This Is Our Love Story

5: Gimmie Ice Cream

Liam hoists himself into his old beat up pickup truck. Man, I feel like I'm in a country song. Liam sighs and grips the steering wheel. "You ready?" He turns to me with a huge grin. No. Not really.

"Totally," I whisper. I must be out of my mind. Liam cracks his neck and clears his throat. 

"Then we're off." He chuckles and pulls the stick shift into reverse. I peer out the window as Liam quickly pulls out of the driveway and onto the road. He then briskly shifts into drive and heads down Auburn Lane. My phone buzzes in my pocket and my eyes go wide for a second. Who would be texting me right now? I pull the rose gold cased device out of my pocket and stare at it. I press my thumb into the middle button and watch as my screen lights up. 

Text from Major pain in my ass

I shake my head and sigh. Why would he be texting me? 

"Who is it?" Liam glances at me out of the corner of his eye. I raise a brow and shake my head again. 

"Calum," I whisper. I see Liam's body tense and he then white knuckles the steering wheel.

"Why the fuck didn't you block him?" Liam hisses. I roll my eyes. 

"Because we're friends. We made up." I reply. I glance out the window and notice that we're going considerably faster than last time I looked out the window. I furrow my brows and look back to Liam. 

"You made up?" Liam repeats. I nod. "Fuck that." He growls. I huff and stare out of the window. 

"Liam I don't know why you're so upset. So what if Claum and I had a little thing? It doesn't matter now does it?" It's a rhetorical question, but Liam finds pleasure in answering it anyway. 

"It does matter. Mabe, he wrapped you around his little finger, used you for what he wanted, and then threw you out like trash. He took advantage of you." Liam turns a corner and I grip onto the door. "What did he say?" He asks. I look at my phone and open up the text from Calum. 

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"You can't do that." Calum laughs. He nudges me with a huge grin. I giggle and whip the Wii controller faster. "This is not how Wii Sports works!" Calum snatches me in his arms and encircles me. He rests his head on my shoulder. I can hear his heavy breathing in my ear, it makes the hairs on my neck stand up. 

"Hey... we're always gonna stay together right?" I ask silently. I feel Calum shift and before I realize what's going on, he's kissing my cheek. 

"Always baby girl." 

I guess being a teen can be great, but it can also suck ass sometimes. The only thing my teenage years have brought me is mistake aver mistake. Calum was one of those mistakes. He's alright though. No hard feelings. Not after everything we've been through. Not after everything he knows about me. 

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Calum: I hope you're doing okay. Last time we talked you didn't seem to be your normal self. 

"You guys talk on a regular basis?" Liam huffs. I raise my brows. 

"Yes Liam, I talk to other people besides you and Marcus." I fire back. Liam makes another turn and nods absentmindedly. 

"Reply back to him." Liam blurts. I furrow my brows. 

"Okay..." I trail. I text a quick reply back to Calum. 

Me: Hey, thanks for checking in :) I'm doing okay actually! I'm with Liam right now so that's helping, but I guess he has an issue with us texting so that's getting annoying. Other than that, everything is a-okay! <3

My wrist starts to throb and I feel a sudden wash of guilt run over my body.

You're not doing fine. 

I shake my head and tuck my phone under my stomach. 

"What'd you say?" Liam asks. I stare out the window. "May?" I see the Ice cream stand a few feet from us.

"We're here," I whisper. Liam slows the truck down. He pulls into the gravel patch near the stand. 

"Yes, and you're also going to tell me what's going on with this." Liam's eyes darken and he pulls my sleeve up to reveal the scar from yesterday. My eyes widen. How the hell did he figure that one out? "What the hell May? What are you doing?" Liam's grip on my wrist tightens. "What's... what's wrong?" He whispers. I frantically look around for a topic change, but I find nothing but an empty space. Just Liam and I. I finally look at him. What I see is unexpected. Tears are rolling down his face and his blue eyes look like a stormy ocean. "Why?" His voice cracks and that's all it takes for me to break down.

"Liam... don't worry about it. It's fine. Everything is going to be fine." Tears start to crawl down my face. I reach out to Liam's face and stroke his cheek. 

"Does Marc know?" Liam questions. I shake my head and my gaze falls to the ground. 

"He's almost caught me, but I'm too quick." I avoid any reason to look at Liam. 

"How long has this been going on?" He inquires. 

"About 3 years or so," I whisper. I can almost see Liam's eyes widen. 

That's when Liam started messing around with girls. They weren't anything to him. He just needed to let off some steam and then go back to being my pure innocent baby boy. He's not the exact reason I started cutting. He was just... a slight push in the wrong direction. I was fine until I noticed how unnoticed I was. Memories of feeling unworthy, because of my birth mother putting me up for adoption, spit acid into my brain. I guess I couldn't handle it. My mind reached out a soothing hand, but once it gained my trust it stuck its black claws into me. It made me comply with its evil doings. I look up at his sorrowful face. I wince. I know what question is coming next. 

"Mabe...why... why do you-"

"I can't answer that." I look away from him again. 

"Why can't you?" Liam asks impatiently. Liam's hand slides off my wrist and just when I think he's giving up he intertwines our hands. "I'm here for you May, you can tell me anything," Liam whispers. I suck in a breath and look him right in the eyes. 

"You told me to write about how I feel about myself, but instead of using a laptop or pencil and paper... I used a razor. I cut deep into my skin to remind myself that no matter how deep someone gets into my life all they want is something precious to me. My blood spills out of the cut and highlights the hidden message I've written a thousand times." I close my eyes and bow my head. "I don't have a good enough reason to do it, other than the reason for my hate for myself. I'd rather hurt myself than someone or something else. It's just who I am." I gulp in. I was ready for Liam to shun me. Slap me. Do anything to me. But when I felt his lips upon my cut up wrist, my whole body shook with the excitement of a new feeling. 

Love.