“Just an upset stomach and your pacing was making worse. What’s wrong? Why are you pacing?”
“I’m mad! I’m tired of all the crap you two have to put up with and I’m sick of seeing you sick over it all. Your color doesn’t look to good. Should I take you back to Seth’s place so you can lie down?”
“No I’ll be fine. I’m upset, it’s only been one week and his Dad is trying to fix him up with someone else. Why? What have I done that makes Seth’s Dad hate me? What did Seth do for Dad to hate him? I just don’t get it anymore. I’m not giving up, but I’m tired of it,” she said crying.
Pulling her to him he told her, “It’s going to be alright, it’s all a new adjustment and once they both see that you two are sticking it out, things will get better. At least you got the Mom’s on your side. And you know with Dad that’s all it takes, she’ll work on him. He’s getting better with it, Lia,” Cris said trying to comfort her.
“Yeah, but I know him as well as you do he’s not totally for it either. I just wish Seth would move back home, but he can’t,” Lia said.
“You never know this last stunt of his Dad has him pretty pissed off. Let the football season finish out and see what happens.”
“Did he say something to you?”
“Now I can’t tell you that even if he did, but I know him pretty well. Why don’t you put the seat back and rest Steph and I will be sitting on the hood if you need anything. When you feel better we’ll go into the stadium,” he said.
Seth walked out the locker room and could see his car and that they were still sitting there. What's wrong? He went to walk over to his car when the coach called for all of them to get together they were heading to the stadium for pre game practice on the field. He wondered what was up why weren’t they in the bleachers. Was something wrong with Lia?
He didn’t have much time to ponder it as they were on the field running through the warm ups. He lost track of the time, but when he looked into the stands he saw they were sitting there. Lia didn’t look to happy. What the hell was wrong? He signaled to Cris pointing to Lia what was wrong? Cris just shook his head.
Seth didn’t believe him, but there was nothing that could be done now. He’ll have to wait till after the game, he knew he wasn’t starting, but he hoped he would play some of the game. He wanted Lia to see him play at least.
Lia, Cris and Steph cheered Seth on when he went into the game in the second quarter. Here he played as a wide receiver and half way through the quarter he was thrown the ball and he ran thirty two yards for a touchdown. Lia screamed the loudest for him.
“You’re gonna be hoarse by half time,” Cris said.
“No I won’t, what do you think we do all game at home. We cheer you guys on all game long,” Lia laughed at him.
“Yeah I guess you’re right,” he said. “I take it your feeling better?”
“When my mind is off all the crap, I feel better. It doesn’t upset my stomach so much,” Lia said.
“Something’s wrong with you, Lia. You never let anything bother you. Now you get so upset all the time till you throw up.”
“Seth never left me before,” Lia reasoned.
“Guess you are right there, but still you should go to the doctor. Get checked out, if it lasts much longer I’m telling Seth and he’ll make you go. Don’t make me do it,” Cris warned.
“I won’t. If it doesn’t stop soon I’ll go I promise,” Lia said. “I bet it stops when everyone else leaves us alone.”
“Maybe, who knows,” Cris said.
At half time Cris and Steph went to go get food. The lines were real long and it would probably take them while to come back. Lia saw that Felicity was there. She really didn’t want to have a run in with her so she hoped she would just leave her alone. Of course that didn’t happen, the minute she saw Lia she headed straight for her.
“Great just great,” Lia moaned to herself. She fiddled with her phone as to not draw attention to her. Felicity stops right at the bleacher Lia was sitting.
“Do you really think your good enough for Seth? Do you really truly believe he’ll stick with you when he can have me?” Felicity taunted.
“Look Felicity, I’ll be nice right now and tell you to get the hell away from me. If you don’t listen it’s your problem,” Lia threatened.
“What are you gonna do? There’s not too much you can do here in front of everyone. You’re going home tomorrow and I’ll be here with Seth. I’ll make him forget you. It won’t be too hard to do that. Look at you, you’re nothing,” Felicity taunted.
