36. Memorable Day

*please note - this chapter is part of the new edit. I've saved it over the previous one, so all the comments are from the old chapter.*

***

Liam

It had been some time since Serena's Dad came home from the hospital. At first he was still recovering, a sling around his arm and bandages around the area where he was hurt. Now he was a lot better.

It was honestly a relief to have him home, not just because the Hastings were really close to us, but also because I could longer see that look on Serena's face.

My brain felt rattled ever since I held Rena, as she cried outside the hospital.

I'd never ever seen her cry like that and never ever wanted to see her cry like that ever again.

It was the worst feeling possible to see her like that, so broken and hurt. She felt fragile and I couldn't think of anything to help fix her, except hug her and let her cry some more.

She held onto me, as if I was the only thing keeping her afloat and so...I tried to not let her drown.

However, now that Mr Hastings was home and looked like he'd recovered mostly, Rena looked so much happier. She smiled again.

We were reached towards the middle of summer now, and with each passing day, I was hoping for it to be extended by another one.

I still had tonnes of packing to get through for school and to sort out my current things, so I'd know what to take and what to get rid of, but that was just so long.

Julie and her Mum, had gone away for a vacation, to spend some time together, before she too was going away for college.

I was bummed about it, but I guess it makes sense. I'm just glad she got that ridiculous notion out of her head that long-distance automatically means break up.

After Rena came over to mine and I spoke to her, I realised what she said was so true. Moping about something wasn't going to get me anywhere. If I wanted something - or rather someone - then I'd have to try harder.

I called Julie after Rena had left. I was a little worried when she didn't really say anything, but I didn't let that deter me. I told her the honest truth that yes it would be difficult for our relationship and there even be some low points, but I wanted to try. I would try my hardest to keep things together, even if they're falling apart.

We spoke for a while, before Julie finally said she didn't want to break up. She explained that she didn't want to get hurt and didn't want to hurt me either. I understood what she said and why she thought that way, since long distance just sounds daunting, but I really felt like we'd get through this.

It just didn't make sense if we didn't even try.

After a long conversation, it seemed like things were back on track.

However, during my whole strop, I had made Mum worry quite a bit. She was not very happy and because of that, she decided I must be punished.

Any little errand that she had, Mum would make go out and do it for her. That way I'm punished and her job gets done - two birds with one stone. She was quite happy about it.

Of course that's not how I wanted to spend my summer, however fight for it. it does get me out of packing.

As I walked towards my car, I could see Mr Hastings, walking out of their house, carrying some kind of sign.

Walking around the fence, I went towards him.

"Hi, Mr Hastings," I greeted him, although immediately my eyes landed on the 'for sale' sign in his hands.

That was odd.

"Liam, my lad. How are you?" He smiled back at me, patting my shoulders, quite forcefully in fact. He could get hurt, yet still his strength was the same.

Trying not to wince, I carried on to smile.

"I'm good. Are you having a yard sale?" I asked curiously.

He let out a chuckle at my question. "No, why?"

"The sign?" I gestured towards it, finding it a little off as to why he had this sign with him.

"This?" He lifted the sign a little higher. "Oh, no, this is the 'for sale' sign Zara keeps pestering me to put up for the house," he said, which didn't really alleviate my confusion.

He then shook his head. "I swear, you don't do something for two weeks, and suddenly it's a big deal. Women," he scoffed at the end.

In all of that, all I caught were three words that had my anxiety shoot through the roof.

"I'm sorry, did you say for the house?" I asked.

"Yeah. Because we're moving," Mr Hastings replied so calmly, it was as if it were nothing, or like I should know about this already.

"What?" That was the only word I could seem to get out.

I don't know what kind of look I had on my face, but clearly it was pure confusion, which is why Mr Hastings expression formed into one of sheer awkwardness.

"Oh damn," he said, looking at me. "Serena didn't tell you yet, did she?"

I shook my head, assuming words would fail me at this point.

"You didn't hear it from me, alright?" He pointed his finger at me. He then glanced behind him, before looking back at me. "It was technically Zara, since she made me put up the sign."

"You're moving?" I asked, trying to process the information.

He looked rather apologetic. "I'm sorry you found out like this, son."

So it was definitely true. He didn't deny it. They're moving.

"When?" I asked.

He looked reluctant to answer. "A few weeks," he then said, a frown on his face. "Once Serena heads off to college, we'll be off too."

"Oh," was all I could reply to that.

They're actually moving. So, Serena, who I have seen quite a lot over the summer, was moving this entire time - and not only for college - failed to mention this? Really?

She told me about their plans to get a new dog, what she wanted her dorm room to look like, how she wanted to learn to climb a tree this summer. Yet this, very important information, she'd left out.

Why wouldn't she tell me? She can't just... She's my...my neighbour. She can't be my neighbour if she moves away.

When I looked at Mr Hastings, he was trying to put his sign into their front lawn.

"Is she-" I began to asked, nodding towards the house.

"She's upstairs," he nodded.

Quickly thanking him, I rushed into their home. Or what was still their home for now apparently.

