Monday: I'm Not Macking on You Who: Ava and Liam When: Afternoon Where: Juicy Java/The beach
Assuming Cian would probably still be sleeping, even in the afternoon, Ava went off by herself after lunch and took the ferry to Darkwater. She was in the need of a new journal and she didn't feel like walking around the island to shop, so the mainland it was. She had already called Jenny the night before, who promised to cover for her with their parents so Ava could try to sneak into Vapor with Cian. For twenty bucks, of course. But if Ava and Cian pulled it off and got into the place? It would be the best twenty bucks she ever gave away!
Stopping in Juicy Java for a drink after quite a bit of window shopping, Ava Walked up to the counter, chewing on her lip as she stared at the menu. She knew it more or less by heart, since she came in whenever she took the ferry over, but one never knew if they would have added something new.
Liam, finishing off the order ahead of her, handed it to the customer and rang up the sale. Offering the change out to the man and giving him a wave, he turned his attention to little miss Ava. He always wondered if Cian knew that Ava had the hots for him, but he kept his thoughts to himself. It was damn hard to do though, what with the way the girl practically exuded 'I love you!' from her ever single pore. He wondered sometimes how she managed not to suffocate on the affection she felt for Cian.
"Hey you." he grinned. "What can I getcha?"
She smiled at Liam and immediately felt her cheeks flush. It wasn't that she was interested in the boy, since he was older and she had no chance. But he was hot and it was hard not to get flushy over boys who were that good looking. He was the kind of guy Jenny would have dated in high school and Ava would have just admired from her dark corner. "Hey! I don't know what I'm in the mood for today," she said with a shrug, her eyes lifting from his face to the menu again. "I'm torn between something fruity and something hot. Have you guys gotten anything new lately?"
Liam grinned at her, partly because she'd smiled at him first, and partly because if she blushed any deeper the poor girl might explode. No, sir. he told himself. She's totally jailbait or damn close to it. Cian's age. And she's got the hots for that guy and that's just wrong. Bros over hos. But she's not a ho. Well, maybe she is. I dunno. Hmm... ho or no ho? Answer the girls question, stupid ass.
"Well." he said with a shrug. "We've got this really awesome mango drink." he smiled. "I think you might like it. I could make one special for ya. Whatdya say? Up for something new?"
Ava thought about it for a second before she smiled again and leaned against the counter. "I'm always up for something new." Wow! Look at her, trying to flirt and everything. Despite how ridiculous it sounded coming out of her mouth, or how awkward she felt trying to maintain some kind of casual, 'flirty' pose. But hey, as Jenny continually told her, she was seventeen, could 'pass as pretty' and had never had a boyfriend. She needed to learn how to talk to boys properly, and if she was going to some club this weekend, it would probably be beneficial not to stand there and stammer when someone said hello. And Liam was the perfect guinea pig since he made her skin all tingly every time he smiled.
Well would you look at her? he thought to himself. Being a decent, upstanding citizen was becoming harder and harder. Liam thought she did more than 'pass as pretty', but he shouldn't even be thinking anything of the sort. When I was eighteen, she was barely hitting puberty. he kept telling himself, though it did little to sway him that she was still a cutie now and totally over consenting age. Maybe... "Good." he grinned, pulling back from the counter to make her drink. It didn't take long to do and thankfully no one was behind her. He could at least flirt a little, right? What did it hurt? "There ya go, pretty." he smiled. "Lemme know what you think."
Her cheeks began to burn a bit more, but she continued to smile as she took the drink. Was he flirting back? Or was he making fun of her for trying to flirt with him? Gah! Ava didn't know. This is where having a close female friend would have come in handy. Cian would be totally oblivious and slurping his drink at this point, so he'd be no help either. Ava slipped a straw into her drink. "Thanks. How's business been since summer?" Small talk! Small talk was good.
