drive

Liam stood outside my building, leaning against his Jeep ship he waited for us.

"About fucking time," he said, when he saw us leaving the building. He walked over to grab our bags from the door. "It's cold as fuck and I had to save my gas."

I rolled my eyes. "Always a pleasure, Liam."

He ignored me and directed his attention to Isra. "You must be her roommate, Isra. Your rude ass friend over here couldn't introduce me. I'm Liam."

Isra stared at him before scoffing and getting in the backseat of the car. "My makeup is in that bag, don't drop it unless you can pay for it."

He raised his eyebrows at her before turning to me. "Wow, I've actually found someone with a worse attitude than you."

"Are you gonna tell me to control my 'bitch', too?" I heckled before walking to the other side of the car to get in shotgun.

Lowkey, I knew that Liam and Isra would get along eventually. Even though they both had the worst attitude and almost no redeeming qualities, I saw something blossoming.

"I apologized for that, let it go," he cried, before starting up the car and pulling out he lot.

We were driving for a while before Liam cleared his throat. "So, that guy you work with at the bookstore is pretty cute."

My head snapped towards him. "What?"

Liam glanced over at me while keeping his eyes on the road. "Yeah. Not usually my type, but I'll make an exception."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I asked incredulously, staring at him.

"Cash, I think he's gay," she stage-whispered, and I turned to glare at her just as she rolled her eyes. "I thought it was obvious the way he told you Travis was cute."

I slowly turned back to Liam and raised an eyebrow. Just before, he flirted with that freshman named Davina in the bookstore, where he told me about his explicit fantasies about her legs, so I found this strange. "You're gay? No, wait. You're bisexual?"

"I'm bi," he affirmed, shrugging his shoulders. "Came out back in high school. Parents were really understanding."

I nodded and kept silent, not really knowing what to say to that. I felt as if I was looking at Liam through a new set of eyes, and I instantly felt sorry that I ever called him a "cliche archetype of a dumb jock", because he was far from it.

"I hope you're not homophobic," Liam warned while glaring at me, "because I'll have no problem kicking your ass just like I did to everyone in high school."

"Oh please, lay a hand on me," I challenged, with another eye roll. If I kept this up, my eyes would get stuck. "You'd never. I'd fuck your ass up."

"Bloody hell," Isra complained from the backseat. "If you weren't already fucking Zayn, I'd say you guys should have a go at it."

"Shut up, Isra," I spat before directing my attention to Liam again. "Speaking of Zayn—"

"Don't worry your pretty little head, cupcake," he interrupted me and patted my head with his large hand, just as I saw we were entering the train station. "I thought I liked him back in high school, but I got over that once I kissed him."

"You kissed him?" Isra and I said in unison. Now, that was surprising as hell.

"Believe it or not, I have understanding friends and family. He was cool and offered me a spliff after I apologized a ton and cried." He pulled up to the terminal drop off area and put the car in park. "Although I'm pretty sure Coach G is a latent homophobe, he knows the minute I'm uncomfortable, Zayn, me and Diego would be on his ass in 2.5 seconds."

"I'm glad you have friends that support you through thick and thin," I admitted. "I didn't really have that until this year."

"Don't give me that sentimental bullshit, Rawlings," he told me, rolling his eyes. "I didn't tell you all that so you could pity me."

Wow. Every time I felt as if I was making some sort of progress with one of the "golden boys", it was like one step forward and two steps back. It was hard to get even Diego to open up to me as a friend, and even worse for Zayn.

I sighed before shaking my head. "Thanks for the ride, dickhead. See you on Monday."

Climbing out the Jeep, I grabbed my duffle from the trunk and stepped onto the platform.

When I didn't hear Isra get out the car, I peered around the car to see Liam and her speaking in low tones but despite the noise from the platform, I could hear him giving her his phone number.

I shook my head with a smirk. "Quit your flirting and hurry up. We've got a train in twenty minutes to catch."

"See you around, Izzy," he drawled as she walked over to me. Out of her sight, he glared at me and stuck his middle finger at me. I smiled and returned the gesture.

Once his car pulled away, I directed my attention to Isra, who just started to walk towards the doors instead of waiting for me. What the hell?

"Hey!" I called, which finally made her stop walking.

She turned to me and furrowed her eyebrows. "What? The train leaves in 15 minutes."

"So you're not gonna tell me what happened between y'all back there?" I asked, following her through the sliding doors into the train station.

"Did something happen?" She feigned innocence. "I wasn't aware."

I narrowed my eyes at her before sucking my teeth and pushing her forward. "I have no time for this. Let's go."

Soon enough, we got our tickets and were situated in the train, and Isra already started to dose off. Sighing, I then unlocked my phone and texted a couple of my friends back home to let them know I was on my way back.

I had to text one of my old friends, Kayla, whose been pestering me to chill when I got back to the city. Sometimes I felt as if I neglected all the friends I left back home after I graduated.

Just when I was mid-text, Zayn's name popped up onto my screen. I picked up with a smile.

"Hey," I answered, biting the edge of my thumbnail to contain my wide, goofy smile that always seemed to appear when he called. "I just got on the train, and we're about to leave in a few. What's up?"

"Oh, nothing," he said breathlessly, as if he was running or going for a jog. "I'm just chilling."

"Then why are you panting so hard?" I said, looking out the window to see the cityscape. I wasn't really paying attention as I watched my breath fog up the window. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I heard from behind me, and I swiveled to see him standing behind me, a duffel bag on his shoulder with his phone in his hand. "I'm just fine, thanks for asking."

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a/n: yeah there was more to this but I split in in half because it was too much to put in one chapter. plus I have a 6 hour flight tomorrow so y'all should expect a chapter soon lol

-Rachel