Rejected 22 Times

Chapter 31

No excuses. I'm sorry for the ridiculously long wait. It's here now. Again, I'm sorry. Also, ignore grammatical errors; I'll fix those later. Please comment your thoughts, opinions, or tell me how much you hate me for the wait. It's all good:)

PS- Please check out my new story "Boston" if you haven't already!

Chapter 31

It wasn't a very long ride back to my house, so before I knew it, we were pulling up alongside the place I called home. Once I stepped out of the vehicle, I extended my hand out to Sophia to help her step out as well. We walked into the house, and my dad excused himself to his room. Sophia stayed right by my side as if she was a young child in a museum who was afraid of getting lost.

"Should I give you a tour of the museum?" I asked her jokingly, but she responded with a puzzled expression, and then I remembered that the museum joke was only in my head.

"Stupid Liam!" I scolded myself.

As we walked further into the front room, I watched as Sophia paused to look at the photographs sitting on shelves or hanging on walls. Each one captured her attention for a few seconds, but when she came across a certain picture, she paused for a little bit longer.

"Is that you?" she asked without turning around. Her eyes were glued to the photo as she stared at the frozen moment of my past. Stepping closer, I stood behind her as I leaned over her shoulder to look at the picture. Although I couldn't see her face, I could sense the smile forming on her lips as she picked up the frame. Her eyes still continued to carefully study the image as I rested my chin in the crook of her neck and wrapped my arms around her waist. My back hunched slightly to match her height.

"Yeah", I whispered. My eyes scanned over the photo as I tried to figure out what was so special about it. I don't why she was so infatuated with it, but for some reason, it made her smile. If all it takes to see her smile is a picture of me as a toddler, dressed in my Woody costume, then I'll take it. I'd pull out the old family albums if that kept her smiling, but I had a feeling that the moment would quickly fade.

With all my might, I tried to hold onto it, the moment that is. Once the moment was over, who knew what laid ahead. "Well, you were adorable", she commented as her fingers still clutched onto the frame.

Worry, that the moment would end soon, began to settle in, so I tried to keep the conversation going. "So you're saying that I'm not anymore?" I could hear the reverberations in her throat as she tried to stifle a giggle.

"No. I never said you weren't", she coolly replied.

"So I am?" She couldn't see the playful grin that had spread across my face, but it showed how much I enjoyed teasing her.

"I never said you were." Sassy, isn't she?

"So what does that make me?"

"Confused."

This is why I love this girl. She may be confusing, and she may be a little hard-to-read, but I wouldn't want her any other way. The kiss that I placed on her cheek came naturally, and her cheek felt heated under my touch.

Before I could make any further advances, I heard a cough followed by a distinct, female voice. "Liam", it said quietly. That wasn't Sophia's voice. It came from behind me.

It was my mum.

Well, moment's over.

Within a second, I had jumped about two feet away from Sophia just as the picture frame she had clutched slipped from her fingers and fell on the ground. Unfortunately, the frame landed on the wooden flooring instead of the carpet, and the glass had shattered. The look on her face was filled with such fear, you would have thought she had just accidentally set off a bomb. Before anyone could move, she had already crouched down to her knees and began to pick up the tiny fragments of the broken glass as she mumbled apologies over and over again.