Me & My Invisible Guy (12 page)

“I didn’t know!” She put one hand on her chest and held up two fingers with the other. “Girl Scout promise.”

“Oh, and I’m supposed to believe that you just suddenly wanted to go to church with my sister for no reason. That you had no idea that this is Liam’s church!”

Tess raised an eyebrow. “Now, now. Are you really the one to scold me about telling stories?”

I scowled at her. “I’ve had enough humiliation, thank you very much.”

“You have nothing to be humiliated about. It’s a church. As far as I know, everyone’s welcome. Including you.”

I closed my eyes, wishing desperately I had never come. “You had to have known,” I said.

“All right, I knew where Liam went to church, but I didn’t know that this is the one Darby went to until we got here.”

“I’m not going in.”

“Whatever. I am.”

I heard the door close and opened my eyes to see Tess walking toward the building. It felt wrong on so many levels even to be here. But sitting in the car seemed kind of stupid, too. I probably wouldn’t have been so upset about it if Liam had called after the food court debacle. It would look as if I had gone there for him when I was really only there for Tess.

But if that was the truth, then it shouldn’t matter what Lexi thought, right?

It shouldn’t, but it really, really did.

Then everything got so much worse. I looked up and saw Liam come out of one of the doors and slowly look around the parking lot. I slunk down into my seat, but he paused when he looked my way and then started walking to the car. A rush of desperation went through me.
Hide? Run? Hotwire the car and drive away?

He stood at my door looking down at me. I felt like a four-year-old.

Since I didn’t have the keys to lower the window, my only choice was to get out of the car. Which I did. With as much of my pride intact as possible. It wasn’t much.

“My sister goes here,” I blurted out.
So much for my pride.

“I’m glad you came. I wanted to apologize for… for what happened yesterday.”

“You didn’t do anything.”

“I just didn’t know what to do. Every time I say something, I feel like I screw up. I hate hurting people’s feelings, and I didn’t mean to lead anyone on….”

I felt sick. Truly, truly sick.
He thinks he’s leading me on?
“It’s okay. You’re not going to hurt my feelings. I have a boyfriend, anyway.” It just slipped out.

“What?” Liam looked stunned. “We talked about this. You said—”

I cut him off. “Oh, we got back together this morning. So you don’t have to worry about me.”

Liam took a small but very definitive step backward, then turned and strode away.

I crawled back in the car, curled up, and sobbed until my head ached.

“What did you do?”

I jumped. Tess slammed the door shut. I wiped my face and smoothed my hair as I tried to get my bearings. I sat up, looked around the parking lot, and realized that the awful nightmare was all too real.

“I send Liam out here to get you, and he comes back and not only refuses to talk to me but skulks in a corner the entire time. What happened?”

“I told him I got back together with Todd.”

“You
what
?” Tess grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “What is wrong with you? Todd is dead. Remember?”

“You don’t understand. Liam was standing here telling
me how he didn’t want to hurt my feelings and that he felt bad for leading me on….”

“You’re an idiot, Mallory.”

“But that’s exactly what he said. He just felt sorry for—”

“He was talking about
Lexi
!! He felt bad for Lexi, and he was trying to find an easy way to let her down. He told me that right before I sent him out to the car! He likes you, and you go and resurrect Todd?” Tess covered her face with her hands and screamed and then got eerily silent for several minutes.

“You’re going in there, and you’re gonna tell him the truth before he has a chance to feel bad enough for Lexi to actually ask her out.”

“The service is over, isn’t it?”

“No. You have enough time to fix this.”

“I can’t.”

“Yes, you can, Mallory. If you don’t tell him, I will.”

“You wouldn’t.”

Tess just raised that eyebrow. She would.

“I can’t face any more humiliation.”

“Then you shouldn’t have raised Todd from the dead.” Tess got out of the car and came around to my side. She yanked open my door. “Get out.”

I obeyed. I followed her into the building, and she led me down several hallways to a large room in the back of the church. The room was full of teens, and everyone was milling around in small groups, talking and drinking from small red plastic cups.

Lexi and Liam were sitting in two metal folding chairs in a corner, talking. Tess pointed at them. I wished I could borrow some of her bravado, but it was my mess. I needed to fix it.
Step 5 again.

But I had to make this confession. Not just to any human being, but to Liam. I could tell he was hurt, and I was to blame.

It was ironic that I was standing in a church. I didn’t understand God, but at that moment I needed his help. And maybe, just maybe, God would come through for me.

I took a deep breath and walked toward them. They both stopped talking and looked at me.
Speak
.

“Liam, can I talk to you for a minute?”

He glanced at Lexi, who didn’t seem happy. He shrugged and stood up. I led him as far away from everyone as I could, then turned to face him.

Liam’s expression was unreadable. Other than the hurt. That was clear. Maybe anger, too.

“Okay, I kind of lied to you. I mean, I
did
lie. I thought you were telling me that you liked Lexi, and I guess I was embarrassed and wanted to make it look like it didn’t matter to me, even though it did. So I lied and said I got back together with my boyfriend, which isn’t true; but it was the only thing I could think of to make it seem like I was okay with you going out with Lexi, because I am totally not okay with that, and I’m kind of hoping you might give me another chance.”

