~ 8 years later ~

I woke to the familiar
sensation of being crushed; I wriggled, pushing my shoulder backwards. Liam
shifted his weight off of me slightly. He was spooning me from behind,
breathing deeply into the back of my hair. His heavy arm was draped over me,
pinning my arms to my chest, he was holding my hand tightly, our fingers
interlaced, his leg was slung casually over mine. I could feel the usual
‘morning glory’ pushing against the small of my back.

I quickly silenced my
phone alarm and elbowed him in the stomach. “Six o’clock,” I mumbled sleepily,
closing my eyes.

“Ten more minutes,
Angel. I’m still tired,” he murmured, pulling me tighter to his chest.

“Nope, no ten more
minutes. Last time it turned into another hour, and Jake nearly caught you in
here,” I mumbled, elbowing him in the stomach again.

He moved his arm and
pinned my hands down to the bed near my head, in a praying position. “Just ten
more minutes, Angel,” he whined. I sighed and closed my eyes again. There was
no arguing with him when he was like this, I just didn’t have the energy this
time of the morning to get into a fight with him. We both drifted back to
sleep, instantly.

“Amber, you had better
already be up!” my brother shouted, banging on the door. I jerked up and so did
Liam, it was almost half past seven.

“Er…. yeah I’m up
already, Jake,” I shouted back, glancing at Liam who was rubbing his face,
looking a bit dazed.

“Good. I’m going to
have breakfast. Hurry up will you. Liam’s driving today so be ready to leave in
thirty minutes,” Jake called through the door, before stomping off down the
hall.

“Jeez, Angel, why
didn’t you wake me up?” Liam accused, frowning.

I looked at him
warningly and gave him my best death glare. “I did, you jerk! You said ‘ten
more minutes’ then pinned me to the bed to stop me from elbowing you!” I
growled sarcastically, doing a bad impression of his voice.

He chuckled and pushed
me back down on the bed, pinning my hands above my head and rolling on top of
me. “Pinned you to the bed? Were you dreaming about me again, Angel? I could
make that dream come true for you,” he mocked, with his face inches from mine.

“Yeah, you wish! Now
get the hell off me, Liam, and go get ready. You’re driving today, apparently,”
I hissed, nodding to the window. He sighed and pushed himself off me, pulling
on his jeans and t-shirt. He climbed out of the window, silently, sliding it
back down after him. I walked over and locked it before heading in for the
quickest shower ever.

Exactly twenty-six
minutes later, I trudged into the kitchen with a frown, Liam was there leaning
casually against the counter, eating my cereal. Damn it, every morning! His
brown hair was messy in his usual just got out of bed look, which to be honest
he did get out of bed and it looked just like that. All he ever did was run his
hands through it a few times and add a bit of wax.

He looked the same as
he did every morning, like a freaking supermodel. He wore low slung ripped
jeans that showed his boxers a little, and always made the girls swoon. Today
he wore a white t-shirt that showed off his perfect sculpted body, and an
orange and grey checked short sleeve shirt over it, which he wore completely
unbuttoned. His blue eyes were glittering with amusement as he looked at me.

“Running late this
morning, Angel?” he asked with a smirk.

I gave him a drop dead
look, making him chuckle. “Shut up, Liam! Why the hell are you eating my cereal
again? Don’t you have any food at home?” I asked, snatching the bowl from his
hands and eating the contents. He just watched me with an amused smile.

Jake threw me a juice
box. “You do look a little harassed this morning, Ambs. Everything OK?” he
asked, looking at me a little concerned.

I glared at Liam again
as he started to laugh. Of course I looked harassed, I had half an hour to get
showered and dressed. “Slept in,” I muttered with a defeated sigh.

Jake had no idea that
Liam slept in my room with me every night, if he did he would go crazy. Jake
was very protective of me, he always had been, but he had gotten worse since my
dad had left when I was thirteen. Well, I say left, but in reality Jake and
Liam came home early from hockey one day to see that my father had beaten me
senseless, and was trying to rape me. Jake had finally snapped, and he and Liam
had beaten the crap out of him, almost killing him in the process. They had
thrown him out of the house and told him that if he ever came back, they would
kill him. He never came back though, that was three years ago.

