The rest of the day went slowly. I had spent lunch with Amanda, Megan, Olivia and Rhianne. Art I zoned out and thought about my date with Liam, skipping the self portrait task, my teacher wouldn't care. When the last bell rang I raced out of there.

Megan let me borrow a 'cute' top for tonight. Her version of 'cute' meant a black low cut crop top. I should've brought a coat, as it was still winter after all, but the girls agreed a coat would ruin the outfit. I was regretting that decision right now, as I stood outside Starbucks shaking. I was pretty sure I was going to get hypothermia but I braved it anyway.

I had only been here for five minutes but it already felt like a decade. I stood outside, concerned. Maybe he wasn't coming? I checked my phone for the millionth time. no new notifications. Maybe I should call him? I was really just stressing too much but I couldn't help it, I was always the over thinker.

When all hope was long gone and I had contemplated calling someone to pick me up, he arrived. He came, running along the sidewalk.

"I'm so sorry I was late." He gasped, looking tired and out of breathe from running. His face fell. "I'm not too late am I?"

My brain suggested I tell him yes, I had been waiting out here for at least 20 minutes in the freezing cold and anger was welling inside of me. But my heart, beating twice as fast as usual, couldn't let him down. "Of course not, I was worried you weren't going to come. Can we go inside, I'm freezing to death out here."

"Yeah sure." But before he stepped inside, he removed the grey hoodie he was wearing. "Take this, as an apology from me, it would suit you better than me."

Normally, I wouldn't accept it, but the cold was affecting my mind so I accepted it. It was very oversized on me, nearly reaching my knees, but it was so warm and cozy. "Thank you, I love it."

"See, I knew it would look better on you than me." He said, winking, making my heart flip.

We walked inside, the warmth inside and the hoodie let my body increase to a normal temperature again. There was a small queue, giving us time to decide on what we wanted.

"What do you suggest then." Liam said, looking down at me, he was so much taller than me. "I'm pretty much a Starbucks virgin."

I chuckled. "Well personally, I suggest the caramel frappuccino or the cappuccino. But that's my opinion."

He looked down at me, maintaining eye contact. "I'll have whatever you're having."

By then, we had reached the front of the queue, the old woman at the counter, smiled at us. "What do you two lovebirds want then?"

I contemplated for a second or two, then decided. "Two caramel frappuccinos please."

We found a table, one by the window that gazed out on the local park, my favourite spot. In the few months I had been in this town, I had come to this spot every week without fail. I found it relaxing and it took my mind off things. I had even taken Katie and Charlotte here, unfortunately they weren't big fans of Starbucks.

I watched, agonisingly, as Liam took the first sip. He took a second to swallow it down, look down at the cup, then back to me. "This is the best drink I have ever tasted." He pointed down at the cup, gasping.

I laughed. "The first sip is always the best." And took a sip from my own cup.

We sat there and talked endlessly about our lives, family, futures and more, we never had an awkward moment. It was closing time when we finally left the coffee shop.

We left our table and closed the door behind us, chased out by the old woman who had served us - encouraging us to come back soon.

Liam stopped on the sidewalk. "You are so different, compared to how you were at the party."

I felt anxious, maybe I should've acted differently today. "Is that a bad thing?"

"No, of course not, it's actually a good thing." He tilted his head to one side. "I mean at the party you were...jumpy, exciting and this complete party girl. But like in there, you were this complete other person, all serious, kind and funny but in a different sort of way if you know what I mean. I liked it, there's not many girls I've come across like that before."

"So I'm different." I said, biting my lip, staring straight to the ground.

He lifted my head. "Being different isn't a bad thing. It's actually a really good thing, it makes you unique and special, to me anyway." He whispered, his face so close to mine. Before I knew it our lips had connected, it was the best feeling in the world, everything in that moment felt perfect, my whole life fell into place.

If it hadn't started raining at that particular moment, the kiss would've never stopped. We parted and he looked at me, with his grin that I was starting to feel used to. "We should probably go to my car or something, I think this storm is going to last all night."

I nodded. "Yeah, that sounds good."

He grabbed my hand and we ran for our lives along the road, until we reached his car. As we entered the car, he blasted the heating onto the highest setting, hoping it would evaporate the water dripping off of our shaking bodies.

