walking me home Who: Darcy and Liam Where: At school When: early afternoon
The rain was pouring, which was far more interesting than classes, but Darcy was also looking forward to her last class because Liam was in it. She’d waited until he sat, then hurried to a desk next to him, dropping close and smiling over at him with an amused grin. “Hey there,” she said. She’d planned this part too, seeing him at school. She’d put an effort into her hair, glad the rain started after she’d gotten there or it would have ruined the straightened look and it was paired with one of Avery’s shirts, something girly that was fitted on Avery, but sat slightly looser on Darcy’s shoulders and didn’t quite touch the top of her jeans, leaving a glimpse of pale skin around her midriff and lower back. These days were just getting more and more confusing for Liam. He’d spent the whole of the time not with Audrey yesterday finding himself caught up in thoughts that warred between her and Darcy. Back and forth, back and forth until Liam finally forced himself to try and sleep just to get some peace from his own mind.
It hadn’t worked, and he was now at the school feeling worn down and a little ragged. And then there was Darcy, who looked just as incredible as she always did, and it made Liam even more confused. He started at her for a moment, forcing his eyes away from the pale strip of skin above her hips and up to her face. After a minute, he pointed at his hair in reflection to hers. “Hair...different. Nice.” He said, then hastily added. “Both ways, it’s nice.”
She had to wonder why he didn’t speak in full sentences. He hadn’t done that too much the night they’d hung out, but then they’d also watched a movie which had quieted everything down. “Yeah? Thanks. You’ll have to let me know which way you like better.” Then she could wear it that way more often. Or as often as she could stand it if it was the straighter look she had now. What she did like was him staring at the patch of skin, since that had been the point.
Better? Did he like a certain way better? Darcy's hair was Darcy's hair and it somehow didn't really feel right for him to have a preference. "I like both," He ended up saying, thinking that was the right answer. Neutral. Because her hair was pretty, not matter what way it looked. "How did you…?" He asked, motioning to her hair again because at the festival it had not looked like that. And hair was easier for him to focus on than midriff skin. Much easier.
“About twenty extra minutes of work. And this prized somewhat functioning hairdyer Avery and I pooled our money together to get. It only goes on low setting, but hey it’s better than nothing.” Darcy smiled, even though she wished he’d picked one, it was good that he liked both. She took that as a sign that he just liked her. Leaning on her desk towards him more, which just made her shirt ride up more, she smiled brightly. “What are you doing after school? Avery’s got her date with your friend and almost everyone else will be at work. You should come over. We can watch the rain together.”
This, Liam was not prepared for. He started at her again, stuck between her words and her hair and her skin and thinking he needed to acknowledge one of them but he didn’t know for the life of him which one was the right one. The words finally broke through and he looked up at her, feeling his heart rate start to increase at the word ‘date’, even if it only technically pertained to Finn and Avery. Should he come over? Would he be in the way? Would it make sense? His thoughts went a million miles a minute before he glanced back at her again, not sure what else to do. “Thought about hospital...but could come over first.”
For a moment Darcy frowned. “The hospital? Is someone sick?” That wasn’t good. She didn’t want to keep him from visiting some parent or friend or something that was in the hospital. As much as she wanted to see him, that family connection ran deep and she would be hard pressed to push someone away from it, no matter how badly she wanted rid of her own family.
He tilted his head, confused a little, and then the words caught up and he shook his head. “No, no one’s hurt.” He said, actually smiling this time. “Work there. Nurse.” He liked helping people and being able to learn medical skills from a real doctor was invaluable experience for him. “I can stitch next time.”
“Ohh,” Darcy said, mouth opening to an actual O-shape. “You’re a nurse. That’s kinda hot.” She smiled again and settled her chin in one hand, elbow propped on her desk. “Stitch...someone?”
It was hot? Was it hot? How was being a nurse hot? He felt flabbergasted again and just ended up staring at her and her mouth until he couldn’t anymore. Nodding, he cleared his throat, but his voice was still quiet when he spoke again. “Dr. Micah says I’m ready.”
