13 - liam

                                    

                                          
may 2017 : 3 years and 4 months ago
                          
Natasha was so hard to read. And so different from anything Liam was used to.
                          
Sure, Caroline was confident. She knew she was popular, knew she had a sphere of control, and carried herself with a sense of self-superiority because of it. But Natasha didn't seem proud. Despite how wary Liam had become of pretty much everyone, her self-assurance seemed like it came from a genuine place. She clearly wasn't trying to prove anything to him as she had yet to tell him a single thing about herself besides her name. She was one of those rare types of people -  the ones who with just one look at them, you immediately saw that they knew exactly who they were and what they wanted. 
                          
He just had absolutely no clue what she wanted with him.
                          
She stayed by her car a good ten feet away, eyeing him curiously and biting back a small smirk at his comment. He expected some sort of witty response, but instead she simply asked, "So where are you off to?"
                          
"Oh...nowhere in particular."
                          
"As in actually nowhere or 'I don't want to tell you in case you're a crazy stalker' nowhere?"
                          
"You could try having a little more faith in me," he suggested. "That wouldn't be a very nice way for me to repay the 'pretty girl who keeps showing up to save me when I'm doing something stupid.'"
                          
She raised her eyebrows slightly, looking amused. Liam, on the other hand, had no idea what in the world he was doing. Natasha had a weird effect on him; all of that wittiness and charm rubbed off enough to get him playing along and saying things he normally wouldn't. He didn't know he had the confidence left in him for that kind of stuff anymore. 
                          
Perhaps it simply didn't require a lot of confidence to call her pretty because they both already knew it was a fact. 
                          
"In that case, being able to hang out with yourself is a good skill to have," she offered. 
                          
"Is that what you're doing right now?"
                          
She nodded. "So, did you do it?"
                          
She lost him there. "Uh...do what?"
                          
"Stay out of trouble. Like I asked you to."
                          
Despite her expectant expression, he had a feeling she already knew his answer. But he wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of knowing that he thought of her from time to time. She definitely didn't need to know that she had crossed his mind right after he'd been drinking and kissing Caroline at that stupid party. "Not exactly."
                          
"Well, since you don't have any stab wounds currently," she ventured. "I might dare to say that progress has at least occurred."
                          
"Something like that." Something that starts with t and ends with herapy.
                          
A moment of silence passed, the two of them caught in this staring game of waiting for the other person to look away first. Liam's instinct was to pull his eyes off of her, to shrink back into himself and go be alone again. But he couldn't make himself move. She was impossible not to look at. 
                          
It wasn't simply because she was pretty, although that was definitely true. Who was he kidding? She wasn't just pretty; she was intimidatingly beautiful. All of her features seemed to perfectly complement the others as if carefully designed to work together. Her lips were a soft pink against her fair skin, freckles splashed across her cheeks and her arms like stars scattered throughout the heavens on a clear night. Then there were her eyes, framed by long lashes and a brighter blue than he'd seen, like the sky on the best of summer days. Even the color of her hair reminded him of when he was happy, reminded him of the cinnamon Jo would sprinkle on his coffee or the hours he spent outside reading books under the orange trees.