Forever Love (19 page)

"Trina." Liv raises her voice is warning to her friend but Tina just carries on as if she hasn’t heard.

"You wouldn’t believe the amount of times our girl has turned up here, all times of night, all weathers, cause that waste of oxygen kicked her out. A couple years ago she kicked her out in the middle of a snowstorm, Mama thought Liv was gonna get hypethermia or some shit, she was that cold when she got here."

"She's overreacting." Liv lets out a phony laugh as she shakes her head.

"Oh really, how old were we at the time Boo? Thirteen, Fourteen?"

I look at Liv who refuses to meet my eyes, I know Trina's not overreacting, If she won't admit it out loud to me, I can tell my her body, the tenseness of her shoulders, the biting of her lip. Why she would wanna protect her human incubator is anyone's guess. I'm not sure I quite understand that myself since she's usually so vocal in her hatred for her Mother.

"She lies about it too, bitch pretends Livs run away and wont come home when she's chucked her on the streets. You know once, she turned up here with a busted lip and black eye, crying her eyes out and-"

"ENOUGH! JUST STOP." Liv screams, startling both me and Trina.

Her lip quivers as if she's about to burst out crying and pure panic runs through me. I have no idea what to do, I hate it when fucking women cry. Whether its my Mom or some random chick in the street, seeing a girl with tears on her face just sends me into a complete tailspin. The fact that it’s the girl that I love, that owns my heart completely, well that just makes the shit a thousand times worse. I don’t even have chance to process what Trina's just told me, I'm too busy being frozen in place while my girl breaks in front of me. Only a single tear falls before she seems to gain control of her emotions, takes a deep breath and rapidly blinks in a bid to stop anymore tears.

"Can we go please?" Her small voice breaks my fucking heart.

"Listen Boo, I didn’t mean any harm, I was ju-"

"It's ok." Liv holds her hand to Trina. "I think we better go, my Dad'll be wondering where we are. I'll see you at dinner tomorrow night yeah?"

"Ok, I'll show you out."

I neck the cup of coffee quickly that Ada placed in front of me and quickly walk along with my girl, feeling completely out of my fucking comfort zone. I don’t know whether to be pissed at Trina for getting Liv all upset or thankful that someone's finally giving me a clearer picture.

"I don’t know where Ada went." Liv mumbles as we reach the front door. "Just tell your Mom we'll see her tomorrow and thanks for this afternoon."

"Ok." Trina seems more than chastened but my main concern is Liv, the way she went from about to lose her nut to all happy go lucky like nothing happened.

"It was nice to meet you Trina."

"Likewise, see you tomorrow. Boo, can I have a word with you for a sec?"

I look towards Liv and she gives me a nod that she'll be ok. If Trina upsets her again, me and her aint gonna be on good fucking terms. I walk down the footpath and take a glance back to see them, heads together whispering, Liv with a sweet smile on her face. I wait by the passenger side door for my girl to come before opening it for her to get in.

"Such a gentleman." I wink in reply, shutting the door and jogging to the other side of the car.

As I'm driving out of the street, keeping an eye on the Sat Nav since I don’t know the area, I look over to Liv to see her staring out the window, completely subdued. We're both silent, the only sounds coming from the engine. I use the silence as a chance to ponder that shit Trina said about Livs Mom, though I'm thinking that their nickname of the Bitch is much more fitting. When I think about it, like really think, I can faintly remember Phil mentioning Liv running away, I never paid attention at the time cause frankly I didn’t really give a shit. And what about that stuff she said about Liv turning up all hurt? If it's true I'm likely to go to the hospital and wring that bitches neck. I have a hard enough time keeping my cool when I think of someone being disrespectful to my girl, laying their hands on her though takes it to a whole new level, that fucker Chris learnt that lesson.

I look over to my girl again, her eyes are still puffy from crying and she's gnawing at that bottom lip of hers.

"You wanna talk about it?" I ask, hoping that she says yes so I'm not navigating totally blind.

"No."

"You gonna tell me what happened?"

"No." She shakes her head.

This is like getting blood out of a stone.

"That the only word you know?"

