The distance from Liam's home to the park was rather long but with Tressa Ingrids by his side as they both talked, discussed and laughed, the distance was reduced to nothing at all and before they knew it, they were on the front driveway of the Wyatt household. 

    "Please tell me he didn't do it-"

Tressa was laughing too hard to give a proper reply and only managed to nod her head 'yes' and with that Liam proceeded to laugh so hard that his sides began to start hurting. 

And it was a strange sight though not completely bizarre as the sun rose over them, orange hues and all as Liam doubled over, hands on his knees, face alight with laughter with a tired Tressa by his side. An absolutely adorable smile on her face as flyaway strands stuck to her sticky face but still feeling as bright as her Cheshire grin, she looked at Liam.  

   "What?" she had asked when she felt him staring at her with an unusual smile on his face, a smaller smile on his face. 

"You're staring at me," he countered that smile still on his face. 

Tressa looked baffled and the change of her expression was almost comical. Bright blue eyes that just went wide and her jaw dropped as she spluttered, "You're staring at me!"

He shook his head as he tried to suppress his laughter and looked at the particularly nothing on the ground but Tressa was different, she laughed out with stars in her eyes, laughter straight from the core of her heart. 

"You wanna go in?" Liam asked, jabbing his thumb in the direction of his front door as they stood. 

Her gaze drifted to the white front door that was illuminated in orange and she turned to face the boy standing in front of her, "Maybe some other day-"

"Oh, come on," Liam rolled his eyes playfully, "Don't be shy, you get to see where the famous Varsity star Chris Wyatt lives..."

Tressa snorted at that, "I'd rather not, I bet he is the messy as fuck and his room is equivalent to a pigsty."

Liam's tone rose an octave higher as he asked her, wide eyed and an astonished look across his face, "How did you know? Chris' room is exactly the way you assumed it to be! He is the worst sort of messy."

She chuckled, "' Course it would be! I had a stupid jock as my neighbour once and god, I had to clean up his room once, don't ask. And he-"

"Liam?"

He was still laughing out when he heard someone call his name and he craned his neck to face her.

His laughter died down as he faced Emily. She looked as beautiful as always. To Liam, she always would look the most beautiful even when she was sleeping and drooling on the couch and he had to clean it up.

She had an ethereal glow about her. Glossy, slightly swollen pink lipped and those eyes of her gleamed. Her hair was a wreck with her fringes growing longer each day and now, having a slight curtain over her eyes and the rest of her hair pulled back into a hasty half-bun on the top of her head with hair poking out in all directions, but to Liam, she still looked as pretty as always.

"Emily," he whispered her name like a prayer. His eyes left her for a moment as he grazed over the surroundings before they landed on her again, "What are you doing here so early?"

"Oh, I was just-" she tried to come up with something as she absentmindedly waved her hand about and gave an airy laugh, "trying to find you!"

Liam turned behind him to glance at Tressa before he replied, "I'm right here, just went for a walk 's all."

"Li, we both know that you hate going out for exercising," she told, "You alright?"

"Yeah," Liam replied, glad that she did not remember the previous night, " 'Course, I'm good, how was your night?"

"Slightly weird," she replied, "Didn't see you and so, yeah-"

A shuffle of feet distracted Emily momentarily as she noticed Tressa behind Liam for the first time, "Oh my God, I didn't notice you. I'm so sorry, I wouldn't have done that-"

"Oh nooo, totally my own fault," Tressa replied, "I'm Tressa Ingrids, might have heard about me as the resident journalist of Salvador High. And even if you haven't its still good!"

The way Emily's expression just changed in the blink of an eye was almost animated and funny to say the least. If there was dedicated to one thing in her life that would be her school. She was all in for the school spirit and Salvador High had been one of their biggest enemies for years now. 

"Wait, wait- Resident Journalist?" Liam interrupted, "You didn't tell me."

"There's a lot I don't tell you, babe," she replied with a wink. 

Liam chuckled, "Well, I don't tell you many things either, so, fair enough-"

"Babe?" Emily repeated in the same tone, confused and a slightly disgusted expression on her face. 

"Oh, so, now, you don't tell me many things, do you?" Tressa smirked and folded her hands.

"Well, obviously," Liam rolled his eyes, "If I did you would-"

"Liam, can we talk?" Emily interrupted rather rudely which made all eyes turn to her. She had a slightly annoyed expression and had her arms crossed over that red half-hoodie she was still wearing from the previous night. 

