Chapter 4
Liam and I were next-door neighbors.
He was only twelve when he first moved in.
I was two years older than him.
One time, the kids in our neighborhood were playing together.
I walked by and was playfully pushed into the river.
The river wasn’t deep, but it was deep enough to be life-threatening for fourteen-year-old me.
The other kids either froze in fear or scattered, terrified of getting into trouble.
Only Liam.
Without a second thought, he jumped right into the water.
He struggled to pull me out.
CPR, chest compressions—he did everything he could.
When I finally opened my eyes to the world again, the first thing I saw was Liam’s clear, innocent eyes.
That night, my parents went to Liam’s house with some fruit and milk to thank them.
Once inside, we found Liam getting yelled at by both his parents.
When we asked why, I found out.
Liam, who’d just saved me, had only been taking swimming lessons for three days at that point.
One wrong move, and both of us could have drowned in that little river.
He was grimacing from the scolding, but still managed to greet us:
“Cassie, Uncle, Auntie, please make yourselves comfortable…”
Because he saved my life, Liam and I were always close growing up.
Once we hit our teenage years, that closeness became even more apparent.
I was the first to realize it.
Liam really wasn’t good at hiding his feelings.
After I called him out, he actually got all shy and awkward before confessing to me.
“Cassie,” he’d said, all flustered, “I’ve liked you since we were kids. And I can tell you like me too. We’ve already kissed, so why don’t you just say yes…?”
In my panic, I blushed and used my grades as an excuse.
“Your grades are terrible! No one’s going to want you!”
I never thought Liam would actually buckle down and study harder because of that one sentence.
His grades weren’t bad to begin with; he just had a lazy approach to studying.
Now that he was actually putting in the effort, the results were incredibly obvious.
But when he confessed again, I still turned him down.
“Liam, I’m not ready for a serious relationship right now.”
He didn’t get angry, just confidently raised an eyebrow at me.
“Fine,” he’d said, a confident smirk on his face, “but I’ll stand proudly by your side one day. You’ll see.”
His confidence wasn’t misplaced.
Because two years later, we really did get together.