The Whisper Seekers

Alone Together

The music is the only noise in the car during the short ride to my house. I live in the suburbs about ten minutes away from the school where the majority of my classmates live. After he drives past Derek's house, I point to my house that sits at the end of the lane behind a long gravel driveway. Our house looks like a modern castle built with gray bricks and stone trim. He pulls up in front of the house and we sit staring at my white garage door.

"I know I don't know you that well, but is something wrong?" He asks suspiciously. The whole car ride over I was focused on his thoughts but as usual, I just found silence. I'm confused but I can't come out and tell him why.

"It's nothing really, I just don't feel good." I release my seatbelt and start for the handle when he places his hand on my forearm. I feel this electric energy between us and I dart my eyes down to his hand. He quickly snatches his hand off my arm and he says, "Sorry, just let me grab your door." He jumps out of the car and strides over to the passenger side. I fully embrace him being a gentleman and wait for him to pull my door open. I gracefully climb out, but I don't really want him to leave. For some reason, I want to get to know him more.

"Since you're going to miss math anyway, would you like to come in?" I ask, trying to refrain from adding in a flirty tone. Without hesitating he closes my door and follows me to my garage with his hands in his pockets. I type in the code and the door slowly opens as we stand there awkwardly, listening to the hum. We walk through the garage to open my door and I lead him into the kitchen where I plop my book bag down. I open the fridge and immediately start rummaging around for some food. Liam pulls a barstool over as he looks around my spacious ornate kitchen.

"So what do your parents do?" He casually asks. I laugh since that was the same question he asked Derek yesterday when we went to his house. I grab a bag of baby carrots out and place them between us. I climb up on the barstool next to him and start to open the bag. After the first crunch into my carrot, I realize I grabbed possibly the loudest food in the house.

"My dad owns a real estate company and my mom stays at home and does charity work and stuff. She's actually off planning a charity event today."

"No siblings?" He asks and I shake my head. I realize I am still chewing extremely loud. I toss the carrot onto the counter and wipe my hands on my dress.

"What about you?" I ask back.

"I'm an only child too. My dad is a political advisor who spends most of his time in D.C and my mom never seems satisfied, so she bounces around from job to job." I swivel from side to side on my bar stool letting my feet dangle as I ask, "Is that why you moved here?" He sways in the chair and starts playing with his own carrot.

"Uh yeah. There was some stuff she wanted to work on here so we moved." The way he hesitates in saying it makes it seem like he's covering something up. I guess we all have secrets. He spins his chair and points to a picture my parents have on the fridge where I'm holding a medal with my right hand and a certificate in my left. I'm smiling and wearing a dark gray business suit.

"What's that from?" He asks and I hop down from the stool and pull the picture off the fridge. "Just a stupid mock trial thing I did. We pretend to be lawyers and have a fake case and everything. I won my case." I shove the old picture into a drawer of utensils and slide it shut, "It was silly."

"Prosecution or defense?" He asks like he is interested in my middle school lawyering days. I grin and put my hand on my hip.

"Prosecution." My intimidation doesn't work as he leans back and laughs. "Why is that funny?" I ask as I throw a carrot at him.

"I just don't see you as the scary person you try and put out there. Miss popular cheerleader, who has everyone wrapped around her little finger. I have a hard time finding you...as intimidating as everyone else does." I tilt my head down and narrow my eyes. He continues, "I hope I don't offend you, it's just what I've picked up on and what other people have said." Now I'm really taken back. He smirks at my flicker of confusion.