stating facts. He was worse at small talk than I was. At least I could draw out responses by asking questions like a normal person.
“Yeah, it’s been pretty rough,” I said, not wanting him to state anything else he may have heard from Tess or Jesse before my arrival. I stood to go into the living room, my chair scraping audibly against the linoleum.
As I turned to go, he threw out another fact. “My younger brother disappeared three years ago. No one ever found his body. We still hope someday he might come home. Well, my mum does. I gave up that hope a long time ago.”
Woah. That was personal. Maybe he did want to have a conversation. I turned back around, walking over to sit beside him. He dropped his feet off the chair he was using as a footstool and made room for me. This was an odd first conversation. Weren’t there rules to this, like talk about the weather first? I tried to think of something to say. “I’m so sorry. That must be really tough.”
His blue eyes were hard, revealing the pain he felt. Strange. Not many dark haired guys had blue eyes. It was mysterious. It worked. Shaking my head, I chastised myself for checking him out when he was discussing something so horrible. I focused on trying to be a friend to him.
“I don’t like talking about it, but I thought since you lost your dad…” he trailed off. I finished his sentence for him.
“That I might know what it feels like? Yeah, we kind of have losing family in common, don’t we? But you can always hope. My dad is never coming back,” I said, trying to re-instill the hope he had given up on.
“I just wish we would find his body. It’d be so much easier if we could bury him,” he said quietly.
Well, so much for a fun conversation starter. We’d skipped right over light and fun and went straight for the doom and gloom we had both encountered. That was one way to get to know someone; just lay out all your emotional baggage from the start and hope they didn’t run away screaming.
I didn’t run. This dark haired, socially inept boy intrigued me.
We talked long into the night. Liam was a great conversationalist after getting past the beginning. It seemed as though we had to put each other through the horror we’d seen before going onto other, more normal topics.
We talked about bands, our families, our hobbies, everything. I noticed the little things. His eyes crinkled when he smiled, almost to the point that they would disappear when he laughed. He told stories with his hands. Most importantly, I noticed the fact that over the course of the next three hours we had moved our chairs closer to one another. Our hands found one another’s without even thinking about it. I liked this. I liked this a lot. Memaw said a boy would woo me. I had just been wooed in one evening’s conversation. If my hunch was right, he seemed to be wooed by me as well.
He wasn’t even blind.
This could be good.
Nearing two a.m., Liam stretched and yawned, smiling at me. “Don’t you have jet-lag or something? I’ve kept you up too late.”
His smile was impossible not to reciprocate. I could feel a smile blossoming unwillingly across my face. “It’s okay. Your mom paid me to stay up and talk to you.”
He didn’t even miss a beat. “Well that’s good, since Emily sent a check over in advance for my services to keep you out of trouble.”
As he got up, he pulled me up with him, pulling me into a tight hug. It felt good. “It was nice to talk with you,” he said. “I haven’t had a good conversation in a while. We’ll have to do it again.”
“Definitely.”
He kissed my hand as we walked out of the kitchen. I didn’t even know guys did that anymore. As he looked at his watch, he groaned. “The guys are gonna give me a hard time for being two hours late to work. It was worth it, though. I’ll see you in the
“Yeah, it’s been pretty rough,” I said, not wanting him to state anything else he may have heard from Tess or Jesse before my arrival. I stood to go into the living room, my chair scraping audibly against the linoleum.
As I turned to go, he threw out another fact. “My younger brother disappeared three years ago. No one ever found his body. We still hope someday he might come home. Well, my mum does. I gave up that hope a long time ago.”
Woah. That was personal. Maybe he did want to have a conversation. I turned back around, walking over to sit beside him. He dropped his feet off the chair he was using as a footstool and made room for me. This was an odd first conversation. Weren’t there rules to this, like talk about the weather first? I tried to think of something to say. “I’m so sorry. That must be really tough.”
His blue eyes were hard, revealing the pain he felt. Strange. Not many dark haired guys had blue eyes. It was mysterious. It worked. Shaking my head, I chastised myself for checking him out when he was discussing something so horrible. I focused on trying to be a friend to him.
“I don’t like talking about it, but I thought since you lost your dad…” he trailed off. I finished his sentence for him.
“That I might know what it feels like? Yeah, we kind of have losing family in common, don’t we? But you can always hope. My dad is never coming back,” I said, trying to re-instill the hope he had given up on.
“I just wish we would find his body. It’d be so much easier if we could bury him,” he said quietly.
Well, so much for a fun conversation starter. We’d skipped right over light and fun and went straight for the doom and gloom we had both encountered. That was one way to get to know someone; just lay out all your emotional baggage from the start and hope they didn’t run away screaming.
I didn’t run. This dark haired, socially inept boy intrigued me.
We talked long into the night. Liam was a great conversationalist after getting past the beginning. It seemed as though we had to put each other through the horror we’d seen before going onto other, more normal topics.
We talked about bands, our families, our hobbies, everything. I noticed the little things. His eyes crinkled when he smiled, almost to the point that they would disappear when he laughed. He told stories with his hands. Most importantly, I noticed the fact that over the course of the next three hours we had moved our chairs closer to one another. Our hands found one another’s without even thinking about it. I liked this. I liked this a lot. Memaw said a boy would woo me. I had just been wooed in one evening’s conversation. If my hunch was right, he seemed to be wooed by me as well.
He wasn’t even blind.
This could be good.
Nearing two a.m., Liam stretched and yawned, smiling at me. “Don’t you have jet-lag or something? I’ve kept you up too late.”
His smile was impossible not to reciprocate. I could feel a smile blossoming unwillingly across my face. “It’s okay. Your mom paid me to stay up and talk to you.”
He didn’t even miss a beat. “Well that’s good, since Emily sent a check over in advance for my services to keep you out of trouble.”
As he got up, he pulled me up with him, pulling me into a tight hug. It felt good. “It was nice to talk with you,” he said. “I haven’t had a good conversation in a while. We’ll have to do it again.”
“Definitely.”
He kissed my hand as we walked out of the kitchen. I didn’t even know guys did that anymore. As he looked at his watch, he groaned. “The guys are gonna give me a hard time for being two hours late to work. It was worth it, though. I’ll see you in the
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