Random Knigghts by Dennitra Lomax (crime books to read TXT) 📖

party. I glanced up at him and immediately knew my humor didn't work one bit, his eyes were low and his lips poked outward a little. If I didn't act quickly, the pity would ooze out of him even more than it already was.
"It's no big deal ya know, it's not like this is new to me, I'm fine with being the ugly duckling, or the loaner. It doesn't bother me."
I suddenly felt uncomfortable standing still, I needed to move, or run, either one would be nice right now. The lower half of my body shied away from his direction, wanting to leave him and our conversation behind, but my upper half wouldn’t budge. My eyes were stuck to his, not wanting to ever leave their gaze. I couldn't run away from the only person I could talk to. I wouldn't.
"People are such jerks!"
His voice was full of disgust, but then changed into velvet.
"By the way, you are no ugly duckling."
He reached out and brushed the hair in front of my eyes away, and his fingers traced the side of my cheek, to my chin. This sent shivers down my spine, and left goose bumps all over my body. My face burned hot from blushing and I immediately looked down to hide it, even though I'm sure he saw. He chuckled and began to walk forward, and I followed without a second thought. I could see my house and I felt a new dread, not the normal dread I felt when I got home, but I didn't want this to end. I wanted to walk and talk with Liam forever. How strange am I? To want to talk to a total stranger? But in my defense, he didn't feel like a stranger. He felt right.
"You didn't have to walk me all the way home."
We were about 2 houses down from mine, so I figured we should start saying our goodbyes.
He stopped walking and looked at me with surprise, "You live on this street too?" His voice was full of excitement, and I filled with excitement when I realized what he was saying.
"Yeah! I live right there," I exclaimed, as I pointed to my house, "Where do you live?"
I began looking around, trying to find a house worthy, but frowned when I couldn't find one.
"Right there."
He pointed to a shabby house, to the right of mine.
"No way! You live right next to me?"
"Looks like we're neighbor buddies."
He smiled his brilliant smile once again, and I was glad I would be seeing it often.


