Twice The Trouble

Chapter 17: She Broke Him

Sophia

"Liam?"

The tall blond in a red v-neck and blue jeans gave me a pained smile.

"I-I was just.. dropping by to see you, but I was told you were here."

His forlorn expression was killing me bit by bit. I felt a tight knot in my tummy.

But wait.. why did a pang of shame assail me the second Liam saw me with Lucas?

Nothing was going on between me and Lucas. We were just friends.. weren't we?

I warily rose from my wooden chair and gestured to a vacant seat at our round table.

"Hang out with us after you order, Li," I implored him.

His amber eyes traveled past me for a second. Then he glanced at me.

"I'm good.. I j-just.. I realized I'm not that hungry." Liam's voice cracked.

"Liam."

"I'll go ahead," the blond teen bid goodbye, and I stood there, rendered speechless and immobile for the next few minutes as I watched his retreating figure shrink into the distance.

A hand shot out to touch my arm, but I violently recoiled from his hold, shrugging his fingers off.

Lucas' brown eyes were tormented as he stared at me, unblinking and sullen. "Sophia."

"I-I'm s-sorry, but I h-have to--" I gazed out the glass window and saw a tiny silhouette of a guy.

Lucas sank onto his chair and gave me a sympathetic nod of his head. "Go."

I sprinted out of the bakery and began to yell at the top of my lungs: "LIAM!"

"LIAM!" I shouted, my chest heaving and my temples coated in beads of sweat as I ran.

Again I yelled: "LIAM!"

His tall figure didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon so I kept running and shouting:

"LIAM!"

Oh God, my heart was pounding so loudly and my brain felt jiggled like a rock in a jar.

I felt like I was about to keel over from exhaustion when my body staggered to the side, but a pair of lean arms caught me in time. The person assisted me in standing on my two feet.

"Thank you--Liam?" I spun around to face a tall,blond young man with dull amber eyes.

"You're welcome," he replied monotonously. Then he turned on the heel of his shoe.

"Hold it!" I reached for a fistful of his pale red shirt and pulled him back.

With seemingly great reluctance, Liam reeled around to look at me, his face glum.

"We're just friends, Liam," I told him.

"Are you speaking about us ,or about you and Lucas?" His tone was unusually scathing.

I flinched at his flippant attitude. I needed to be careful and tactful about this.

"Both," I answered him.

Liam's jaw tightened, and his shoulders went rigid. "Right. Of course."

"Li..." I said tentatively.

"What?" he snapped.

"Why are you so angry?" It was a stupid question, and those five words were evidently the red button to trigger Liam's long-buried bottle of pent-up emotions.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" He exploded like a bomb. He flailed his arms around at furious speed as he raged on me like a blazing fire eating up an unstable castle.

"I HAVE BEEN, IN LOVE WITH YOU FOR FOUR YEARS, SOPHIA. FOUR YEARS! I PLAYED THE FOOL, I WAS A PUPPET ON YOUR STRINGS, AND I WAS STUPID ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY BELIEVE, THAT FOR ONE FLEETING SECOND, YOU COULD ACTUALLY FEEL AT LEAST A TINY SHRED OF ROMANTIC FEELINGS FOR ME.

"I'M NEVER GOING TO LOVE ANYONE THE WAY I LOVE YOU, AND YOU THINK IT'S EASY FOR ME? JUST STANDING BY IN THE SIDELINES, WATCHING YOU AND ADMIRING YOU FROM A DISTANCE, HOPING, DREAMING, WISHING, PRAYING THAT YOU WOULD LOOK AT ME AND SEE ME AS MORE THAN LIAM THE NERD YOU MET IN HIGH SCHOOL.

"I WANTED YOU TO SEE ME AS A MAN, NOT YOUR FRIEND, NOT YOUR BEST GUY FRIEND. AND IT HURTS KNOWING THAT EVERY TIME YOU SMILE AT ME, EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU'RE NICE TO ME, I'M STILL THE SAME GEEK THAT YOU DEFENDED IN FRESHMAN YEAR ALL THOSE YEARS AGO.

"LOOK AT ME, SOPHIA. I CHANGED FOR YOU. I GOT MY BRACES OFF, FIXED MY WAY OF DRESSING, I TRIED TO DO EVERYTHING FOR YOU TO GIVE ME A CHANCE. JUST LOOK AT ME!" he bellowed in an angry boom.

I bowed my head down, hiding my face in my brown curtain of hair. My shoulders trembled and my chin wobbled. My hand flew to my mouth as my lips quivered and fat tears fell from my eyes.

"Look at me, Sophia."

"I can't," I sobbed between my tears.

"Why not?"

I looked at him, unblinking, as tears rolled down my cheeks. "I don't love you, Liam."

After saying those words, I tore my eyes away from him. I didn't want to see his reaction after I said that to his face.

After bearing feelings for me for so long, only to be rejected..

Why did this sound strangely familiar?

My misty eyes grew big as I realized why I felt so empathetic with Liam's pain.

I had gotten my heart broken in a very similar way two years ago, when I was 16.

The only difference was, Liam was willing to risk his everything for me.

Dale had thrown everything we shared as if I were nothing to him.

We were all just going in circles. Only pain and suffering. No closure or acceptance.

I raised my head to look at Liam, to discuss the state of our friendship from now on.

But he was gone.