"Can't complain." Liam smiled, leaning over the counter to be a little closer to the girl. He wanted to pull in more of her emotions, feed off of them really. That was just the way that he was. "Work is work though, gets kinda boring. What have you been doing to occupy your time?"
Ava was starting to pick up some of his surface thoughts, and she tried to focus directly on him so that they weren't so scattered. She tried hard to think of something interesting to say about what she'd been doing with her time, but she hadn't really done anything exciting yet! "Nothing much," she said finally before sipping her drink. She shrugged softly before smiling. "Just hanging out with Cian and enjoying not being in school anymore. I've been collecting applications for a part time job too." Ava made a small face. "Again, not terribly exciting, but it's early in the summer yet."
"A part time job, huh?" he said, arching a brow. "Looking for anything in particular, Miss Ava?" Liam questioned. "I could get you an application for here if you wouldn't mind working with me." On a couple things, babe. God! Shut up brain. Shut up! Now was not the time to be a dirty old man.
She hadn't really been looking anywhere that wasn't on the island, but she wasn't about to say that, when he was offering to give her an application. Would it be really all that hard to work with a cute guy? Nope! "Well, it sounds like a hardship," Ava teased. "But I think I could put up with you if it meant learning how to make lattes." She was feeling more confident now, since she wasn't picking up any disparaging thoughts from him. In fact, he sounded kind of flirty too, if she was interpreting him correctly. It was definitely a self esteem booster to have an older, hot guy showing you some attention, even if it was fleeting.
Liam grinned at her and moved away from the counter long enough to grab an application. He handed it over to her and pulled a pen from his stupid little apron. "There ya go." he said. "I'm sure you could put up with me for a little bit. I'm not that bad a guy and you know it."
Ava took those few seconds to sip her drink again, hoping that it would cool her down. Her whole body was hot and sweaty all of the sudden, and her heart was beating really fast. No boys ever flirted with her that blatantly. Cian might every now and then, but she knew it was totall platonic there. "I know, I know." She grinned and took the application and pen from him after setting her drink on the counter. "You're decent enough, I suppose. I bet you get a lot of girls tipping you." Her cheeks burned and she averted her gaze to the application. Might as well just say 'you're hot!' to his face, stupid. How embarrassing.
He grinned at her and chuckled a little. "Nah." he said. "Not really. Unless I look extra hot or something. I dunno. Do you think they should tip me?" Liam teased.
She was writing her name and looked up at him with a smile. Her heart was beating too fast, and she really didn't want to say something stupid. Ava couldn't help but laugh a bit at his comment, since him looking extra hot was exactly what she had been talking about. "Well yeah... they couldn't make a mango drink this delicious all by themselves now, could they?" She tapped the cup with her pen. "Plus, being extra hot helps too." Jenny would be so proud of her little sister. Or she might have been snickering at her. Who knew?
Liam smirked a little at that. "Oh, I'm extra hot?" he asked tilting his head just a bit. "So you think I'm really hot. That's good to know. See now you really gotta start working here for the eyecandy. Give me a little eyecandy too." Hey, it was just harmless fun.
Ava was blushing like mad, but she wasn't ducking her head down to hide her face behind her hair. Instead she laughed a bit more and shrugged nonchalantly, going back to writing on her application. "I'm think you're about so-so hot," Ava teased. Did he just call her eye candy? Juicy Java was the best stop she'd made today. Quirking an eyebrow, she glanced up at him again with a smirk. "I don't usually like, flirt this blatantly with boys. Or... at all really." And she had no idea why she had to admit that to him, but Ava never really gave too much thought to her words before they were already past her lips.
"So you're flirting?" he asked teasingly. "And I think I'm a little more than 'so-so hot'." Liam chuckled. "Otherwise you wouldn't be blushing so badly, pretty." Liam was certain she thought he was a lot more than just 'so-so' anything. "So are you really flirting, or just using me as a guinea pig for random flirting?"
