Seven years ago... 

I looked at my bedside clock. It was past ten, and I hadn't heard my mom or John for a while now, indicating that they were finally sleeping.  Slipping off my bunny slippers, I grabbed my boots and put them on, tucking the legs of my sloth pajamas inside of them.

I went to my window, pushing the sheer curtains to the side and slid it open. Peering down, just like promised, there was Liam standing below with his dad's ladder pushed against the house. I grinned, giving him a small wave.

"I've got a hold to it. Climb down!" Liam whisper shouted. I nodded, crawling out of my window and carefully climbing onto the ladder.

As soon as my feet were placed correctly, I held on tight, making my way down just as I had done several times before. When I got to the bottom two steps, Liam grabbed me by the waist to help.

"I think I got it from here." I teased.

He grinned, shrugging and taking me by the hand. "Come on, this way!"

I followed him into the woods behind our houses where we had a treehouse his parents had set up a few years back. They never knew it, but it became our hideout on more than one night.

I followed Liam up the ladder, entering the tree house. A blanket was spread out on the floor where Liam and I would often lay to watch the stars through the plexiglass that was cut out in the middle of the wooden roof. There were also two bean bags for us to sit on, a plastic bin that held after school and late-night snacks, and a shelf in the corner for books and music.

I sat down on the blanket, wrapping my arms around my legs and rested my chin on my knees. Liam reached into our snack bin and handed me a bag of Doritos, but I shook my head. He paused, assessing me, before putting them back in and tossing me a Twinkie as he threw himself onto his bean bag.

"It's a Twinkie kind of night, I see. Talk to me, Maddie."

I sighed, sitting up with my legs crossed now as I opened my delicious, cream-filled snack.

"I don't really want to talk about it. Not tonight."

Liam stared at me for a moment, his eyes narrowed, and forehead creased like he was reading my thoughts. Liam always had a way of making me feel like he knew exactly what was going on in my head. It should have been scary-- having someone know you better than you knew yourself, but it wasn't. It was comforting knowing there was someone who understood me, even when I didn't.

"I know exactly what you need." He said, eagerly sitting up.

"Oh yeah, and what's that?"

"Some Jimi Hendrix of course!" I laughed, as he went to the C.D. player and skipped to track four where Foxy Lady began to play. He took a seat by me and held out his hand. Knowing exactly what he was asking for, I handed him half of my Twinkie. We sang as we ate, unattractively spitting out pieces of spongey goodness as we did, because we couldn't be bothered with waiting to swallow when Hendrix was playing.

A few songs and some poorly acted out air guitar later, Liam and I were laying down on the blanket, while laughter fused with the music in the space around us.

I glanced over at Liam when my laughs died down, to see he was already looking at me. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For making me forget. Even if it was just for a little while."

He gave me a small smile, nodding his head. "I'll always be here for you, Maddie. I promise."

"Make that a pinky promise, and I'll believe you."

He smirked, reaching out to hook my pinky with his own. "I pinky promise."

I gave him a half smile as I dropped my hand. "You may just be about the only one." I sighed, reaching out to play with the fuzz on the blanket. "I'm starting to become invisible again. They're always fighting now, Liam. My mom is desperate to hold on to whatever she has left of John, I'm not even thought about. Unless she needs someone to blame, that is. And John, I can tell he's trying to keep their issues private, but he barely looks at me anymore. I feel like I'm in the background of my own life." A silent tear rolled down my cheek, soaking into the blanket as I looked toward Liam who was staring at me with conflicted eyes.

"Why can't my love be enough for her, Liam? Why do I not matter unless she's happy with someone else first?" I felt a string snap inside of me, breaking whatever hold I had been desperately grabbing onto, and brought my hands to my face as I cried.

I felt the blanket shift beside me as Liam got up, turning down the radio and grabbing something before sitting back down beside me. He didn't say anything for several moments while I cried. When I heard soft strums of a guitar, I wiped my eyes, removing my hands from my face to see Liam playing his guitar. I sat up, facing him, and he looked at me with a soft smile before glancing back down to his hands on the guitar's strings.

I loved when Liam played. It had only been about six months since he found this guitar in a pawn shop, begging his parents to buy it. He didn't know anything about playing the guitar other than what he heard on the radio, but he was determined to be the next Hendrix or Van Halen. When he asked me if I thought he could do it, I had told him he could be the next Liam Tucker.

He mowed twelve lawns in three days to pay for that guitar and hasn't stopped playing since.

The notes of the guitar were strung together so beautifully as he played, it was captivating to watch. When he began to softly sing a few words, I held my breath, so I could better hear.

Like the stars in the sky,
our wishes always went to the fireflies,
You had thought the magic
were those dancing lights
that twinkle all through the night
But would you believe me if I told you the magic was always you...?

He cleared his throat and looked up at me. "That's all I have so far."

"You wrote that?" I asked in admiration, staring at him in disbelief.

He shrugged, placing his guitar down next to him. "Yeah, I mean, I guess I have a pretty great muse." He said, scooting slightly closer.

I smiled and hugged my chest, suddenly feeling nervous and unsure of myself. Butterflies swarmed my stomach, and I felt an overwhelming need to blurt out anything that would alleviate the pressure inside. For the first time, I didn't know how to act around Liam, or what to say. So, I didn't say anything, looking back up to him instead.

His knee brushed mine while he held my stare, cautiously watching me as he leaned forward. He was slowly closing the distance between us, inch by inch, stopping just before my face. His eyes darted to my lips and then back up to my eyes. I held my breath, waiting for the moment he decided to move all the way forward, when I took that choice from him and planted my lips on his. He startled a moment before relaxing and kissing me a second longer, running his knuckles down the side of my damp face as he pulled away.

We both stared wide-eyed for a moment, processing what just happened between the two of us. It was my first kiss, our first kiss. I suddenly became self-conscious, uncertainty hitting me all over again, until he spoke the words I knew I would compare every other spoken word to from that point on.

"Your love will always be more than enough."

My heart was completely claimed by that fourteen-year-old boy that day.

It was never a choice.

I never even had a chance.

**I love the song and video up above; it's so cute and fits them well. If you haven't checked it out, you should! Thanks for reading ❤**