See Me

Chapter Twenty

The weekend crawls by at a snails pace. I don't know what to do without Liam, and I don't know how to stop hurting.

It is around noon on Sunday when Laya comes banging on my door. To be honest, I'm surprised that Mr and Mrs.Jesop haven't come looking for me, but I figure Liam has settled that with them. They probably hate me now, too.

I open the door for Laya and glare at her.

"I was sleeping," I tell her.

"It's almost lunch time!"

"What's your point?"

"Girl, we need to get your ass out of this house and your mind off of Liam."

Laya doesn't even know what really happened. She just knows that Liam and I aren't together anymore and that I don't want to talk about why.

"Laya, nothing you do will make me feel better."

She pulls out a fifty dollar Giftcard for the Cheesecake Factory.

"Not even Cheesecake?" She grins mischievously.

"I hate you," I groan. She slaps my butt.

"You love me, now go get changed!"

*

That's how I ended up at the Cheesecake Factory, shoveling Red Velvet Cheesecake into my mouth.

"This is so good," I moan, and Laya raises her eyebrows at me.

"Slow down," she says, "there's no rental time on the cake, relax."

I roll my eyes at her.

Then, I see Joey walk into the restaurant. I duck my head, hoping he won't see me.

"Sierra?" he says and I groan.

"Hi."

"Scoot over."

"Oh, no. I wouldn't want to take you away from... whoever you're here with." My futile attempt is ignored.

"I'm here with you and Laya. She invited me."

I flick my eyes to her. "You did what?"

She shrugs at me. "He needs to talk to you. We both do, actually."

"What do you mean you-" Joey shoves me over and sits in the spot next to me. I sigh, dragging my cake with me.

"Sierra, I know about what happened with Daniel," Laya says and I gasp.

"You told her?!" I hiss at Joey and he holds his hands up.

"Hey! She already knew, I didn't tell her."

"You knew? Why didn't you ever say anything? How did you find out?"

She flushes. "Jack told me, about a year ago."

I open my mouth to speak. She cuts me off. "Don't be mad at him, he was drunk off his ass and it was almost two AM. He hardly knew what he was saying. I never brought it up because... well, I figured you just wanted to forget about it, you know?"

I nod and then sigh. "Let me guess, you're taking Joeys side? You think I should tell Liam?"

She looks over at him nervously and chews her lip.

"Yes."

"Absolutely not," I say, and I glare at Joey. "I said no last night and I'm saying it now. No."

"But-"

"No buts, okay? I'm going through one terrible phase of my life and I don't want to relive another at the same time."

They sigh, defeated, and I cram more cake into my mouth.

Was this my life now?

*

That night, Mrs.Jesop called me.

"Hi, Sierra, do you have a minute?" she asks, and I say yes.

"Sweetheart, I heard about what happened between you and Liam." My heart nearly stops, but then she continues. "I don't know exactly what happened, but I know you two aren't together. And I know Liam doesn't want you around."

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Jesop."

"You've got nothing to be sorry for, dear. My boy is a bit hard headed. Always has been. I just wanted to check in with you. Do you need anything? Food? Your things?"

"Would it be too much to ask for my clothes and stuff?"

"Of course not, I'll drop them off tomorrow. I hope you and Liam work this out."

"Me too," I whisper.