~2~
A few days had passed after Liam meeting Sarah, and even though Liam had plenty of distractions, he couldn't get her off his mind.
He knew he should move on and try and forget about her, after all, they had met once and he only got her first name. He probably wouldn't even see her again.
He was now out on the pier, squinting at the sun and looking down at the blue sparkling waters. He found it hard to believe just a few days ago he might not have been able to stand right there.
He was looking down at the other people on the beach, thinking about how they probably didn't have a clue how quickly things could change, when he saw familiar shiny curls waving in the wind.
He did a double take and saw Sarah rolling on to her back under her red and white striped umbrella reading a beat up paper back. He laughed to himself.
Seconds ago he was thinking he wasn't going to see her again and there she was, sitting on the sand right beneath him.
"Life's short Court." he said to himself, and with that he jogged down the stairs and walked across the golden sand to where she lay.
"Hey," he said as he reached her. She looked up at him behind blue and yellow sunglasses and she smiled immediately and propped her sunglasses on the top of her head.
"Hello stranger." she said with a laugh.
"I wouldn't say I'm a stranger. You know my name." he said and she sat up.
Liam caught sight of her pearl white two piece.
"It's a figure of speech. Anyways, how are you?" she asked him and he shrugged.
"I'm okay i guess. Taking it easy like the doc said but it's driving me mental not being able to do anything."
She nodded. "Yeah, i could see that being hard. No freedom hey?" he nodded.
"Pretty much."
"Which reminds me, you're that model guy right?" she asked and he raised an eyebrow surprised.
"How'd you know?" she laughed.
"This is gonna sound pretty stupid but I recognized your abs." he laughed with her.
"Really?" he asked and she nodded.
"Unfortunately I'm extremely observant." she said as he nodded.
"No kidding..." he trailed and she stood up, brushing sand off of her.
"How about I let you do something that's fun, but also safe?" she said and he put his arms out.
"Please, anything." she laughed and walked towards the docks.
"So how come you were at the hospital?" Liam asked as he felt sand underneath his toes.
"My gran, she had a stroke a few days back and I visit every summer so I usually stay with her. We're close. And when that happened, i decided to be with her every day that i could. She'll be okay though, my grandpa's been with her twenty four seven so I know she'll be well cared for."
He nodded. "Sorry about that." he said and she shook her head.
"It was scary, but like i said, she'll be fine." she told him.
"What's the story with you?" she asked. "Do the police know who it was?"
Liam frowned. "Unfortunately not. All they know is that the car was maroon cause of the scratches on my bike." he grimaced, remembering his bike was wrecked.
"Oh, that sucks. Sorry about the bike. My brother has one. It's pretty sweet, but super scary though."
Liam laughed. "No it's great. If it ever gets fixed I'll take you out and show you the non-scary part of it." he said and Sarah looked up at him.
"Yeah? Well if you drive like my brother i find that hard to believe." Liam gave her a sympathetic look.
"Well I'll go extra slow for you." he said in a baby kind of voice. She hit his arm.
"Oh shut up. Drive normally. It's just sketchy on the turns." he laughed.
"Those are my favourite." he said and she rolled her eyes.
"Great..." she muttered.
They began walking along the docks.
"What're we doing here?" Liam asked.
"We," Sarah began turning, and stopping in front of a grand boat.
"Are going out on the water. After you." she said with a smile and he raised his brows.
"You know how to drive this thing?" he asked and she laughed.
"That i do. You'll just have to owe me and take me out on that bike." she said and he jumped up on to the dock.
"It's a deal."
"This is amazing." Liam said sitting back on the boat as Sarah steered it over the calm waters.
"'Yup, this is what drags me down here every summer." she agreed.
"Where are you from then?" he asked.
"BC. You know? Canada. Yup, I live on Vancouver Island but i come down here for part of the summer just to see my grandparents and sail. I usually visit only in the summer, but the new year was coming around and I needed to get away for a while."
"Oh yeah? I know the feeling. Must be nice to travel once a year." he said and she nodded.
"It is. But i do miss the small town life sometimes." she said. "And the fam." she laughed. "Sometimes..." she trailed and Liam chuckled but then thought about his "family" and it dies off.
"Got any siblings?" she asked and Liam wondered about whether or not to tell her about Jasper.
"One, but we don't talk too much. He doesn't live around here." she nodded, not asking questions.
"Mom and dad?" she asked.
"My mom, well i haven't seen her in a while, and my dad, well I try and forget about him as much as i can." he said with a bitter smile. She saw it and nodded.
"Right, yeah my dad...God before he got help he was horrible." she said and Liam raised a brow.
"Help?" He wondered.