I quickly greeted Serena's Mum too, before running up the stairs. I nearly tripped up them, taking two or three at a time, I just needed to see her.

Her room door was already open and I could hear the music she was playing. As I came nearer, I could see her standing there, in front of a lot of boxes.

Some were labelled 'take with', some 'trash', a couple 'charity', but what caught my eye was the boxes labelled 'new house'.

"Rena?" I said her named hesitantly, walking a little further into the room.

"Hey, Liam," she smiled, glancing over her shoulder towards me, a shirt in her hand, before looking away.

She then seemed to freeze, dropping the shirt on the floor, and turning herself around to look at me completely.

"Liam," her eyes widened. "Crap," she cursed, looking guilty.

"You really are moving," I said, looking at all the stuff she'd already packed. Her room, it looked so bare without her usual stuff up on the walls and the shelves. No decor, nothing to say this is her room.

Rena looked at me with a frown, before walking towards the speaker and turning off the music.

There was just silence between us now, with me waiting for some kind of answer from her, or at least just tell me this was one massive prank.

"I'm sorry," Rena then said, shattering all hope of this not being true.

"How long have you known? Why am I just finding out now? Why didn't you tell me sooner? Why are you even moving?" I bombarded her with questions.

She held up her hands. "Liam, breathe," she said and I took a deep breath.

"I promise I was going to tell you but I didn't even know how I would," she began to say. "I didn't know where to start. And the others-"

"The others? Who else knows?" I asked.

Serena opened and closed her mouth a few times, before sighing.

"Everyone," she said, a deep frown on her face.

"Everyone?" I repeated.

She nodded and stepped towards me, "I'm so-"

I stepped back, feeling hurt by this new piece of information. "So I'm the last person to know that you're leaving. That's just great," I let out a sarcastic laugh.

Not only was it bad that she didn't tell me, but the fact that she told everyone - which I assume is all our friends, possible even my parents - that just hurt a whole lot more.

"Liam," she said my name, in a way that usually just made me listen to whatever she'd say, but not this time.

"No. I should've been the first," I said. Okay, no, I know I shouldn't have been the first, but at least somewhere in the top five at least. I thought we were that close at least.

"Well actually-" she smiled, clearly trying to lighten up the mood, but I wasn't having it. I couldn't.

This was just too much to process.

"I can't believe I just found out you're moving through your Dad putting up a sign," I said, running a hand through my hair, because I honestly don't know what I'm meant to do right now.

I would go to Rena to ask usually, but I can't do that, since she's the one I'm upset with.

"Liam, I'm sorry," she apologised. "I admit it, I dropped the ball on this one. I should've told you earlier. But I had a whole thing prepared," she said.

I wanted to believe her. To be honest, I did believe her, this was Rena we're talking about. But right now, I just wanted to be mad at her, because it hurt that she didn't tell me sooner.

"Well I guess now you don't have to bother," I told her, and she looked saddened by my words. "Have fun moving. Text me when you get there. Or maybe I'll ask your parents to do instead," I said, and with that stormed out.

I could hear her call my name, but I didn't want to talk to her. At least not right now.

***

Serena

I felt horrible.

The reason was Liam, again, but for different reasons because this time it was actually something I did, rather than him unintentionally.

I knew that I should've told him earlier, he was bound to found out being my next door neighbour and all, I just thought I'd say it later and later seemed to become never somehow.

There was a part of me that think that if I didn't tell him then it wouldn't make it true, even if everyone else knew and the boxes were packed.

It was dumb. But I never really claimed to be that smart.

Ever since Liam walked out - or rather stormed out - of my room, he hasn't spoken to me since, and it's been days. He's avoiding me and I don't like it.

I went over the other day, with muffins, and he didn't even come out of his room. The idiot was being...well, an idiot.

This is my last summer here, my last summer with him before I go away, I'm not letting him do this.

With that in mind, I was on a mission, and went over to their place.

It was early afternoon and when I went over to the Hunters' place, Emma opened the door, but didn't look too surprised. She clearly knew what was happening and it sort of looked like she half-expected me to come over like this.

I greeted her and she told me Liam was in his room.

Running up the stairs, I nearly bumped right into Mr Hunter, who laughed. He said his son was a muppet and I should give him hell, ant that was pretty much the plan.

I don't even knock on Liam's door, instead just barging in like I owned the place.

"Liam Hunter!" I yelled out his name in annoyance. This warranted a full name call out.

He was clearly surprised to see me like this, unannounced and angry. I'm not sure why he was surprised, he'd been ignoring me, I wasn't going to let that happen.

Liam was sitting on his bed, headphones on, writing something and some kind of box next to him.

He took off his headphones and stood up.

"Rena? What are you-" he began to say, but I wasn't having it.

"Don't even," I snapped. "I am sick and tired of your immature behaviour. You cannot keep ignoring me for days on end, especially when I'm trying to apologise to you," I told him.

Ugh. I sound like my Mum.

He frowned at my words. "You hid that-"

I knew exactly what he was going to say, and I didn't care.

"Oh boo-freakin-hoo," I cut him off, which clearly left him a little shocked.