A little while after
that, my mom got a job with a huge electronics firm, she was the PA to the
director and so she travelled a lot. She was gone twice as much as she was
here, so we only saw her for about one week a month, if that. Jake was my only
supervision, although at times it was more like I was the one taking care of
him.

Liam was also very
protective of me, but we still didn’t get on - even though he had literally
spent every single night wrapped around me in my bed for the last eight years.
He had snuck back into my room the following night after seeing me crying again
and we had ended up falling asleep again. After two weeks it had just became a
regular thing. It wasn’t something that we ever talked about, I just left my window
unlocked and he let himself in once his parents had checked in on him to make
sure he was asleep. We had never once been caught in eight years. We’d come
close a couple of times though. A couple of years ago, Liam’s mom had found his
bed empty, but he took the hit and lied, saying he’d snuck out to a party and
stayed at a friend’s. No one suspected he was next door with me.

He still teased me
like crazy and annoyed the life out of me just as much as he did when we were
kids, but I always knew he would be there for me if I needed him. It was like
he had a split personality. By day he would annoy me, making me crazy and angry
all the time, and by night he would be the sweetest boy in the world and would
cuddle me, making me feel safe and secure.

“You’re looking hot
today, Angel,” Liam stated, with his trademark smirk, looking me up and down
slowly, making me squirm.

Yeah, right! My brown
hair was still damp because I didn’t have time to dry it because of his stupid
‘ten more minutes’ so I had pulled it back into a messy bun. I had thrown on my
dark blue skinny jeans and red V-neck top and pulled a black hoodie and black
converse. I had added the bare minimum make up, as usual, just a little mascara
to make my grey-green eyes stand out, and some clear lip gloss. I did not look
hot. Freaking asshole! I gave him the finger and walked out to his car. Leaning
against it, angrily, waiting for them to grace me with their presence.

The drive to school
was the same as usual, they sat in the front talking about football and
parties, and I sat in the back listening to my iPod, trying to ignore Liam
smirking at me in the mirror. We pulled in to the school and the car was
immediately swamped by people, the same as every morning. Liam and Jake were
considered ‘hot players’ at our school. They were seniors and every girl’s
dream, the boys wanted to be friends with them, and the girls wanted to sleep
with them.

Liam laughed as I
cringed getting out of the car, trying to avoid the horde of skanks that banged
into me because they were trying to throw themselves at him. One girl elbowed
me on purpose. I looked at her in her tiny skirt that looked more like a belt
and her top that showed her stomach, and grimaced. Jeez, she is such a ho!

“Holy crap, Jessica,
did you know you left your skirt at home?” I asked with mock horror.

She scowled at me and
I heard Liam and Jake laugh. “Whatev’s, you do know that the emo look doesn’t
work for you, right?” she spat back.

I just laughed and
walked off. It was usual for Jessica and I to have these sort of comments for
each other. She had dated Liam for a little while, well, if by dating you mean
ha**ng s*x a few times, and then getting dropped. She still wasn’t over it and
wanted him back, much to his disgust.

“That wasn’t nice,
Angel.” Liam laughed, as he caught up with me and threw an arm around my
shoulder. He bent his head close to mine. “Sorry about this morning,” he
breathed in my ear, sending shivers down my spine. I elbowed him in the ribs
making him chuckle and pull back. “And ignore Jessica, I think you rock the emo
look,” he added, with a flirty wink.

Jake slapped him on
the back of the head. “Dude, that’s my little sister!” he scolded angrily,
pulling him off me. Liam just laughed and winked at me again, making me roll my
eyes. Liam pulled away and walked straight up to what looked like his newest
lay. He smiled at her seductively and she blushed as he immediately started
flirting with her.

I found my friends who
were practically eye shagging Jake and Liam with dreamy expressions. “Hey,
Kate, Sean, Sarah,” I chirped as I walked up to them.

“Hey, Ambs, did you
ride in with hot piece of ass one and two again today?” Kate asked, staring
after my brother as he walked off.

I laughed and shook my
head. “Nope, just plain old Jake and Liam same as usual.”

