She shrugs. "Well, he's a romantic and all — at least, he likes the idea of romance in fiction — but sometimes he thinks that most teenagers only date out because of their hormones and surface-level attraction. Which, yeah, that might be true for some people. But those people can still date and sleep together without his haughty judgement. He's a snob, remember?" she smiles.
"Right."
"Anyway, he can't criticise other people's relationships if he's never been in one himself. That sounds bitchy, but it's true. Don't worry about it. Liam would have just said the first insult he could think of to upset you." She glances at me, lips twisted in concern. "You weren't worried, were you?"
I shake my head. "No."
"Because he wasn't relaying my opinion or anything," Kennedy clarifies.
"Oh," I say, almost pausing in my walking. "No, that thought didn't even cross my mind." Never did I think Liam was repeating what Kennedy believed. I always knew it was his opinion. But something about that opinion bothered me.
"Okay, good. So — Liam's been good to you, right?"
My words are genuine. "No, he's been great. I see why you're friends with him."
Kennedy releases a subtle sigh of relief, then talks about how much fun Bonnie, Liam, me and her with have tonight.
I nod my head and make sounds of agreement, but in my mind, I'm replaying the conversation. It's strange but I feel unsatisfied, and want to bring the topic up again. But there's nothing more to say. Right?
16
Liam: On Your Knees
When Kennedy and Curtis return from their date, they find Erin, Bonnie and me in the lounge room.
Kennedy's jaw drops. "Are my eyes deceiving me?"
Curtis looks over her shoulder, surveying the room. Erin is lying out on the couch, whereas Bonnie and I are on the floor, with a scrap piece of newspaper under our hands. I'm lying on my stomach and Bonnie's sitting cross-legged, painting my fingernails. Even though she painted them weeks ago, Bonnie wanted to practice, so now the blue polish is being replaced with matte black. When deciding the colour, we shared a look that said: this will look nice for tonight.
I raise my free hand to block out Kennedy and Curtis from view. "Please, don't rub it in," I say.
"Keep still," Bonnie orders, holding the hand she's painting against the newspaper. "And admit it to them."
"Did you commit a crime or something?" Curtis says. His voice, a little monotonous, makes me look at him carefully. He looks well-groomed as ever, but there's a grimness around his mouth. Did something bad happen on his date?
"Worse," Erin laughs, pointing to the TV where the trash reality show I slandered plays. Right now, a group of men and women with ridiculously perfect bodies talk in the pool, deciding who's going to couple up. "Liam refused to watch it when Bonnie put it on."
"He kept his eyes closed and everything," Bonnie explains. "But after five minutes he couldn't help himself, and then he was hooked. He begged to watch the next episode."
"I did not beg." I definitely begged. There's something about watching hot people's relationship drama that is relentlessly entertaining.
"Ha!" Kennedy says, pointing a finger at me. "Not so smug now, are you?"
"I will say that I have complaints about the ethics of the show…" I protest. "But… those abs…" My eyes flick back to the TV screen, where skin is everywhere.
"Alright, contain your horniness," Kennedy teases as she walks over to sit on the couch. Curtis remains at the door, staring at me. When I catch him, he appears to get out of his weird mood and joins Kennedy and Erin on the couch.
"How many episodes have you watched?" Kennedy asks.
"Only two, but not much has happened," Erin says, giving Kennedy a quick rundown of the major events of the story — which girls backstabbed each other, the girl and guy who are flirting, and the two guys that fought over a girl who likes neither of them. When summarised like that, it makes two hours of reality TV sound boring, but it was thrilling in the moment.
Since there are only ten minutes left of the episode, we watch the rest all together, and Bonnie finishes painting my nails. I glance at Curtis, who's watching the screen, but he doesn't look as if he's paying attention — instead, there's a little line between his brows, as if he's thinking hard about something else. I glance at Kennedy, but she looks relaxed and smiles at the TV.
Drop it. If something happened on the date, it's not my business.
We finish the show and decide to play a card game. When Erin leaves to fetch the cards left on the kitchen table, Bonnie wiggles her brows at us.
"Excited for tonight?"