Stepping closer to him, I angrily pushed at his chest. He didn't move of course, being the giant that he was, but I was angry.

"Liam, I'm the one that's moving. The one that's leaving my home, my friends, you, behind. I'm the one that has to go, so you're not allowed to be mad at me. You're not allowed to give me the silent treatment," I said.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you, but do you understand that it wasn't easy? I'm leaving and...it's just really hard to process for me too."

I have no idea why my voice began to break at the end, and why a lump had formed in my throat. The whole idea of moving still clearly hadn't settled in.

Plus, I was so focused on all the new stuff and how everything was going to be, I hadn't actually step back to really think about all the stuff I was going to be leaving behind.

Yes, I had said my goodbyes to everyone else, but even then, it didn't really hit me.

Everyone was going away for studies anyway, we were all mostly going to be in different locations too, so it didn't really occur to me, how things were actually going to change for me forever.

Unfortunately, I had only started to think about this recently after Liam's visit. I just felt overwhelmed.

I didn't have the energy to rant anymore and instead I had just bowed my head down, my hands covering my face as I tried to breath deeply.

The next thing I knew, arms were wrapped around me.

Liam was hugging me.

The last time he hugged me like this, we were outside the hospital and I was crying on his shoulder. Now again today, I may not be crying exactly, but the sentiments were the same and so was the warmth from him.

I felt him hold me close and rest his cheek upon the top of my head.

"I'm sorry," he then said.

I turned my hands to hold his t-shirt into my fists, trying to control my breathing and erratic heartbeat.

"You should be," I told him, my voice sounding a little croaky.

Liam tightened his hold on me. "Please don't cry," he said.

I shook my head and sniffled. "I'm not crying."

There weren't any tears, so technically I wasn't crying...yet.

"Please don't sniffle," he then said.

I sniffled again and nodded. "Okay."

He carried on to hold me and I let him, because I needed a hug right now. I needed to stop for just a moment.

"We have to go, Liam," I said. "After Dad got hurt, Mum doesn't feel safe in this house. She's scared."

It really wasn't a nice feeling to know that my Mum wasn't happy or didn't feel right being in our own home. She used to flinch every time the doorbell rang. It was to the point we had it disabled, just to give her peace of mind.

"I understand," Liam then said, and I felt him nod. "I'm sorry for acting like a child, but it was just so unexpected. I don't want you to go. How am I going to say, 'hey neighbour', to you when you're not my neighbour anymore?"

This made me sniffle again.

"Don't make me cry," I told him.

He hugged me tighter. "I'm sorry."

We stayed like that for a minute longer, before breaking apart.

"What are you doing today?" He then randomly asked me.

I shrugged. "Packing," I replied, not actually having much of a plan today.

"Screw that, you're spending the day with me," Liam then grinned.

"With you? Doing what?" I asked him.

"Anything and everything," he replied, still with that boyish grin of his. He then placed his hands on my shoulders. "I'm not letting you leave this town or me, without one special and memorable day."

The intense gaze of his brown eyes was messing with me. At this point, if he asked me to join a cult with him, I'd probably say yes.

"You in?" He then asked.

I smiled. "What are we waiting for?"

Liam grabbed my hand and led me out the door, with no clue where he intended on taking me.

***

I don't think Liam actually had a whole plan, but as the day went by we just ended up doing all my favourite things, or anything that would make me smile.

Liam took me to Mama Macy's, and bought me a dozen of my favourite red velvet cupcakes. I devoured two instantly.

We literally went all around town, making fun memories. From the old library, that was basically derelict now, to park where I used to love to go. He drove me around everywhere, to finally the hilltop view that I knew was his favourite place.

We sat there for a while, just talking and snacking, watching the sun go down and then tried to spot the few stars in the night sky.

"Rena?" Liam called out my name, breaking the comfortable silence we found ourselves in.

I hummed in response, turning my head towards him.

"Here," he said and held out the box he'd had all day.

"Finally," I laughed, taking the box from him. "I've seen you holding this since I walked into your room and all day, I've been wondering what it is."

I remember seeing him with the box earlier and writing something. At the time I assumed it was his, but he'd had it ever since we stopped at his house for a second, before coming up to the hill. I figured it was for me.

Liam chuckled at my words. "The news was last minute, so it's nothing fancy, just a little something."

I looked at him curiously, before opening the box. It wasn't wrapped, I needed to fuss whilst opening it.

When I looked inside, I instantly smiled. There were a few little things inside. He had put in chocolate, a little map of our town, a cupcake keychain and a handwritten note. He had the worst handwriting, I felt like I had to decode it sometimes. 'I'll miss you,' he wrote.

"Thank you," I smiled and he grinned back at me.

I know that I felt sad about leaving, but I also knew that I had to go. But, I didn't feel so bad about it right now.

"Rena," Liam began to say and I waited for him to continue. "I just-" he said, but then seemed a little lost, as if searching for the right words to say.

But he didn't need them.

I smiled at him. "I know."

We just sat together, gazing out at the beautiful view of our town under the inky blanket of the sky and smiled.

I wanted just one memorable day to keep for myself.

And that is what I ended up getting...