Liam gave a sharp nod, "Of course, Em. It won't take long Tressa-"

"Oh no, no!" Tressa waved her hand, "Take all the time you need."

But before he could give her a response, Emily had dragged him slightly away from Tressa and he had no choice but to face her. The main reason to have Tressa was the distract himself from the thought of having Emily so close to him. Breathing the same air as her was painful and he was doing all he could to not look at her lips because he knew that if he would, he wouldn't be able to not think about it anything else. 

"Emily, is everything fine?" Liam asked.

And that was all that was needed to get her started. 

"No, of course not, Li!" Emily began, hands waving animatedly again, "She's not a good person for you, I know that I said that you needed to get a girlfriend soon, but not her! You're fraternizing with the enemy-"

"Wait, wait, wait, slow down, Em," Liam chuckled, "First off, fraternizing with the enemy? Really? You sound just like Chris right now, and next, her? She's just a friend, Emily-"

"Oh, you tell her that," Emily grumbled as she crossed her arms, "She thinks she can just come here and steal my bestfriend and replace me like I'm some old-"

"I'm going to need to stop you right there, Em," Liam told as he held her by her wrists, "She's not replacing anybody, she's just a really good person that I want to be friends with and she's not the enemy-"

"Oh yeah? I bet she's already plotting about some creepy thing to write in that daily newspaper of theirs."

Liam let his hands up in frustration, "You're never one to listen, Wonders, but you should trust me when I say that she can never - and I emphasize - never replace you, Emily."

"'Course, she can't," Emily snorted sarcastically, "No one ever could, I'm one in a bazillion, baby!" 

"Exactly," Liam stated, "And so, no reason to be hostile, is there?"

"I guess?" Emily told but she wasn't the happiest when she saw Liam head back to the spot Tressa was waiting and before she could even reach them, they were already talking about something else. 

"-but don't you think that could just lead to-"

"'Course it could, but you can also have it do the other thing- Hey, Emily!" Tressa grinned wide. 

Emily forced the best smile she could give and reminded herself to be nice, "How's it going, Ingrids?"

"Nice," she replied but after a moment looked to the sky, "-ish, can't really say for sure. How is it with you?"

"Great, last night was a blast-"

"Yeah, I heard almost everyone knows about your kiss somehow and I had to ask you guys about it, how long did it take you to get together?" Tressa chuckled lightly as she looked around them. 

Emily had the most genuinely confused expression she could ever have while Liam felt as though he was being burnt alive. He chuckled nervously, "I- We- we have nooooo idea what you're talking about-"

"Yeah, I spend the night with Venessa," Emily told, "Not Liam. I didn't see him all night. Unless he was hiding in the room I was fucking Venessa in-"

"Ew, gross, Emily-" Liam was quick to reply. 

"Yeah, but I've got a point," she retorted quickly enough. 

"You know, the kiss that everyone has been talking about since the past-" Tressa started again with a confused look between her eyebrows but then she saw Liam behind Emily as he frantically waved his hand and had a panicked expression no, no, she told, "... about you and Venessa! Yes, that hot kiss that everyone knows about!" 

"But you just said that it was between me and Liam?" Emily had the most confused expression on her face. 

"Noooo, it couldn't be," Tressa laughed nervously as she tucked her hair behind her ear, "How is that possible? I mean, you and Liam kissing? Nah- not possible; I mean if I told you that you both would be kissing, would you believe that?"

Emily bit on her lower lip, a worried expression crossing her face momentarily, "I guess not."

Her worry did not die down though and instead she looked deeper in thought than ever before. She was lost in it and there was an awkward silence where Liam stared at his best friend and Tressa looked at him with confused eyes. 

And it was then that Chris Wyatt had decided to rush out of the house, his mind still left with the affairs of the house as he said, "Hey Em, the wonderworks look a tiny bit wonky-"

His eyes fell on Liam and she fell silent, "I- uh- hi Li, didn't notice you there, brother."

He cast a quick and needy glance at Emily that she seemed to read immidiately as she nodded back in response, "I better go help Chris with the mess he's made in the kitchen."

She looked at Tressa hesitantly and told her through gritted teeth, "Uh, you don't mind entertaining Liam just for ten minutes, don't you?"

