CHAPTER FOUR

Despite Cindy’s warning the night before I cannot help myself; I want to know more about Liam. I know how school rumors can go. Somebody does one little thing that gets blown out of proportion, and suddenly they get turned into this crazy outcast that nobody wants to associate with. Maybe that was what was going on with the rumors about Liam. Surely if he had crazy anger problems he would have reacted even worse when I practically ran him over that first night at the freshman party. Instead his reaction had been pretty typical of someone who was unexpectedly slammed into by another person.

When I got to my U.S. History class the professor gave out a pop quiz as soon as the bell rang and signaled the start of class. Liam had been right, and if it had not been for him offering his notes I would have undoubtedly failed my first college quiz. Since I am at Westwick on an academic scholarship, I must maintain a certain high GPA and failing my first quiz would have put a big damper on that. Just before the end of class the professor passes our quizzes back out to us and I am happy to see that I got all of the questions right.

When the bell rings I tap Liam on his arm before he walks out. “Hey Liam, I just wanted to thank you again for the notes. I would have been in big trouble without them today.”

“It was no problem, really.”

“Any chance you will let me take you out for a coffee as a thanks?” I asked Liam.

He gave me a small smile. “Yeah. I could handle a cup of coffee.”

“Great!” I nearly slapped my hand over my mouth at my over excitement.

Liam followed me to the coffee shop and once we had our drinks we made our way to the quad and sat together on one of the benches.

“So, where are you from?” I asked Liam while he sipped on our hot coffees.

“I’m from New York.”

“That’s great. I have never been, but then again I have never left home in Kansas before I came here for school. Living in a big city would honestly terrify me. Where I come from it is rural country. I live in a small town where pretty much everyone knows each other, and most folks don’t even lock their doors unless they are leaving town for a long time.”

I stopped talking when I noticed that Liam was staring at me strangely and I realized I had been rambling like a fool. For all I knew he was just tolerating me, and here I was talking about myself like it was the most interesting person in school. “I’m sorry, Liam. I know I am probably boring you talking about some small town when you come from such a lively city.”

“No,” he shook his head, “actually I like hearing about your home. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to live somewhere for rural.”

“Seriously?” I am skeptical. Maybe he just doesn’t want me to feel bad.

“Yeah,” he smiled at me. “I have honestly always thought that the idea of home on the range has a nice ring to it. I think that living somewhere with some peace and quiet would be great actually.”

His smile is beautiful and I can feel myself blushing. I was about to say something when Anna suddenly walked up to Liam and interrupted as if I wasn’t sitting there at all. My mood immediately because I was sure my one on one time with Liam was over. He was surely more interested in going out with Anna and partying, or whatever it was they always did together.

“Hey Liam,” Anna practically purred at him. “Let’s get out of here. I know something we can do that is way better than having some crap coffee in the school quad.”

Anna shot me a snide look and I tried not to let my emotions show on my face. I didn’t want either one of them to know I was upset by Liam leaving with her, but the next thing I knew Liam surprised Anna and me.

“Nah. I’m cool right here. You can go do that, whatever, on your own.”

Liam barely looked at Anna. He took a swallow of his coffee, but kept his body turned towards me the whole time. Anna was furious! It was written all over her face, and if looks could kill then I would have been a dead woman right then and there.

“You’re joking, right?” she asked Liam. Her voice wasn’t smooth and sexy like it had been a minute ago. The aggravation was clear in her tone.

“Nope,” was the only response that Liam gave her.

She stood there staring at him for a moment longer like she was waiting for him to change his mind and come to his senses, but Liam didn’t say another word and he certainly didn’t look at her. She finally gave up and stomped off mumbling obscenities under her breath.

“Sorry about that,” Liam said. “So, finish telling me about your home.”

I couldn’t believe what had just happened. Liam had basically told Anna to kick rocks and chose to hang out with me to talk about my home instead of going out to party. I was pretty sure I felt my heart do a flip inside of my chest just before the butterflies took hold. I could hardly believe what was happening, but I definitely liked it so far.