Prove Me Right

Meara and Liam were friends before they could talk, in love since they could drive, and planning their future before they graduated high school. In order to start the life they’ve always dreamed of, Liam just has to finish his tour with the band.

He doesn’t want anyone else. Liam’s only ever had eyes for Meara, and he can’t wait to finally get home to her. But when his dark secret is exposed and his entire world crumbles around him, he has no choice but to let her go.

Chapter 1

Fourteen years old

Meara

“WHAT DO YOU THINK it feels like to be in love?” I ask my cousins.

Charlotte shakes her head and sticks her tongue out. “I don’t wanna know. Boys are gross.”

“Oh, come on, Char. You can’t tell me you don’t think there’s a boy in your class who’s cute,” her sister challenges.

“Well, maybe. But every time I start to think that, they do something stupid like fart or burp. And then all their friends laugh like it’s the funniest thing in the world. They’re gross.”
Caroline and I laugh because it’s true. Boys are gross, but they’re also cute. And some of them can be nice. Sometimes they’re even sweet.

“Not all of them are like that, though,” I whisper.

“Ohh … Meara has a crush on someone,” Char chants.

Caroline rolls her eyes. “You don’t have crushes at fourteen.”

“What do you have then?” I ask her.

“You just like someone. You feel something for them.”

“How do you know, though? How do you know if you more than just like someone?” I lie on the floor of my treehouse and look at the stars we painted on the ceiling. These stars are what I use to make wishes, and lately, my wishes have all been about one person … one boy.

“I guess, well, it’s like I was telling Char the other day. You feel kind of dizzy. But you know that if you fall, they’ll be there to catch you.”

I sit up abruptly and gasp at her words. “Yes! That’s totally it.”

“Who do you loooove, Meara? Liam?” Charlotte teases me and I glare at her.

“You’re still too young to understand. I know two years ago I didn’t.” I sigh and think about what it’s like when I see him. “My stomach gets all knotty … in a good way, though. I kind of feel like I’m going upside down on a roller coaster. It’s hard to explain.”

My aunt interrupts our conversation when she comes out back and yells that it’s time to go. They leave me by myself with thoughts I don’t fully understand.

Liam is my friend. Our mothers are best friends. He’s my older brother Pierce’s best friend even though there are only a couple of months between Liam and me. I can’t love him. I don’t. Do I? A dry laugh escapes my throat. “Who am I kidding,” I mutter to myself. I’ve loved that boy for years.
“Are you talking to yourself again?”

I scream and throw a pillow at him. My heart pounds not because he scared me, but because Liam scares me. What he makes me feel, how he looks at me. The things I think about us doing together. How I want to be around him every second of every day. How when I’m not with him, I’m thinking about him, dreaming about him, or having a fantasy about us together.

“No.” My throat is raspy, so I clear it and try again. “No. I’m not.”

“Sounded like it. Nobody’s here and you were talking so …” He raises his eyebrows at me, and I try to remain confident.

“Maybe your ears are hearing things with all that banging you do. You probably busted your eardrums and don’t even know it.” Oh God, did I just say that? I hope the embarrassment I feel for saying something so stupid doesn’t show on my face.

“Hey, those drums are the only things that make me … I mean, they’re gonna make me rich one day … just watch.”

I lie back down and he settles next to me. Our arms brush against each other. This isn’t unusual. We hang out a lot. It’s not the first time we’ve been alone in the treehouse.

I know I’m too old to hang out in here, but I’ve changed the decorations and it’s so cool. Not immature at all. Lots of bright pink and black.

My heart starts to beat against my chest so loud I’m surprised he can’t hear it. His fingertips rub against mine, and I pull my hand away, resting it on my stomach while the other one clenches in a fist I hope he can’t see. He turns on his side, but I continue staring at the ceiling. I can see out of the corner of my eye that he’s watching me. I can feel his gaze on my face.

“Meara?”

“Hmm?”

“Look at me.”

I turn my head and he smiles, the left side of his lip rising just a tad higher than the right.