"I blush all the time," Ava shot back, penning in her cell number on the application. Her stomach gave a little jolt when he asked if she was really flirting, and she wondered if he could somehow read her thoughts the way she could read his. Looking up at him again, she parted her lips to respond, but found she didn't know how yet. "Er, I think... I mean, I didn't come in with the intent to flirt with you," Ava explained. "But you're cute, and nice, so I thought I'd give a try." She winced. "Am I really terrible at it?"
Liam smiled at her, despite the wince and shook his head. "You're not terrible at it, no." he assured her. "You're cute for starters, so that gives you a lot of points right off the bat and you're even cuter when you blush and if you do that all the time, then you're doing pretty darn good. from the get go."
Cute was good. She could totally take cute. Ava smiled at him, not feeling as anxious as she did when she came in. "Well... thanks. I try my best, you know. Hard worker, dedicated and all. Remember that." She motioned to the app with her pen. "You're pretty good at it too." It was apparently easier to flirt with a boy when your male best friend wasn't hanging on every word.
"I'll remember." Liam grinned. He looked at his watch and couldn't help the way that his smile turned into a smirk. "I get off in like fifteen." he said. "Been here all morning... got plans?" Okay, so maybe he was trying to drive her batty with blushing. So sue him.
"Nah," she said casually, filling in more of her application without really thinking about what he could possibly be asking. "I was doing some window shopping since I didn't really have anything else planned. What about you?" It didn't even cross her mind that he might want to do something with her. That was like, an impossible scenario.
"Well," he said. "I was hoping to go somewhere with you, duh." Liam smirked. "Wouldn't have asked if I didn't have a motive for it." he pointed out. "Lesson two in flirting. Guy asks you what you're doing later, means he wants to be included in those plans."
"Oh!" Why did she have to sound so surprised by that? She flushed again before grinning. "Okay, sure... Where do you want to go?" That meant they would be going off alone somewhere. Together. Alone. Ava wished Jenny was here, because then she could read her sister's mind and figure out what to do next. "You work here so I guess you know all the great places right?"
Liam shrugged. "I know a couple places." he nodded. "But maybe I wanna go where you wanna go." he smiled. "What's your favorite place around here?" he asked her. "If you could go anywhere in town, where would you wanna go?"
"I'm not sure," Ava said. "It always depends on where Cian wants to go while we're here. I like going to the park, as lame as that sounds." Did it sound lame? It was better than saying she liked sitting at the marina to watch boats! "I'm usually not over here all that often unless it's for school, or something specific." Ava slid her application across the counter toward Liam, along with his pen. "I'm always up for exploring."
Putting the application away and tucking his pen back into his apron, Liam thought for a moment. "Well what about the Island?" he asked. "Anything cool over there you like to do?" Liam went there from time to time but someone that spent more time there would know the place better, he was sure.
"I go to the beach near the lighthouse," she explained. "Or some of the shops at Eldritch. I don't really know if you would consider those 'cool', necessarily. I generally just go wherever my feet take me. I was going to go by Johnson's beach before I went back to the island today... again, er, not necessarily 'cool', but when the wind starts to pick up, it makes the waves pretty intense." Ava stopped talking and tapped her nails nervously on the counter top. He was going to think she was a total lame-o. "Most of the time I never have a set destination in mind."
"How bout we just go wherever your feet take us then?" he smiled. "I think your version of cool is just fine, Ava. Lemme clock out and we'll get going." Liam retreated to the back and clocked himself out, letting the guy from the next shift take over. Returning without the apron, he gave her a grin. "Shall we?"
Ava fidgeted nervously as she waited for him to clock out. Where was she supposed to take him? What if he got bored and wanted to take off? She felt stupid just thinking about that. Maybe if she had woken up Cian, or at least called him to make him come with her, he would be here as a buffer, since the two boys were friends. Though was Liam really a boy? He was older, wasn't he? Her thoughts were interrupted by Liam returning with a grin. Ava smiled and nodded and picked up her mango drink to carry with her. "So what have you been up to? Besides work, I mean."
