Alyssa's Point of View

The loud booms from the outside of the building were far from expected. It sounded like standing next to fireworks as they would explode on the 4th of July. I've always wanted to do this but now my nerves are getting to me. I didn't know how to picture the building Liam and I are about to enter but limited in size and old summed it up.

A man with a peppered mustache and wrinkled face appeared behind a glass counter wearing a Confederates shirt. Lovely. As he turned to look at us, two long braids appeared or either side of his shoulder. I suppose we have now entered the country. The glass counter, which carries jewelry in most shops held bullets, goggles, and different kinds of guns. I smiled while jumping from each gunshot I heard in the next room over.

“You okay?” Liam asked trying to hold back laughter.

“Just a little startled. I knew it would be all redneck-ish, but I forgot about the actual gun shots.”
The man across the counter, who didn’t wear a name tag making my life harder, laughed as I jumped once again. When we were finally handed our equipment Liam opened the room that would be ten times louder. I waited outside for another minute preparing myself from the noise.
“Come on batman,” Liam nodded towards me looking at my shirt. I forgot how much he loves batman—I swear I didn’t wear it for him. I took in a deep breath and followed him through the doors.

We found the last slot and Liam got everything ready carefully. He showed me how to use the gun while I tried my best to stand still. I don’t think the earplugs will block out any noise at all while I’m here. Liam went first and as I watched I covered my ears when he wasn’t looking; I’m not going to show weakness in front of him. He’s already seen me vulnerable one to many times. After his round he showed me how to refill the gun we’d be sharing and I got ready.
I held my arms out and my feet apart like I thought Liam told me—apparently I was wrong. I felt his shadow come behind me after two shots of missing the bulls-eye. Even though the room was loud I could faintly hear him laughing.

“Try this,” Liam stood behind me like you see in those romance movies and moved my hands and arms around until my statue was perfect. I always thought those kinda things were so cheesy but it did feel sweet. Of course if anyone did this I’d still blush but it was nice having him so close. His warm breath fell upon my neck which was now bare from shifting my hair into a bun and I could feel his eyes concentrating on me while correcting my stance.

“Now try,” he yelled to me from further back. I took a few more shots and although they weren’t perfect I still hit the sheet so many yards away from me.

“I did it!” I yelled still holding the gun a little too high.

“Woah!” Liam rushed to me, pointing the gun towards the ground. I giggled and we continued on until all the bullets were completely shattered on the other side where the thundering noise echoed the room.

The car ride was fun, no music but lots of chatter. I couldn’t help talk about how much fun I was having and that I’d love to go again. Liam let me keep my target paper and I held it up, letting the vague amount of sun light to come through.

“Alyssa,” Liam said as we got closer to town.

“Mhmm,” I can’t believe I’ve never gone to the shooting range. The ringing in my ears isn’t exactly touching but I think I can deal with it.

“Marilyn left yesterday, right?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. Not necessarily because she’s left but because I know where this is leading, “just say it Liam, I know this is somehow connected back to Harry.

“He just wants to know if you’re mad at him. He thinks you’re just hanging out with me to make you mad,” his smile left his face and it hurt. I pulled my seatbelt away from my body and shifted on my knee to face him completely.

“Harry is an idiot for thinking that Liam. He has it in his head that when I want to hang out with you or anyone else it’s because I want to hurt him when in reality I just want more friends. I love hanging out with you and I’m sorry he made you feel that way.”

“I know you and Harry have something and I’d never try to take you from him because that’d just be fucked up,” he looked at me quickly with no expression and then looked back to the road, “but I do like you and it just sucks.”

My mouth fell open into an lower case ‘o’ and the only word I could think of was, “oh”. I think I knew Liam likes me but he’s always so friendly to everyone that I’m never sure. And honestly, I don’t know how I feel about him. He’s nice, funny, likeable, and he actually likes me; unless I’m a rebound from Danielle which would suck. I suppose he could seem like a rebound from Harry and I’m not really sure but regardless of any of my thoughts, Liam just said he likes me.
My body shifted towards the windshield once again so I could think. I love Harry and I like Liam; is that even possible? I’ve heard it before but I’ve always called bullshit on the idea.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“No!” my thoughts have gone so far that I’ve forgotten I’m with the boy who ‘likes’ me, “I was just thinking.

“And Harry, he got really mad earlier today. I know this isn’t a date or anything but I’d like to think maybe you like me too?”

“I do like you Liam. I just,” how do I say this without sounding like a bitch?

“You like Harry more?”

Before speaking I paused as if I was thinking but really I wanted to blurt out yes. Liam’s so nice but no one could fill in Harry’s spot even if I wanted them to. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to smack his pretty British dimples right off his face but I will always love him.

“I don’t know what’s going on with Harry, he’s been lying to me and I don’t like it,” that’s true.
“Are you talking about last night?”

I didn’t speak for a while; I just sat, debating if I should show him the video. Harry still doesn’t know someone sent me this video but if I show Liam he’ll think that’s why I’m with him right now.
“What happened?” lying is my best option right now.

Liam went on to tell me exactly what happened; almost exactly as the video went. I’m glad he didn’t make it seem better than it actually was, I can’t take anymore lies. And even though he continued after the video—the part where Harry stood up and stormed off, it didn’t matter. He kissed her and that’s the point. He didn’t have to, it was a stupid game. I don’t care if he was drunk, sober, or a flying elephant. He cheated and lied and took away even more trust. That’s what boys are good at; their problem is they think they’ll never get caught. They will always get caught no matter what.

Harry’s Point of View

I can’t do anything else. I went for a run—a long run, and took a shower. My computer sat on my desk and the tv and video game console stared at me from across my room. I’m losing her and she doesn’t even know about last night yet. I still don’t understand why she decided to go out with Liam, she could have picked any of the girls but she picked him. We both know that he likes her so why? He swore he wouldn’t pull anything and I believe him but that doesn’t mean Alyssa won’t try anything.

I heard the garage door open but I waited on my bed to see if she’d walk in here; maybe tell me how her morning went. It’s only three so she still has a lot of day left. I waited but still nothing. Her door opened and then shut quietly. Our walls are close together which brought my ear to the area to the left of my tv which allows me to hear more than she’d like. Soft music played in the background and I could hear her shuffling through papers. It’s Sunday, she’s probably going to work on homework. Tomorrow we don’t have school for a teacher-work-day but I almost wish we did have school. I don’t know if she’ll talk to me now.

As of now she has no reason to be mad at me because she doesn’t know. She’s just pulling an Alyssa: she gets pissed for no reason and ignores me for a week. Now I’m going to tell her and she’ll ignore me for a week, maybe even longer which will suck considering I’ll be going home on the twenty-second to be with my family for Christmas.

Like Alyssa always does to me I pushed her door open without asking. Her back was facing me as she sat at her desk with her math book open.

“Hey,” please don’t be mad. Instead she ignored me, “hey, Alyssa.”

Surprisingly she looked at me, but with disgust, “why would you tell Liam I’m only hanging out with him to get back at you….whatever that’s supposed to mean.”

Shit. I can’t believe he told her. I’m sure she pressed it on him but still.

“I just didn’t understand why you wanted to hang out with him. You know he likes you Alyssa,” a roll of the eyes and she turned back around and grabbed her phone.

“I really wanted to just ignore this but maybe you should know how disgusted I am with you.”

She threw her phone for me to catch and the screen had nothing but a triangle for me to touch. Someone must have recorded it. I sat down on her bed and watched the twenty-seven second clip and then looked to her. Her back was to me again and she continued working.

Good job Harry, good job.

Notes

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