Kate sighed. “How the
hell can you be unaffected by how freaking hot they are? I mean, you’re so
lucky to live with Jake! I would love to watch his hot ass walk around all
day,” she purred, fanning her face.

I pretended to gag.
“Kate, that’s my brother and his as**ole friend! How on earth can you get past
the man-whore behaviour? Both of them are jerks.” I shrugged. I didn’t get why,
but every single girl in this school was in love with them. Jake was a great
person, but he treated girls like objects, and Liam, well Liam was just an
all-round jerk.

“They are the two best
players on the hockey team and look like sex gods, and I wish I could get past
it,” she said suggestively, waggling her eyebrows with a grin, making me laugh.
She hooked her arm through mine and pulled me towards our first class.

School was good, as
usual; I was quite popular due to the fact that my brother and his best friend
were the most wanted boys there. They looked after me of sorts, which basically
meant that they warned all the guys to stay away from me, which actually suited
me fine because I didn’t want to date. Most of the girls wanted to be my
friends so that they could get closer to my brother. The girlfriend wannabe’s
were pretty easy to see through though, mostly you could tell if they wanted an
introduction, by what kind of clothes they were wearing - if they weren’t
wearing much then they were after my brother or Liam.

I loved my classes, I
was quite popular amongst the teachers too because my grades never went below a
B. I always did my homework, and was never tardy; I prided myself on it, though
I wasn’t a nerd. At lunchtime I was sat with my friends when I heard the usual
whispers and giggles. Girls started checking their hair and fixing their
make-up so I knew that my brother and his friends were arriving in the canteen.
I sighed as Kate and Sarah started lusting over them as usual.

“Oh yay, hot piece of
ass number one is coming over!” Sarah giggled, elbowing Kate in the ribs.

I rolled my eyes as a
hand shot out from behind me stealing a handful of my fries. “Hey, Angel,” Liam
breathed down my neck.

I slapped his hand as
he went to steal some more. “Liam, for goodness sake! Go buy your own food, you
tight ass,” I ranted, annoyed.

He laughed. “Oh you
know you want to share with me,” he replied, plopping down next to me on the
bench, shoving me over with his hip.

“Liam, what do you
want?” I asked with a sigh, moving my plate away from him.

He threw his arm
around my shoulder. “I just wanted to visit with my girl. I know you’ve been
missing me not seeing me all morning, and all,” he said cockily.

My friends all sighed
and stared at him longingly. “Will you get your man-whore arm off me, Liam, for
goodness sake; I don’t want to catch anything!” I scolded, shrugging him off.

He chuckled again.
“Don’t be like that, Angel. I just wanted to let you know I’ll be driving you
home today. Your brother has a date, so….” he trailed off, smirking at me.

Great, just great! He
was driving me home. Fantastic. He always made the drive home as long as
possible just to annoy the life out of me. Then, he insisted on waiting at my
house until my brother came home, which meant that I had to cook for him too.
Damn it, he is so annoying!

“That’s great, Liam.
Run along now, I’m sure you have some more STD’s to spread around,” I said,
waving my hand in a buzz off gesture.

He laughed and kissed
me on the cheek as he stood up. “Pretend all you want, Angel, we both know
you’ll be wanting me to sleep with you tonight.” He winked at me slyly, giving
what he said a double meaning, and I prayed no one else picked up on it.

“Of course I will,
Liam, because I’m so in love with you.” I sighed, rolling my eyes and rubbing
my cheek where he kissed me.

“I love you, too.” He
smirked at me as he walked off to the same girl from this morning. He slipped
his arm around her shoulder, his dirty, slutty lips lowered onto hers. I
frowned and looked away back to my friends when he started making out with her
in the middle of the canteen.

Kate and Sarah and
half the girls in the canteen were staring after him lustfully. “Jeez, that guy
is so freaking annoying! Why couldn’t my brother choose a nice best friend,
someone who isn’t an arrogant, self-obsessed, asshole?” I ranted, throwing my
hands up.

“Oh stop whining! Liam
James just had his arm round you and kissed you on the cheek, I would give
anything for those sweet lips to be on me,” Sarah said dreamily, making me
laugh.