“You might think that Felicity, but since I’m Seth fiancé he doesn’t think that. I know him a hell of a lot better than you do. Now I suggest you leave me alone. Now!” Lia said through clenched teeth and standing up.
Felicity grabbed a hand full of Lia’s hair. Lia swung her fist and punched her square in the mouth, splitting her lip. Felicity screamed and when Lia pulled her hand back to punch her again, Felicity tried to punch Lia, but a girl behind Felicity grabbed her arm.
“You better leave her alone. She looks like she’ll knock you out. Since she’s Seth fiancé you have no right to talk to her like that. Don’t even try to get her in trouble either there’s enough of us here saw you go after her first. Go away and leaves us all alone,” the girl said.
Felicity stormed away swearing to make Lia’s life hell. Lia turned to the girl and said, “Thanks, I could have handled it, but thanks all the same.”
“Seth said you would punch her in the face if she started trouble. By the way I’m Candace, Seth and my boyfriend play football together, he number 25.”
“What’s his name?” Lia asked.
“Heath. He and Seth became fast friends. Seth’s pretty cool; he talks about you a lot. He really misses you,” Candace said. “He told us about Felicity and asked us to watch out for her tonight. He was afraid you’d hit her. He was right, you did, even though she deserved it, she’ll try to get back at you.”
“Her and everyone else, what else is new? Her mistake is that she tried to hurt me so Seth won’t take kindly to that,” Lia laughed.
“Your right about that. He doesn’t like her at all.” Candace asked. Hesitantly she asked, “Do you fight a lot?”
“No not really, but since my brother is older and I hung out with him and Seth my whole life they taught me how to defend myself. Why did you ask that?”
“Because of the cut on your eye, it looks bad. Sorry I didn’t mean to pry, forget I asked,” Candace said.
“No it’s alright, I got this last night when one of cheerleaders I was lifting fell on top of me and her knee hit my eye. It hurt like hell, thank god Seth was there,” Lia said.
“So that’s where he went last night we tried to find him to hang out,” Candace said.
At that moment Cris came running up to Lia, “What happened we saw Felicity and saw she had a split lip, Seth saw it too when he came out of the locker room, he laughed. So what happened?”
“You must be Cris, Lia’s brother; I’m Candace a friend of Seth’s. Felicity pulled her hair after taunting her and she punched her good and hard. She deserved it, hope her lip swells big and fat,”
Cris laughed, “He said he warned her to stay away from you, but she didn’t listen, her fault.”
They all sat back down and watched the rest of the game. As they were leaving a police officer can up to Lia. “I have a few questions for you. Did you punch her girl over there?”
“Only after she pulled her hair so hard the only way for her to get free was to punch her,” Candace said before Lia could answer. “If she wants to press charges then Lia will press charges against her first.”
“That’s the way it happened, officer,” an elderly lady said from behind them. ‘I was two rows behind them and this young lady asked her repeated to let her alone and leave. She didn’t, she pulled her hair real hard. If it would have been me I would have pun
ched her first just for the things she was saying.”
“Fine, do you want to press charges against her?” the officer asked.
‘No, but tell her to leave us alone or I will press charges,” Lia said.
The officer walked over to Felicity, he told her to leave them alone evidently since she stalked off in a huff.
Chapter 23
“What happened?” Seth asked Lia when he got out of the locker room after the game.
“Nothing other than I punched Felicity in the mouth for pulling my hair,” Lia said.
“She punched her really hard and split her lip,” Candace said. “It was great. I wish I had it on video so I could replay it over and over again.”
Laughing Seth said, “I warned you she would do that.”
“Yeah you did, I got to go Heath is waiting for me. Nice to finally meet you guys,” Candace said before walking away.
“I take it your feeling better,” Seth asked Lia.
“Yeah I’m fine. Getting some of the aggression out helps a lot,” Lia said laughing.
