1)The boy next
The first time Liam realized he was in love with Maya, she had peanut butter on her cheek and a furious look in her eyes. It was 8th grade, and she had just been dumped—if you could call a two-week “relationship” with Leo Peterson a real relationship.
“That’s it,” she’d declared, plopping down next to Liam in the school courtyard. “Boys are trash.”
He didn’t know what to say then. He just handed her the sandwich from his lunchbox and nodded. From then on, it was their thing—lunchtime rants, shared snacks, and her never noticing the way he looked at her when she wasn’t looking.
Now, three years later, they were high school seniors. Nothing had changed. Not really.
Maya still saw Liam as her best friend. Her person. Her safety net. She still dated guys who didn’t deserve her. And Liam? Liam still kept his heart on a leash, hidden behind dumb jokes and late-night texts.
“He’s not that bad, you know,” Maya said now, twirling a piece of hair around her finger as they sat on the bleachers after gym class.
“Yeah,” Liam said, biting back what he really wanted to say. “He only ignores you in public and flirts with other girls. Prince Charming, truly.”
Maya rolled her eyes. “You just don’t like him because he’s on the football team.”
“No,” Liam muttered. “I don’t like him because you cried in the bathroom stall for twenty minutes last week.”
She fell quiet then, staring at the field, her expression unreadable.
He wanted to tell her. Right then and there. That he loved her. That he’d loved her since eighth grade. That he’d wait a thousand years if she’d just look at him the way he looked at her.
But instead, he said, “Wanna grab a smoothie after school?”
And just like that, the moment passed.