"No." She says, turning to me with a small smirk.

I keep one hand on the wheel and take her hand with my other, threading my fingers through hers.

"What did you do today?" I'm happy as fuck that she wants to start a conversation.

"Went to some boring ass museums, wasted a day of my life that I'm never gonna get back." She bursts out laughing.

"And there was me worried you were gonna have fun without me, I bet Chase loved that, he in a coma now?"

"No, but I nearly was."

Seeing my girl with a smile on her face when she looked two seconds to breaking earlier on, well that’s about the best sight ever. As my eyes jump from her to the road and then back again, I take in how fucking beautiful she is, like movie star, Miss World level beautiful. I'm definitely the luckiest bastard in the world. 

Chapter 21

Liv

I feel as if I'm in a furnace about to fry. Noahs strong muscled arms and legs are wrapped around me like a cocoon, the gentle whistling of his breath against the crook of my neck tickling me. I take my phone from the table at the side of the bed to check the time. Crap, its only five in the morning and I'm fully awake.

I gently and oh so carefully edge out from under Noah, I don’t wanna wake him. I'm sure he's tired since we spent most of the night getting down and dirty. I could hardly call anything to do with Noah dirty though, he's so loving and sweet, he treats me as if I'm a precious jewel. I never realized how much I needed that, or maybe it's just that I needed him.

I slowly tiptoe through the dark room, remembering a few short weeks ago I was doing the same thing, except that time it was with a guy I didn’t give a fuck about and I wasn’t planning on coming back. I shake my own head at the familiarity yet differences of the situations. After carefully locking the bathroom door, I pull the light cord and slump against the heavy wooden door, thankful to have made it in here without detection. Id have made one kickass spy with all the stunts I've had to pull over the years.

I walk over to the light marble topped vanity, taking a good look at myself in the Venetian mirror hanging above it. I don’t look much different, I sure do feel it though. Trina noticed as well, so there must be some way to tell. I smile to myself thinking of what Trina whispered in my ear as I was leaving yesterday. I was feeling so down and embarrassed by the day's events and by my reaction to them, what she said helped put me in a better frame of mind.

"I never thought I'd see the day but he's perfect for you. "

Though Trina's opinion wouldn’t make a difference, I was happy that she liked Noah. Shes a damn good judge of character and would soon be on my ass if she thought Noah was anything less than absolutely perfect.

After having a shower, drying my blonde locks over the vanity and brushing my teeth, I sneak back into the bedroom to my bag, hoping for some workout gear. I've had a shitty night sleep,probably all the agro of yesterday. I send a thanks to the Gods above when I find a pair of navy blue leggings, black hoodie and a plain white tank. I pull on my blue converse along with it and slip out the front door into the hallway.

Its deserted and more than a little creepy. As luxurious and fancy as this hotel is, it reminds me of The Shining a little too much when no ones about. I keep expecting to see the Grady twins at the end of the hallway, those girls give me the fucking heebie jeebies. I feel more than a little silly when I jog to the elevator, jamming the button repeatedly and looking up and down the corridor. In my head I know I'm being a complete fucking idiot, but it's always when the girl gets creeped out, realizes how stupid she's being and calms down, that some sucker jumps outta the shadows and starts massacreing the fuck outta her. Yep, I've officially lost it, I definitely think I need to skip out on the next movie marathon on the Horror Channel before I end up in the nut house.

I'm chuckling to myself as I walk through the nearly empty hotel lobby, only a few people in business suits rush out the door. It's only like half five in the morning, I can't imagine what kind of stickler of a boss would expect them to start work at this time on a Saturday, probably some Devil Wears Prada wannabe. I pop my head around the dining room door to see if any foods being served though I know there no chance at this time in the morning.

There's some dumbass asleep with his head on the bar, a tumbler of what I'm guessing is whiskey in front of him. The bartender is busy trying to nudge the drunk guy awake, looks like even the fancy places have the stragglers.

As soon as I step out of the doors, the strong wind hits me, causing me to pull my hoodie over my face to protect it from the battering wind. It's still dark, sunrise isn't for another two hours at least what with it being mid October. The streets are quiet for the busy city that is Atlanta, the traffic dense considering come daybreak you won't be able to hear anything but the beeping of car horns.

