First Love

Chapter 2

It was a Wednesday, Victoria's favourite day of the week, and it was time for her first badminton training. How exciting! Only for the fact that she knows how bad her badminton skills were and how she will embarrass herself in front of Liam.

Victoria and Andrew entered the sports hall and were immediately joined by a few other students, Liam was one of them. As everyone surrounded Liam to listen to his introduction speech, she could only pay attention to how his lips were moving and how thin they were. Victoria was always an observer, she paid attention to the slightest details. She noticed how he would occasionally pause and let out a small, silent sigh in between his sentences which he would try to cover it up with a smile to hide his awkwardness and perhaps shyness. Whenever he did that, the room almost lights up with him.

Liam was charismatic, charming and Victoria was attracted to this walking glowstick.

As the crowd dispersed for some light warmup, Victoria found herself playing some badminton with Andrew, whom was mostly shouting at her for missing the shuttlecock one too many times.

"Could you please get your head in the game?" Andrew shouted, once again, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Sure, sorry, just a little rusty!" Victoria said as she picked up the shuttlecock she missed and let out a loud sigh.

"Hey, you need a little help?" said a familiar voice from behind.

"Nah, I'm fin..." Victoria paused, in shocked with her mouth wide open, when she realised it was Liam.

"Here, let me show you a few techniques," Liam proceeded to hold her wrist and adjusted the way she held her racquet.

"And this is how you hit," he held her hand this time and Victoria felt her heart running. She looked at him and it suddenly occurred to her how close they were, cheek to cheek, her face was turning pink again and she felt heat rising from her neck. Liam looked at her to see if she understood what he had said, and it soon became his realisation too—they were a little too close.

Their gaze met and, in that moment, the world stopped spinning.

Perhaps it was only a second, perhaps it was an hour, but it didn't matter because they were lost in each other's eyes and they knew it.

Liam finally broke the tension. He touched the back of his neck while staring at the floor, and asked if Victoria and Andrew wanted to join him and his friends for some dessert after training. It was then, she saw a flash of sadness, a pair of tired eyes in Liam. But before Victoria could even respond, Andrew had already agreed.

Could this be a start for them?