"Not much." he said. "Working is just about all I do really. And hanging out with people and stuff. See, I'm pretty boring." Liam chuckled. "So you wanna walk to wherever, or would you rather go for a drive?" he asked, pointing to his car. "I got the car so... whichever you'd rather, Ava. Course you might not wanna ride with a sorta stranger." he teased.
She laughed and shook her head. "Working and hanging out with people is probably a lot more exciting than what I do!" She was betting he had a ton of people to hang out with, all the time. "We can drive, if you don't mind driving? I wouldn't want you to keep your car here while we roam. And you're not a sorta stranger," Ava said before sipping her drink. She hoped her lips didn't turn orange. "You're Cian's friend, and you're not a jerk, so... yeah."
Liam grinned at her and led her to his car, pulling the passenger door open for the girl and letting her climb in. "Yeah, well are you going to tell Cian that we went out roaming?" he teased. "I wonder what he'd say if he knew you were macking on me." Again he was teasing the girl, perhaps for a bit of flushing from her, but it was all in good fun. Shutting her door, he moved around the car and climbed in the driver side, pulling his seatbelt across his lap.
Ava buckled her own seat belt, and yes, her cheeks burned again. She was sure she was going to be pink permanently by the time she went home today. But apparently Liam thought it was cute, so maybe it wasn't so bad to be embarrassed. "I don't know why I wouldn't tell him," she said, once he was in the car with her. "He'll probably be jealous he didn't get to come along. And I'm not macking on you, and if I was, he'd probably make a face and roll his eyes." She grinned and settled her drink on her knee. "I think Cian would be stunned that I'm spending time with someone other than him."
"And someone so sexy as me." Liam grinned. "He'd be so jealous. You found someone way hotter with way more experience." Being a teasing jerk was sometimes fun and he didn't really mean any of it. He knew how Ava felt about Cian. She was head over heels for the boy. He sometimes wondered if Cian even realized. Ava was cute after all. He was a complete dork if he couldn't see that.
Ava snorted. "I don't know if anyone's got more experience than Cian. But I'm taking the fifth on the hot comment. He'd kill me if I said some guy was hotter than he was." She smiled and glanced out the passenger side window. "What about you though? Do you have any girlfriends?" She was asking more out of pure curiosity than for herself. Ava didn't expect anything real to come out of this. They were just flirting and having fun - and it was fun.
Liam shrugged a little. "No one officially." he admitted. "A couple girls that are friends that I hang out with." And one that I totally made out with last night. Hells yeah. God I'm a whore. Making out with Ash and macking on a teen. God. "But no one official. Guess no one wants to be tied down to me." he shrugged.
"I doubt that," Ava said with a soft roll of her eyes. Beautiful people always had someone who would love to be tied to them. "I guess there's nothing wrong with like, having fun with different people though. "Maybe they want to be tied down to you, but you haven't found the right one yet, so you don't want to be tied down to them."
Or maybe I'm just a slutty bastard. Liam thought, though he didn't let the words slip out aloud. He didn't even mean them, he just felt that way sometimes. "Maybe." he shrugged. "Guess I'll just have to keep looking. No one's just come out and been all 'oh Liam, I wanna be with you', though, so I'm thinking you're wrong on this one, missy." he said as he pulled away from the curb. "So where to first?"
"The beach, if you want." She grinned and bit the end of her straw to keep from commenting on his slutty bastard comment. At least he could admit it to himself, if that was the truth! Though she doubted it. Liam didn't seem like that kind of guy. "And no, they haven't come out yet, but they might still! You never know. And until they do, I don't think there's anything wrong with playing the field." She shot him a sideways glance, smirking a bit. "I've been playing the field since like, fifth grade." Okay, more like, watching the field from the sidelines, but still.
