Liam Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Liam opened the door to Ron's coffee shop, a little bell jingled as he did so.
Ron, the owner, greeted him. "Hey Liam, how are we doing today?"
"Fine" replied Liam
"Good, the regular then?"
"Yes" Liam quickly replied before sitting down at his favorite seat, a spot by the window. He looked out at the street outside and thought about his reason for being there, a paper he had to grind out by tomorrow.
"here you are." said Ron
Liam jumped.
"Oh, sorry" said Ron "Didn't mean to startle you."
"It's ok." replied Liam "Just zoning out."
Ron walked away and Liam looked down at his drink. Coffee, black. He always drank it black, He didn't mind the taste. His friend, Jonah, thought he was crazy. Liam remembered on one of their regular coffee trips him saying
"Who are you some prospector? No one's drank coffee black since the 1800s!"
Liam picked up the mug and took a sip, then another. Next thing he knew he had drank half of the cup. Snapping out of his day dream he pulled his laptop out of his bag. He set it on the table and turned it on. He had a paper due tomorrow that he had not started. It was 5 paragraphs over the Civil War. Liam opened his text editing software, and stared at it. He didn't know what to write, or where to start. He thought about the question the paper was supposed to answer 'what was the negative impact on the North by the collapse of the Southern economy after the war?' Liam didn't know, neither did he care. He took another sip of coffee and opened his web browser.
         As he did this the bell on the door jingled. Liam looked up, and waking through the door was a girl. Liam raised his eyebrows. He watched as she walked up to the counter and order a "large caramel iced coffee with two pumps oat milk, three pumps vanilla, a splash of cinnamon and topped with whipped cream." She sat down across the store from him. Liam ripped his eyes off the girl and put them back on his paper. He started looking up things about the Civil War and writing them down, occasionally glancing at the girl. She was strikingly pretty; she had long dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a pink blouse and white bell bottom pants, a very bold choice. Liam had never seen this girl before, he didn't recognize her from any of his classes, or any social gatherings the school had. He wanted to talk to her, but didn't know how. He looked at her again, she was reading some book, he couldn't make out the cover from where he was sitting. Liam then had to go to the bathroom, he got up and started to walk to ward it. He noticed that he was going to walk past the girl to get there. An idea popped into his head, he could ask her if she was from around here. He stopped at her table and said "Hey."
She looked up at him "Hey."
"I don't recognize you, are you from around here?"
She replied "No. My family just moved here."
"I see," said Liam "What are you going to do about school?" Liam asked
"My parents enrolled me into the local high school... Dakota high I believe is what it's called" she said
"Oh!" said Liam "I go there, I've never seen you though."
"Yeah, I'll be starting in a week or so." she said
"Cool" replied Liam "I guess I'll see you there."
"Yeah, I guess" said the girl. She looked back down at her book.
Liam went to the bathroom, and when he came out the girl was gone. He went back to his table and started writing again. After a half an hour or so he packed up his stuff and went to pay for his coffee. When he got to the counter Rob was grinning at him.
"What?" asked Liam
"You like her, don't you?" asked Ron
"What?" Liam retorted, embarrassed "No."
"Suuuuure" replied Ron
Liam handed Ron his money and said Ron said
"Then why'd ya talk to 'er?"
"I was being friendly" stated Liam
"Right." said Ron "For the 5 years you've been coming here, you're friendly to everyone! Oh wait, I don't think you've talked to anyone in this building besides me. Ever."
"Well..." replied Liam "Maybe... Maybe I'm done being not friendly. Maybe I'll start talking to everyone who walks through that door!"
"Settle down kid," said Ron "I'm just teasing. When I was young I had a crush on a girl. It took me three months to work up the nerve to talk to her, but then I did, and guess what? Now she's my wife! With your luck, confidence, and looks, I'm sure it'll take you only two."
"I don't have a crush on her." Liam firmly stated
"Then why're ya blushing?" asked Ron
Liam looked down.
"Hey, just joking" said Ron as he patted him on the arm. "See you next time."
"Yeah, next time." said Liam as he moved away from the counter. He walked outside and the door swung shut behind him. He started down the side walk to wards his house. He walked two blocks then took a right, and continued on for a few more blocks. The whole time Liam thought about that girl
'AH!' he realized 'I didn't even ask her her name!' Liam kicked himself 'Idiot. I bet she didn't even want to talk with you.'
To Liam the girl did seem kind of quiet, sad even. He returned home and walked in the front door. His mother greeted him.
"Is that you Liam?" his mother yelled from the other room
"Yeah." he yelled back
"Did you get that paper done?" she yelled
"Sure." he yelled back
"Don't lie to me!"
"I'm almost done, it'll take me like... 10 minutes."
