Three weeks.

That is how long it had been since the last time I was on set or seen anyone from set.

The Advanced Placement exams were first and foremost priorities and it was making me sad how I hadn’t seen anyone since the beginning of May or been to set since the end of April. Three weeks of pure solitude other than Jace, Rowan, my teachers, mom and occasionally James. He’d even been spending a lot of his time over at Liam’s house or on dates with Ava. Being finally fed up with being cooped up in the house for so long, I packed my sketchbook, Monster, tools, and snacks into my bag and set off for the park. It was roughly a forty-five minute walk away, but it was the park I liked the best that was within a reasonable distance. The walk was pleasant enough, a bit chilly for May, but I simply pulled my jacket a little tighter. Besides, the overcast skies proved to be useful in pictures. No funky shadows and no awful glare. I snapped pictures the entire way down, excited to see how they’d turn out so I could post them or print them off.

Once I reached the park, I wandered for a bit, snapping pictures and finding nice areas where I could do a loose sketch of a pond or a bird. I could always go over it and make it better, but for now I just wanted it to look like something. Eventually, I found a nice bench situated in the middle of the park, facing plenty of trees, another pond, and people meandering about, whether it was a kid chasing a squirrel, the old couple feeding pigeons, or a group of teens playing soccer. It was a perfect spot to capture some shots with my Monster and then I pulled out my sketchbook and started on my piece for the day.

My drawing was turning out nicely. It always worked best in partly cloudy weather and you didn’t have a lot of shading to work with. Not to mention the old couple on the bench hadn’t moved for the past hour and a half, with the exception of feeding some pigeons every now and then. Suddenly I felt something wet drop on my head. Looking up, the sky had darkened and rain drops were falling. No! It was supposed to stay sunny all day! I folded up my sketchbook as quickly as I could, stuffing it into my bag, hastening to put all my colored pencils away. Mentally cursing myself for not bringing a jacket or umbrella, I heaved my bag onto my shoulder and began to speed walk home.

I hated rain. I don’t care that I spent fourteen years of my life in Oregon, rain was terrible. All it did was make you cold and miserable and wet. Attempting to protect my bag and its contents, I was sacrificing my hair which meant it would end up looking so messed up very soon.

“Cam! Camille!” My head whipped around until I spotted a sleek, black sports car with Liam’s head sticking out the window.

“Liam?”

“Are you trying to drown yourself? Get in here!” Liam gestured for me to come in the car, but I stood there confused. He didn’t actually want me to get in the car.

“Huh?” I smartly replied, rain picking up speed and drenching my clothing and hair.

“Get in the car! You’re getting soaked.” My feet decided to move and the next thing I knew, I was sitting in the passenger seat of Liam’s car.

“I’m sorry for dripping all over your car,” I said, looking at the small puddle of water gathering at my feet.

“It’s alright. Why were you outside in the rain anyway?” I pushed my hair off my face and huffed. 

“It was sunny earlier and I wanted to draw. There’s not a lot to do on a free day at home.”

“You are in London. You could go anywhere,” Liam stated.

“Yeah, but I don’t know the city very well and getting lost in a giant city doesn’t sound exactly appealing.”

“How did you even find that park?”

“I’m not completely helpless. That park’s only a forty-five minute walk and easy to find.”

“So you’re willing to explore a little bit in an obscure part of London, but not head farther in with a taxi and navigate the popular, well known parts of London?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Besides. Cabs scare me. They could abduct me or something.”

“Oh and someone couldn’t kidnap you if you were sitting on a park bench.”

“There’s witnesses!” I said while Liam merely laughed at my weird thought process. 

“I want coffee, do you want coffee?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Hold up a second, since when do you drink coffee? In the past month and a half that I’ve known you, you only drink tea. You’re like... the most British person I’ve ever met.” Liam gave me a look that read something along the lines of, oh-my-gosh-Cam-you’re-an-idiot.

“It was more of an I want to go to a café where they serve coffee. I will probably end up getting tea anyway.”