“Whatever. Come on,
let’s get to our next class,” I suggested as we picked up our trays and headed
out.

After school I
reluctantly made my way to the parking lot, where a smirking Liam was leaning
against his car waiting for me. “Hey, beautiful.” He winked at me flirtily and
opened my door for me.

“Hello, Liam.” I
climbed into his car, already annoyed with his flirty ass, if Jake was here he
would have slapped him for that one.

He climbed in next to
me. “So then, Angel, I just need to stop by the store on the way back.” He put
the car into drive and pulled out of the parking lot.

“Great,” I mumbled. I
decided to look out of my window and ignore him; I was still annoyed with him
for the whole ‘ten more minutes’ thing this morning.

He pulled into the
parking lot of the store a few minutes later. “Come on, Angel,” he said,
getting out. I just sat there and crossed my arms over my chest refusing to
leave the car. He walked around the car and opened my door for me. “Come on,
Angel,” he repeated, holding his hand out for me.

“It doesn’t take two
of us to go in, Liam. I’ll wait here,” I countered. He reached into the car and
picked me up easily, slinging me over his shoulder, laughing. He kicked the
door shut and started walking towards the store. “Put me the hell down,
asshole!” I shouted, slapping on his back.

He just laughed at my
meager attempts to get down, and continued walking. Once we were in the store
he finally set me on my feet. I looked around, embarrassed, checking to see if
anyone saw that, but it appeared that they didn’t. He reached out his hand and
tucked some of my loose hair behind my ear, his fingers lingering on my cheek.

I slapped his hand
away from my face and gave him and looked at him angrily. “That was so
embarrassing!” I hissed.

“What’s the problem?
Most girls would love for me to do that to them,” he replied, shrugging and
walking off towards the magazines.

I stomped my foot,
then blushed because I had just stomped like a child; thankfully Liam wasn’t
watching otherwise I would never hear the end of it. He grabbed a sports
magazine and a bar of chocolate and stalked off towards the counter to pay.

I was happily flicking
through Teen Vogue when two boys walked over to me. I stiffened. “Well hello
there,” one of them purred. I nodded in acknowledgement, and put the magazine
back, walking off quickly to find Liam.

“Hey, where you
going?” the other guy asked, grabbing my hand.

My heart started to
race as I looked around, frantically. “I’m looking for my boyfriend,” I lied,
trying to sound confident.

“Boyfriend? I don’t
see a boyfriend,” the other guy said, sneering at me. “How about we go somewhere
and get to know each other better?” the boy who was holding my hand offered,
pulling me towards him slightly.

I felt sick. Oh God,
Liam, help me please! I know I’m pathetic but I just hate confrontation and I
hate people touching me, especially people I don’t know.

“Hey, Angel,” Liam
said, slinging his arm around my shoulder and glaring at the two guys who
immediately dropped my hand and took a step back. I moved closer to Liam’s side
and pressed into him so hard that it actually hurt. “I hope you guys weren’t
hitting on my girl,” he said casually, but I could hear the anger in the tone
of his voice. Liam has always been protective of me; one time a boy pushed me
over into a puddle when I was seven, and Liam went straight round to the boy’s
house and punched him in the face.

“No way, man. We were
just talking, that’s all,” the guy lied, holding up his hands innocently.

“That’s good. Come on
then, Angel, let’s get you home,” Liam said, guiding me towards the door. Once
we were outside, he turned to look at me. “You OK?” he asked, looking at me
concerned. I was OK; my heart had stopped trying to break out of my chest as
soon as I heard his voice.

I nodded and smiled at
him gratefully. “Thanks,” I muttered. He opened the car door and waited for me
to climb in, before going around to his side again. Once he was in he tossed
something into my lap, I looked down it was a bar of my favourite chocolate, I
couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks, Liam.” He was always doing sweet things like
buying me candy, it was just a shame he was such a man-whore jerk, otherwise he
would probably be a nice guy.

When I got to my
house, I went straight to work making a lasagne for dinner. Liam hovered around
the kitchen behind me, making me feel violated as he stared at my body. “For
goodness sake, Liam, my eyes are up here!” I cried angrily, pointing to my
face.