Liam shot her a 'yeah right' sort of look as he took the route that would get them to the beach the fastest. "Playing the field, huh?" he asked. Probably more watching Cian play the field. he thought. The poor girl was infatuated with a guy that was her best friend. It always ended badly in that scenario, unless the guy in quesiton finally wised up and realized how awesome the girl was. "Welll I guess I'll just have to wait for someone to admit they want me." he shrugged. "Til then, they can all want me in silence and I'll want all of them back."
Ava almost asked him what he meant by her watching Cian play the field, but that would more than reveal she could read his mind, then he'd want to be rid of her pretty quickly. It was true anyway, since she tended to sit back and watch Cian get with whichever girl he decided he wanted to date at the time. "Nah, not really," Ava said with a shrug. She didn't care admitting that she didn't date much. Or at all. "I think my first kiss was a boy in fifth grade... Ben Webb. Actually, I think that's the last time I kissed a boy too. I know that's totally pathetic to admit, but I guess I'm picky." She grinned at his comment before laughing. "That sounds like it'll benefit you pretty well. You're certainly not complaining about it." She had stifled her crush on Cian a long time ago, chalking it up to enjoying being around someone who's mind she couldn't read. Plus, he was her best friend, and she wasn't about to risk that either.
"Fifth grade?" he asked. "And how many kisses have you gotten since then?" He couldn't help but be curious. "Never mind, that's kinda rude, so I shouldn't have asked that and you can totally ignore it." He would have if someone asked him the same question. Probably more so because he couldn't really remember how many kisses he'd gotten since the first.
"It's okay," she said, shrugging again. As humiliating as it might be, it wasn't that hard to talk about her lack of kisses. She was picky... and she didn't want to kiss boys that had mean thoughts about her. "I haven't really had any since. I don't really go around kissing boys I don't know, and I never got to know a lot of boys in my school, other than Cian." Ava leaned back against her seat and smiled brightly at him. "When was your last kiss." She was betting last night. Or this morning. Or five minutes before Ava walked into Juicy Java.
Liam pulled over as soon as he had the ability to, parked the car and leaned over, stealing a little kiss from the girl before she had a chance to object. "About two seconds ago." he said with a shrug as he pulled back to his side of the car and put it in drive again, though he kept his foot on the break. "If you're gonna hit me, go ahead before I start driving again." he said with a tiny little smile.
For a second, Ava thought he was pulling over to make her get out or something, since she'd asked that kind of question. All she could really do was blink and then stare at him when he kissed her and pulled away. She barely had time to process what he had done, it was so quick. And if her face had been pink before, it was probably rivaling the color of a lobster now. "Not going to hit you," she said, trying not to laugh nervously. "That was an odd way of dodging the question."
"Last night." he told her. "But that wasn't dodging the question." he assured as he pulled away from the curb and continued on their way. "It was a way of getting you a more recent kiss." he smiled. "Fifth grade is a long time to sit around waiting for another one. So now you've have another one that probably sucked for you since it was like a half second kiss." he chuckled. "I'll have to fix that later maybe." he smirked.
"Oh." Okay, so he had a point... she hadn't really realized it was a kiss until it was over. Did that still count as a kiss? "Well, thanks...?" Ava laughed again. He had a really impressive way of making her flustered and unsure. She wished she could be more smooth about things, but she didn't have any experience in this kind of thing at all. "Maybe I can count that as half of one?"
Liam chuckled a little at that. "You don't have to count it if you don't want to." he told her. "Maybe I just wanted to prove to you that you're cute enough for people to want to kiss. And nice enough on top of that." He got the feeling that she didn't feel that way and everyone needed a little go stroking sometimes. Why not allow himself to stroke hers just a bit? "Sorry I sprang it on you like that. My brain sometimes gets signals to my body before I have the chance to really think them through."
