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Chapter 3

"Hey Liam?" Annie asked a few nights later, when she and Liam were watching tv in the apartment. Liam had spent the day working in the bar and Annie hung out at the mall will Naomi. She coerced Annie into her mission to purchase the perfect clothes and accessories for starting college, which Naomi believed was the most essential to projecting the right image and being very successful. Naomi kept insisting that college was a make you or break you experience, but Annie was worried Naomi's appetite for shopping was going to break her and her bank account before college ever got the chance.

"Yeah?"

"What did you think of me in high school?" Annie asked, while twirling a ringlet of her golden brown hair reflectively. She still couldn't get over the fact that fate had brought them back into each other's lives.

"I - why?" Liam responded uncertainly. He knew back then Annie was crazy about him and, after living together the past few days, he thought maybe if the circumstances had been different, he would have fallen for her. But high school was all in the past.

"I don't know," Annie shrugged like it was no big deal. Truthfully, in junior high and her freshman year of high school Liam had been the biggest deal in her life. But...being her brother Dixon's best friend, meant basically she had no chance.

"Girls never ask questions for no reason. So I can't answer until I know the reason."

Annie sighed. "And GUYS are always being difficult about nothing!"

"Is that so?" Liam stood up and walked to the kitchen. He pulled a pint of cookie dough ice cream from the freezer and began eating, while contemplating Annie's sudden interest in their high school relationship...or lack there-of. He knew she was probably staring daggers at him and, finally, it got to be too much. "Annie if you want to know how I felt about you, then look at your yearbook and you can read it all in black and white."

"Don't be ridiculous, Liam. You never signed my yearbook. I asked you to, but you acted like you wouldn't be caught dead signing a freshman's yearbook as a senior."

"I wrote in it. Anonymously." Liam smirked in her direction, eating another spoonful of ice-cream. He remembered that day. It was like he was 18 again, standing in the school parking lot, leaning up against the muscle car of one of his buddies. Annie sashaying over with a group of freshman girls. Want to sign my yearbook? she'd asked, barely making eye contact she was so nervous. Her friends were giggling and squealing all around her. He'd shaken his head no, especially not when all those losers aka his former friends were standing there just waiting for a reason to act like dicks. But then, there was some commotion, a bunch of guys started firing water balloons at them as a prank. Annie dropped her yearbook as a group of seniors chased her and her shrieking friends around the parking lot. He had picked it up. Watching her running in her black spaghetti strap dress and platform sandals, water balloons crashing around her circle of friends. He couldn't help but smile, Annie was always bursting with energy. Nobody was paying attention to him, so he scribbled a little message. Annie, Remember the good times and remember to take chances. You taught me that. It was the first thing that came to mind, so he went with it. He wasn't about to write her a poem or some monologue that looked ripped from some chick's diary.

"That's crazy," Annie said incredulously, breaking into his reminisces.

Liam shot her a look like she was the insane one. Ignoring him, she rushed to her room feeling exhilarated like it was christmas morning and she couldn't wait to find that yearbook and see what Liam wrote in it.

As soon as she left to find it, her phone rang. Liam knew better than to answer, but boundaries didn't deter him much. "Hello?"

"Annie? Where the fuck have you been?" A rude voice snapped.

"This isn't Annie but I don't like the tone your using."

"What are you doing with my girlfriend's phone?"

"Who is this?" Liam asked angrily.

"Patrick. I am Annie's boyfriend."

"The hell you are," Liam spat into the receiver.

"Who are you?" Patrick returned snidely. "Has my slutty, hoary girlfriend leading on some new placeholder?"

"None of your business who I am and Annie hasn't mentioned you once." Liam said.

"I don't know why my girlfriend would be so stupid, but nothing is coming between Annie and I anymore. You are nothing more than a bed warmer I will more than happily annihilate."

"We'll see about that Patrick. I think Annie can do a lot better than the scum of the Earth which you seem to be."

"Quit being a pussy and put Annie on!" Patrick demanded condescendingly.

"Not happening," Liam said disgustedly, promptly ending the call. He marched right into Annie's/Dixon's room and tossed her phone on the floor near where she was pulling out a stack of yearbooks.

"I found it!" she told him excitedly, not looking up as she paged through the pictures and messages in her old freshman yearbook. "Wait? Why do you look like that?" she asked, catching a glimpse of Liam's scowl.

"Like I just talked to your lunatic boyfriend? I don't know maybe because that's exactly happened."

"W-what?" Annie tried to comprehend what Liam was saying. Also, which of her exes could possibly have evoked this negative of a response in Liam.

"Who the hell is Patrick?" Liam asked, crossing his arms.

Annie's face bleached. His question sounded more like an accusation.

"Cuz he seems to think you're together." Liam continued harshly.

"Patrick," she finally managed to choke out, completely caught off guard by this worst case scenario happening. "We broke up when he got arrested for drug possession. He is not my boyfriend."

"Does he know that?" Liam asked rather unsympathetically.

"Yes. Of course. What kind of question is that?" she yelled at Liam.

"Well he must have amnesia because he seems to be under the impression you ARE his girlfriend."

Annie felt sick, she wanted to cry. It had taken forever to get over Patrick. He was sweet in the beginning, but then he discovered drugs after his older brother died in a car crash. He was never the same. He was constantly high and always suspicious of Annie. He even sent her friend Ethan into the hospital with a concussion because he thought she was seeing Ethan behind his back. But the breaking point was when he started slapping Annie around. "The last I heard from him, he was doing time in prison for drug dealing. We broke up before that though, but he used to stalk me trying to get back together. If anything I was relieved when he got arrested because I finally was free of him."