He laughed. “Wow, you
really are in a bad mood with me today, huh?” he teased, smirking.

“Yeah I am. I can’t
believe you this morning. I hate rushing around; I’ve looked and felt like shit
all day,” I cried acidly.

“I think you’ve looked
hot all day,” he countered, shrugging.

“Ugh, can you just
stop talking to me? I’m not in the mood.” I threw the food in the oven and
started to chop up some salad.

“Fine, whatever.” He
shrugged again and came to stand next to me, helping me chop up the salad
stuff. He was standing so close to me that I could feel the heat radiating from
his body to mine, it was strangely calming.

“I’m gonna go start my
homework. That lasagne will be done in half an hour; I suppose you’re staying
for dinner,” I stated. It wasn’t a question, I knew he would. I’m not sure
whether Jake asked him to stay with me when he was out, but Liam always did
anyway.

“Sure, seeing as you
asked me so nicely.” He smirked.

“I wasn’t asking,” I
growled sarcastically as I turned to walk off.

He grabbed my hand and
stepped closer to me, he was so close my chest was touching his, I could feel
his breath blowing across my face. “Angel, I’m sorry about this morning, I am.
Please stop being all bitchy to me, it doesn’t suit you,” he said quietly.

I took a deep breath
and sighed. “OK, yeah, I’m sorry too. I guess I have been a bitch to you,” I
admitted, trying to look away from his beautiful sky blue eyes that felt like
they were seeing my soul.

“So, am I forgiven?”
he asked, smiling.

I liked this Liam, he
was the one that looked after me, he was different when we were on our own. He
gave me his adorable puppy dog face that I just couldn’t say no to, and I felt
my will to hate him crumble.

I laughed and rolled
my eyes. “Whatever. I’m going to do my homework before dinner.” I pulled out of
his hold and walked away quickly.

That felt weird being
close to him like that, I could still feel the tingles of electricity flowing
through my hand where he had held it, I could still smell his sweet breath that
had blown across my face. I had no idea what this weird atmosphere was in the
kitchen; it was all just too confusing. I shook my head and pulled out my
calculus homework, making a start on it at least.

After we had eaten
dinner in silence, I finished my homework. It was only eight thirty so Liam
decided to put on a movie. He put on The Final Destination and we sat on the
couch watching it. I felt a little uncomfortable for some reason but I couldn’t
work out why. I was just sitting there the same as usual, but something felt
off. I kept sneaking little glances in his direction; he was sitting there
watching the movie, one leg folded over the other, his arm casually slung over
the back of my chair.

Neither of us moved
until the movie finished. I stifled a yawn. “I think I’m gonna go to bed, Liam,
I’m pretty tired,” I murmured, getting up and stretching like a cat. When I
looked back to him, I noticed that he was watching me intently. I cleared my
throat because he was still staring at me with a strange expression on his
face.

“Oh right, yeah OK.
I’ll just shoot home then and I’ll be back in like thirty minutes,” he said,
standing up to leave.

I followed him out and
locked the door behind him, a little puzzled. Why was everything so tense and
strange between us tonight? It’s was probably just because I was so pissed off
at him this morning it’s made things a little awkward.

I changed quickly into
a tank top and shorts, brushed my teeth and hair, then slipped into my bed. The
bed felt cold and too big, just like it did every night. After about twenty
minutes or so, I heard my window slide open and then closed again. Clothes
dropped to the floor and then the bed dipped behind me.

“Hey, you asleep?” he
whispered.

“No, not yet,” I
mumbled.

I lifted my head so he
could put one of his arms under my neck. He pressed his chest right up against
my back and wrapped his other arm around me, throwing his leg over mine. I
heard him sigh as I wriggled to get closer to him, I loved Liam sleeping in
with me, the bed didn’t feel right without him there.

“What’s wrong?” I
asked, pulling his arms tighter around me and pressing my face into his arm,
smelling his beautiful scent that was like nothing else in the world.

“Nothing, Angel. I’m
just tired, that’s all,” he mumbled against the back of my head, pressing his
lips into my hair.

“OK. Goodnight, Liam,”
I whispered, kissing his arm.

“Goodnight, Angel,” he
replied, kissing the back of my head.