Finding Your Person

Chapter 26

The drive home from Brady's game was long, but I didn't mind. My mind had been filled with thoughts of Liam and the time we spent together. It felt like I could think of nothing else, because just thinking about him had been consuming me in the best way imaginable. I had never felt so blissful and content in my life, other than being out on the soccer field, that is.
Throughout the ride my mom and dad tried to talk to me about the game and last night. I was never really good at hiding things from my parents, so I tried my best to keep it as vague as possible. How do you tell your parents that you are in the process of starting a relationship with a boy they think of as their third son? That's just weird.
Then it hit me, how was I going to tell Brady? My stomach twisted into a ball of knots. What would happen if he found out? Would he hate Liam or me? Would he forbid it? I guess if he did I would understand, and honestly, I did just get out of a relationship exactly a week ago. It definitely was way too soon for me to start anything with anyone. I felt nauseous--it was the way my stomach felt before a big game.  
Maybe if I just spoke to Liam beforehand and let him know that this was a mistake and we can act like it never happened. As these anxious thoughts were tearing down any happy, good, pure feelings I had towards Liam, I became aware that, no matter what I chose to do with Liam,  nothing could change the past twenty-four hours, and Brady deserved to know that I did have feelings for Liam. As much as I've pushed them down and tried to ignore them, they were there and I'm pretty sure they've always been there.
We got home and the first thing I did was call Scotty and Gabby. I needed to tell them everything, I'm sure they wouldn't be surprised. In fact, I'm pretty sure Scotty would be more than thrilled.
I began pacing back and forth in my bedroom, waiting for my best friends to get to my house. I was overly excited with butterflies in my stomach.
Without any knock or notice, Scotty barged in and jumped on my bed. Her feet were off the bed, and she kicked off her shoes.
"What's up?" She turned, looking at me then got under my covers. I heard someone yelling from down the hallway. When I turned back to the door, I saw Gabby stumbling in, holding three bottles of water and three bags of popcorn. I looked at her, befuddled and confused as to how long she had been in my house making food without me even knowing.
"What?" She froze at the doorway.
"How long have you been here?"
"For about thirty minutes. Your dad and I were talking about soccer, and I got hungry." She plopped the water bottles on the bed, and began eating one of the bags of popcorn. Scotty got out of the covers and made her way to the end of my bed reaching for her bag of popcorn.
"Are we doing another movie night?" Gabby said.
"No, I think we are here to hear about Mag's night."
"How would you know about her night?  You passed out before anything good happened."
"I was kind of conscious," Scotty replied to Gabby, but by the look on her face, I could tell she was having trouble recalling anything.
"Well, you did better than Jay, and that's all any of us could ask for." I smiled at her.
"Cheers to that!" Gabby yelled, raising her water bottle.
"Please, no. I don't want to do anymore cheers. At least not for a few more years. I'm still trying to recover, but if you guys were up for another round tonight, I think I could go round two," Scotty said, tossing her head around, debating in her mind.
"You're a borderline psychopath," I said with the straightest face.
"I'll cheers to that." Scotty raised her water. We all laughed.
"Okay, but really what do you have to tell us?" Gabby asked. There was no way for me to work up the nerves and try to begin to explain what happened. My heart was racing as if it just happened not even a second ago. I looked up at the ceiling, avoiding any contact with Scotty or Gabby and blurted it out.
"Liam and I kissed." Instantaneously, right after those words left my mouth, my room, my house, and probably my neighborhood, echoed with the screams of Scotty and Gabby.
Scotty's joy for me turned quickly into her saying she had told me so, she knew it was going to happen. Right after Scotty's need to be right was fulfilled, she began to ask questions, so many questions. "How was it, when did it happen, what else did you do?" All of these questions, I had the answers for:  " It was amazing; last night; and we just talked and laughed the whole night--nothing else."
I was equipped with answers for almost all of it, but one question had me stuck. "What are you going to do now?" Truthfully, I didn't know what was going to come of this, but I know I needed to tell Brady.