"Wow Annie, you really have great taste in guys," Liam commented sarcastically.

"For your information, he wasn't always like that. He- he just -had a lot of problems."

"Whatever," Liam said, turning to leave. He figured it was not his business, maybe he'd pass this on to Dixon but that was as far as he was getting involved. Then the phone rang again. And rang and rang.

"Hello?" Annie finally answered.

"About time!" Patrick's voice answered.

"Patrick? Is that you? How did you get my number," Annie asked. She sounded scared and that held Liam in the room.

"That's not important. Where are you? I need to see you?"

"I moved. Patrick we're over anyway. You know that."

"Listen slut, I did not survive the past year in prison for nothing but to lose my girlfriend. You belong to me! We love each other!" Patrick was being so loud Annie had to physically withdraw the phone from her ear, so Liam heard their entire exchange.

"Patrick please stop calling." Annie hung up. However, that did nothing to prevent Patrick from calling back repeatedly and proceeding to spam her inbox with countless voicemail and texts. Finally, Annie reached to answer.

"Don't," Liam said swiping at her phone to stop her from giving in to Patrick.

"You don't understand. I have to! Patrick's the type of guy that will stop at nothing to get his way."

"Give it to me then," Liam insisted.

"Liam, nooo," she tried pulling the phone back, but he had the obvious strength and height advantage.

"Hey there Patrick. Listen up, leave Annie the hell alone and quit calling this number unless you want a fight. Cuz you will most definitely be an even bigger loser than you already are." Liam warned coldly on no uncertain terms. Instead of arguing or retaliating, however, Patrick started laughing maniacally. Liam immediately ended the call and then turned her phone off for good measure.

"Thanks...I guess" Annie breathed a sigh of relief, feeling pretty shaken. It surprised her Liam stepped up because normally when things got heated between her and Patrick people looked the other way.

"Don't mention it."

"Patrick wasn't always a bad guy. He's just been consumed with this intense hatred since his brother's death."

"You shouldn't make excuses for him Annie. You're just being an enabler."

"What?! I'm not! It's just been really hard and and -" Annie's words trailed off as she broke down crying. This was a horrible mess. "Maybe I'm afraid of him Liam!" She came to LA for a fresh start and wanting to have fun and accomplish her dreams and now her past was haunting her in the worst way imaginable.

"Don't cry," Liam's voice softened considerably. He was taken aback by her tears. It was clear to him Patrick had caused her a lot of pain. Giving Annie a tight hug, he coaxed her off the floor where she had crumpled against the wall. They sat side by side on the bed, Liam letting her cry into his t-shirt. Cuddling against his chest, Annie felt safe and protected.

"Sorry," her voice cracked. Liam reached for her hand, not knowing what to say. Always more of a doer than a talker.

"You're a good guy Liam," she sniffled after a few minutes.

"Nah.."

She smiled at that, although her eyes were still shining with tears. "It's true, you are a good guy. I just don't think you hear it enough."

"Try never," he affirmed.

"Well I hope you know you can trust me. Anyway..." she reached down and scooped the yearbook off the floor at their feet. "Show me. What you wrote.."

"Alright," he actually felt a little vulnerable as he found the place with his message, then handing it back over to her. Annie traced his words with her finger. Annie, Remember the good times and remember to take chances. You taught me that.

"Wow," It was one of those crazy unexpected moments that makes you feel connected to someone and for the first time Annie realized maybe she had gotten to Liam a little in high school. "I never knew you wrote this."

Liam shrugged. "It's no tear jerker or essay like some of this other stuff people wrote you."

"It's perfect, especially now that I know you wrote it." She flipped to the page with his photo. "Aww look at that!" she pointed at Liam's headshot.

"Don't you dare say I look like Bieber again."

"No...he's way cuter," she said teasingly.

"Yeah well we couldn't all be heartbreakers like you were in high school."

"Stop," Annie was laughing as they continued browsing through the pages. Happily, it was making her forget all about Patrick. At least for the moment.

"Do you think you'll go to your high school reunion?" Annie asked snuggling back into his arms.

"I don't know. I don't really have any unfinished business.."

"Oh please! What about that girl Cassie you went to prom with?" Annie showed him the senior prom page, knowing that he and Cassie were one of the featured couples.

"Haha, yeah and wind up realizing there's some 10 year old kid with half my DNA? No thank you."

Annie gave him a look of terror. "Oh I never -"

"Kidding. God Annie I wasn't that dumb back then."

"I knew that," Annie said quickly, feeling a little flustered by her own reaction.

After a while, Liam realized Annie had fallen asleep against his shoulder. It reminded him of something Navid said about how you know a girl is forever when she falls asleep listening to your stories. That gave him chills. Instead of moving her, though, he grabbed the remote from Dixon's night stand and watched sports center for a bit. Eventually, he was yawning too and, at some point, fell asleep. The next morning, Liam couldn't remember the last time he felt so peaceful and slept so good. Annie had never spent the entire night with a guy, but sleeping next to Liam, listening to him breathing steadily it felt completely amazing. She felt like the luckiest girl in the world right then because reality was better than any of her dreams could possibly be.

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Thanks for reading! Next chapter should be up in a week, hopefully I should have time to write it by then.