Chapter 4 - Getting out of the Darkness
2016 Words
MADDIESON’S POV
“ Who’s Lani?” I asked Liam upon hearing that the guy mistook him for someone else.
“He’s my brother.”
“ You must look so much alike for them to be confused”
“Probably” he said quickly and started to walk.
“Do you own this mall?” I asked out of curiosity.
“ My father owns it. It’s not mine.”
We entered the cinema and sat on the balcony with a seat between us. The movie had already started but no other people entered the cinema.
Liam noticed that I was looking at the other parts of the cinema.
“Don’t worry, no one’s watching with us. You can watch peacefully” he said while crossing his arms.
I just nodded. "This guy must come from a very rich family". I said to myself.
The movie was about a guy in his 70s who travelled to different parts of the world in search of the woman he loves. It was a bit sad because when he finally found her, she was already married to someone else. She lost hope that they would meet again, but he didn’t. For him, she was his greatest love and in the end, he decided to love her from afar.
I was moved by the story. Liam didn't show any emotion while watching so I have no idea if he enjoyed it.
We went out of the cinema at around 7 pm in the evening.
“I’m hungry, let’s grab something to eat” he said while rubbing his stomach.
“I think I should go home” I said.
“It’s still early. It will not take long, I promise.”
I agreed because I was also hungry at that time.
We rode the escalator down to the lower Ground Floor then entered the Food court.
“ You can sit there, I’ll order our food” he offered while pointing the table at the center.
I looked at him with anxiousness in my eyes because there were so many people around that made me feel uncomfortable sitting alone.
“I guess you want to see the menu first. Come with me then” he said.
I felt relieved.
We went straight to the Burger King stall and he grabbed the menu.
“What would you like to have Maddie?” He asked while looking at the menu.
“I’ll have what you’ll have.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded.
“Okay, please give us two orders of extra-long chicken meal with heavy mayo” he said to the crew.
“How much was it?” I asked while taking out my purse from my bag.
“ I got this”
“No, I didn’t pay for the movie already. Please let me pay for this”
“ Pay me back next time” he insisted.
I don’t want to argue, so I just agreed.
I took the tray of food because he cannot carry it because of the cast in his left arm. We sat in the corner with the fewest people around.
“ What’s your comfort food Maddie?” Liam asked while dipping his fries in ketchup.
“ Blueberry Cheesecake” I said immediately.
“Ahh, so you like sweets.”
“ Kindah.” I answered in a low voice.
“Will you not ask me what’s mine?”
“Uhm, how about you, what’s your comfort food?”
“Pizza. Too bad there’s no pizza store in this mall”
I just smiled.
After finishing our meals, a black car fetched us and dropped me off in our house.
I was about to enter our gate when Liam rolled the window of the car.
“Pay me back tomorrow, I’ll get you at 9 am,” he shouted.
“Sure” I just smiled a bit and turned back.
The next day, I woke up at 6 am and felt a bit different. For the first time after the incident, I am looking forward for a great day ahead.
I went down to our garden at 8:45 am. I saw Liam leaning on our gate while tossing a baseball ball.
“You’re early” I spoke.
He turned around and waved his hand.
“ I’ll teach you how to play baseball” he said.
“ That’s interesting.”
“Gavin will join us, my best friend. Don’t worry, he’s a nice guy.”
I said in my head “ As long as you’re around Liam, I don’t need to worry.”
We walked and arrived at a field near the Golden River.
“Hey Liam!” a guy around 5’9 in height, blonde hair, chiselled jaw with an athletic build approached us.
“Hey Bro! I miss you!” Liam said teasingly.
“Ewww! Feels like you want to kiss me”, the guy said with disgust.
I laughed.
“Maddie, this is Gavin. Gavin, this is Maddie”. Liam introduced us.
“Good to see that you’re doing fine” Gavin said while smiling.
I remember him, he’s the one that threw the baseball bat into the van’s windshield before. I had some flashback about the incident and my knees shook a little bit so I looked at Liam and I calmed down.
“Oh, I remember you now. You’re one of the guys that saved me, Thank you!” I said with so much gratefulness.
“ No worries, they helped you too. That’s Laurent, Brix and Max”. He pointed to the other guys in the field.
I looked at them and told them, “Thank you for saving me!”
They waved their hands and said “You’re welcome.”
“ Those girls are their girlfriends”, Gavin said, while pointing to the three girls at the side.
“Today, we’ll teach you to play baseball. You’re lucky because one of your teachers is the Greenfield University Baseball team’s captain and that's no other than me.” Gavin said in an excited tone.