“Which one is he?” Darcy asked, watching Liam. Yes his voice was quiet and he was staring at her confused, but she wasn’t going to let it slow her down. She liked that about him. Her cousins would have just lied to prove they knew what they were talking about and probably wind up looking like idiots. “I still think you should come over after school. We could hang out just us.”
“Dr. Micah? Blonde...tall,” He said, using his hands to try and describe how tall the doctor was but not doing a very good job at it. His hand lowered onto the desk when she invited him over, again, and he still didn’t know how to answer. Especially if they were just hanging out, him and her, and not all four of them. “Maybe,” He answered honestly, looking up at her then toward a window when the rain hit it again. “...Could walk you home.”
Darcy thought about it, biting at her lip while she thought then shook her head. “Don’t know him.” She was still smiling to the end, and she found herself pulling back a little, tugging at part of her hair. That was frustrating. She wanted this and it wasn’t quite working the way it would with normal boys. Shrugging her shoulders, she twirled her hair around her fingers for a moment. “I’d say forget it, but I really don’t want you to.” She bit her lip then sat back more, trying to re-strategize.
Forget it? Now he was doing something wrong? He groaned internally and tried not to show it on the outside, because he was so confused about this whole thing. Internally, some part of him did want to be at her house with her, spending time with her like normal teens did, but the majority of him was scared. About a lot of things, actually. The storm, his friends, this situation, Audrey, all of the above was floating around in his mind in this big, jumbled, scared mess. “Sorry,” He said, feeling a lot like he was screwing up things left and right here.
She bit at her lip for a moment before leaning forward again, forearms on her desk. “You can walk me home. I’d like that. It’s just more time with you.” Darcy wanted that more than anything. Time with someone different. With Liam. “You’ll just have to convince Finn to take Avery out again so she’ll be out of our hair when you come over and stay.”
He was going to come over and stay. He was going to actually be at Darcy's house, sometime, and stay there for a while. Was he ready for that? No. Did he need to freak out about it now? No. Was he? Definitely. He found himself nodding a little, at a loss for words. Luckily their teacher was here and he was saved from talking for the rest of the class period.
When it was over, though, he found himself right back in the position of needing to talk again and not being able to. "…Do you know Sign Language?" He asked, thinking it was something he might actually be able to talk about, really talk about.
Darcy was one hundred percent not interested in class, spending most of it stealing glances at Liam and doodling in her notebook. When it was over she grabbed her bag, looking over at him, and shaking her head. “No. Do you?”
Liam smiled at that and brought his hands up where she could see them. He kept his eyebrows down, an important trait in the style of sign language he knew. He made a fist and nodded it up and down slightly, a smile still there on his face. “Means yes.”
Darcy watched him, lower lip between her teeth before he did the thing with his hands. “Do you know a lot of it?” she asked, half raising her own hands, but not getting very far. That was interesting.
Nodding, Liam spelled the word out with his hands then spoke it after. “Fluent.” He watched her hands then went to show her the signs for the words again, nudging her with his elbow to get her to try the signs.
Darcy felt a little silly, the motions, no words, seemed to flow smoothly on his fingers, while hers were clumsy. She tried though, echoing the motions as best she could. “You make it look easy.”
He watched, smiling, and reached out without thinking about it to correct her hands gently. Then he thought better of it and started to show her the actions for something different. “D...A...R...C...Y.”
There was nothing wrong with him touching her. Darcy instantly wanted more of that, but then he was signing her name and she tried hard to pay attention as they walked. She did her best to give it a try as well, making a face while she struggled with her focus.
Liam watched her and nodded, happy with the fact that she was trying because sign language wasn’t easy and he knew that. He showed her again, slower, with his hands and nodded. “D, A, R, C, Y. Darcy. You did it!”
She had to stop walking to finally get it, but once she did she was smiling. “I did!” There was a moment of hesitation before she reached for his hand, holding it before moving forward again, towards the door and the rain. “When did you learn that?”
