I woke in the morning, still tightly wrapped in his arms; I gasped and looked at the clock 6:20 a.m. “Liam!” I whispered, shaking him.

“Ahh, what, Mom?” he asked with his eyes shut.

“Shhhh!” I hissed, quickly covering his mouth before he spoke again. I can’t believe we fell asleep, this is so bad.

His eyes snapped open and he looked at me, shocked, then looked around my room. “Oh no, did I fall asleep?” he whispered, sitting up and rubbing his hand through his hair, which was sticking up everywhere but actually looked better than when he has all that yucky gel in it.

“You need to go home, Liam. Quick!” I hissed, pushing him towards the window. He opened it and started to climb out but I grabbed his hand making him stop. He looked up at me a confused expression on his face. “Thanks,” I whispered, smiling gratefully at him. I really needed that hug last night, that was probably the nicest thing Liam had ever done for me.

He smiled back. “You’re welcome, Angel,” he replied, smiling and climbing out.

I watched as he went through the hole in the fence and climbed back into his own window. He closed it and waved at me, I waved back and then went to go get dressed. The thought of Liam sneaking over here and being in the house when he wasn’t allowed, made my stomach hurt. We were so lucky not to have gotten caught. I dreaded to think what would have happened if his parents had gone into his room in the night and saw his bed empty, or what would have happened if I hadn’t have woken up early. I shuddered at the thought of what my father would do if he had walked in here to find Liam in the house at night-time.

Chapter 2

~ 8 years later ~

I woke to the familiar sensation of being crushed; I wriggled, pushing my shoulder backwards. Liam shifted his weight off of me slightly. He was spooning me from behind, breathing deeply into the back of my hair. His heavy arm was draped over me, pinning my arms to my chest, he was holding my hand tightly, our fingers interlaced, his leg was slung casually over mine. I could feel the usual ‘morning glory’ pushing against the small of my back.

I quickly silenced my phone alarm and elbowed him in the stomach. “Six o’clock,” I mumbled sleepily, closing my eyes.

“Ten more minutes, Angel. I’m still tired,” he murmured, pulling me tighter to his chest.

“Nope, no ten more minutes. Last time it turned into another hour, and Jake nearly caught you in here,” I mumbled, elbowing him in the stomach again.

He moved his arm and pinned my hands down to the bed near my head, in a praying position. “Just ten more minutes, Angel,” he whined. I sighed and closed my eyes again. There was no arguing with him when he was like this, I just didn’t have the energy this time of the morning to get into a fight with him. We both drifted back to sleep, instantly.

“Amber, you had better already be up!” my brother shouted, banging on the door. I jerked up and so did Liam, it was almost half past seven.

“Er…. yeah I’m up already, Jake,” I shouted back, glancing at Liam who was rubbing his face, looking a bit dazed.

“Good. I’m going to have breakfast. Hurry up will you. Liam’s driving today so be ready to leave in thirty minutes,” Jake called through the door, before stomping off down the hall.

“Jeez, Angel, why didn’t you wake me up?” Liam accused, frowning.

I looked at him warningly and gave him my best death glare. “I did, you jerk! You said ‘ten more minutes’ then pinned me to the bed to stop me from elbowing you!” I growled sarcastically, doing a bad impression of his voice.

He chuckled and pushed me back down on the bed, pinning my hands above my head and rolling on top of me. “Pinned you to the bed? Were you dreaming about me again, Angel? I could make that dream come true for you,” he mocked, with his face inches from mine.

“Yeah, you wish! Now get the hell off me, Liam, and go get ready. You’re driving today, apparently,” I hissed, nodding to the window. He sighed and pushed himself off me, pulling on his jeans and t-shirt. He climbed out of the window, silently, sliding it back down after him. I walked over and locked it before heading in for the quickest shower ever.

Exactly twenty-six minutes later, I trudged into the kitchen with a frown, Liam was there leaning casually against the counter, eating my cereal. Damn it, every morning! His brown hair was messy in his usual just got out of bed look, which to be honest he did get out of bed and it looked just like that. All he ever did was run his hands through it a few times and add a bit of wax.

