Change (Published under The Change For Her)

Twenty-Four

We did it! Liam and I stayed overnight in Target without getting caught. We left after fifteen minutes the store open. Now we're in his mustang driving back to my mother's, to take her out before we go back on the road to meet up with Conor's family.

    Now that I think about it, I don't even know where this family trip is located. "Liam," I say to get his attention.

    "Hm," He hums in response indicating that he was listening.

    "Where exactly is this trip?" I looked over and asked him.

    "Conor didn't tell you?" Liam turns to look at me before looking back at the road.

    I shook my head no but realize he didn't see my answer. "No, Conor avoided me until he saw me at the party. Even then he still didn't tell me." I told Liam.

    He muddles something under his breath. I didn't catch what he said though. "We're going to spend the week at Ronald's and Kindra's lake house." He tells me. "Which is a few hours outside of Briskville."

    I didn't bother to say anything since we were turning into my mother's driveway. I unfasten my seatbelt, waiting for Liam to park his car so I can exit and run into the house to greet my mom.

    When Liam turns off the engine, I unlock the door and got out of the vehicle. I begin walking up the sidewalk to the front door, I hear Liam following behind me.

    "Mom!" I shout as I walked into the house.

    "In the kitchen!" She shouts back. Liam and I walk towards the kitchen, just to see her leaning against the counter drinking her cup of coffee. "Where have you guys been all night?" My mother asks when she sees us.

    "I took Chlo out, I wanted to help distract her mind just for the night," Liam tells my mom as I walked up to her.

    I gave my mom a side hug, placing my head on her shoulder. "Are we still going out before you two leave out?" She questions while laying her head on mine.  

    My eyes shift towards Liam, who's leaning against the entrance. "If you still want to, Mrs. Lauderdale." He responds to her.
    "No, I still don't mind." She tells him. "Also, please dear I told you to call me Amber." She adds.

    "I'm sorry, Amber." I couldn't help to smile at Liam looking a little embarrassed.

    I remove myself from my mother's side, "I'm gonna change, gather my things and we can go eat afterward," I say before walking out of the kitchen.

********

    I decided to wear simple black leggings, a light purple sweater, and black toms. My hair up in a ponytail, my makeup is done naturally. I put the last of the things I took out of my bag back in it, even added a few more items I felt I needed on the trip.

    Zipping up my bag placing the strap onto my shoulder, I pick my phone up off my nightstand before making my way back downstairs.

    "Liam, you can get your stuff now," I tell him when I see him and my mother sitting on the couch.

    Liam said something to my mother before getting up to make his way up the stairs. As he disappears up the stairs I go over to my mom and sit next to her.

    "I like him," My mother randomly said.

    "What?!" I shot my head to look at her.

    "I like him, he such a sweet polite guy." She tells me.

    "You do?" I question her, raising a brow.

    "Yes, why is this so surprising?" She laughs.

    "It's just, I figured you didn't like him because of his appearance and you were being kind to him since I'm here," I told her.

My mother turns slightly towards me and grabs my hands, holding them in her lap. "Honey," She begins to say.     "All because I don't care for people permanently scaring their body with ink but this boy an exception."

"How is Liam an exception?" I situate myself so I'm facing her, curious about how she going to respond.

"Because sweetie, he's not like those punks who don't have respect towards anyone. Liam also so fondly over you, and I love that." I couldn't help but laugh at the last part.

"Liam is not fond of me," I tell her.

My mother shakes her head as she smiles. "Sweetheart, yes he is. You can tell by the way he looks at you, how he treats you." My mother told me, she cups my face with her hands.

    I place one of my hands on top of hers, "Mom, Liam and I are-"

    "Are you guys ready?" Liam asks as he walks into the room.

My mother removes her hands from my face and averts her eyes from me towards him, "Yes, we're ready." She tells him.

Liam nods his head and makes his way out of the house, while my mother and I get off the couch to follow him.

**********

    We were sitting in a small diner, my mother and I sitting across Luke in a booth. "Your father used to take us here all the time." My mother said to me out of nowhere. We have been here for a while, none of us said a word. We're just sitting here and nibble on the food we ordered.

    "Yeah, I know," I say in an almost whisper. When Liam pulled into the parking lot, this feeling appeared in my stomach. I didn't want to be here but I didn't want to make a fuss. This is supposed to be a nice lunch before Liam and I got back on the road. Which is why I haven't said a word until now.

    "I'm sorry, I didn't know. I can go pay and we can go somewhere else." Liam places his hands on the table, getting ready to get up to pay for our meals.

    My mother reaches her hand across the table to take hold of Liam's. "It's fine dear, we don't need to leave." My mother reassures him.

    Liam looks between us two, "Are you sure? I don't want you guys to feel uncomfortable being here." He said to us and looks over at me with concern in his eyes.

    "Being here not making us uncomfortable. Just bringing back memories but it's fine." My mother tells him. Liam's eyes were still on me, I can tell he wanted to know if I was fine with it as well. So I nod my head and mouth 'It's okay' to him. When actually I wasn't but my mom wanted to stay, so that's all that matters.

    "Now let's continued to eat, you guys need to get on the road soon." My mother adds. Liam and I said okay then went back to eating our food.