“Want to go get something to eat I’m starving?” Cris said.
“You’re always starving,” Steph said.
“I’m a growing boy, I need to eat,” Cris said.
“You grow anymore and it’s going to be wider not taller, you can’t get any taller,” Lia said giggling.
“Yeah I can.”
“Cris if you get any taller you’re gonna be way over seven feet tall,” Steph teased.
“Hey if the guy wants to eat, let him. I’m starving, too. There’s a really good deli not far from the school. Let’s go there,” Seth suggested.
“Sounds good to me,” Cris said.
“Lia, Steph good with you guys?” Seth asked.
“Yep,” Steph answered.
“I’m not that hungry so wherever you want to go is fine with me,” Lia said.
“You not hungry I find that hard to believe,” Seth said. “Are you feeling ok?” He was instantly worried and checked to see if she showed any signs of being sick or fatigued. Taking note that she looked skinnier and her face was more drawn in.
“Yes, I feel fine,” Lia said testily. “I’m sick of everyone asking me if I feel ok.”
“Sorry, Babe didn’t mean to make you mad,” he said holding her hand and pulling her toward the car.
“It’s not that I’m mad, just sick of it. I know you care, you all do and this past week my nerves are shot that’s all,” Lia explained.
“Well too bad I’m not stopping. If I see you don’t look good I’m asking, so get used to it,” Seth said.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Lia mumbled as she got into the car. Seth shut her door and ran around to the other side as Cris tried to get in the back.
“I’m the tallest one here and I have to sit in the back of a small ass Camaro. Lia you should sit in the back with Steph,” Cris complained.
“No way, it’s only a few blocks,” Lia said.
~~*~~
When they got to the deli it was overflowing with kids from the game. They weaved their way through the crowd and saw Heath and Candace sitting in a booth. They walked over to talk to them and Heath said, “Sit down with us no one else is sitting here.”
“Thanks this place is so crowded. Heath this is Lia, my best friend Cris and his girlfriend Steph. You all know Candace already,” Seth said.
“Hey Lia it’s great to finally meet you. He does nothing but talk about you all the time,” Heath said.
“I’m offended you don’t talk about me,” Cris said.
“Shut up, Cris,” Seth and Lia said in unison.
“Ok I see how it is,” Cris replied.
“All he does is talk about home and compare everything here to it. It must really suck having to move in your senior year. I think I’d kill my parents if they did that to me,” Candace said.
“Yeah that’s about how I feel,” Seth said. “I don’t want to talk about that now. The game was awesome, we blew them away.”
“Yeah we did and you were real impressive, Seth. Two touchdowns in one game everyone was real impressed. I know the coaches were, but the next team we play will be harder and they’ll be gunning for you. They’ll review the tapes from tonight over and over again to see how you play,” Heath said.
The waitress came over to take their orders; the guys ordered enough food for an army. Lia didn’t order much just a chef salad with blue cheese dressing.
“So Lia I heard you gave Felicity a bloody mouth. Good for you, she’s such a bitch someone needed to knock her down a peg or two. The way she puts herself in front of Seth, it’s pathetic. Like he’d want anything to do with her,” Heath said.
“I didn’t want to. I wanted to ignore her, but when she pulled my hair I couldn’t let it go. She can say anything she wants it doesn’t bug me. I know Seth and I know how he feels. Don’t get me wrong some of the things she said pissed me off. It was when she pulled my hair that I had enough,” Lia said.
As she talked Seth put his arm around her and pulled close to him. She rested her head on his shoulder and stayed there till their food came. When it did she swore the table was bowing from the weight of it all.
Between the talking, joking around, and the all out fun they were having Lia ended up eating the whole salad. “I’m stuffed,” Lia said.
“You should be,” Candace laughed. “That thing was enormous, how did you eat it all?”
“I guess I was hungry after all,” Lia laughed with her.
“From what I hear it’s the first thing you ate all week,” Seth probed.
