Amour de Chiot (Liam Dunbar x Fem OC)

11

About a week has passed since I told Liam the truth. We stayed up that whole night talking about everything that we couldn't when I was lying. Like hopes and dreams and fears. He asked more questions about my anemia and I answered them. Despite the fact that I know he's worried about my health now, he tries really hard not to show it.

I catch him keeping an eye on me throughout the day, but he doesn't say anything. When we walk up the stairs for class and I have to catch my breath, he waits, but doesn't make a big deal. At lunch if I start to cough he offers his drink, even though that's not one of my symptoms.

The sweetest of all the things though, is him strategically giving me iron rich foods and snacks every day. He comes over practically every morning for breakfast and brings whole grain breakfast sandwiches. During class, he likes to pull nut mix out of his bag and throw me some across the room when the teacher isn't looking.

At lunch he gets a salad for himself, but offers me bites of the spinach. He calls around dinner time to make sure I've eaten; sometimes, he shows up. If I have a shift at the hospital though, he drops by with Chinese or Italian and eats with me on my break.

Wednesday, the two of us are sitting at lunch with Vick and Mason talking about the history test the next day. "Have you guys studied at all or are you the types to cram the night before?" Mason asks Vicki and I.

I laugh as she answers and I steal a mushroom from his plate. "You think Lynnie crams? If she doesn't know all the answers a week before the test, her head would explode," she giggles.

Liam looks at me with an incredulous smile before pretending like he's going to steal some of my food and I defensively smack his fork with mine. We almost forget a conversation is happening before Victoria nudges me.

"She's right." I shrug, turning to Mason. "I have a 4.2 GPA. Can't afford to cram."

His mouth falls open in disbelief. "You're not human," he teases.

I turn when I hear Liam choke on his food. "I wish," I tease back while rubbing Liam's back as he drinks some water. The conversation moves on and I push my plate away from me once it's empty.

Then, in the space that my food once was, appears a little plate of desserts covered in plastic. I follow the hand that set it down and see Liam smiling timidly. "What's this?" I chuckle.

"Just thought you'd want something sweet." He shrugs like it's no big deal.

I cock an eyebrow at him and playfully lift the plate to examine it more closely. "This doesn't look iron-rich," I joke.

"Actually," Liam begins rather enthusiastically. "That's a pumpkin seed muffin, that cheesecake has fresh raspberries, and..." He pulls a chocolate bar out of his pocket. "This is 75 percent pure dark chocolate."

My face softens as I take in all the sweets that he put effort into finding. "What's that all about?" Mason breaks me out of my thoughts. "Anemia thing?" He leans toward Vick to curiously mumble.

"Yeah," I giggle. "Everything Liam named has a good amount of iron in it," I explain, my heart filling with happiness. After telling Liam, I decided that I didn't want to hide it from any more friends. So, he helped me tell Mason. "How did you even know all these?"

Liam shrugs, his smile never fading. "I...may have done some research..." he says slowly. My expression softens again and I cover my mouth with my hand. "I also talked to Scott to help me figure out what's not commonly on the internet. Then, my mom helped me make these-"

"Wait, you made them??" Victoria almost chokes on her food.

All three of us can't help but stare at him with wide eyes. He almost withers under our gazes. "It's not a big deal," he scoffs to shake it off. "I know you said you have to eat extra food to keep up your energy..." he says quietly, "And that a lot of the time you forget to."