Alex and Liam

Chapter 1

Liam P.O.V

I sprinted down the road, half eaten bacon sandwich in one hand, a handful of crumpled papers in the other, and my bag slung over one shoulder.
I was late to school as usual, due to a combination of laziness and leaving everything until the last minute, in an effort to avoid disturbing my parents. They'd been drinking late again that night, I wasn't even sure if my dad had been home this morning, maybe he'd made his usual late night trip to the pub, in which case he may not return until this afternoon.
In any case it was best just to keep quiet and keep out of the way in the mornings when their tempers were particularly high.

I managed to arrive at school just as the bell began to ring. Sprinting up the front steps two at a time I headed towards the history classrooms to find my first lesson of the day.
When I opened the door I was embarrassed to find most people already sat in their seats and my sudden entrance caused many of them to turn around and stare at me. I made my way over to the first spare seat I could find. Looking to my right I saw Alex Owens, one of the schools top football players, occupying the seat beside me.
He had his back to me, and was chatting to a couple of girls a few seats away and did not seem to have noticed me at all. Alex was no stranger to me though, we'd had a few conversations over the years, he used to be on the rugby team with me, before focusing his concentration on football.

When the teacher entered the room, he turned to face the front before glancing in my direction and giving me a quick smile. As the teacher began to list off instructions and information in a very monotonous voice Alex leaned in closer to me and whispered in my ear, "Wake me if I fall asleep, don't think I'll be able to sit through this drivel for an hour" I watched as he grinned and turned back to face the front.
I smiled. Alex had always been a bit of joker, teachers either loved or hated him as he was always the class clown. Not that I was quiet or shy, far from it, I was often loud and outgoing. It's just Alex seemed to have something about him that meant he could make any group of people laugh, no matter. He could get along with anybody and everybody, and he often did.

The teacher set us a task to do in pairs, as soon as everyone started to talk Alex turned to me and said "So Liam, how's things man, don't think I've seen you in a while."
I was unsure how to respond, it was true, we hadn't seen each other for a while and it was for this reason, and the fact it would be a stretch to call me and Alex 'friends', that meant I was not keen to disclose to Alex much of what has been going on in my life recently.
I simply responded "yeah I've been alright, just been busy at home I guess, how's the football, I hear your thinking about applying for scholarships?" I was trying to keep the conversation light but realised how totally generic and boring I sounded.
"Hm not sure my grades will be good enough for a scholarship, Mia keeps pushing me to apply but I'm just not sure"
Again I was unsure how to respond to Alex so decided to talk about perhaps the only thing we had slightly in common.
"Oh how is Mia, I haven't seen her in a while" I said, trying to act interested.
Mia was Alex's girlfriend, she had been been my next door neighbour a few years ago so I knew her quite well, she was a popular girl with long blonde hair and incredible blue eyes.
"Yeah she's good, keeps trying to persuade me to have a party since my parents are always away"
"I wish my parents were always away" the words left my mouth before I could stop then.
Alex looked at me, confused.
"Why's that?" He said.
"Oh they just fight sometimes" I replied, trying to brush off the question.
Thankfully I was saved from any further questioning by the teacher telling us all to settle down and be quiet. The rest of the lesson passed pretty much in silence and when the bell rang Alex said a quick goodbye and left before I had even started putting my things away.

The rest of the day was uneventful, I didn't have any other lessons with Alex and spent most of my spare time in the common room with my friends Emily and Jake. I didn't have rugby practice that evening so at the end of the day I began my twenty minute walk home alone.

As I walked my mind drifted back to Alex. A few years ago I guess you could have called us friends, playing on the same rugby team meant I had spent most of my free time with him at one point. But when he quit rugby for football we quickly lost touch, apart from the odd smile or acknowledgment of each other in the hallways, or perhaps a few exchanged words when I had been talking to Mia and he stood by awkwardly. I knew Alex's parents were often away on business, even when he was much younger he had been left at home for days at a time with only his older sister's company.
As a result of this Alex had always been mature for his age, despite his often giddy personality.

I hadn't even got home before I heard it. The sound of my parents voices, shouting, screaming at each other. It was difficult to work out what they were saying and as I walked up the path to the front door I felt more and more depressed. I wanted to get out of this house, away from my parents who had constantly made my life miserable. From what I could hear it sounded like my parents were in the kitchen, in which case it would be easy for me to slip past them up the stairs to my room. I opened the front door as quietly as possible, though this seemed pointless given how loud they were shouting at each other, and made my way up the two flights of stairs to my attic bedroom.

I flung my stuff down on the bed and walked over to my desk switching on my laptop. As I said down the screen lit up displaying my Facebook feed. For some reason, perhaps curiosity from our brief conversation I typed 'Alex' into the search bar at the top. A few other people came up so I scrolled down before clicking on 'Alex Owens'

His page was surprisingly empty, though many people had tagged him in various photos of parties, football games or a few of him and Mia it appeared he had posted next to nothing.

I clicked on his profile picture, it was a photo of him with his arm round his sister and what appeared to be a lake in the background. I studied his face. His dark hair framed his face perfectly, combined with his brown eyes and chiselled jawline he was an attractive boy. The dark t shirt he was wearing helped display his tanned muscular arms and figure. He had his typical grin on his face, beaming at the camera.

I then began to look through the photos he had been tagged in, he somehow managed to look good in all of them, always laughing, smiling or striking some funny pose. I noted that apart from his profile picture of him and his sister there were no other photos of his family to be seen.

It was then I seemed to come to my senses, what was I doing stalking his Facebook and all his photos? This was stupid. I quickly closed the tab and for the rest of my night tried to focus on other things. Yet no matter how hard I tried Alex seemed to enter my thoughts a lot more than I was comfortable with.