He looked the same as he did every morning, like a freaking supermodel. He wore low slung ripped jeans that showed his boxers a little, and always made the girls swoon. Today he wore a white t-shirt that showed off his perfect sculpted body, and an orange and grey checked short sleeve shirt over it, which he wore completely unbuttoned. His blue eyes were glittering with amusement as he looked at me.

“Running late this morning, Angel?” he asked with a smirk.

I gave him a drop dead look, making him chuckle. “Shut up, Liam! Why the hell are you eating my cereal again? Don’t you have any food at home?” I asked, snatching the bowl from his hands and eating the contents. He just watched me with an amused smile.

Jake threw me a juice box. “You do look a little harassed this morning, Ambs. Everything OK?” he asked, looking at me a little concerned.

I glared at Liam again as he started to laugh. Of course I looked harassed, I had half an hour to get showered and dressed. “Slept in,” I muttered with a defeated sigh.

Jake had no idea that Liam slept in my room with me every night, if he did he would go crazy. Jake was very protective of me, he always had been, but he had gotten worse since my dad had left when I was thirteen. Well, I say left, but in reality Jake and Liam came home early from hockey one day to see that my father had beaten me senseless, and was trying to rape me. Jake had finally snapped, and he and Liam had beaten the crap out of him, almost killing him in the process. They had thrown him out of the house and told him that if he ever came back, they would kill him. He never came back though, that was three years ago.

A little while after that, my mom got a job with a huge electronics firm, she was the PA to the director and so she travelled a lot. She was gone twice as much as she was here, so we only saw her for about one week a month, if that. Jake was my only supervision, although at times it was more like I was the one taking care of him.

Liam was also very protective of me, but we still didn’t get on - even though he had literally spent every single night wrapped around me in my bed for the last eight years. He had snuck back into my room the following night after seeing me crying again and we had ended up falling asleep again. After two weeks it had just became a regular thing. It wasn’t something that we ever talked about, I just left my window unlocked and he let himself in once his parents had checked in on him to make sure he was asleep. We had never once been caught in eight years. We’d come close a couple of times though. A couple of years ago, Liam’s mom had found his bed empty, but he took the hit and lied, saying he’d snuck out to a party and stayed at a friend’s. No one suspected he was next door with me.

He still teased me like crazy and annoyed the life out of me just as much as he did when we were kids, but I always knew he would be there for me if I needed him. It was like he had a split personality. By day he would annoy me, making me crazy and angry all the time, and by night he would be the sweetest boy in the world and would cuddle me, making me feel safe and secure.

“You’re looking hot today, Angel,” Liam stated, with his trademark smirk, looking me up and down slowly, making me squirm.

Yeah, right! My brown hair was still damp because I didn’t have time to dry it because of his stupid ‘ten more minutes’ so I had pulled it back into a messy bun. I had thrown on my dark blue skinny jeans and red V-neck top and pulled a black hoodie and black converse. I had added the bare minimum make up, as usual, just a little mascara to make my grey-green eyes stand out, and some clear lip gloss. I did not look hot. Freaking asshole! I gave him the finger and walked out to his car. Leaning against it, angrily, waiting for them to grace me with their presence.

The drive to school was the same as usual, they sat in the front talking about football and parties, and I sat in the back listening to my iPod, trying to ignore Liam smirking at me in the mirror. We pulled in to the school and the car was immediately swamped by people, the same as every morning. Liam and Jake were considered ‘hot players’ at our school. They were seniors and every girl’s dream, the boys wanted to be friends with them, and the girls wanted to sleep with them.

Liam laughed as I cringed getting out of the car, trying to avoid the horde of skanks that banged into me because they were trying to throw themselves at him. One girl elbowed me on purpose. I looked at her in her tiny skirt that looked more like a belt and her top that showed her stomach, and grimaced. Jeez, she is such a ho!

“Holy crap, Jessica, did you know you left your skirt at home?” I asked with mock horror.

She scowled at me and I heard Liam and Jake laugh. “Whatev’s, you do know that the emo look doesn’t work for you, right?” she spat back.