“And you’re inviting me to come along why?” Don’t get me wrong, I was super excited about having coffee with Liam sitting across from me, but then again, we would probably go through a drive-thru or just snatch it and run. He wouldn’t want to have a coffee date with me. I mean, I definitely would. I could sit there for hours just staring at his face, but I bet Liam had better things to do than let me gawk at him.

“I’m inviting you because you’re in my car right now and there’s an awesome café down this road. You in?” I shrugged.

“Yeah, why not?” He seemed pleased with that answer and started navigating the streets until we pulled in front of an adorable café, with little seats lined up outside, typical to what I imagined Paris to look like.

“Come on, slowpoke,” Liam said as he got out of his car immediately and I apparently was being too slow.

“Name calling? Really?”

“If it makes you go any faster, yes.” He smiled back at me as I slammed his car door shut and ran through the rain to the open door.

“Sure thing, bossy pants.” He let out a short bark of laughter.

“Bossy pants? Original.”

“Like slowpoke is any better.” He laughed again and followed me in to the coffee shop. It was adorable, with lots of little couches and wingback chairs and a few regular tables and chairs for the college students.

“I’m so glad I’m not in Uni right now,” Liam said, making his way toward the front counter.

“Uni? What?”

“University, I’m so glad I’m not in university right now.”

“Why?”

“It’s coming up to final examinations. Lots of studying. Oh! How were your exams?” 

It warmed my heart that he even remembered.

“Good, I think? I don’t get my results until July, so for now I just have to worry,” I told him, gathering my hair in a tight, wet bun on top of my head.

“I’m sure you did great.” He offered me an encouraging smile and it was impossible to not smile back.

“Hello, what’ll you have today?” The barista looked up at me, so I stepped forward and ordered a hot chocolate and when she asked me if that was everything, I was about to say yes and hand her the bills when Liam stepped forward and said, “and an earl grey and...” he glanced over to the glass case of pastries. “And a blueberry muffin.” I looked at him confused. What did he think he was doing?

“Is that everything?” The barista asked and she suddenly looked a lot more excited and that’s when I remembered that it was Liam Hawthorne standing in front of her. Heck, I would have fainted if I was having a completely normal day at work and a celebrity walked in.

“Yes, thank you.” She rattled off the amount and I saw Liam pull out a shiny bank card.

“Here,” I said, pushing my coins in front of him.

“No, I got it.”

“But I feel like I’m abusing you or something?”

“Really it’s nothing,” he said through chuckles. “Do you want a muffin? You want a muffin. She’ll have a lemon poppyseed.” The barista nodded, still in a state of shock as she added it on and handed us the two muffins while Liam gave her his card.

“I could have paid for my own,” I told him, feeling strange. Guys only paid for girls’ things when they were on a date. This wasn’t a date! I just happened to be in his car!

“I know you could have, but I wanted to. It’s my treat.”

“Is this for here?” The barista asked.

“Yes, thank you,” Liam told her and I was even more surprised. We were actually going to sit down and have tea and hot chocolate together. Was I dead? Was I dreaming? Getting caught in the rain ended up being the best thing that happened to me today. Not to mention my drawings weren’t ruined.

“Well you can take a seat, we’ll bring your drinks to you,” the barista told us and Liam gave her a charming smile and quick nod as he started walking over to the wingback chairs in the corner by the window.

“So,” Liam began, taking a bite of his muffin, “back to exams. You did well, yeah?”

“I think so, I mean, I had three which was a pain in the butt -”

“Which three?”

“AP Language, AP Euro, and Calculus.” His face contorted into a disgusted manner.

“Calculus? Why on earth would you take the calculus test?”

“So I don’t have to take the class in college or, excuse me, Uni.” 

“I guess that’s smart. I’m just so glad I never had to take those kind of classes. It’s not like I was neglected an education, I did take a lot of online classes and graduated from Cambridge, but -”

“Wait,” I stopped him.

“What?”

“You graduated from Cambridge? When?” Apparently my years of fangirling over him did me no good because I didn’t even know he had a degree in anything other than Dramatic Arts.

