Always.

“Liam, Hi. I’m so sorry I’m late.” I stumble over my feet a bit as I rush in to the coffee shop and to the table Liam’s at. The Café isn’t very busy, and he chose to sit at a two person table by the window.

He stands when I speak, offering to take the notebook from my hand as my purse falls off my shoulder. “It’s not a problem at all.” He smiles, causing me to return on.

I put my purse on the back of my chair before turning back to him to grab my notebook.
“Thanks,” I breathe, setting it down on the table.

“Uh, I haven’t gotten anything to drink yet if you’d like something.”

I nod and follow his lead as he walks to the counter.

“What can I get for you two?” the barista asks, all smiles.

“I’ll just have a freshly brewed coffee please, and no milk. And do you mind putting an ice cube or two in it?” she nods and looks to me.

“Oh, I’ll have a Chai Tea Latte with soy milk.” She nods and writes it down.

“Alright, your total is $8.49.”

Liam starts pulling out his wallet and I don’t know what to do. “Oh, Liam I can-”

“No, it’s alright.” He says stopping me.

“Thanks.” I whispered, and then I just stay quiet trying to hide my blush. I run my fingers through my hair, the only person who ever pays for my stuff is Harry. We’ve always done that, and if he offers to pay my food, I sure as hell ain’t gonna say no.

I don’t even realize he is done paying until he I see him start turning, then I move and shake my thoughts from myself.

“So. . .” he says while walking to the table. “Do you have any ideas?” he asks, pulling my seat out at the table.

I smile and take it, then watch him sit. “Actually yea. I was thinking we make it from a box, you know? Not like as small as a shoes box or anything, I mean quite big. And we can paint the inside or something. I also think that we should incorporate the ‘okay’ thing somehow.”

He nods in agreement, “That’s sounds really cool.” Just then the women comes with our drinks in hand.

I say and thank you when she put the mug in front of me. I love this place because they don’t just give you a paper cup, the give you an actual huge mug of coffee, or tea, and it’s fantastic..
“Anyways, I was thinking the same thing about putting the ‘okay’s’ in there. What if we, made the bubble, or could things right? And then we can make them black and white, but on the outside we put the opposite color and we write quotes around the outside you know…”

We toss ideas back in forth, scribbling notes and little drawings everywhere as we pass the notebook to each other. It was actually fun, and we decided on what we were going to do, after combining the best ideas. It’s going to be amazing, at least I think so. Liam said he might ask Zayn to do some of the artsy stuff cause he’s always been into that sort of stuff. All in all, we’re going to paint the box starting with a light blue and making it darker until it’s black at the top. Then we’ll make stars and use Liam’s idea for the ‘okay’ and I’m really excited to see how it will turn out.

We finally stop when we realize it’s almost 8. We were about to leave the coffee shop, outside of it actually, when Liam asks me a question.

“So, what are you doing the rest of your Friday night?”

“Actually, I’m probably going to go home.” . . . and finish my Oreos, and order a large spinach pizza from Papa Johns and eat it all.

“You’re not going to Harry’s party? You heard about it, right?” he leans against my car door as he talks to me.

“Uh, yea I did. I don’t know, I’ve just never been to one, I don’t know if I’m the partying type.” I smile.

“You should come! Think about it, it’s our senior year. This is our last year together and partying it always a good idea.” He adds with a smirk.

I shake my head laughing. “Liam I-”

“Come on, Kelly. It’s one party, and I’ll make sure it’s fun for you.” He was sort of giving me the puppy dog look with his eyes.

I guess it can’t hurt right? I’m totally going to regret this later. “I’ll follow you.”

I got in my car, taking a deep breath. I cannot believe I was actually going to do this. Though I kinda would like to go home and change out of these clothes. A girl can only wear heels for so long. Actually I think I have some clothes at Harry’s. But dammit, I can’t change there; people will thing something is up between us. I’d rather not be falsely accused of sleeping with Harry or some other stupid rumor that people will just eat up. Oh wait! I forgot I didn’t go to gym class today and my gym bags in the back. I have a gray t-shirt in there that would be . . . okay with these shorts. And then my converse. Alright, this is good. I could just go into his bathroom and change. Or I could just change in my car. It’s only a shirt, and my windows are pretty well tinted.

Okay, I’ll do that.

15 minutes later drove up to Harry’s house. Cars were lined up on the road outside of his house already, and I know it will only get worse. I was going to look for a place to start, but I just decided to park in my own driveway. I stepped out of the car and looked at Liam who was trying to parallel park his car. Taking advantage, I quickly slipped into the back seat of my car and pulled my shirt out of my bag. I tried to take off my shirt, but it was a little difficult getting my head through.

It took a bit, but I finally got it off of me, and pulled my shirt over my head. I moved quickly, taking off my jewelry and heels before slipping on my socks and shoes.

When I stepped out of my car, I locked the door and put my phone and keys on the roof so I could tuck my shirt in to the top of my shorts so it didn’t look too odd. I glanced in the direction Liam was before and saw him walking over to me.

I grabbed my stuff from the top of the car and smiled at him.

“Hey, you changed.” He said, stepping back to take a look at me in wonder.

“Yea, didn’t really feel like being in my uncomfortable clothes all night.”

“I guess that is very smart. Those heels might have killed me if I was in them.”

I shake my head and laugh at him. “You don’t even know.”

We begin walked toward the house, “I bet I could walk in a pair of heels for a day.”

