Close Your Eyes: Book Two

Chapter Two

After an hour of working beside Liam but not talking about anything at all, I realized how much of a bitch I was being.

Liam's life is just that, his life.

I have no right to ask him to change his dream so I don't have to be alone.

At some point, I'm going to have to fend for myself, and it's completely wrong of me to get mad that he isn't going to stay in Hawaii, especially since Andrew is here.

And on top of that, Liam is right.

Every time anything between us gets hard, I walk away.

It always takes until he comes to me.

I need to stop doing that. Liam deserves the time of day. Liam deserves my patience.

I cross the parking lot to my car at nine at night and then I hesitate.

It's Friday. Neither one of us works again until Sunday.

I don't want to let this argument go on until Sunday.

It's time for me to stop acting like a child.

I look down at the pavement for a moment, and then I dart across the parking lot.

Just as he reaches for the door handle of his truck, I speak up.

"I'm sorry."

He sighs as he turns to me.

"What?"

I look down at my hands, wringing them together. "I'm sorry. I'm being a brat. Who am I to ask you to stay in Hawaii? You want to leave, you want to live the life that you want to live. Who am I to stop you? It's not fair of me to stop you. I was being dramatic and, and I'm not even mad about the whole pole thing. That's done and over with. You deserve to be happy, and I'm sorry for always running away when things get hard. I love you, Liam. You're my best friend, and I'm sorry for being complicated all the time. I-I don't mean to."

I force myself to look at him, and the look in his eyes is so intense that I can't hold his gaze.

I look down for a moment and then back up at him, but he's still doing it.

I open my mouth to ask why he's looking at me like that, but before I can, he speaks.

"I'll stay."

I raise both eyebrows, "what?"

"I'll stay," he repeats. "If we don't get into the same school except for the one in Hawaii, I'll stay."

"No, you deserve to be happy, and-"

"We can move after college." He says.

"No," I shake my head. "No, that's not fair to you."

"Savannah," he looks up at the starry sky and shakes his head. "You're my best friend, too. If you're staying, I'm staying."

"But you want to leave." I frown.

He shrugs. "I can always leave after college."

"You want to go to University of Oregon so bad though."

"Well I can just move to Oregon after college."

As months passed, the more I thought about going off with Liam to the mainland and leaving Hawaii, the more excited I got.

My parents always want to know where I am, what I'm doing, what time I work, what my grades are, who will be at my sleepovers with Liam and friends, and even though I'm eighteen, my act like I'm unable to do anything by myself.