I jog a couple of blocks, all the while being careful to avoid any cracks in the sidewalk, not the best place to get a sprained ankle first thing in the morning. Despite The Atlanta Plaza Hotel being in a pretty nice part of downtown Atlanta, the pretty bad part is practically next door. I can hear the sounds of police sirens and dogs barking, not at all what I'm used to since when I lived with the bitch it was white picket fence central. The only kind of fences round here are the chain link ones with the huge dumpsters sitting next to them. Just looking at it, I can imagine some cops and robbers pursuit.

I feel a vibration in a my pocket and pull out my phone to see Noah's name flashing on the screen, looks like someone woke up.

"Hello."

"For fucks sake Liv, where are you?"

"Um, on a run, why?"

I can hear the sigh of relief through the phone. Where the hell does he think I am?

"I'm sorry, I just, I woke up and you were gone and you were all upset yesterday and-"

"And you though what exactly? That I'd run away?"

"No, I just panicked. Wait, where exactly are you?" He asks.

"A couple blocks over."

"YOU'RE OUTSIDE?"

Damn, I pull the phone away from ear in a bid to save my hearing. What is it with people screaming down the phone at me lately? They want me to fucking go deaf?

"What do expect me do genius? Run up and down the hallway?" It’s a good job he can't see me rolling my eyes, that'd put him in even more of a bad mood.

"I thought you were in the hotel gym, listen, stay there. I'm coming to get you."

I can hear him shuffling around the hotel room through the phone, I'm pretty sure I hear him knock something over, probably the lamp. In a hotel like that, that’s gonna cost an arm and a leg to replace. I sure don’t wanna me my Dad when he gets the bill.

"Calm down, I'm walking back now."

"It's still fucking dark Liv!"

"Stop fucking shouting at me, I said I'm on my way."

I hang up before he even has a chance to answer. I have a feeling me and crazy boy are about to have our first fight if he keeps that shouting shit up. I knew id gone soft, normal sane Liv would have punched him in his junk for taking that attitude. This inlove shit sucks.

I don’t know whether to take my sweet time just to spite him or to hurry up and jog it before he's dressed and in his car. I'm thinking option two, the valet should buy me a couple extra minutes at least. It's better that I get to him before he gets to me, he'll take one look at the neighborhood and tackle me to the car. My Noah can be more than a little overprotective.

I can see the hotel entrance and I feel incredibly smug. I whizz past the valet and turn, walking backwards, sweaty and out of breath and truth be told, totally gross.

"I got here first." I sing to a completely flummoxed valet.

"Well done, Miss." He replies with a stiff voice and a quick salute.

I hit a solid wall behind me and it scares the shit out of me, I turn to see those beautiful green eyes that I have spent an endless amount of hours staring at.

"You got here first huh?" Noah asks, eyebrows quirked, hands on his slim waste.

He looks pretty disheveled, his hair all mussed up from me spending the night gripping it. He obviously hasn’t looked in a mirror yet. Hell, I'm jealous, if I went out without having a look in a mirror first, I'd look like Morticia Addams, this guy looks all kinds of fuckable though. Damn guys, they have all the luck.

"Uh huh." I nod. "I didn’t think you'd be up yet, I wanted to leave you to sleep in."

"I missed you." He says, bending his head down to nuzzle his nose against mine, damn I love it when he does that.

"I missed you too, come on let's go upstairs. Who knows when the parental unit will be down."

I take his hand and lead him towards the elevator, everything feeling right when he's near. Dinner last night was like the last ice age, my Dad giving me the silent treatment before ripping me a new one for abandoning him. There was no mention of what I said to the Bitch, so I can only guess that what ever shit she pulled once I'd gone and they were alone made him forget. I now realize its no coincidence or forgetful blunder that my Dad was called about her being in the hospital. I saw the way she looked at him, all longing and in love. I'd feel sorry for her if she wasn’t such an utter bitch. It cant be easy watching the person your in love with move on with someone else, that’s her karma though. I don’t think id be able to function without Noah, id probably end up rocking backwards and forwards in a corner somewhere.