“Three years ago, it was when my career was rebooting and I didn’t know if it was going to fall through or not, so I took online classes to get my degree in architecture.”

“Architecture?” This entire thing wasn’t even making sense.

“Yeah! I really liked geometry and building stuff, I don’t know, why is this so weird?” He asked me, leaning back in his chair as our drinks arrived.

“Because you’re an actor! Actors and architecture don’t really mix.”

“Sure they do! I built a lot of sets when I was out of the business for a season at a small, local theater. I mapped it out. It was just something else I enjoyed to do. Speaking of which, how’s the artwork coming?” He brought his tea to his lips, taking a delicate sip like he was royalty and set it down, waiting for my answer.

“It’s alright,” I said simply, taking a sip of my hot chocolate. “Nothing really to show.” Ok, I just spent an hour and a half at least drawing things in the park, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Is that your sketchbook in your bag?” He pointed to where my bag lay open and my sketchbook stuck out like a sore thumb. I frowned at it like it betrayed me.

“Yes, so what?”

“C’mon. Let’s see it.” He gestured for me to give it to him and I handed the sketchbook over reluctantly as he flipped through until he found the drawings I did today. “Who are these people?” He pointed to the drawing of the old couple sitting on the bench feeding pigeons.

“Just an old couple I saw in the park. I don’t know, I just liked them.”

“You should have talked to them. Old people always have the best stories.” He handed my book back and I began to slide it in my bag, when Liam said, “You should draw me.”

I looked bewildered, that was for sure.

And then I started laughing.

“What? You want me to,” I sputtered laughing again, “draw you? Liam, that’s weird.”

“Fine, don’t draw me then.” He crossed his arms and pouted.

“I wouldn’t dare. Now, favorite color?” 

“Really? Favorite color? What is this, ‘Twenty Questions’?”

“Yes, now what’s your favorite color?” Every magazine on the planet said his favorite color  was orange (making me go into an unfortunate orange phase that my parents hated), so I was totally prepared for him to say my least favorite color, but then he didn’t.

“Green. And not bright greens. Like, really dark forest green. I’ve told every magazine ever that I like orange, but I hate it. It burns my eyes.” I wanted to start laughing again. He tricked the interviewers?

“How much orange stuff did you get after those interviews?”

“Way too much! Fans would approach me in orange clothes with an orange pen and ask me if I wanted an orange. It made my hatred for that color deepen.”

“You could have at least said a decent color that you didn’t mind. That was just a bad move.”

“Well, we all make mistakes. What’s your favorite color?”

“Red. The bright, dark stuff like cranberry or blood.”

“Wow, morbid.”

“It’s a gorgeous color. It reminds me of Christmas”

“And, red and green are Christmas colors. Cam, together we make Christmas!” I could feel the blush start coming and I couldn’t imagine why. Our favorite colors coincidentally being a set, but that honestly meant nothing. Why am I blushing? Stop it!

“Happiest season ever! Food and presents and people and...” My mind went blank as I thought of Christmas things.

“Mistletoe and log fires and sleigh rides!” My heart started beating rapidly again at the thought of mistletoe and the thought of Liam being under the mistletoe with me. Oh my gosh, Cam, get it together.

“Sleigh rides? No way,” I said instead.

“Yeah, what? You don’t have them in America?”

“Maybe, just not in LA. Stupid sun.” Liam laughed and his dimples deepened and I was temped to poke them.

So like the dumb person I am, I did.

“Did you just -” Liam began, looking slightly confused as I withdrew my hand.

“What?” My eyes were wide and I sat on my hands.

“Did you just poke my cheek?” He was smiling, but he was still a bit shocked.

“Technically your dimple. They looked so deep so I just... poked them,” I ended awkwardly, looking up at the ceiling and then down at my hot chocolate to distract myself. He stared at me blankly for a moment before erupting in a loud, whole-hearted laugh and I just buried my face in my hands, embarrassed beyond words.

“You...” he began between giggles, “you poked my,” another boom of laughter, “my dimples!”

“I’m sorry! Dimples are interesting!” He continued laughing for what felt like hours as I felt my face burn a deeper shade of red.