"How about we go to mine and dry up? It's just down the road from here." He suggested, boosting the engine up. "Only if you want to though."

I nodded in response, my teeth chattering to much to actually speak.

The drive wasn't that long, like he had said. We were too cold to speak so he tuned into the radio, which was mainly just playing ads - with the occasional song.

We parked up against a big modern house, kind of like mine but a little smaller. This house was surrounded by a forest and was far away from any other house. It did look beautiful though, there was a big balcony on the first floor, presumably with a pool as there were deck chairs surrounding it.

"My parents don't like having neighbours." Liam said, unclipping his seatbelt. "That's why we basically live in the middle of nowhere."

"I like it, it seems peaceful." I replied, catching another look at the house, remembering there was still a storm outside. I looked towards Liam "How are we going to do this then? Should we run?"

"I guess so, I wish I had an umbrella in this car, remind me to put one in here for next time." He opened the door, me following after him. "3,2,1 GO!"

Inside the house was beautiful, there was a modern design, with album covers and records all over the walls. The floor was wooden and smooth, the kind that shined and reflected any object off it. The furniture was all made out of oak or glass, it looked amazing.

"My parents work for a record company." Liam said, explaining the records on the walls. He left the room and came back a few seconds later, a towel in his hands. "Here, you can get dry."

"Thanks." I said, wrapping the towel around me. A picture stood out to me across the room, it featured 2 boys on a beach, they looked about 5. I pointed towards the photo "Is that you?"

"And my brother, yeah. That was taken so long ago now, we've changed so much. Me and Ryan used to be really close." Liam explained.

"What happened?" I asked, curious.

He shrugged. "We grew apart I guess, wanted different things. He didn't really care about school or anything so he dropped out and now he works at the local garage."

"It's a nice garage, the people are actually nice to me there." A voice said. I turned around to see a boy glaring at me, presumably his brother. He looked very similar to Liam, they had the same hair and was just as tall as him. If I said he wasn't attractive, I'd be lying, it must have run in the family. The boy looked towards Liam, pointing at me. "Who's this then?"

"This is Naomi. Naomi, this is my brother, Ryan." Liam said, suddenly awkward from Ryan's presence.

"Hello there, gorgeous." Ryan said, winking at me. I hated him already.

"What do you want Ry." Liam said, anger in his tone.

"Well I just wanted to check up on my little brother and his girl." Ryan put his arm around Liam's shoulders. "You've done well for yourself, Naomi is hot."

"Naomi's here?"A familiar voice said. A second later, Amanda walked into the room, breaking the awkwardness. "Oh my gosh, this is so cute, is it like meet the family?"

"Hey Mandy princess, I was just introducing myself to Liam's girl." Ryan said, moving over to Amanda. "You know her?"

"Yeah she's my mate, so don't treat her bad." She said, pointing her finger at him. He grabbed her hand, moving it downwards, then grabbed her face and started making out with her, creating awkwardness again. She finally stopped for air, after what seemed like a year. "Nay, I'm about to leave so I can give you a lift home if you want?"

I looked over to Liam, who just shrugged. "Okay, thanks."

"Okay lets go." Amanda said, parting from Ryan. "Bye babes."

As I left, Liam mimed 'I'm sorry' to me and I smiled in return. We left for her car, that was thankfully under shelter.

"I didn't realise you were dating Liam's brother." I said, closing the passenger door.

"Dating, yeah right." Amanda huffed, driving out onto the road. "All I am to Ryan is one of his 'girls', he don't give a crap about me."

"Why were you with him then?" I asked.

"Because that's all boys see when they look at me, all I am to them is object they can play around with and then dump when they're bored." There was a sad tone to her voice. "I mean in the past I used to fight back and tell them no, now there's just no point so I gave up,  I'm nothing."

"Don't say that. You are special, they just don't see it. You just need to ditch them and find a boy who actually cares, 'cos I promise you he is out there and he's waiting."

"No one has ever said something like that to me before. Even my mum has given up on me." She turned her face to me. "I'm glad we're friends, you're such a nice person, you deserve Liam."

"Thank you." For the first time in a while I felt like I actually had real friends, people who cared what I had to say, it felt like the best feeling in the world.

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A/n

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