He did so much with his hands, but holding the hands of others wasn’t usually in their repertoire. For a moment he just watched their hands together, not sure how to react, but then she was asking him a question and he decided to focus on that instead of their hands because it was easier. Which was saying something because that was possibly the hardest question for him to answer. “...Long time ago. Helping.”
Darcy was very aware of him watching their hands, but he wasn’t the only one. They definitely caught the attention of a couple of other students but she ignored it. What did she care what they thought? “Helping who?” she asked before stopping at the door and looking out at the rain. She was going to be soaked through by the time they made it to her house, especially with her shirt being such a pale pink. Well, maybe Liam would notice that too. “Ready for this?” she asked nodding towards the weather and right her bag on her shoulder.
He didn’t want to talk about his sister yet. It would take him a while to get to a place where he wanted to bring her up here, so he was thankful for the rain even if it was horrendous from where he was standing. Nodding, he looked back at her and adjusted his bag as well. “Which way to your house?”
“That way,” she said pointing towards the house. She squeezed his hand and took a deep breath. “Do we make a run for it?”
He wouldn’t normally have said yes but the rain was getting crazier and he wanted to get Darcy home and safe as quickly as possible. So he did not and looked back out at the direction she pointed. “Run,” He agreed.
“Here goes,” Darcy said as she started, taking off running, but not letting go of Liam’s hand as she went. She was soaked in moments, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was how cold she was in an instant.
Cold. This sucked instantly. He ran with her, squinting his eyes as the rain pelted down on them. It was cold, cold, cold and wet and he was not a fan of this weather. He could barely see where they were going through the haze of water droplets and it caused him to step in puddles and splash water around the both of them. “How far?”
Darcy was relieved she knew where she was going and that she’d hiked her way home in the dark before. Despite the rain she was able to make the way there properly. And even in the puddles she was fine. “Not far. Just up there.” She pointed towards the house, just barely visible ahead. She squeezed his hand and picked up the pace so they’d get there faster.
Liam clumsily ran after her, thinking she was doing a better job of navigating than he was and shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t he be the one to be making sure she got home safely, not her taking the lead with this? “Ok,” He said, since a nod wouldn’t be seen in the middle of a downpour. Running with her, he saw the house loom closer and tried to keep his pace with hers in order to reach it sooner.
She pulled them up the few steps of the porch before she stopped, letting out a breath and shaking her head, trying to push drenched red locks out of her face. Her shirt was completely soaked through and pale pink was see-through, which meant the bra she had on under it was completely visible. But she was smiling, exhilarated from the run and having Liam there, so close. She reached out to push his hair out of his face.
And he was well aware of all the see-through bits of her clothes, which did not help him when she reached out to touch his hair. He wasn’t used to this, even with swimming yesterday, even right now it was still a lot for him to process. Looking away, he tried to remind himself what he was doing here and not get too caught up in her shirt. “We made it...”
She bit her lip, watching him and nodding. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay? We could get out of wet clothes...”
Liam’s heart stopped and then jumped into a racing pace as he stared somewhere that was not at Darcy. Internally he stammered, not ready to have this question asked of him or even the suggestion really put out there. “Gotta...go back...Storm is back, friends at home...”
Darcy watched him and frowned, pulling away from him. “Right. Okay.” She wasn’t sure what she was doing wrong, which had her wondering if maybe Liam just wasn’t interested. “Another time I guess. You do owe me a date.”
He owed her a date? He didn’t think he could disagree with that, nor did he really think he wanted to. He liked spending time with Darcy. She was intense, sure, but she was nice and she’d been nothing but really nice to him. And the idea of hurting someone went against everything he believed in. “Promise,” He said, nodding a little more. “Stay safe? Please?”
At least he was promising he’d go on a date with her. It was enough to bring a little smile back to her features. Leaning in she kissed his cheek again. “You too. Thanks for getting me home safe.”
He blushed again then nodded and gave her a small smile back. Hoisting his bag again, he started down the stairs then out into the rain once more, hightailing it back to his house. At least the cold would keep him focused on something else, because thoughts of Darcy and her shirt were already filtering back into his mind. He had another long night ahead of him.