“Oh my gosh, Camille,” he said as his laughter finally subsided. “That was so weird, but so funny. I’m sorry I’m laughing so much, but just think of this as payback for you laughing at me earlier.”

“Whatever,” I said, gulping down my hot chocolate. 

The conversation took off from there. After me embarrassing myself and the comments made by Liam, we started talking about whatever came to mind. Favorite animal led to discussions why it was that way and how sloths were the creepiest and awesome-est animals alive. We mentioned sibling rivalries which Liam seemed to not have very many other than his three younger half-sisters stole the show ninety percent of the time, which I found hilarious considering he was an actual performer. However, at the mention of half-sister, his face became saddened, but I wasn’t quite ready to delve into his heart about what happened between his parents.

In the middle of discussing crazy people we’ve encountered in our life, my phone buzzed and I looked at the screen to see my mom calling.

“One second.” I held a finger in front of me as I answered, “Hey mom.”

“Where are you?” She blasted and I had to take the phone away from my ear, cringing. “Do you realize how late it is? You haven’t responded to any of my texts and you had me so worried!” My eyes bulged towards Liam as I tapped my wrist to ask him what time it was.

“Mom, calm down. I’m fine. I’m at a coffee shop with Liam.” The moment his name left my lips I knew I was going to get a reaction.

“Oh really? You’re with Liam? Cammie, sweetie, what exactly are you doing with Liam?” I placed my forehead against the palm of my hand and sighed.

“Mother, we are having coffee and talking.”

“Mhmm, sure. Just come home now. You already missed dinner.”

“Wow, thanks Mom.”

“Bye sweetie.” She hung up and I pocketed my phone.

“I better go. My mom thought I died for awhile there. Thanks for the coffee, Liam.” I smiled and rose from my seat as he got up too.

“I’ll drive you home. It’s still kind of raining.” I looked out the window and it was barely a mist, but it made me excited nevertheless that he was willing to drive me home. We left the coffee shop and headed towards my house, but Liam remained silent the ride home. He seemed like his thoughts were taking over as his brows furrowed in concentration and lips pressed together. His hands were clutching the wheel a bit too tight and I became concerned.

“Liam, you alright?” Instantly his tension released as he quickly looked over at me.

“Yeah, I’m fine, why?”

“You looked a little fierce there.” He shook his head and shrugged.

“Just lost in thought, I guess. I’m fine though, really.” I didn’t say anything else as I watched him become really intense again. It mad me sad how our day went so light hearted and easy conversation to me sitting in his car while his thoughts took over the car. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, by any means. I became equally lost in my own thoughts trying to figure out why he seemed so frustrated until we pulled up to my house.

“Here we are.” The tension was gone again as he put the car in park and smiled at me. That stupid, heart-melting smile.

“Thanks again for today, you saved me from a solid soaking.”

“You still got soaked,” he said while laughing softly.

“But it could have been worse. I’ll see you later. Maybe actually within the next week because I ain’t go no APs.” I did an awkward in-car victory dance and Liam just laughed at me more.

“I’ll see you later, Camille.” I smiled back at him, loving when he called me Camille which was surprising because it wasn’t that often people called me that.

“Bye Liam.” I waved and got out of the car, running towards the door, and then turning around to see him smiling and waving at me and the grin that came was inescapable. I waved one last time before running inside the house and up the stairs to my room, the smile never leaving my face.

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What whaaaaaa? What's this? I updated Starbird in less than a week? What is this craziness?

AKA I'm feeling motivated and I'm kinda in love with this chapter. And I hope you love it too.

SOOOOoooo. Cammie's got a crush on Liam! SAY WHAT? Nobody saw that coming right? ;) What do you think about it? Do you think Liam likes her back? Please leave your thoughts in the comments!

Dedicated to the wonderful Natascha who found my story and shared it with people from my own youth group. You da bomb girl. 

I hope you all have a lovely week and if you liked it, please let me know whether it be through voting / commenting / sharing / fanning /  whatever! 

Stay classy my lovelies,

-Kate