"He went to counselling for a few years up until last year. He needed to be fixed. Ever since i can remember he was always a self righteous, selfish, stubborn, most obnoxious person i ever knew. And he and my sister shared a lot of the same traits, especially the self righteousness and being stubborn, so they fought a lot." she said heavily, obviously bothered by memories. "Like not even the way teens do with their dads. This was, things being thrown, people driving off into the middle of the night, little brother crying, mom screaming, kind of fighting. I would hide in my room, terrified." she laughed once. " It went on for years. I was classified as an anxious nervous kid that would shut down the first sign of yelling by the time i was eleven. Got better at school when i got teased." she rolled her eyes.
"Why did you get teased?" he asked and she sighed.
"Because, i was different. All the other girls had the straight hair and perfect teeth and clothes, while i had frizzed out hair, braces and hand-me-downs and played guitar instead of baseball."
"And because of that you got bullied?" he asked and she nodded.
"Sad right?" she asked and he laughed and nodded.
"What about you?" she asked him suddenly. "Why do you talk so poorly about your family?" Liam sighed before he laid back and launched into his story.
He was quite surprised at how quiet Sarah he was talking about this, she stood and sailed the boat, sun beating down on her face and her eyes drifting from the water to him every so often.
"And, as you could guess," Liam said as his life story came to a close. "that's why I'm not the biggest fan on them twenty four seven."
She shrugged. "It's understandable. People have it rough all over." she said wisely. "Speaking of which," she said waving a hand towards herself, gesturing him to come forward which he did. "I think you should stay out of the sun for a little while. Those cuts don't look too happy." she said with a frown and he raised his arms.
"Out of the sun?" he asked. "Where else is there to go?" Sarah smiled and suddenly took his hands in hers and placed them on the wheel.
"Just hold this steady." she said to him firmly, which he did while she raced around the boat, letting out several sails and cranking different ropes before she turned and huffed.
"Okay, we are anchored." she said and skipped to where an old tarp lay before pulling off the tarp to reveal a hatch which she swung open. "And we're going down. Come on!" she said with a laugh, dropping down.
Liam chuckled and followed after her, and used the ladder, knowing his bones would scream at him if he tried to jump like she had.
Liam found himself int he bottom of the ship but it didn't look like it was. The walls were a nice creamy colour and the floor was hardwood.
"Sarah?" he called down the hall.
"Right here." she said from behind him, and Liam jumped. She smiled, laughing. "This way." she said turning down the hall.
He walked down with her and saw several family pictures of people who looked somewhat like Sarah. Her and her mom look exactly the same, and her dad and her had the same nose. Her sisters looked different but one had similar hair, but more wavy.
"Welcome," Sarah said with a smile in her voice as she opened a door. "to my oasis."
Liam stepped in and him mouth fell open. There was a complete kitchen and dining room, which was small and compact but fit well into the boat. There was a couch with a flat screen TV and CD's lined the walls with records hung proudly on pegs. There was a pool table and a bookcase full of movies, and a cozy well-sat-in chair nestled by the bookcase.
"You-you only come down here once a year?" Liam asked shocked. "Do you realize i could live here if i wanted to? God this place is amazing!" he said walking around taking it in.
"That's what happens when your grandparents win the lottery..." she mumbled with a small laugh.
"No kidding..." he trailed still stunned.
"So," Sarah said brushing past him to the fridge. "what's for lunch?" she asked opening the door. Liam shook his head.
"Lunch can wait," he said venturing down the other hallway opposite the living area.
" Oh-Okay!" she said jogging to catch up with him.
"What's down here?" he asked, flipping on the lights.
"The bedrooms." she answered.
"You have beds on a boat. You have freaking bedrooms on a boat!" she laughed at his exclamation.
"How many?" he asked and she counted on her fingers.
"Five." she told him. "One for my brothers, one for my sisters, grandparents, parents, and me. I get my own room since I'm down here more than anyone else." she explained as he pushed open a door.
"That's my grandparents room there, parents, brothers, sisters, bathroom, and me." she said stopping in front of a spruce coloured door. "Go ahead." she said.
He turned the doorknob slowly, and the door swung open to reveal a dark room, until Sarah switched on a light and a small chandelier sprang to life as well as strings of fairy lights strung about through the rafters on the ceiling.
"Wow." he said. The room was spacious and somewhat clean, there were a few stray bras and dresses lying about but Liam bypassed those. Her bed was on the back wall, centred between her dresser and sitting area where she had a coffee table and a few beanie bag chairs. She had a huge bookcase full of worn out paperbacks like the one she had been reading on the beach, and a few glossy hard covers were dotted here and there. A guitar sat right beside her bed in its stand, glossy and beautiful. It had Sarah written on the neck in reflective shells as well as several wisps crawling up the neck and it was made of koa wood. Liam recognized the wood from working with boats. The carpet was soft and reached beyond his toes. It reminded him of grass. Snow globes lined the bookcase and postcards lived on the walls as well as different photos of Sarah and her friends and family.
