The music is the only noise in the car during the short ride to my house. I live in the suburbs about ten minutes away from the school where the majority of my classmates live. After he drives past Derek's house, I point to my house that sits at the end of the lane behind a long gravel driveway. Our house looks like a modern castle built with gray bricks and stone trim. He pulls up in front of the house and we sit staring at my white garage door.

"I know I don't know you that well, but is something wrong?" He asks suspiciously. The whole car ride over I was focused on his thoughts but as usual, I just found silence. I'm confused but I can't come out and tell him why.

"It's nothing really, I just don't feel good." I release my seatbelt and start for the handle when he places his hand on my forearm. I feel this electric energy between us and I dart my eyes down to his hand. He quickly snatches his hand off my arm and he says, "Sorry, just let me grab your door." He jumps out of the car and strides over to the passenger side. I fully embrace him being a gentleman and wait for him to pull my door open. I gracefully climb out, but I don't really want him to leave. For some reason, I want to get to know him more.

"Since you're going to miss math anyway, would you like to come in?" I ask, trying to refrain from adding in a flirty tone. Without hesitating he closes my door and follows me to my garage with his hands in his pockets. I type in the code and the door slowly opens as we stand there awkwardly, listening to the hum. We walk through the garage to open my door and I lead him into the kitchen where I plop my book bag down. I open the fridge and immediately start rummaging around for some food. Liam pulls a barstool over as he looks around my spacious ornate kitchen.

"So what do your parents do?" He casually asks. I laugh since that was the same question he asked Derek yesterday when we went to his house. I grab a bag of baby carrots out and place them between us. I climb up on the barstool next to him and start to open the bag. After the first crunch into my carrot, I realize I grabbed possibly the loudest food in the house.

"My dad owns a real estate company and my mom stays at home and does charity work and stuff. She's actually off planning a charity event today."

"No siblings?" He asks and I shake my head. I realize I am still chewing extremely loud. I toss the carrot onto the counter and wipe my hands on my dress.

"What about you?" I ask back.

"I'm an only child too. My dad is a political advisor who spends most of his time in D.C and my mom never seems satisfied, so she bounces around from job to job." I swivel from side to side on my bar stool letting my feet dangle as I ask, "Is that why you moved here?" He sways in the chair and starts playing with his own carrot.

"Uh yeah. There was some stuff she wanted to work on here so we moved." The way he hesitates in saying it makes it seem like he's covering something up. I guess we all have secrets. He spins his chair and points to a picture my parents have on the fridge where I'm holding a medal with my right hand and a certificate in my left. I'm smiling and wearing a dark gray business suit.

"What's that from?" He asks and I hop down from the stool and pull the picture off the fridge. "Just a stupid mock trial thing I did. We pretend to be lawyers and have a fake case and everything. I won my case." I shove the old picture into a drawer of utensils and slide it shut, "It was silly."

"Prosecution or defense?" He asks like he is interested in my middle school lawyering days. I grin and put my hand on my hip.

"Prosecution." My intimidation doesn't work as he leans back and laughs. "Why is that funny?" I ask as I throw a carrot at him.

"I just don't see you as the scary person you try and put out there. Miss popular cheerleader, who has everyone wrapped around her little finger. I have a hard time finding you...as intimidating as everyone else does." I tilt my head down and narrow my eyes. He continues, "I hope I don't offend you, it's just what I've picked up on and what other people have said." Now I'm really taken back. He smirks at my flicker of confusion.

"What have other people said about me?" I ask. "It doesn't honestly surprise me that other people can find me intimidating. I am just curious about what you've heard." He is still fiddling with the carrot and he starts picking at it while he chooses his words carefully.

"Just that you don't care what people think of you and you'll do whatever it takes to get what you want. It's not a bad thing. But I have heard something that I wanted to ask you about." I shrug my shoulders and he picks up on my go-ahead, "I've heard you being called a tory. What the hell is with this school and their dirt's and tories?" I've realized I have never had to explain it before. It's just the environment I've always been a part of.

"I don't know," I say with a shrug. "Not everyone is one or the other. It's just the two main groups of the school. We, the tories, come from the wealthy part of Highland Park whereas the dirt's come from the ranch side. It's funny because both of us have money, it's just basically how we obtain it. We are born into it and they work for it. It's just what it is."

"I don't think you should insult people because of how they make their money," Liam says with a hint of resentment.

"It's high school, Liam. It's a part of the whole jocks and geeks thing and the hierarchy that was established long before my freshman year. You're not a dirt, so I don't get why you're getting offended here?"

"I just think it's stupid to be that judgmental. It seems petty and you seem like you'd be above it," he replies flatly.

"I agree that it's immature, but I don't call people dirts or whatever."

"Yeah, but you don't stop people from saying it either. That is just as bad. You're clearly queen bee and you know it, you could easily put a stop to it if you wanted to." He says it plainly, but the bitterness is there. Liam must sense the shift in the room because he completely changes the subject, "So do I get a tour or what?" He slides off the stool and sticks his hands into his pockets as he walks right into my spacious living room. We have a large beige sofa and a matching love seat circled around a massive plasma TV that hangs on the wall above the fireplace. He walks over to the large stone fireplace and starts looking at the pictures my mom has framed over the mantel. He scans over them and then smiles at me.