Liam looked a little confused.
Is he just processing? Oh, God. What if he doesn’t believe me?
That’s when I made the incredibly stupid decision to keep talking.

“I mean, to be completely honest, I never even had a boyfriend. I made him up. I didn’t want to be the only person who was a virgin, so I pretended I had this boyfriend and told everyone we had sex, even though he wasn’t real and I’m still a virgin and I’m not the same person inside that I
pretend to be at school, and I just thought you should know that before you decide to go out with Lexi.”

As soon as I stopped talking, I wanted to run from the room. But I couldn’t convince the muscles in my legs to move. They were like stone pillars beneath me, forcing me to witness waves of indefinable emotion cross Liam’s face.

He reached down, took my hand, and led me out of the room and into the hallway. “Let me get this straight. You didn’t get back together with your boyfriend?”

“No.”

“You just said that because you were jealous of Lexi?”

“I didn’t say I was jealous of… yes.”

A grin spread across Liam’s face. “I’m so glad to hear that.”

“What? That I’m a compulsive liar?”

Liam shrugged and squeezed my hand. “You came and told me the truth. That took guts.”

“I guess.” As he looked at me, the humiliation and fear and nerves started to melt away, and I got swept up again in those brown eyes.

He leaned close, then kissed me gently on the cheek.

“Are you allowed to do that in church?”

He kissed me again. “Probably not.”

The halls around us started to fill up as people began to leave. Tess walked over and planted herself right next to us.

“Are you two fixed?”

Liam laughed. “Yes, Tess. We’ll be fine.”

“Finally,” she said as she walked away.

“I still think I need to hear that whole story. It’s all a
little confusing right now,” Liam said. “But it sounds pretty amazing.”

“Which part?”

“That you went to such elaborate lengths to hide being a virgin.”

I didn’t get why
that
impressed him, but at that moment I didn’t really care.
Liam likes me!

“I know things keep getting messed up, but I don’t want to give up on… this.”

“I don’t either,” I said.

He pulled me close, wrapped his arms around me, and squeezed. So many emotions washed through me that I couldn’t have sorted them out if I tried. He ended the hug far too soon and smiled at me. “Want to get some lunch? It’s a group thing, so you can bring Tess.”

“Is Lexi coming?”

He gave a deep sigh. “Probably. But you’re gonna have to get used to her if you’re going to hang around me. She is a friend, and she kind of comes with all of this.” He gestured vaguely around him.

“I suppose I can live with that. But she hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you. Look, I’ll talk to her.”

“Will you do it soon? The death stares are kind of freaking me out.”

“Promise.”

He agreed to drive Tess and I home, so I went to find her and Darby. Darby was actually glad we had found a ride since she wanted to go out to lunch with friends, too.

I finally found Tess sitting in a café in the church lobby with a guy who looked a bit older. He was cute, with reddish hair and a smattering of freckles across his face. They looked
deeply engaged in conversation, so I positioned myself nearby and tried to get her attention. She glanced up and waved me over.

“This is my friend, Mallory. Mallory, this is Rick Wesley. He’s the youth pastor here.”

Rick stood up and shook my hand. “Actually, I’m just an intern. I’m glad you guys came today.”

“Thanks.”

We all stood silently (read: awkwardly) for a few seconds, then Rick excused himself to talk to someone else. I quickly filled in Tess on Liam and the group lunch I had agreed to.

She cringed. “You actually told him that Todd was a fake? Wow. I just wanted you to tell him that you didn’t get back together with him.”

“It all came tumbling out. I couldn’t stop myself. But you know, I’m kind of glad. I feel so much better!” I grabbed her in a hug. “Thank you, Tess. You’re the best.”

“I know.” She smirked.

CHAPTER 9

If Liam had told me that the “group lunch” would be every person in his teen group crammed into the back room of Shoney’s, I might have said no. Even being near Liam didn’t help the situation.

For one, I was starting to regret that I had confessed my most precious secret to a guy I hardly knew. What was to stop him from mentioning it to someone else? I knew that was all it would take to get it effectively dispersed throughout North County High. And two, I didn’t really know anybody. Small talk wasn’t one of my best skills, and the few people I did talk to managed to bring up God within seconds.

“So what is your relationship with the Lord?”

“How can I be praying for you?”

“Have you made a commitment to Jesus Christ?”

Egads! I probably ate two full breakfasts, what with stuffing food in my mouth every few minutes to avoid answering questions. Seriously. How was I supposed to know the answer to any of those things?

Tess, for her part, looked as if she belonged there, chatting with several different people—even several guys—as comfortably as ever. I wondered how she was answering all the questions. And Liam, the new guy in town, seemed to know just about everyone. But he never left my side, so he scored major points for that.

But if being around Liam meant being around all of these other people… I just didn’t know how I felt about it. It was intimidating. Lexi was there with a couple of other people from school whom I recognized, but most of the kids were new to me. I felt out of place, and I wasn’t completely sure why.

Liam drove Tess and I back to my house. As soon as we pulled in the driveway, Tess waved and bolted from the car, leaving Liam and me alone.

Liam laughed. “I’m glad you came today, really glad. If you come earlier next time, you’ll get to see me play.”

“Next time?”

“Yeah. You’re coming back, right?”