Chapter Three

I dreamt of Liam last night. My mind stored a perfect mental picture, that captured his very essence. I wouldn't have known I was dreaming, had my alarm clock not gone off and nearly given me a heart attack. I didn’t really mind waking up, because I actually looked forward to going to school. Talk about weird. After grabbing my diary from the bedside drawer, I slumped down onto my bed, and turned to the next blank page.
Dear Diary,
Two words-Liam Wright! He is the most beautiful person I’ve ever met, and I feel so at ease when I'm with him. The weirdest part, he actually talks to me, and he isn't just talking to me out of courtesy. I think he’s genuinely interested. Part of me wants to take a leap, but the other part is reluctant to. I'm so afraid to let him in. What if he hurts me? I couldn't stand to be a loaner with a broken heart too. But what if he doesn't? I feel that he and I could be great together. What I wouldn't give to be in his arms. For him to caress his warm, fingertips down my cheek like he had yesterday. If he weren't interested in me, why would he go out of his way to catch up to me yesterday? Sure we live right next to each other, but we hadn't figured that out until we were both on this street. Which makes me wonder how he knew where to look for me...He must’ve asked someone! I'm sure he did. Sure our town is small, but there are other streets and unless he had guidance, he would’ve never caught me on the way to my house like he had. He really does like me! It all makes sense now; Him catching up to me, how he looked into my eyes like they were jewels, how he said I should be jealous of no one, how he touched me. I've got to talk to him!
I actually put effort into my appearance today. I brushed my teeth and washed my face twice, just to be sure everything was clean. I rolled my mascara on, and after I was done with my face, I went to my closet to find something 'pretty' to wear. It was hard trying to find something that wasn't black. It was my favorite color, so I settled for a black shirt that complimented my figure. Now for pants. I only possessed jeans, so not wearing a pair was impossible. I grabbed my lightest pair of jeans, which were light blue denim, and put them on. The pants had holes in the knees, but only because they were manufactured that way. I owned holey jeans, but they weren’t as appealing as these. I walked to my bathroom to see how silly I looked, when I was surprised to see that I didn't look silly at all. I looked, nice. Hopefully, nice was good enough for Liam. I brushed my hair longer than usual, only because I wasn't sure what to do with it. I’d worn it the same way my entire high school career, so changing it up a bit wasn't the easiest thing. I decided I’d just curl the tips of my hair in-ward. So, I went into my parents bathroom; who were already at work; to retrieve my moms curling iron.
It took a while to curl all of the ends, partly because I had really long hair, but mostly because I’d never done it before. I didn't bother curling the hair in front of my eyes. That hair was there for a reason. It served as my protector, and I wasn't going to change that anytime soon. While looking for a pair of shoes, I noticed I only had sneakers. Hadn't realized there was no variety to my wardrobe. Memo to self: call cousin Lana for some better clothes. She’s so lucky to live in New York, City. I get all of my clothes from her, sort of hand-me-downs but not really because she hardly wears any of them. I would never shop at our town's clothing store. It's full of overalls and boots, and that’s so not me. My cousin is pretty fashion forward now, so I should get some cool clothes when I ask her to send me some. After I looked at the clock, I realized I was running later than normal. So, I grabbed some socks and my converse, threw them on and skipped to the front door.
I locked the door, twirled around, then froze.
"In a hurry, Allison?"
"David."
"Oh, honey, I hate it when you call me that."
"Sorry, Dad."
My heart was beating at an un-natural rate, while my mind felt like it was moving in slow motion. What was he doing home so early? He should be at work right now.
"Um, shouldn't you be at work Davi...Dad?"
Although I was very uncomfortable calling him Dad, I wanted to sound at ease, joking even. I didn't want to upset him.
"Well, technically I am. I just wanted to stop by to get something to eat, is that okay with you?"
His tone was meant to be joking too, but it came out wrong. Too rigid.
"Sure it's okay with me," I laughed nervously, "I was on my way out anyway."
I slid to the right to go around him, but he reached his arm out to block my escape.
His arm rested on the porch, "Where ya off to, honey?"
His smile didn't reach his eyes, which gave away it’s authenticity.
"I have school today Dad, and I don't want to be late..."
I glanced at his arm and waited for it to drop, and it did.
"Well, you should get going then."
He walked up to the front door, unlocked it, then stepped inside before saying, "Love ya." He didn't wait for me to respond before slamming the door shut. I was glad he didn't wait. It saved me the trouble of having to lie to him, as he’d lied to me. How could he say he loved me when he did terrible things to my mom? That wasn't love.
"Hey Ally!"
Someone called my name, so I turned to see who it was. Liam was calling me, from his porch. Wait, did he just call me 'Ally?' When I looked his way, he smiled and started jogging towards me. I realized I was still in front of my house, and I feared David would come back outside, so I sped walked to meet him. We were right in front of each other now, and I raised my brows.
"Is that my new nick name?" I asked, teasingly.
"Oh, yeah, ya like it?" He asked, with hopeful eyes.
"I do. It's very, original."
We both laughed, and then he began to skim me up and down with his eyes.
"What?"
His expression made me self-conscious. I knew I shouldn't have tried so hard to look nice this morning. He must think I look ridiculous. He turned to stand beside me, then wrapped his left arm around my shoulders.
"You look beautiful," he whispered into my ear, and his warm breath made the hairs on the back of my neck stand.
"Really? You think I look beautiful?" I never expected him to use the word 'beautiful.' I was hoping for 'nice' but I wasn't even expecting that.
He chuckled but then frowned, "Now that I think about it..."
His voice trailed off, while he focused on what he was thinking about.
"Yeah, you should rephrase that, because if you think I look beautiful, your insan..."
He interrupted me, "I don't think you look beautiful," he paused and looked into my eyes, "I think you are beautiful."
I really didn't expect that. My entire body felt like mush. Every time he said something like that, I fell harder and harder for him. All I could do was turn red, and smile while looking into his jewel-like eyes. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder again, and we started walking in the direction to get to school. We weren't the only ones walking to school, another perk of living in a small town. You’re hardly ever alone when you want to be, and I wanted nothing more than to be alone with Liam. Even though I could see people staring at us, gossiping, I pretended they weren't even there, and so did he.
"Say, how'd you know where to find me yesterday, after school?"
I already knew the answer, but I was still curious as to who exactly guided him. I looked up at him, with a sheepish grin, and waited calmly for his answer. He looked down at me and grinned too.
"Who says I asked anyone?" His grin widened.
"Well, seeing as how you picked the correct street, and caught up to me at the perfect time, I'm assuming you had help. So, who helped you?"
"Err, I just asked a guy." He shrugged after answering, not seeing what I was getting at.
"Why?"
"Why what?"