"I'm totally not complaining," Ava said, because she wasn't. Who would complain when a cute boy kissed them? "It's okay though, maybe if I were better at this stuff I would have expected it." Now she was glad Cian wasn't here, since that totally wouldn't have happened if he had been. "So you're impulsive then... it makes sense. I am too, from time to time. But mostly when it's going to get me in trouble."
He smiled a little. "You don't have to expect a kiss." he told her. "Even people who go around flirting constantly don't expect every kiss that comes their way." Liam pointed out. "I'll tell you what, I'm gonna kiss you again before we say goodbye for the day, but I'm not going to tell you when. We'll see if you expect it." he smiled. Hey, a fun little game. Why the hell not?
Just the thought of him kissing her again got her heart to race a bit faster. What was she going to say to that? No thanks? No way. "Okay, we'll see," Ava agreed with a nod. "I'll try not to be obvious in my expecting of it." Which she probably would be. She was sure every movement he made she would be bracing herself. What a strange, and awesome afternoon. What was even better was that she knew he had kissed someone the night before, and it didn't bother her. Did that mean she was a ho? Hopefully not. "I can see why Cian likes to hang out with you," Ava said before rushing to continue, "I mean, not for the kissing thing. But you're cool. A lot of his jocky friends at school aren't."
"Not into the jocks?" Liam asked her. He tried to picture the girl with a jock, but in his opinion, it didn't do her much justice. Was it wrong that he thought she could do better? Probably. "And for the record, I don't go around kissing Cian." he chuckled. "That'd just be wrong." In about a hundred different ways. While he didn't mind gay people, he wasn't going to be picking up the lifestyle thank you very much.
Ava gave that some thought before responding, "I don't know that I have a type I'm into. It's personality more than anything. Like, Cian is a jock and I get along with him great because he's not a jerky one. A lot of them are. Not to say non-jocks aren't jerks, because they can be. It just depends on the guy, I guess." Ava wrinkled her nose at the comment about Cian. "Good! I don't think he'd appreciate you trying to kiss him either." Though the mental image was kind of funny. She could just picture Cian's face if she told him about that.
"He'd love it." Liam chuckled. "You'll see when you get a real kiss from me." he warned. "And I get what you mean about jocks and jerks. Not all jocks are jerks and not all jerks are jocks. I've had enough assholes come into the shop to know that anyone could be a jerk. Girls, guys, old, young, doesn't matter."
Was it strange to have some sense of anticipation for him to kiss her? She didn't know why since she knew it was just a kiss, and she didn't even know him all that well beyond him being super hot and Cian's friend. Maybe she felt if he kissed her, she would at least have some real experience and the next time a guy kissed her, she would know what she was doing. "Totally," she agreed with a small nod. "I tend to steer clear of them the best that I can." Reading minds helped her decide who to ditch and who was worth it.
Liam would have been interested to know that he was an practicing kissing partner. Maybe because it would have amused him to no end. Hell, he may have spent the rest of the afternoon making out with her if she wanted to learn how to kiss. "Yeah." he nodded. "Me too. Sometimes I get stuck dealing with them though. Serving them drinks and shit. Makes me wanna spit in their juice."
"You should," Ava said, grinning at the thought. "People should know better than to be rude to people who work in any kind of food service." Ava knew if people were rude to her, she would have a very hard time resisting doing things to their food or drink. Which made her wonder if working at Juicy Java was such a good idea. "Do you like working there? Or is it like, a temporary thing?"
"I've been working there forever." he admitted. "Years. Guess that means that I like it." Liam chuckled. "I like people though. I could talk and talk and talk. If I didn't work there, I'd work somewhere else just as busy so I could still have that human interaction." By that time Liam was pulling up near the beach and parking his car. Turning it off, he looked over at the girl and gave her a grin. "Having second thoughts already?"
Ava wasn't sure she liked to talk that much to strangers. She spent most of her time avoiding them - or avoiding their minds anyway. She wondered what it would be like if she did work someplace busy like Juicy Java. "No," she answered quickly before smiling with a more relaxed posture. "Not at all." Unbuckling her seat belt, she opened the door to get out of the car. She was having fun, and feeling more confident about herself, so maybe she could get through the afternoon without blushing anymore.