LIAM’S POV
This is the first time Gavin is going to play with girls. I was a former baseball team member but I quit a year ago. I asked Gavin’s baseball teammates to bring their girlfriends so Maddie would not be anxious to play with just us boys. Since my arm is still healing, I just explained the mechanics of the game to the girls.
It was fun playing or shoud I say, hilarious. Monica, Laurent’s girlfriend, ran in the wrong direction. While Anna, Brix’s girlfriend, mishandled the baseball bat, and it flew at Gavin, almost hitting his head. 4
Maddie was so nervous about hitting the ball, it hit her forehead. She tumbled down facing the ground, so I ran toward her.
“Are you okay Maddie?” I asked while approaching her.
She then faced up and laughed.
“This is embarrassing”. She laughed uncontrollably.
We all laughed while lying on the ground. and for the first time, I saw happiness in Maddie’s eyes.
“I had so much fun today. I didn’t know I could play a sport like that” Maddie said happily while we walked on the side of the road on our way to their house.
“ That’s good to hear.”
“Thank you, Liam,”
We continued walking and reached their house.
“Off you go!” I said while we stood in front of their gate.
“Okay, bye?”
“Bye”
MADDIESON’S POV
I just arrived home and saw my mom outside my room.
“ Hi Mom!”
“ Hi Maddie, I just finished folding your newly washed clothes. Why are you so dirty?”
“ I played baseball with---” I stopped. I’m not sure if I could already consider them as friends.
“With some nice people”
“Oh good, that’s good for you.” She said happily.
“I’ll go ahead and wash up mom”
Since then, it has become a habit to hang out with Liam every day for two weeks. We practiced playing baseball. We went fishing in the river and watched movies.
He opened up a whole new world to me. He saved me from drowning in despair.
One night, I decided to check our school website for any updates since I would be back at school in a week. There was a column written by an anonymous student which indicated that the hottest guy in school was dating a nobody. I scrolled down and saw a stolen photo of me and Liam in the river. Thankfully, my face was blurred in the photo. There were lots of comments and most of them weren’t happy with the news.
A commenter said, “She doesn’t deserve to be him. She looks below average.”
Another one said, “ Back off girl, he’s mine.”
There are more comments, but I stopped reading them. With that, I realized that I can’t be near Liam when we come back to school because girls who have crush on him will not be happy to see us together and might bully me.
“What should I do? We're really not of the same level.” I asked myself.
“Maddie! come down, the dinner is ready” my mom shouted.
“Coming” I replied.
I went down to the dining area and sat across from my mom.
“What’s with the long face honey?” my mother asked.
“Nothing mom.”
“Maybe you’re just anxious about going back to school” she said while pouring the soup in the bowl.
“Probably”
“Don’t worry baby, it’s all better now. You have Liam now.” She said in an intriguing tone.
“ We’re just friends, mom.”
“I didn’t say anything malicious. I’m just glad you have someone you can trust now.”
I sighed.
While washing the dishes after dinner, some thoughts came to my mind.
“Why is Liam being so good to me? I’m just an average girl”, I whispered to myself.
“Maybe he's doing it out of pity”, I answered myself.
And that thought made me sad.
The next day, I was staring at the flowers in the garden when Liam arrived.
“Hey sleepy head, are you still dreaming?” he said then laughed.
The truth is, the thought last night still lingers on my mind.
“Let’s go?” I said setting aside the thought.
We started walking and Liam was telling me a good movie recommendation but I didn't seem to catch up.
“Are you okay Maddie? You don’t look well” he said in a concerned tone.
“Do you visit our school’s website?”
“No, I don’t like seeing my face there.”
“ Ah, okay”
“Why? What’s with the school’s website?”
“Nothing”
He immediately took out his phone and checked it.
“ These people are so annoying. Is this the reason why you feel so down today? Don’t mind them, Maddie. Their opinions are just noise.”
“No, it’s just that---” I said as I looked down.
“ I think they’re right. I’m nothing compared to you.” I continued.
“What? I’m disappointed in you for believing them.”
Liam started dialing a number.
“Kindly take down the post about me and please block the author of that article on the website” he said angrily.
He took a step towards me, held my shoulders and looked me in the eyes.
“There’s nothing to worry about now, Maddie. I already took care of it.”
“What did you do? I asked.
" You won't see those kinds of articles anymore. I won’t allow them to say those harsh words to you again.”
“How did you even do that?”
“The University is under my name, of course, I can do that.”
“We really live in two different worlds,” I said in my head.
- Writer
