CHAPTER 8: Extra, extra read all about it?
2483 Words
LIAM
I’m not as drunk as Odessa but she still helps me up and then into their house.
I watch her remove her heels then let down her hair and gape like an i***t when the silky waves fall on her bare shoulders.
If I’m being honest, I don’t know why I’m here.
I have a girl in pink Victoria’s Secret lingerie waiting for me at home but when the cab passed Vecker’s house, I made up a story and hopped off.
It took 7minutes of waiting in the cold but I eventually realized how crazy this was. Then Odessa walked out of her cab in that red dress, that has been driving crazy all night and I sat back down.
I knew she was hot but her in a tight dress that shows her creamy long legs and lacy back is like my own personal hell and heaven. The red lips drew attention to her blazing blue eyes that charmed many tonight.
A few tried to hit on her but got turned down without glance.
I even heard some say they understood how her face and body conned me. Which was the reason I left early and with a girl whose name I don’t even remember.
God, I hope she doesn’t go into my room.
“I’d offer you water but my legs are barking from dancing in heels all night.” Odessa drops her bag on the side table and my eyes refuse to leave her ass.
What? Its’ a great dress.
“But the kitchen is there so knock yourself out.” She points behind her and walks to the couch barefoot.
She has black painted toes. Most girls I know—and yes sleep with—usually do pink or red or white but hers are black, very cute...and surprisingly dainty.
Great, now I sound like one of those foot fetish freaks. (I’m not, I swear.)
“Water.” I stop looking at her feet. “Sounds like a great idea. Do you want something to drink?”
I’m already walking away.
“Water too…actually no, ice cream please.” She calls when I open their fridge to find different flavors but I choose the chocolate chip.
Their kitchen is overseeing the living room and as I grab a spoon from the drawers I can see Odessa massaging feet. I hate how sexy and adorable it looks because its making me want to see it every day.
This is not why I am here, I actually don’t know why I’m here but this is not it.
“So what are you doing here Griffith? Aren’t you supposed to be catfish hunting?” She stabs a spoon into the tub as I sit down on the other sofa.
I know Vecker is against me finding the person that catfished me and hacked her account but she’ll understand once I do.
“I’m here because I miss her.”
Those majestic blue eyes land on me and the gold spreads like wildfire. I want to say so much but all I can think about is, I have no idea how her lipstick has not faded yet.
It’s not even smudged.
“What are you talking about?” Odessa is back to looking at her snack and her long, dark eyelashes are in view.
Christ…she has to have a genetic defect somewhere.
“The catfish,” she pauses like she has been stung. “I miss her” and you have her face. Her beautiful face that I need to stop staring at like a creep.
“Liam—”
“She or whoever it is, was my best friend.”
The first person ever since I got to Oakwood who didn’t care that I was ‘Liam Griffith’. The basketball star and captain or the eldest son of the Griffith group whose filthy rich.
I know it sounds crazy considering everything that’s going on but it’s true. I miss that stupid catfish that turned my life upside down because,
“I shared everything I was too scared to say out loud with her.”
These past weeks without her is catching up with me because talking to her became part of my routine, the best part of the day.
“Then why are you hunting her like she’s some Lochness monster?” She stabs the tub a little too hard.
“Because I need to know it was real,” my jaw clicks. “She might have been a lie but I need to know if everything else was real.”
The inside jokes. The late-night texts, the laughs. No one is that cruel or a good of an actor to fake that much chemistry.
I refuse to believe that.
“Liam,”
“—I fell asleep on New Year’s Eve.” I talk over her. “When I woke up I freaked out because I thought I missed it.”
“Missed the countdown? It wouldn’t have mattered,” she licks the spoon and it does something to my chest.
She’s sexy without even trying. It’s getting annoying (and erotic) because she has the face of someone who played me.
“That’s the thing.” I push my hair back to focus. “I didn’t even care about all that. I was freaking out because I thought I missed wishing her a happy new year.”
I knew New Years was the only time she’d pick up my call and when she did…I wanted to get on a plane and go to Montana immediately.
I was drunk and it was loud so I don’t remember her voice but the way she breathed into the phone. The way she laughed, it made my heart stop for a second—it’s the reason I remember the night so fondly.
The reason I couldn’t wait to come back to school.
“I wanted her with me so bad, I carried a mannequin called Odie all night.” I snicker realizing how crazy I sound but she smiles meaning she finds it funny too.
“Wow,” her smile falls. “I didn’t know her or whoever it is, meant so much to you.”
“Neither did I?” I’m more surprised than anyone but “it seems absence makes the heart grow fonder and the mind more crazy.”
I try to joke but it doesn’t stick because she has that ‘deer in the headlights’ look again.
“Look, I’m sorry I’m dumping all this on you.” I say when the silence stretches for too long. “It’s just that you’re the closest thing I have to her and I’m hitting dead ends in finding her,” or whoever it is.
This Vecker might not be the real one but she still has the face, smile, and eyes which I desperately needed to see without a room full of people.
I guess that’s why I’m here.
“You can stay the night.” She finally speaks but I’m lost. “I’m too drunk to drive you home and it seems like you could use some rest so…you can stay if you want.”
She sticks the spoon inside the small tub of ice cream and passes it to me.
“What?” I look up when she stands to grab the water bottle in my hands.
“Jessica has a rule about people sleeping on the couch so you’ll have to sleep in my bed but I’ll take America’s.”