"Wow." Liam said again. Sarah sat on her bed and blushed.
"I know it's a lot, but at home it's not like this. We do have our own rooms but I'm living in the attic and my mom and dad are in the basement so my siblings can have the three other actual rooms." she sighed and looked around. "This is one of my favourite places to be."
"But Metchosin is great. Amazing. I wish you knew." she said and Liam smiled at her.
"Maybe one day i will." he said and she blushed and looked to her guitar.
"So you play." Liam confirmed and she nodded.
"Yeah, since i was thirteen." she told him, picking up the guitar and crossing her legs so it rested gently on her propped leg. "I love it. I write songs too, since the same age. It used to be poems but then i started playing and the poems turned into songs." she explained and Liam nodded.
"Play me something." he said and she laughed with shock.
"What?" she asked and he sat on the bed beside her and poked her leg.
"Come on. You really think you were gonna pick up your guitar and not play me something? At least? It would be a bonus if you sung..." he trailed and she laughed and hit him with her shoulder playfully.
"Okay, okay!" she said and strummed aimlessly. "Well um...what do you want me to play?" she asked and he shrugged.
"Anything you know." he said to her and she sighed and ran a hand through her hair in thought.
"Do you know drops of Jupiter?" she asked him and Liam scoffed.
"That's one of my favourite songs!" he said and she smiled.
"Really? Me too!" she said and he nodded.
"Come on, lets hear it." he said and she laughed and strummed.
When Sarah finished Liam was amazed.
"Holy..God Sarah you're incredible." he said and her face immediately turned red and she beamed.
"Oh my gosh," she said stunned at him comment. "thank you." she said and he shook his head.
"You deserve it. I'm not kidding, i know people would listen to you on the radio." he said and she frowned.
"See, that's the hard part. The whole, making-it-to-the-big-time." she rolled her eyes. "Liam, there are thousands, millions, of people out there who are just as good if not better than me. And we all have the same goal: to be signed to a label and to make our own albums. But the chances are one in several million." she said to him seriously. Liam could tell she wanted so badly to be on a label but also knew how hard it was gonna be to get there.
"Well, you're the one in several million." he said and Sarah sighed and put back her guitar and rested her hands in her lap.
"Thank you, but tell that to every major record company in the nation." she said and he rolled his eyes.
"Anyone would be lucky to have you on their label. What's this?" he asked, snatching some papers off the floor which he would've missed had Sarah not brushed them with her foot, moving them out from under her bed.
Sarah made a grab for the papers. "Hey!" she said. "those are mine!" he laughed and held them out of her reach and she leaned in trying to get them.
"Liam stop! Just give me the lyrics back!" she said and Liam grinned.
"Lyrics hey? A song?" he wondered and she groaned and leaned in more.
"Just give them to me!"
Then Sarah and Liam were chest to chest, and almost nose to nose. Sarah noticed it when Liam looked back at her and saw the tiny flecks of green and blue in his eyes.
Liam noticed it when he smelled her hair and felt it tickling his neck. He cleared his throat as Sarah leaned back out sheepishly and allowed him to look at them.
Sarah watched his eyes scan the papers.
"This," he began as he carried on reading. "this is really good." he said and Sarah leaned back on her pillows.
"It's for my best friend." she said and he nodded.
"What's it about?" he asked. "It's called fifteen. Is that when the time frame was?"
Sarah nodded. "I met my best friend when i was fifteen and we both went through this time when we both kinda felt tiny in this huge world of high school." she rolled her eyes and laughed. "But she got treated really badly by a guy and I just immediately wrote this when i saw this picture of us like a month after we met." she sighed and Liam saw her eyes fall on a picture on her coffee table of Sarah's arms around a red head with curly hair and a big smile.
"Abigail was always there for me when the people you would expect would be there for me weren't. And she's always just been a huge cheerleader. I play all my music for her, and she compliments me to no end-"
"Can you blame her?" Liam interjected and Sarah laughed and carried on.
"Anyways," she said with a laugh. "I wrote that for her a few nights ago. Her birthday's coming up and I'm gonna perform it for her. I can't wait to see her face." she giggled at the imaginary thought of it.
Liam settled himself beside her. "How did you make those lines rhyme?" he asked. "I mean they do rhyme but which words?" he asked pointing to a verse on the piece of lined paper.
Sarah chuckled. "It's not the words, it's the syllables. If you fit the right amount of syllables together then it works. Some people write words in the middle of the line and rhyme it with one in the end or vice versa. Or, the last two words rhyme or the first two...You get the point." she said with a shrug but then pointed to the line. "See, if you count the amount of syllables there is an equal amount so they fit together nicely."
Liam took in this information. "So you think about all this just when writing a song?" he asked and she giggled again. "Sounds like too much work." he said and she shook her head.
"No, most of the time i don't even think about it. It's just something that's automatic."