"Do it now then"
Liam groaned and walked upstairs. He entered his room and shut the door behind him. He put his bag down on his desk and collapsed on his bed face down. He rolled over and looked at the ceiling, thinking about the girl. 'she's probably not in any of my classes.' he thought. 'she'll probably never talk to me again, it's like she didn't want to talk to me at Ron's.' Liam sat up and sighed. He rubbed his eyes and looked around at his bleak room. The walls were painted white, there were no pictures on the walls, except for a calendar that had monthly pictures of cats. Liam never bothered to decorate, he always thought it was a waste of time. He sat down at his desk and opened his laptop. He was only two paragraphs into the paper, and what he had written he knew his teacher wouldn't like. Liam sighed and started typing, he sat there for hours writing, looking things up, writing things down. Until eventually he finished. With a sigh of relief he closed his editing software and emailed the document to his teacher. He sat back in his chair
"That took way too long." He said
Liam got up and left his room. He walked downstairs to see that his father had returned from work. His dad was sitting in his favorite arm chair, right across from the TV, next to the ancient couch and wooden rocking chair, all of which have been in the family for many generations.
"Hello, Liam" said his father when he saw him
"Hey dad." Liam replied
"How was school?" asked his father
"It sucked, as always." Liam replied
"Aw, don't say that" said his father "Education is important, without it you can't get a job."
"Then why is it so painful?" asked Liam
"It's only painful if you make it painful." said his father turning back to the TV
"What does that even mean?" asked Liam
"you just have to do it." replied his father
Liam sighed. They had had that conversation countless times, and it always ended the same way. Disappointment. Liam turns to leave but then asks
"When's dinner."
"Dunno, your mom went to the store to get milk and she hasn't come back yet."
Liam goes back upstairs. He walks into his room and he feels something vibrate in his pocket. He pulls out his phone and sees that he has a text from Jonah
"Yo"
Liam responded "Yo"
"did u get that paper done?" asked Jonah
"yeah, but it was painful." replied Liam
"i haven't started lol" typed Jonah
"bro it's 8 o'clock how are you gonna get it done?" typed Liam
"idk lol" typed Jonah "what was it about again?"
"the civil war." typed Liam
"o yea" typed Jonah
"you're screwed dude" typed Liam
"it'll work itself out" Jonah typed "it always does"
"yeah, it'll work out, but you'll also flunk the class" typed Liam
"Eh" typed Jonah
As he read this message his door was violently swung open. Liam looked up to see his older sister standing in the door way.
"Liam, where's my laptop?"
"I dunno." said Liam
"You didn't take it again? You always take it to that coff-"
She spotted the laptop sitting on his desk.
"Liam you pest!" she yelled "I've told you a million times not to take it!"
She picked it up off the desk
"Mom said I could borrow it." said Liam
"No, she said she'd get you your own." she retorted
"Then where is it?" asked Liam
"I don't know, I'm not the one buying it"
They heard their dad yell from downstairs
"Settle down you two."
"don't take it again." she said
She turned with a huff and left. Liam got up and walked to the door and shut it, then laid back down on his bed. He rolled over onto his side. He felt a wave of tiredness wash over him. The coffee he had drank at Ron's had worn off, and the endless research had left him exhausted. He closed his eyes, and drifted off.
"LIAM!"
Liam woke with a start. He opened his eyes and looked around.
"Liam, it's dinner time."
It was his mother. He crawled out of bed and stumbled downstairs. He entered the kitchen and rubbed his eyes.
"were you sleeping?" asked his mom
Liam looked at her, she was standing at the stove, siring something "yep."
"Well sit down dinner's ready."
He sat down. The rest of his family was already at the table. His father was sitting at the end reading the news paper. His sister was sitting to his right, she was texting someone on her phone. He looked left and saw his baby brother, who was only 4 years old, sitting in his high chair. He was playing with some sort of plastic ring thing that was connected to the tray he was sat behind. His mother started placing bowels on the table. He looked down at his. Chili. He liked chili, he picked up his spoon and went to take a bite, but his father stopped him.
"We have to say grace first."
Liam frowned and put the spoon back in his bowl. His mother sat down.
"We need to eat it before it gets cold"
His father bowed his head and said a prayer. Liam listened along, bowing his head as well. Once his father said
"Amen."
They all dug in. They mostly ate in silence, everyone was pretty hungry. Once Liam was done he got up and put his bowl in the sink.
"I'm going to bed" he said
"ok." his father said without looking up
"Goodnight, love you." said his mom
"Love you too." he murmured back
Once Liam got back to his room he shut the door and crawled underneath the covers and closed his eyes. Then he waited... and waited, but sleep never came. He opened his eyes and checked the clock on his phone. 9:47. He closed his eyes, and waited some more. But sleep never came. He rolled onto his back and took out his phone. 10:24. He sighed and opened the internet. He started browsing social media. He saw that Jonah had sent him a link to a video. He clicked it and started watching it. It was about a video game they both played, full-life 2. The guy in the video was talking about a hack that someone found for the game to be able to let you fly in-game. Once he finished that video he clicked on one of the videos that were recommended. After he watched that one he clicked on another, then another. Eventually he looked back at the clock on his phone, and his heard stopped. 12:57. He quickly shut his phone off and put it on his night stand. He rolled back over and rubbed his eyes. He tried to clear his mind, but his thoughts wouldn't leave him alone. He started thinking about the videos he just watched, then the girl, then the paper, then school tomorrow. Slowly but surly the thoughts stopped coming as his brain relaxed, and he drifted off into sweet sleep.