Chapter 10: The Doubt

I sighed and flipped it open. "I said I’m on my way!" I rolled my eyes even though I knew he couldn’t see me. "Just making sure you and your hot ass friend didn’t go back to sleep," he said with a chuckle as he hung up. I snapped the phone shut and looked back at Liam; he was still watching me, but was getting dressed at the same time. I smiled at him, and he smiled back. It was nice. Usually, he changed into ass-ole daytime Liam in the morning, teasing me almost as soon as I wake up, but today, he seems different. I couldn’t help but wonder how long it would last. I went to my closet and grabbed a pair of black leggings and a tight white top that just covered my ass; I grabbed fresh underwear and went to the bathroom to change. As I walked past him, he grabbed my hand, making me stop. "You know you have the sexiest ass in the world, right?" he whispered, just before he pressed his lips to mine lightly, sending what felt like lightning bolts around my body. When he let go, I just looked at him, a little shocked. "Yeah, I bet you say that to all the girls," I mumbled, shaking my head and walking into the bathroom, closing the door and taking a deep breath. What’s wrong with me? Why was he making me feel like this? That’s Liam for goodness' sake! He’s going to crush you, and you’re going to end up like that damn slut Jessica, begging for his attention once he’s finished and got what he wanted. But he wouldn’t do that to me. He’d spent every night with me for the last eight years. I needed him to be able to sleep; he kept my nightmares away. He wouldn’t hurt me, would he? I trusted him to keep me safe, but could I trust him with my heart? I knew the answer to that was no, I couldn’t, but for some reason, I wanted to. When I came out of the bathroom, he was gone, but this wasn’t surprising. I walked over to my window to lock it as us,ual and I saw a small white daisy on the windowsill. I looked out of the window and sm. These flowers grew just outside my window; he must have picked one for me when he climbed out, and left it the, knowing I would see it when I locked the window. My heart skipped a beat, and I smiled, a little confused. That was so unlike Liam to do something like that. I sighed as I tucked the little flower into my ponytail and then headed to the kitchen, grabbing two juice boxes. I scribbled a note for Jake telling him that I had gone dancing, and that I would help him clear up later if he would let Kate and Sarah come over to watch a movie tonight. I knew he would go for it; this was my usual bribe for helping him clear up after his party. They would come over to ours in the evening, and he would pay for pizza and a movie. All he had to do was put up with two flirty girls hitting on him and Liam all night; he usually came over, too, if he didn’t have a date. I skipped out of the front door into his car that was already running outside my house. "Hey, got you this," I chirped, handing him the drink. "Thanks. Got you this." He smiled, handing me a slice of toast. I laughed. "That’s a pretty good exchange," I said, smiling at him and eating it. "Oh, I need to go to Benny’s and get doughnuts, if that’s alright." I looked at him hopefully while we were driving down the high street. He nodded and was still beaming. "Why so happy today?" I asked, curious as to why he was smiling so much. He couldn’t have had much sleep, and I knew he was still tir;d, I could tell by his eyes. "I had a good night last night, that’s all. I finally scored with some hot chick that I’ve been after for a while." He winked at me, his genuine smile turning into his stupid smirk. My insides felt like someone had shoved a chainsaw into my stomach. He had hooked up with someone, and then came on to me, ie, bed? That stupid jerk! I’d kissed him, a proper kiss too, and he had used some girl for sex before that! Ugh, the stupid man-whore, I knew I shouldn’t have expected any different. I turned away so he couldn’t see how hurt I was, and glared out of my window, refusing to cry. Crying is for the weak. I hardly ever let anyone see me cry, but some people we already behind the defences I had built so I couldn’t help it. He pulled up outside Benny's, and I jumped out, wanting to be away from him. I ordered twenty assorted doughnuts, heavy on the chocolate variety because they were my favourites. When I got back in the car, Liam smiled. "Got enough there?" he joked, looking at the two huge boxes I had in my arms. I just nodded and turned up the radio. "I like this song," I lied; I had no idea what iwasa, but I just didn’t want to talk to him. He shot me a weird glance. "You hate rave music," he said, frowning and turning it down. He was right, I did hate that stuff, but I would rather that than talk to him, the lying slut. We pulled up outside the studio where my crew rehearsed every Saturday. We were a street dancing crew, and we were pretty good to,o. We had entered a dance battle last week against ten other crews in the area and had come second, winning over $1,000 in prize money. Not that we ever saw any of the money, it went straight on studio time and uniforms, music, and fliers or posters. I loved to dance, street dance was my favourite, and anything that went with a hip hop beat got my vote. It had always been my dream since I was a little girl to have my dance studio; maybe one day I’d get there, but it seemed highly unlikely. "Hey, I’m so sorry, guys, I overslept," I said, looking at them all apologetically as I walked in. Justin pulled me into a big hug, and I tried not to flinch away from him; he was wearing his trademark piece of pink in the form of a cap today. "That’s OK. I’d oversleep too if I had that fine ass in my bed," he teased with a grin as he nodded over my shoulder towards Liam. I rolled my eyes and put the doughnuts on the table, grabbing a chocolate one quickly before they all went. I headed over to say hi to the other guys. There were eight of us in our crew, four girls and four guys. I was happily chatting with the guys when Justin called everyone to start. "Seeing as we are already forty-five minutes late because someone couldn’t drag her ass out of bed on time, we’d better get started," he stated, throwing me a mock glare and making me laugh. We set to work on a new routine; it was hard and complicated and even had some pretty scary lifts. The worst one was where I was on Ricky’s shoulders and had to flip off, turn in the air so I was facing backwards, then he would catch me as I fell down his body. Almost instantly, I had to wrap my legs around his waist before leaning back, putting my arms on the floor, or rolling my body to the floor. Lucki, we had mats, because it took over an hour for me to even land it once, and let me tell you, even landing on your back or stomach on a padded mat, hurts, especially if the muscled guy who is supposed to catch you, lands on top of you. After about the twentieth attempt, I pushed Ricky off of me, laughing. I couldn’t even get up, I was so tired, sweat was running down my back. "OK, I officially give up on this for the day. My head hurts, my back hurts, my butt hurts, even my arms and legs hurt from holding on," I whined,l y like a starfish on the mat.