I just laughed and walked off. It was usual for Jessica and I to have these sort of comments for each other. She had dated Liam for a little while, well, if by dating you mean ha**g s*x a few times, and then getting dropped. She still wasn’t over it and wanted him back, much to his disgust.

“That wasn’t nice, Angel.” Liam laughed, as he caught up with me and threw an arm around my shoulder. He bent his head close to mine. “Sorry about this morning,” he breathed in my ear, sending shivers down my spine. I elbowed him in the ribs making him chuckle and pull back. “And ignore Jessica, I think you rock the emo look,” he added, with a flirty wink.

Jake slapped him on the back of the head. “Dude, that’s my little sister!” he scolded angrily, pulling him off me. Liam just laughed and winked at me again, making me roll my eyes. Liam pulled away and walked straight up to what looked like his newest lay. He smiled at her seductively and she blushed as he immediately started flirting with her.

I found my friends who were practically eye shagging Jake and Liam with dreamy expressions. “Hey, Kate, Sean, Sarah,” I chirped as I walked up to them.

“Hey, Ambs, did you ride in with hot piece of ass one and two again today?” Kate asked, staring after my brother as he walked off.

I laughed and shook my head. “Nope, just plain old Jake and Liam same as usual.”

Kate sighed. “How the hell can you be unaffected by how freaking hot they are? I mean, you’re so lucky to live with Jake! I would love to watch his hot ass walk around all day,” she purred, fanning her face.

I pretended to gag. “Kate, that’s my brother and his as**ole friend! How on earth can you get past the man-whore behaviour? Both of them are jerks.” I shrugged. I didn’t get why, but every single girl in this school was in love with them. Jake was a great person, but he treated girls like objects, and Liam, well Liam was just an all-round jerk.

“They are the two best players on the hockey team and look like sex gods, and I wish I could get past it,” she said suggestively, waggling her eyebrows with a grin, making me laugh. She hooked her arm through mine and pulled me towards our first class.

School was good, as usual; I was quite popular due to the fact that my brother and his best friend were the most wanted boys there. They looked after me of sorts, which basically meant that they warned all the guys to stay away from me, which actually suited me fine because I didn’t want to date. Most of the girls wanted to be my friends so that they could get closer to my brother. The girlfriend wannabe’s were pretty easy to see through though, mostly you could tell if they wanted an introduction, by what kind of clothes they were wearing - if they weren’t wearing much then they were after my brother or Liam.

I loved my classes, I was quite popular amongst the teachers too because my grades never went below a B. I always did my homework, and was never tardy; I prided myself on it, though I wasn’t a nerd. At lunchtime I was sat with my friends when I heard the usual whispers and giggles. Girls started checking their hair and fixing their make-up so I knew that my brother and his friends were arriving in the canteen. I sighed as Kate and Sarah started lusting over them as usual.

“Oh yay, hot piece of ass number one is coming over!” Sarah giggled, elbowing Kate in the ribs.

I rolled my eyes as a hand shot out from behind me stealing a handful of my fries. “Hey, Angel,” Liam breathed down my neck.

I slapped his hand as he went to steal some more. “Liam, for goodness sake! Go buy your own food, you tight ass,” I ranted, annoyed.

He laughed. “Oh you know you want to share with me,” he replied, plopping down next to me on the bench, shoving me over with his hip.

“Liam, what do you want?” I asked with a sigh, moving my plate away from him.

He threw his arm around my shoulder. “I just wanted to visit with my girl. I know you’ve been missing me not seeing me all morning, and all,” he said cockily.

My friends all sighed and stared at him longingly. “Will you get your man-whore arm off me, Liam, for goodness sake; I don’t want to catch anything!” I scolded, shrugging him off.

He chuckled again. “Don’t be like that, Angel. I just wanted to let you know I’ll be driving you home today. Your brother has a date, so….” he trailed off, smirking at me.

Great, just great! He was driving me home. Fantastic. He always made the drive home as long as possible just to annoy the life out of me. Then, he insisted on waiting at my house until my brother came home, which meant that I had to cook for him too. Damn it, he is so annoying!