Rejected 22 Times

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

(Sophia's POV)

As soon as he stepped into the hallway, he noticed me leaning against the wall and cautiously made his way over to where I stood as if he was being careful not to set off a bomb.

"Sophia?", he asked, the wariness evident in his voice. Reluctantly, I turned towards him, but the temporary strength I had mustered up faded once I saw his face.

In that moment, I broke down and sobbed out, "Liam, please... just don't", as I slumped down to the floor. As soon as I hit the cold, hard floor, I felt even colder, yet much softer, hands grab me by the arms. Realizing, that I wasn't going to move from my position on the floor, Liam sat down as well.

I sat in the corner of the wall, so we were diagonal from each other. He sat where the wall extended further and his back was turned away from me as it rested against the wall.

It was silent for a minute before he finally spoke up. "I'm sorry."

"I know", I answered quietly.

"It wasn't my fault", he tried to defend himself.

"I know", I repeated.

"Are you mad?"

"No", the word hesitated on my lips before I spoke it. He fell into another mode of silence, so I responded, "I'm disappointed."

"But I told you that it wasn't my fault", he said, now turning towards me.

"Not with you", I corrected him. His expression showed his confusion, so I explained. "I'm disappointed in myself." Now he carried an utterly confused look upon his face. "This is all my fault." He changed his position so that he now sat right next to me. His feet extended outwards, while mine were scrunched in as I pulled them tightly towards my chest. "I shouldn't have told you to come with someone else." My hands covered my face to conceal the tears that had begun to form in the corners of my eyes. "I shouldn't have come here with someone else." I felt the gentle touch of his hands on mine, bringing them back down to my lap. "This is all my fault". I repeated.

"Shh..", Liam coaxed me as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders, pulling me in closer to him. At this point, I was sobbing into his chest that this was all my fault over and over again as he tried to comfort me. He rubbed his hands over the bare skin on my arms, but instead of relaxing me, it only caused goosebumps to form.

"Chase didn't deserve to be stringed along. He never did anything wrong, and I just messed with his feelings." Instead of tensing up at the mention of Chase's name, Liam just continued holding on to me. "And you don't deserve this either." Again, instead of responding, Liam remained silent as he kept me in his arms. Somehow, no matter what, I always ended up running back to Liam whenever I needed comfort, maybe a little too often.

As soon as I realized how unruly I must have been coming across, I pulled away from the warm embrace of Liam's arms, and leaned back against the cold wall. "Gosh, I'm such a mess."

"No, you're not." Liam's arm extended upwards so that he could remove the hair that had fallen in front of my face and tuck it behind my ear. "You always put yourself down, and I wish you could see yourself the way I do."

"And hows that?", I questioned, curiosity getting the best of me. Trying to adjust myself on the dusty floor so that my backbone was not in pain anymore, I sat on my legs as they extended to outwards. "Why is it that after all this time, you still come chasing after me?", I continued my questioning, not giving him a chance to answer the previous one.

"Honestly?" I nodded my head. "I don't know", he half spoke, half laughed. My eyebrows arched at his insincere answer. "I can't describe it."

"Try", I encouraged him.