Liam smiled at her and got out of the car, tucking his keys into his pocket and offering his hand to the girl once he was around the car. "So what's your favorite spot on the beach?" he asked her. "Show me?"
If she didn't have to worry about blushing, then she would have to worry about sweaty palms. She hesitated only briefly before taking Liam's hand. She was holding hands with a guy! Who wasn't her best friend. It was weird and exciting at the same time. "Sure. It's not too far off, just far enough that it's not always overrun with people in the summer," Ava explained. "Do you like to come here a lot?"
"Sometimes." he smiled. "When I feel like being alone." For Liam those times are few and far between. He did like his alone time once in a while though and being at the beach was the best place to be alone. Especially first thing in the morning, just as the sun came up. He loved the feelings that seemed to be coming off of her. The nervousness and excitement all blended together. He was quickly deciding that he needed to spend more time around this girl. Now if no one thought that he was her dad or something, they'd be good.
"You probably don't have a lot of chances for that, do you?" She was assuming that he had a ton of friends that kept most of his time occupied when he wasn't working. Ava was the total opposite. She had some casual friends at school, but Cian was pretty much the only person she really enjoyed spending her time with for a variety of reasons. "Since I live on the island, I like going to lighthouse right before sunset, or if I'm awake at sunrise, which during school isn't often. As cheesy and cliche as it sounds, it's really relaxing and quiet."
"Not really." he admitted. "I try to occupy my time as best I can but sometimes you just wanna be alone, even me." Liam smiled. Sunset was not his favorite time and all the thoughts rushing through his head about the dark and night and the sun going down said as much. "Sounds relaxing." he said. Not.
Ava arched a dark eyebrow in his direction and caught herself before asking why he didn't like the dark. She was pretty good at keeping the thoughts in her head rather than asking embarrassing questions she shouldn't be. Was he afraid of the dark? Because if so, that was adorable, even if he probably didn't think so. "Sunrise is the best time," Ava said, instinctively squeezing his hand to make him feel better, even if she was supposed to have no clue about what was going on in his head. "It's always better when you can, you know, see the water."
Liam gave her a little smile at that. He couldn't help but wonder if she was saying that just because that was his favorite time, but either way, it didn't matter. It was sweet. "Yeah." he said. "I guess I'm a morning sorta guy. Not much for the dark. Which I guess is weird for someone my age." he chuckled. Yes, that's it, laugh at yourself.
"I don't think that's weird. Not everyone is a fan of the dark. What's so great about it?" Ava asked with a soft shrug of one shoulder. She liked the dark just fine, especially since it was easier to get away with things in the dark, but she knew it wasn't for everyone. "You can't enjoy things in the dark. Unless it's like... sex." Cue the blushing. Ava laughed a bit to cover up her embarrassment. "But even then I guess it's better with the lights on? I don't know... I... okay, I'm going to stop talking."
"I like the lights on during sex, actually." he smiled. "I like to see what I'm doing. Course that makes me sound like a total perv." Liam laughed. "Promise not to judge me on everything that lips past my lips." Not that it was really that bad, but still. She was a teenager and impressionable. And probably a virgin now that he thought about it, but that wasn't any of his business anyway. "I think I like a lot of things better in the light."
Ava certainly wouldn't judge him on anything. It wasn't like she was any better, since she was the one who brought it up. "I promise I won't," Ava said with a smile. "I embarrass myself a lot, but I don't embarrass easily when people talk about that stuff around me." Her best friend was Cian, after all. Who she knew wasn't a virgin. Plus, she went to high school. Sex was usually all people her age wanted to talk about. Well, some of them anyway... okay, so maybe not talk, but think. And Ava heard a lot mentally when she was at school.
