Change (Published under The Change For Her)

Thirty-Five

"You're okay, Chlo. We're back at your dorm." Liam runs his hand up and down my arm, in an attempt to calm my nerves. He opens the door and guides me into my room.

    I feel disgusted in my skin, I just want to wash my body raw until Conor's touch is removed from me. Liam walks over to my side of the room and grabs the night clothes off my bed. My eyes follow his movements to the bathroom as my feet stay glued to the floor.

    Water starts running which makes me feel like Liam read my mind. Music starts to play as he walks out, making his way towards me. "Are you okay?" He looks into my eyes with concern. I nod my head while he laces his fingers with mine.

    Liam guides me to my bathroom and I couldn't help but awe at the sight in front of me. He made me a bubble bath, set my clothes by the sink and a towel on top of the toilet that's next to the bath. "I used my phone to let you listen to music. I'm gonna let you clean up." Was all he said before he closed the door when he exited.

    I reach behind me, unfasten the dress and let it drop to the floor. I finish removing the rest of my clothing and step into the bath. I let my body relax into the hot water surrounding me as I try to get into the unfamiliar song playing. It's definitely not the type of music I would normally listen to. I reach my hand out to grab a hold of Liam's phone carefully not to drop it into the water while I see what the song is called.

    To my surprise there was no lock, my thumb slid up on his lock screen and the song was the first thing that shows. Run by Local Violence. It's an amazing song but it's definitely not something I would listen to on a daily basis. I press the back arrow to snoop through his music while the song continues to play.

    I noticed that Liam had a playlist playing that was titled 'For Her'. A little bit of sadness sinks into the pit of my stomach and curiosity fills me wonder who the mysterious girl he made this for.

    I scroll through all the songs, there were a lot of bands and artists I never heard of. I laugh a little when I notice mister baddie has a few Shawn Mendes songs on here that I actually like. My thumb stops and locks his phone when the next song starts to play.

    Stop the train by John Mayers, another song that I adore listening to when I'm alone. I grab a hold of my puffy pink sponge and begin scrubbing my body raw. I just want to remove every aspect of what happened today off of me.

******

    My eyes scan my room until they land on Liam reading one of my books on my bed. "Um, here's your phone." I make my way over to him and reach it out for him to take.

    Liam removes his eyes away from the book to look up at me and takes the phone from my hand. At least I thought that's what he was reaching out for. Instead, he gently took a hold of my wrist and pulled me towards him as he set up.

    I looked at Liam with a confused expression while he situated himself to be sitting in front of me. He removes his hand from my wrist, he places both hands on my waist. "I'm sorry, Chlo. For everything." His eyes were a sad dull blue, the spark that I loved about them was no longer there.

    "You didn't do anything wrong, Liam," I softly told him. Unsure how to act but something in me took control and ran my fingers through his soft hair.

    He gently pushed me away, got off the bed, and started pacing the room. "How can you say that?" He turns to look at me. "You haven't said a word to me for three weeks. You ignore my texts, calls and you find excuses to not even be in the same room as me."

    Liam wasn't fully wrong but he didn't do anything wrong. I am upset with him, he held back on me and let me date someone who was playing me. "Liam, you did the right thing. I only ignored you because you didn't tell me right away what was going on."

    "I know, I know," He walks over to me and takes a hold of my hand. "It's just that I wanted you to be happy." He runs his thumb along the back of my hand. "You seemed happy with Conor, I didn't want to ruin that for you Chlo."

    I removed my hand from his and walked away. Was I truly happy with Conor? Memories of Conor and I flood my mind as I debated about the way I felt with him. In the beginning, I was happy with him but that changed when he began to be distant with me. If I wasn't happy with him, why did I stay with him?

    "Chlo, are you okay?"

    "Yeah, I'm fine."

    Liam walks up towards me, "No, you're not." He runs his thumb along my cheek. "Chlo, you're crying. What's wrong? Did I upset you?"

    I reach my hand up and run my fingers along my face. I didn't even notice that tears were escaping my eyes. "You didn't upset me Liam," I tell him as I wipe my face. "I'm just confused."

    "Confused about what? Talk to me." Liam tries to take hold of my hand but I move away from him before he could. "Chlo, you can talk to me. Tell me what's wrong."

    "Liam, I don't know!" I raised my voice due to the frustration building up inside me. "I really don't know! I'm so confused, I'm so frustrated with myself because I just don't know how I'm feeling or what's going on!" Tears are probably flooding down my face right now and I don't even care.

    Liam walks closer to me but I keep taking a step back. I don't want him near me, why would he tell me this stuff right after the event that took place. "Chlo, please just let it all out. Whatever you're feeling, whatever is jumbled up in your mind just tell me."

    I can feel my body start to shake due to my nerves starting to play in my body. "Please leave," I say softly.

    "Chlo-"

    "Liam, I really just want to be alone. Please leave."

    He opens his mouth but closes it immediately and nods his head before going towards the door. "I'm always a phone call away. So please call me if you're ready to talk."

    When Liam opened the door to exit, Ava and Maria came rushing in. "We were looking for you, someone told us at the party what happened." Maria engulfed me.

    "Seriously, going kill Conor when I see him," Ava grumbles as she joins the smothering mess. "It's okay, Chloe." She cooed while rubbing my arm.