The Hierarchy

Chapter 18: Try and Change

^^^Spence Channing^^^

"Reece get the door!" my mom yells at me and I roll my eyes. 

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I blabber as I walk into the foyer and yank the door open. The gust of cold air barrels through the doorway and hits me. I look up and meet Liam's eyes and I just stand there.

He was supposed to come to the hospital, but he never showed. Then Valerie tells me he was drunk at some bar and never went to the Hamptons.  He lied to me and wasn't there when I needed him. Now a week later, he wants to stand here all clueless and acting like I didn't call him a billion times. He's ignored me in school so I've just given up at this point.

"Liam,"I say, folding my arms over my chest and pulling my Texas University sweatshirt tighter around me.

"Hey, baby," he says and grins

I raise an eyebrow and I swear my jaw drops to the floor. "Don't hey baby' me. Where have you been?"

"I don't think we should talk about this here, Reece. Can we go to your room?" He asks me and I nod opening the door some more to let him in.

He walks in and I close the door. I lead him out of the foyer and into the kitchen to get to the stairs.

"Liam?" I hear my mother and he turns to see her with Viola and my dad with Tori. She smiles at him and I want to kill her.

"Hey, Bronx, Damien." He says greeting my parents.

"Mom, we have a project to do so please excuse us," I say yanking Liam's arm to follow me up the stairs.

I throw open the door to my room and sit him down on my bed.

"Where even were you?" I shout at him as he sits there on my bed acting all innocent.

"Caprice, I'm sorry. I swear I didn't-"

"Shut up, Liam. Just shut up. I asked you to be there. I waited for you to be there. Then I find out you were getting drunk with your friends at a bar instead of in the Hamptons with your family or with your girlfriend. What do you have to say to that? What could possibly make the situation better? I would really love to fucking know Liam because I have no clue. You were drunk."

"I have no reason other than to get drunk, Reece." He stands up and towers over me. "I wanted to get hammered. I didn't want to go to the hospital to see your sisters and congratulate your mom. I'd see her when she got back. Same with your sisters. It's not my obligation to be there. I was asked to go to the club so I said yes. It is not a crime, Reece!"

"You're supposed to be there for me! No, go and get drunk with Harry, my ex-boyfriend and your asshole friends why I waited anxiously to make sure my mother didn't die." I yell back before taking a shaky breath. "I wanted you to be there for me. I wanted you to be that person. I thought you changed. For me. You said you loved me."

"I tried to change. I really tried. I tried for you, Reece, but I can't change. I can't be more than what you want me to." he admits in a low, sad voice.

A tear falls from my eye and I mentally slap myself for doing so. I wipe it away and stare at the floor. "I just..."

Liam pulls me into him for a hug. He holds the back of my head with one hand and smooths out my hair with the other. "I know."

"I just expected more. This turned into me being mad into...this. Us just..." I can't keep myself from crying.

I went into this conversation with a hell of a lot of confidence. I was going to yell at him for not showing up and being drunk and we were going to move past it and go to the park with Leo. Not stand here with me crying and him saying he can't change for me and basically drop me. 

"I don't want to let this go, but..."

He sucks in a breath. "But?"

"I can't set myself up for disaster. I want you to be different. I really want you to be different, but I know the reality of this and you aren't going to change and I'm not going to wait around and hope you are going to. I don't have the effort or the patience to do it, Liam. I love you, but I can't."

He moves away from me and I wrap my arms around myself. I choke on a sob and cover my mouth. "I'm sorry, Liam."

"I am too, Caprice but can't we move past this?"

I look up at him. He's close to crying but I know he won't because he doesn't want to seem like the week one here. I wipe away the tears that are on my cheeks. "No, we can't. I can't be a girl who you expect to just sit around and wait for you to come when its convenient for you. I wanted you there. I thought you were going to be there. But you weren't and I thought wrong. Just leave Liam."

He takes a step forward and runs a hand through my hair looking into my eyes. "I didn't ever tell you how pretty your eyes are. You look like your mom."

I move his hand away. "Go."

He waits for a second longer before opening my bedroom door. His back is facing me and his head is hanging low. "I love you. You know that right?"

I nod as of he can't somehow see me. "Yeah, I kind of wish I didn't, too."

Then he leaves.

I fall back onto my bed and start crying. I don't stop crying until there's nothing more to cry about.

***

"Reece, get up." my mom tells me rubbing my back. "We're going to Georgia today."

"I don't wanna go," I mumble into my pillow.

"Well, that's too bad. Your grandparents need the pictures for their company since you're their new poster child for their company. Plus you have to meet their senior executive's son and he's your date to their annual company ball." She says sweetly.

I groan. "Mooooooooom! I'm in no place to just be taking pictures and smiling and changing on some photoshoot set after my boyfriend tells me he won't change for me."

"I know, baby, I know. Look at it this way: at least he didn't fake his death for a year and a half," she tells me and I look up at her and can't help but smile at her. 

"I'll get up in a minute."

"That's my girl." She leans down and kisses my forehead. "We're leaving at eight so we can get there by nine and you can shower and get changed before your photo shoot at ten thirty."

"Mmk."

The weight of the bed shifts as she gets up and closes the door.

My grandparents, the ones I hate, are huge company owners. I don't even know what companies they own but my grandmother owns a huge fashion corporation across the country and even in Paris. She needs a new poster girl for her publicity. She needs someone who screams girl empowerment and someone who makes something of herself. I have good grades, I'm a cheerleader, I was in dance school, my parents own dance schools all along the east coast so who is a better person for the job than her very own granddaughter? 

No one that's who.

The build-up to this whole launch thing has been mind bobbling. I mean this photo shoot has been planned since August and the ball since last May. Spence Channing is my Grandfather's best friend's son, son if that makes sense. So basically my grandfather has a best friend who has a son and he has a son who's my age. Yeah, that makes sense. Anyway, he is the poster child for the guys and he will be my photo shoot partner and date to the ball. I'm not complaining or anything. He's pretty freaking gorgeous. I can say that no because my boy-- ex-boyfriend, left me like the trash I am.

So let's hear it for Georgia, shall we?