She smiles and I realize as she drinks half the bottle that this is her version of being nice to me. She can easily offer to call a cab or ask me to call someone but she’s asking me to stay…in her bed too.
Why do I feel like this is the best day of my life?
“Cool.” I feign nonchalance.
I hadn’t planned on staying because I do have a guest back home but I can’t pass up this opportunity. I text my mates to send her home as I say, “thank you Vecker.”
“You’re welcome.” She’s walking to the kitchen, “now demolish that tub so we can go to bed.”
I pick up the spoon and lick it the way she did before. What? It’s my way of cleaning it before use.
I don’t realize how tired I am till I sink into Vecker’s medium size bed in a t-shirt and white briefs and pass out the moment my head hits the pillow. I’m tall but it’s big enough for me so I sleep comfortably for the first time, in a long time.
I can’t believe I used to complain about my life being boring. Who would have thought I was really asking for trouble?
I wake up to Odessa walking around the room in a grey vest and matching stripped shorts. She’s rubbing a white towel against her wet hair when she stops by her desk that’s across the side of the bed.
“Odie? Did you find it? I really need it for my thesis,” someone calls from down the hall.
“I’m emailing it now, stop screaming!” She whisper-yells as I blink only to fall back to sleep.
When I wake up again the room is empty and I’m not as groggy. It’s silent as I sit up to find a puffy pink stuffed pig in my arms.
“Odessa?” I rub the side of my head.
Thankfully, I’m not hangover.
Leaving the bed, I take a good look around the no doubt master bedroom. I’ve never really been in a girl’s room because I prefer to hook up at my place or in a car so I’m fascinated.
I look around Odessa’s neat one with the exception of her messy desk that’s filled with sheet music. It has a small fireplace under the tv that’s facing the bed in the middle.
The walls are a powdery grey color. The doors to the bedroom and bathroom doors an off-white color that matches her headboard and the flowery chandelier light above her bed.
Her sheets and pillows are grey but her bed covers are black with grey butterflies, the same dark color her curtains and the bench in front of her bed is.
She has a bay window facing the other side of the bed. It has a bent down novel called The Fall of a Proud Princess, a white blanket and what looks like sheet music falling over the stool.
The fluffy grey rug under my feet matches the dressing table of her metallic vanity in the corner. It has a sliver large mirror above it and a bunch of woman products.
Having my fill, I leave the bed and the pig behind.
I find my jacket and jeans on the white chair by her clear desk. I check them for my phone and her laptop lights up with a notification that changes everything.
Or should I say, shows me everything.
ODESSA
“There’s a hot boy sleeping in your bed.” Jessica whispers when I emerge from her and America’s bathroom.
I showered there so I wouldn’t wake Liam up. Who I must say, for an athlete is a late sleeper.
“And you were in my room because?” I walk to America’s room to make her bed and she follows still in last night's clothes.
“I went to tell you I did a breakfast run and needed to borrow some notes for my thesis.” She leans against the doorway, “who is it anyway? He’s hot and I mean, cologne male model ad hot.”
“A friend who needed a place to crash.”
“A friend?” Jessica makes a face but I nod.
I feel weird about it too but Liam was there, pouring his heart out to me and looking sad. I didn’t know what else to say, I did the only thing I could do and offered him a place to sleep.
Great, it still sounds stupid even when I’m sober.
“Well there’s enough breakfast for you and your hot friend that you won’t tell me about,” she fakes pouts as I fluff the pillows.
“And who is the mystery guy you’re dating again?” I glare.
She left early and still got in late. She must really like him if she won’t even tell America and I about him.
“You win,” she concedes. “Just send the Literature notes so I start on my term paper.”
“Done.” I pull the towel from my hair and follow her out of America’s room.
I admit when I walk into my room, I nearly fall over when I see Liam on my bed. I checked on him last night when I came to change but it was dark and I was drunk so I just saw a figure on my bed.
A tall, very manly figure.
Today’s there’s a light coming from the hall because my curtains are thick and dark. But I’m also sober, freshly showered and not hungover so all I can say is Jessica was right.
This boy is deliciously, cologne male model ad hot.
His white t-shirt is a little tight around his flexed arm. His face and other arm are under a pillow with the covers covering the rest of his lower body but the outline is clear and he is...wow.
“Odie!” Jess’s voice is the thing to snap me out of the hot boy trance.
“Morning.”
Liam walks into the living room buttoning his pants like the hot lead does in movies. It should be illegal to walk out of bed looking as good as he does.
“It’s almost 12 but hi,” I pause the Tv. “Jessica did a Dunkin Donuts run so help yourself.” I bite a donut to distract myself.
“Thanks but I don’t really do carbs for breakfast.” He looks over his shoulder before sitting next to me…really closely.
Please don’t reignite last night’s conversation. I am all for venting but there is such thing as the wrong ear and I am definitely the wrong ear for that conversation.
“Thanks again for letting me sleep over,” he rubs his jaw. “I didn’t mean to make things weird.”
“They’re not weird.”
You just called me your best friend so I asked you to sleep over because the guilt was eating me up alive and I didn’t know what to do.
Okay.
Maybe it is weird.
“Well at least let me return the favor,” he pulls out his phone. “Let me take you out to dinner,” he taps while I try not to choke on my food.
Dinner?
- Writer