Liam smiled at her again. "Good." he said. "Wouldn't want you freaking out on me because of my stupid brain. I argue that I'm a male and that's what's wrong with me most of the time." he teased. "So where's this great spot of yours?"
"Aren't all boys like that?" Ava asked teasingly. "Thinking with their so-called brains?" Only not the brains in their heads. That thing flickered off the minute something caught the attention of their woohoo. "It's down that stretch," she said, pointing ahead. There were some bigger rocks and a grassy knoll that cut into the sand. Not an ideal place for a beach blanket and building sandcastles, which was why Ava liked it.
"The never never land in my pants is just as smart as the head on my shoulders." Liam grinned. His eyes flicked over to the spot she was pointing at and he tilted his head a little to inspect it. "Nice." he smiled. "At least you got good taste."
Okay, so Ava couldn't help but laugh at that. Never never land in his pants? Nice. "Well, two heads is better than one, they always say." She snickered and reached up to brush some of her hair from her face. She smiled when he said she had good taste. "Thanks. I like to think I do. Thanks for hanging out with me, I know you probably had other things you could be doing."
Liam shook his head. "Nah. No need to thank me. I like hanging out with you." he assured. She was just as good a person as any to hang out with, she was pretty, and hey, she even had a brain. Plus she laughed at his stupid jokes and that was always a plus.
"So far. You've never really hung out with me before," Ava pointed out. When they reached the knoll, Ava tugged at his hand to sit down next to her. "Although that might have to change! I'll have to keep you on standby whenever Cian gets another girlfriend." She was only half serious, since Cian was good about not ditching her totally when he had some airhead around.
"Well that doesn't matter." he told her. "I'm hanging out with you now and now I'm going to have to hang out with you again." he smiled. Once she tugged him down, he settled himself beside her and reached over to brush her hair behind her ear. "Does it bother you when he has a girlfriend?" Liam asked her, tilting his head a little.
Admittedly, she liked it when he brushed her hair behind her ear. It was an affectionate kind of gesture that she never really got. Plus, who wouldn't like a cute boy touching you? At his question, she blinked in surprise before shaking her head. Her answer came out a bit more rushed than she meant it to. "Not really, no. Only when he dates morons, then it bothers me. But you know.... if he found someone who was cool, I don't think I'd mind it too much. Why?"
"Because you totally like him." Liam said with a shrug. He knew that she liked him because he could feel it, but maybe he could make her think that he just saw little things that made him think it. Maybe. Part of him wanted to tell her that he could just feel it, but he figured that would freak her out a little. "At least it seems that way." he amended.
That definitely took her by surprise, and her wide eyed gaze snapped to Liam's face as her lips parted, stunned. "Wh... what? No! I don't like him. I mean, I like him, just not like that. No way. Cian?" Ava wrinkled her nose and was proud of herself for not stammering. "No... he's just my best friend. I mean, you're not the first person to accuse me of having the hots for him or whatever, but seriously... we're just friends."
Liam rolled his eyes. "You are so full of it, Ava." he told her. "Firstly, you tend to look at him with these big googly 'I love you' eyes, secondly, you're always with him, and thirdly, I can feel what you feel, so don't even pretend, alright? And you're stammering too so that totally tells me that you've got the hots for him, and you probably haven't even let him know have you?"
Ava, for one, was speechless. Because she had a billion different ways to deny it and she couldn't get any of them past her lips. So she sat there with her lips parted, like a fish out of water, wondering if she should be freaked out by his observations or mad about them. "I'm... I'm always with him because he's like, the only friend I have." Whose mind she couldn't read. "Second of all, I don't look at him with any I love you eyes. Don't you think other people would see that if I did? Or like, he would see it? I swear, I don't like him like that," Ava insisted. Of course she had that tiny crush when they first became friends, but every girl had a crush on Cian at some point. She'd totally gotten over it. They were best friends now. "He's totally like my brother."