The closing of the elevator doors hides us from prying eyes, all this thinking about losing him has me needing him as close as possible asap. I grab his face and pull it to my own, my tongue entering his mouth and joining his. I so want to tell him how much he means to me, how much I love him, I can't though. I don’t know why, the words just won't come out. I don’t know what's causing it, fear? Guilt, that I haven't opened fully up to him? I pull away after that hot as hell kiss and look into his eyes, hoping mine give the message that my mouth can't seem to say.

"What was that for?" He asks, with that oh so sexy smirk gracing his face.

"I don’t know, just felt like way too long since I kissed you." I shrug.

"Hmmm maybe I should start rationing these kisses so I get more of that."

The elevator doors ping open.

"You could but then I might reconsider letting you join me the shower." I run off after hearing his growl, giggling like a schoolgirl as he chases me down the hallway.

I don’t know how I'm gonna tell him, this boy is my everything though and that'll never change.

***

What a day! After spending the day doing what my Dad refers to as 'family time', I cant wait to get to Trina's and be around a family that’s actually normal. I remember family time from when I was a little kid, it was a disaster every fucking time and today was no different. A walk down Chattahoochee River ended with Chase missing a step and ending up incredibly wet. I gotta be honest, I laughed my ass off on seeing him splashing around in those murky waters and near enough wet myself at the look on his face when Noah shouted for him to be careful of Alligators. Pam of course was a mess the whole time, screaming for my Dad to get her baby out. My Dad looked more than a little hesitant to enter the dirty water but did so anyway. Pam had to drive us all back to the hotel and Noah and I flipped a coin to decide who the poor soul was that'd have to sit in the back seat with a very wet and very smelly Chase and Dad. The coin was of course on my side and Noah spent the entire ride pinching his nose. So a good day all round I think, except for Chase and Dad and probably Noah, though he had a very pleasurable start to the day in the shower.

"Turn that damn song off." I groan on hearing that same old Taylor Swift song again. Seriously, don’t the radio stations have anything else to play?

It's more than weird being in such close proximity to Noah and not being able to touch him, not without anyone noticing anyway. I sit squished between him and Chase in the backseat of my Dads rover. Despite it being a bigass car, Noah take up more than his fair share of the set what with his drool worthy broad shoulders. Its doesn’t help that he looks extremely dashing in his navy blue button down that clings to his sculpted body. The black jeans are snug in all the right places and I find myself having thoughts that are more than inappropriate for a family outing.

Chase is playing on his damn phone the other side and I'm gonna whack him the upside of his head if it doesn’t stop fucking beeping. Probably those three doofus' that are always hanging around the house like a bad smell. Pam practically had to practically dress him herself to get him out of the combats and converse and into a smart white shirt and blue jeans.

As we pull into Trina's street, I get that same feeling I get when something big is about to happen. Her house is a welcome sight and I'm hoping to speak to her about yesterday. She's apologized about a hundred times for opening her big mouth and while I was pissed of at Trina at the time, I know it's just her way. Shes nosy and interfering but those are just some of the reasons she's my best friend. I know it didn’t come from a place of malice and she only had the best intentions. I don’t want people looking at me with pity though or sympathy because I'm the poor little girl whose Mother doesn’t give a fuck. I couldn’t give two fucks whether the bitch likes me or not, I've had years to get used to her shit and now I just accept it. Its like Ada said, some people are just not meant to be Mothers and I'm just the unlucky shmuck that got lumbered with one of those people.

The car comes to a stop and we file out of it. I'm a little nervous considering that Ada and Trina know about me and Noah, I know they wouldn't say anything but a simple slip of the tongue would completely blow our cover.

"I haven't seen Ada in , I don’t know, four, five years?" My Dad says as we look up at the Southern style home.

"I can't wait to see her photo with Sylvester." Pam excitedly claps.

Maybe I should look up online for any support groups for people who are obsessed with celebrities, that shit cant be normal. I just hope that she never actually meets Stallone because I have a feeling my Dad would find himself left outside in the cold.