Emily bit her lower lip and leaned in to Tressa and whispered into her ear, "It's a surprise for Liam, could you please?"

"Pleasure, really," Tressa responded.

"Hey, Wyatt!" she called and to that both the brothers turned to her call.

But Chris was faster, "And who are you, my charming maiden?"

"My charming-" she scoffed, "My ass; I'm here for Liam, not for you one bit." 

She looked at Chris with narrowed eyes and with a glare that could've had the power to make hell freeze over, something that was very uncharacteristically Tressa. And Liam make a note to ask about that to her later. 

"Geez, fire-cracker, does mean you need to snap at me-" 

And Emily interrupted Chris' statement because she had a feeling that if she had let them be, it would've erupted into a war, "Chris, I need your help in the house-"

With that, Liam and Tressa were left alone once more. When Liam was a hundred percent certain that Emily and Chris were out of hearing range, he interrupted rather abruptly, "We need to talk."

"Well, no shit, Sherlock."

Liam looked around for words and the best way to phrase this thoughts and pressed his hand to his lips as he went straight to the point. "Listen, Emily can not know about my love for her."

And Tressa had the oddest expression as she looked at him in bafflement, "What? Why?"

"She just can not," he stated. "If Emily knew that I was in love with her - completely in love with her - she would not be my friend anymore and I can not and I repeat lose. her. She means everything to me and she would either avoid me out of pity or something else and I do not want that to happen to me. To us."

Tressa was quick to respond, "Yes, I understand that but what if she knew and what if she likes you back?"

Liam scoffed as he rolled his eyes, "Please, Tressa. As much as I would love to believe that I can not keep fooling myself. Emily Wonders likes girls, she likes women, she is a lesbian and she only sees me as Liam Wyatt - her bestfriend. And that's all she'll ever see me as and I'm learning to live with that." 

But she wasn't giving up that easily. She saw their chemistry and their friendship and she really believed deep down that what Liam and Emily had went far beyond friendship. It was love. 

"Then why would she kiss you?" she asked. "Why would she have kissed you?"

"She was drunk," reasoned Liam. 

And Tressa looked like she wanted to argue more but the look on his face - the pained expression he was giving her - and she dropped everything. She sighed deeply as she could not believe what she was about to do. 

"Aight, you win. I'll keep my mouth shut."

Liam could not believe it even in the slightest. His jaw fell open and went shut as he looked at her with shock. In his head, it took a lot more than that to convince someone like Tressa - she was sure as hell a stubborn woman. 

"Really?"

"Yes, really," she chuckled at the look he gave her. "But if you want the secret to remain a secret, you need to work on your skills to keep it a secret buddy. With the way you act around her, I'm surprised she doesn't know it yet." 

Tressa turned as she began jogging away from his front porch and he was quick to follow her. 

"I know right?" he chuckled nervously. "I was hoping you'd help me."

She stopped as she looked at him and replied sarcastically, "Sure, I'll help you. Let's see- in the next century?"

"Please Ingrids," he asked of her. 

She continued her jogging, "Sorry Liam, as much as I want to I just haven't gotten that sort of time, I'm barely able to manage journalism and the school."

"I'll do anything," he was quick to respond. "I just really need your help, Tressa. I can't let Emily ever find out that I love her."

She looked at him for a beat and she knew that she couldn't not say 'yes' and she groaned as she covered her face, "God, I hate being a good person sometimes."

"So, you'll do it?" he asked. 

She barked out in laughter, "Yes, I'll help you hide your love for Emily Wonders-"

"No, that's not just it," Liam stopped her. 

"Jeez, there is more?" she asked. "I knew I should not have-"

"I want you to make me fall out of love with Emily Wonders, so that I'd be just her friend. Without any feelings for her."

Tressa didn't know what to say but Liam was not done yet. 

"I realise that it's deceiving her. Me really in love with her and pretending to be just a friend, it's not fair to her and honestly, it's sad for me - and kinda pathetic - and though I love her, I realise it is not fair to me. I want to try and fall out of love with her, she deserves a true friend." 

Tressa blinked and then she replied, "Alright."

"Alright."

And he ran towards his own house as she jogged away. 

But something deep down told her that this would probably be the most complicated case she had ever seen and will ever see. And maybe, just maybe, she's going to get a lot more than just Liam and Emily's friendship torn apart. She might lose her own. 

This was surely a roller coaster adventure of a lifetime, she reckoned.