"So you've always been an overachiever?" I walk over, shrugging off the tense conversation, and start looking at the old photos. They date all the way back to my fourth-grade spelling bee.

"Guess so. You know you act like being determined is a bad thing. I just set goals and achieve them." We are standing inches apart and I feel the electricity again, making my heart flutter.

"So it looks like you and Derek go together perfectly then. He's planning on going to Stanford right?" He asks while flicking his blue eyes to mine. The mention of Derek makes me realize he has never even seemed interested in looking at these photos or has yet to text me asking if I'm okay. Maybe he didn't notice how haggard I looked in first period.

"Yeah, that's been his plan since I've known him. Or more of his parent's plan I guess," I say as I move away from the mantel to plop onto the couch. I prop my toes on the coffee table, which I'm never allowed to do when my mother is home. Liam turns toward me and has a curious look about him again. He stuffs his hands in his pockets and looks around the space.

"Can I see your room?" He unexpectedly asks and suddenly I hesitate. I don't know if I want him to. Even Derek and I are only allowed downstairs and it almost seems like Liam is looking for something. I glance towards the staircase and he interrupts the debating going on in my head, "If you don't want me to that's fine, I just-" I cut him off.

"Um, yeah sure if you want to." I don't want to make a big deal of it. I lift myself off the couch and walk down the hallway that leads to our grand staircase. He follows close behind me and I get nervous as we ascend up the stairs. My room sits at the end of the hall with my parents on the opposite end. We have three spare rooms decorated like pages out of a Pottery Barn catalog that sits between us. I reach for my handle and swing the door open leaving us standing in the doorframe. He nods as his eyes scan my tidy room, the ever-present smirk still sitting on his face. His eyes linger on my four-poster bed, taking in the purples and the blacks that fill the room.

"Neat and organized...big surprise," he finally says. I cross the threshold first and stride off to go sit on the end of my bed. He pulls out my vanity chair and focuses on the pictures I have on my wall. His eyes narrow and it's almost as if he's looking for something specific again. Some of the pictures are of me with Harper and Lily but most are photos with Derek. He stops looking when he sees my overly cluttered, but organized trophy shelf. He scans all my trophies and pushes one of my medals so it swings.

"So Eleanor Grace Adler what are you bad at?" He looks back to me after scanning my Honor Student certificates and I shrug my shoulders.

"I don't know. What are you bad at?" I ask mockingly. I suddenly feel awkward having him in my room, judging my past and questioning my "talents". Derek has only been in here a handful of times when my mother's charity planning consumes our downstairs.

"I'm bad at dancing," he says with such a boyish charm I can't help but laugh.

"You can't dance? That surprises me. You seem like you'd have rhythm." He shakes his head and grabs his chin with his fingers while letting out a small laugh.

"Nah, no rhythm here." Being alone in my room with Liam feels different than I imagined. I can tell he isn't in here to try and get me on my bed, and he's not being inappropriate either. I really do feel like he just wanted to see my room.  I suddenly hear the garage door slam shut and my heart jumps into my throat. I assume my mother just got home. I hear her call my name and I look at Liam.

"Shit! She is going to be mad that I ditched." We bolt downstairs and I see her going through the mail in the living room. By the blank expression she wears and the red patches surrounding her eyes, I assume she just got back from a Botox appointment and not planning a charity event. I talk before she gets the chance to ask any questions.

"Hey mom! This is Liam, he just moved here. I was just giving him a tour of our house," I say quickly with a smile. My mom prides herself on putting our gorgeous home together so she never passes up an opportunity to show it off. She takes in Liam and looks back to me.

"Nice to meet you Liam, owner I assume of the BMW parked on my driveway." He extends his hand to her and flashes her his charming grin.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Adler. You have a beautiful home." She takes his hand and I think I see her flush a little at his demeanor. Attractive and polite. But also, an attractive teenage boy alone with her daughter.

"Ellie, why are you home?" She asks, now looking as concerned as the Botox will allow, and darts her eyes back at Liam.

"I wasn't feeling well, so Liam offered to drive me home. I started to feel better after I ate so he stuck around to drive me back." I think she bought my story as she glances back to the kitchen and notices the carrots out. I glance to Liam and then say, "Well we better get back to school. I'll see ya tonight." We dodge past her and I am grabbing my bookbag when I hear her behind us.

"Oh Ellie, I forgot, did you ask Derek about coming to the event Friday night?" She asks and I slap my hand to my forehead.

"No sorry... I forgot." Liam looks to me, "Isn't Friday night the big football game?" I look up to the ceiling before sighing out and responding, "Yeah, Mom I'm dumb and forgot I have a home football game on Friday. Sorry, but I have to cheer and Derek has to play, so we won't be able to make it." I watch the disappointment fill her Botox-filled face and I know it's really time to leave. No nice nap for me after all.

"It was nice to meet you, Mrs. Adler," Liam politely says as we walk out the garage door, leaving my mom disheartened and alone in the kitchen.