“Why are you so scared?”

“I’m not.” Even I don’t believe myself. My voice is small and shaky, and my hands tremble.

He grabs the hand that’s resting on my stomach, and this time, I let him. I don’t know why I’m doing this and what these feelings really mean. It’s one thing to think them, but another for the one person who causes them to actually question me about them. My eyes burn and I try to blink the wetness back so he can’t see how terrified he makes me. I’ve never reacted like this around him, and he’s not stupid. He knows something is going on.

“What’s the matter? Why are you scared of me all the sudden?”

“I’m not.” The words barely come out because I’m afraid if I talk, I’ll start to cry. God, why do I want to cry?

“You know I’d never hurt you, right?”

I nod and the movement causes a tear to roll down my cheek.

His eyes follow it and his eyebrows scrunch together. “You’re scaring me a little here, Meara. Did something happen?”

“No.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“I think I’m in love with you.” I blurt out the words and shudder that I just said that out loud. I try to back away from him, but he squeezes my hand and his perfectly straight teeth mock me when his smile widens. “Don’t laugh at me.”

“I’d never laugh at you, princess. I’m happy you finally realized it.”

“You … what?”

“I said”—he scoots closer to me; he releases my hand to use his fingers to brush some hair off my forehead—“I’m happy you finally realized it.”

“Realized what?”

“That you love me.”

My defenses rise. “I said I think, not that I do.”

“Yes, you do,” he answers without thought. Doesn’t even question it. “And ya know what?” I open my mouth to answer, but words die on my tongue when his lips brush against mine. He pulls back far enough to look into my eyes, and then closes his as he kisses me again.

Dreams really do come true.

His mouth is soft against mine, and his tongue slides over my lips. I gasp at the new but surprisingly sensual feeling and he opens his eyes. “Relax,” he whispers. His thumb rubs against my cheekbone and I nod, quickly. He smirks, but this time, I part my lips enough for him to slide his tongue all the way in.

The kiss gets a little faster and I reach up to run my hand through his hair. When I thought about doing this with him, my nerves always surfaced, but there’s not an ounce of fear in me right now. This, us kissing, feels right. It feels perfect.

I slide my tongue against his and the butterflies in my stomach turn into something else, something more powerful ... the fluttering soars up to my heart, and with each beat, I fall more in love with him. He gently kisses my bottom lip, then pulls back and kisses my nose, then rests his forehead on mine.

“You never answered my question.”

“What was it again?” My breath is coming out in uneven pants, and even though I can’t see it, I can feel the flush.
“I said do you know what?”

“No. What?”

“I love you, too.”

“No, you don’t.” I cringe and he laughs. Why do I keep saying stupid stuff?

“Yes, I do. Why do you think I come over so much?”

“To hang out with Pierce?”

“No. To be in the same space as you.”

“Oh.”

“I’m glad this happened now. I didn’t want to have to go to high school not being your boyfriend.”

“You’re my boyfriend now?”

His eyebrows draw closer together and he tilts his head. “Well, yeah. Unless you don’t want me to be. But you just told me you loved me, so …”

“This is so embarrassing.” I stand up and look out the little window, desperate for a distraction. I can’t believe this is happening.

He wraps his arms around my waist from behind me and rests his chin on my shoulder. It shocks me how different this embrace is from the hundreds of other times he’s wrapped an arm around my shoulder or given me a hug.
“I swear I knew I loved you before I even understood what it meant. Sometimes, when I’m around you, my stomach hurts but in a good way. It’s hard to explain.”

I laugh, really laugh, and turn in his arms. “I said the exact same thing to Charlotte and Caroline before you got here.”
“Well, if we both feel sick when we look at each other, then it can only be love, right?”

“Right.”

I turn back around and he kisses my cheek. “Promise me something, though.”

“What?”

“You’ll always remember this moment. No matter what happens, you’ll remember how this feels. Because I know I’ll never forget.”

I lace my fingers with his and lean my head back on his chest. “I promise.”

And this is the moment I know I’m in love with Liam Anders.