She looked at him and wondered for a second how he knew that then she looked at her brother, “Cris you have a big mouth,” Lia yelled over to him over the roar of the crowd.
“Hey he asked I answered,” Cris said not sounding a bit upset at being found out.
They sat there for a while more just goofing off when Seth noticed it was after midnight. “We should be able to go home, that darn party my parents are having should be over soon. If not we’ll hang out in my room till everyone leaves,” Seth said.
“Oh the wondrous house parties, I hate them. The parents wanting you to act all prim and proper when all you want to do is go in your room and crank the music up,” Heath said. “It might not be over yet. Might want to go to the roof top and hang out if I were you. They never want to go up there.”
“Yeah good idea,” Seth agreed.
“Stake your claim on the roof. Anyone in your building stake the claim yet?” he asked.
“Don’t know I went up there not for long though,” Seth said.
“Look around if you see chairs and stuff stay away from it, claim a different part of it. Any kids in your building old enough to go up there?”
“Not that I saw, but you never know. We’ll check it out tonight,” Seth said.
~~*~~
They got back to the apartment and went in. The party was still going, so they shot off to his bedroom which is to the side of the kitchen and grabbed two blankets and a few folding chairs. They went back out the door to the elevator and hit the button for the top floor. They couldn’t get to the roof from the elevator they had to climb the last set of stairs that was at the end of the hallway.
Once they got on the roof they looked around and didn’t see anyone else having stuff up here. They took the best view overlooking the city. Seth and Lia put the chairs around. Sitting down Lia sighed, “This is so relaxing sitting here overlooking the city with all the lights. All the noise is down below and up here it’s quite.”
Seth sat on the other chair close to her. “Anytime I’m with you I feel relaxed. No matter where we are. I never knew I could think of so much stuff that could happen to you since I’ve moved.”
“Like what?”
“You’ve been sick most of the week and I know most of it has to do with the move. Late at night I sit in my room and think about you. Then my imagination starts swirli
ng around in my head and I think how it might not be just the move that it could be something else, far worse.”
“Seth nothing is wrong with me. I’m just getting myself all worked up because I can’t be with you. I’m sixteen, almost seventeen and I haven’t been away from you in twelve years. This is such a big adjustment for me. Please don’t worry, nothing is wrong and I’ll swear I’ll try harder not to let it get to me so bad,” Lia pleaded.
They were sitting so close together she put her head on his shoulder and let the view take her away from all the problems. She shivered and he drew her closer, “You need the blanket?” he asked.
She shook her head still on his shoulder. He lifted her face to him and looking into her beautiful eyes he kissed her long and hard. If it wasn’t for her brother being a few feet away he would have made love to her right here on the roof. He knew he couldn’t, but that didn’t stop the fantasy in his head about it.
They stayed out on the roof until 1:30. The both girls were so tired they needed help getting down the steep stairwell. Steph slumped against Cris and he held her up close to him, “Almost to the apartment, Steph. We’ll go to sleep as soon as we get in there,” he whispered in her ear.
Lia was tired also. She didn’t want the night to end. The last few hours ended on a magical note for her. Just being able to sit around with friends and have fun, then to sit around relaxing with Seth on the roof. Tonight was definitely one of the best they had in a long time.
Seth let them into the apartment and since no one was around they headed to the living room. When they past the kitchen they noticed his Mom was still up. Cris took Steph into the living room where they laid down to sleep. Seth and Lia stopped to talk to his Mom.
“How was the game?” she asked.
“Good,” Seth answered. “We won.”
“Seth got two touchdowns, one in the second quarter and one in the fourth,” Lia said.
“That’s wonderful, Seth. Sorry we missed it. We’ll be there the next game.”
“Don’t worry about it, Mom. No big deal. We’re going to bed, were both tired,” Seth said. Walking into the living room Cris and Steph took the bigger couch since Cris couldn’t fit on the smaller one. They were both asleep as soon as they hit it.