow Julia knows."
"That we're faking it?"
"Yup."
"Ah, doesn't matter. It's Blake I'm really worried about. How did she react?"
"At first, she asked if that was just my polite way of dumping you, but after Darcy confirmed it was true, she said she'd suspected so all along."
"Yeah right.. A Chinese designer bag couldn't tell we were faking it."
I laughed.
"So anyway, she wasn't mad?"
"Nope."
"That's good. I should probably tell her I know she knows."
"Yeah, good idea.... Um, can I ask you something?"
"Of course I'll marry you." He winked.
"I wasn't going to ask you to marry me, Cinderella, I was going to ask why we're doing this. The whole fake girlfriend thing.. what's the point?"
"Er.." he looked away. "Listen, maybe we should talk about this another time?"
"Brandon.. what is it?"
"I swear, I will explain everything, just.. not right now."
"Whatever. I'm gonna go downstairs and grab a drink."
"Noah? You realize you've only just recovered from what will forever be known as Noah's first Weed. Real photo moment this is, where's my camera when I need it?"

"My first weed.. sure.." I stood up and stumbled towards the door.
He followed, put his hands on my shoulders and steered me back to the sofa.
"Stop acting like you're a hard core stoner girl, Pringle."
"Hard, core, stoner, girl and Pringle?" I counted on my fingers. That's a lot of words for a high school dropout."
"I'm sorry, your highness, that we couldn't all afford to jet off to our dream uni." He snapped, before turning to face the window.

"Hey, I'm sorry - "
"Forget it."

I put a hand on his shoulder."Brandon, I'm truly sorry. I didn't know - "
"Seriously, it's alright." He lied.

"It wasn't as simple as jetting off.. And you're right - we couldn't all afford what we wanted. I couldn't. Well, my parents could, but I on my own..." I shook my head.
He turned to face me.
"It all started with an abusive boyfriend and a shitload of alcohol.." I smiled solemnly to myself. "Just before the time came for my year to sit our GCSE's, I was busy fucking around with him."
"You never.. you know - with him though, right?"

I shook my head again. "No. And I'm glad I didn't. He proved pretty good at getting girls pregnant."
"Knocked some girl up?"
"Uh huh. Then forced her to get rid of it so I wouldn't leave him."
"Sounds like an asshole."
"Yeah, he was. But anyway, when I finally did get my head back in the right place, I didn't let my parents just pay for everything and secure me a place at my uni. I swore to myself I'd work hard and earn a place. I initially would have settled with a recommendation letter from my art teacher, but I ended up landing myself a scholarship. With all the gang shit I took part in, I had to prove to myself I was actually worthy of a future. A decent one."

"You've come way further than a decent future, Noah. I'm happy for you. You've told me a bit about the fuckboy that's your ex, but never about the scholarship stuff."
"It's hard to talk about him sometimes. You say the wrong thing and too many memories come out of their hiding places. I never admitted it, but sometimes I used to drink just to avoid it altogether. Avoid thinking about him before I even started."