“I guess we’ll have to see about that. I have some you can borrow, six inches, you’re color too. Though they may be a little small for your feet.” I realize, looking down at his foot that is inches longer than mine.

“Damn it. You made it sound so tempting.” He joked.

We were now at the front door of the house, which was already open because other people were going in and out.

I walk in the door with Liam and it’s already a mess in here. Harry’s house is always so nice and everything has its place, and now there are already red plastic cups strewn across the counter tops. I’m suddenly glad he’s never asked me to help him clean up after one of these, and I keep thinking about the song Red Solo Cup.

“Want a drink?” Liam asks.

“Uh…” I don’t really drink, but I think I’ll need it. “Yea, please.”

“I’ll be right back.”

I nodded. turning and watching him walk into the kitchen.

“Kelly?” a familiar female voice called through the crowded room.

I turned and saw her blonde hair first, then smiled.

“Hi, Perrie!”

She pulled me in for a hug. “What are you doing here?! I’ve never seen you at one of these parties. This is great. Senior year, Kelly’s getting out of her shell!”

I close my eyes and laugh, “Yea, thanks Perrie.” I attempt not to sound too sarcastic.

“Aren’t you going to get a drink? Let loose?”

“Actually, yea. Liam is getting me one.”

As if planned, Liam walks up with two cups in his hand. I mutter a thanks when I take it from him.

“Well, great. I’ll find you later Kelly, bye Liam.” And the blond walks off.

I exam the liquid in the cup, and to my surprise it’s red. I really not a drinker, so I couldn’t tell you what this was if you paid me.

“Do you know what this is, Liam?”

“Someone brought skittles vodka, so I got that for you. I filled up a third of the cup with water though; vodka is pretty strong.”

I nodded, bringing the cup to my lips. I take a second to smell it, and it is not too bad. By the time I finally taste it, and swallow, the alcohol burns my throat and at the same time the drink is quite sweet.

“It’s good.” I say, nodding my head. “Really sweet.”

Liam was about to reply when someone interrupted, “Liam, what’s up mate.”

“Hey Harry.”

Suddenly Harry’s eyes find mine, and as much as I’d like to leave or look away, I decide to stand my ground.

“Kelly,” he makes my name sound more like a question. “I didn’t know you were going to come.” He states, crossing his arms, and I know from many years with him that he was hiding his real feelings.

“I wasn’t really planning on it, but I was convinced.” I shrugged, fully aware of Liam’s eyes on us.

“Well great, I hope that-”

“Harry!” Oh, perfect timing

Caroline came up and wrapped her arms around his waist as he smiled and wrapped an arm around her. The sight of it honestly made me sick, and I wasn’t too sure why. Maybe it was because I was pissed at Harry.

I mean, was I wrong to be upset? I’m not even with Liam, but I guess he’s officially with Caroline.
The next thing he did was kiss her forehead and her smile was brighter than the moon.

Harry turned again to talk to Liam, and I decided to look around the house. It was growing more and more crowded by the minute. I could tell some people were already wasted. There were people making out on the seats; wait a second, I’ve sat on those seats. Gross.

“Kelly?”

I snapped out of my daze and turned to Caroline, “Yea?”

“Are you alright? You seem kind of dazed.” She asked caringly, and suddenly I felt bad for thinking bad about her.

Now both of the guys were staring at me, waiting for my reply. “Uh, yea. I just, uh. . . Will you excuse me for a moment?” I hold up one finger before turning away, setting my drink on the counter.

I make my way down the hall towards Harry’s room, hoping it’s unlocked, I don’t really know what he does with it during parties.

I reach the door and twist the knob, and it luckily opens. I step inside, and nobody else is in here either. I walk over and sit on the edge of Harry’s bed, and try to think about how everything is going wrong.

“Hey.”

I didn’t have to look from his cream colored carpet to know who it was. “What? Come to tell me more about how you’re not going to be there for me if I need you?”

“I didn’t mean that.” He sighs, shutting the door.

I stayed quiet, pulling my legs onto the bed to sit cross-legged.

“I’m sorry.” He whispers when he makes his way to the bed next to me. “You know I’ll be there for you. I was just angry.”

I nodded, still not looking Harry in the eyes.

“Talk to me.”

“I am sorry too, kind of.” I smile, “It’s just that, you wouldn’t give me a reason as to why you were getting angry, and you kept getting mad at me because of Liam. I just didn’t understand.” I shrug.

“I know, I just don’t want you to get hurt, and Liam’s one of my good mates so I’d have to kill him if he hurt you. You see my problem here, yea?”

I finally look at him and laugh. “Yea, I guess so.”

“This year is already mad.” He states, running a hand through his messy hair.

“God, tell me about it. I think our senior year will be very memorable.” I joke.

“Remember 5th grade? When we made up that stupid rhyme?”

“Yes! Our bond is strong as long as we don’t forget where we belong.” We end in unison and then laugh together.

“It’s true though. We’re gonna fight, maybe this year more than any other. I think that as long as we remember why we are best friends in the first place, we’ll be alright.” Harry grabbed my hand in his.

I leaned my head against his shoulder taking a deep breath, “I think you’re right.”

We sat there for a couple of minutes, until Harry broke the silence. “We should probably get back to the party.”

“Alright.”

“How did Liam even get you to come?” he asked, standing and holding his hand out to help me up.

“To be honest, I don’t even know… Oh! If I get super wasted tonight: One, I’ll kill you and two, you’re holding my hair if I get sick.”

“You’re not drinking, then.”

Notes