The Pain of a Middle Child

X

The rest of my weekdays past, and it was finally Saturday. I woke at 7:30(thirty minutes before my mom woke me on weekends) and ate breakfast as quick as I could.

Then came my daily routine of listening to an English book, picking out a random T-shirt and blue jeans, and packing my eco-bag with things I needed.

I didn't do my makeup, since none of my family members knew I used makeup.

After checking the time to make sure I was more than thirty minutes early before the meeting time, I said "Bye" to my family and house then sprinted out.

I did my makeup in a deserted park, looking up every few minutes to check if anyone was looking. By the time I was done, it was only few minutes before I had to meet Liam, and the meeting place was at least eight minutes away from where I was.

I sprinted from the park and ran down the hill, past the church, down the street, and past the shops that lined the street. I arrived just in time to see Liam walking across the road, his hand in his pocket.

I could only wonder how he could be so relaxed even when he was late.

"Hey," he said when he was in hearing range. I hugged him, being careful not to get my makeup on his shirt. He hugged me back, also being careful. "Shall we go?" he asked.

I nodded and we started down to the bus stop before I realized I had forgotten to charge my bus card again.

"Oh, Liam, be right back, stay here, I wont be long." I ran across to a convenience store and asked the employee there to recharge my card. It took me three minutes to run there, charge it, then run back.

Liam was still where I left him when I returned. I smiled at him.

"Sorry, I'm so forgetful," I nervously tucked a strand of lose hair behind my ear.

"It's alright, let's go."

We went to catch a bus, just catching it when the driver was closing the door.

____________

"Aaaaand, you guys were late by two minutes," Heather checked her phone.

"Sorry," I mumbled guiltily both to Liam and Heather. Liam put a hand on my shoulder.

"C'mon, Heather, it's not like we're late for school or anything, loosen up," I was glad I had Liam to support me, if he wasn't I would've been dead by now.

Literally.

He and I had so much in common, From our household to our interests. And when it was getting hard for me to find the will to keep living, me had made me see the reason to live, and vice versa.

He and I went through so much, I don't know what it'll be like if I grew up and didn't have him beside me. I knew there would be some day he and I would have to part, but I didn't want the day to be close.

"Hello, Earth to Lyla?" Heather and waving her hand in front of my face.

"Uh, yeah?" I focused on her and Liam.

"We were going to go buy popcorn when we saw that you weren't listening." Heather huffed.

"I had something on my mind, sorry," I apologized again.

"You should enjoy yourself, just this once," Heather pleaded. "You didn't even join us at May's party last week."

"Well, um," I was thinking of a reply when Liam spoke up.

"Let's go buy the popcorn, it's almost time to go in, no time to bicker." he lightly pushed us toward the entrance, where there was a line of people waiting to buy popcorn and drinks.

________

"That was awesome!" Heather threw her trash away and practically skipped toward us. I smiled at her enthusiasm, glad that she was over me and Liam being late.

"I gotta use the bathroom," I said to Heather, and she nodded to me. Liam saw Heather and I heading to the bathroom and headed toward the benches that lined the wall in front of the restrooms.

When Heather and I came out(there was a long queue), the three of us contemplated where to go next.

Liam wanted to sing, while Heather wanted to just hang out and chat and play games. I was fine with everything, which was always true.

And I knew they were a bit annoyed by it.

They always told me to have an opinion, not agree with everything, but it was another bad habit of mine(the worst one being my nail-chewing) and I didn't see anything bad from agreeing.

We(They) finally decided to go sing some songs then chat at a cafe. I was fine with their decision, I loved to sing.

So we headed to Suji-Gu office, where our favorite karaoke place was.

"Welco-oh, the usual place?" the employee recognised us and smiled brightly.

"Yep, thanks," Heather answered and we handed her our sale cards where we had three stamps. She gave us our mic tops(those things that looked like mini shower caps) and we were off to our room.

After two hours of singing our lungs off, we said our good-byes to the employee as we headed to Amasvin Bubble Tea to buy ourselves bubble tea.