Chapter 9 A Real Smile
Mia's POV
"You always eat here?" Liam asked and I narrowed my eyes.
"You are not seriously trying to sit with me."
Liam shrugged. "I am."
"Why?" I asked.
"You told me to stay away. That just made you more interesting."
I huffed.
"You are not used to being told no, are you?" I asked.
"Not really," he admitted, grinning as he finally dropped down to sit across from me. "But you are also the first girl who has not asked me what yacht I own or what car I drive. That is refreshing."
I shook my head, exasperated.
"This is not a movie, Liam. Sitting with me is not going to change your life. I am not a plot twist."
"Maybe not," he said, eyes locked on mine. "But you are nothing either."
And with that, I looked away, trying to pretend my pulse was not hammering in my throat. Because Liam Alcaraz was not just handsome or reckless. He was trouble wrapped in charm, and he had just chosen to sit in my shadows anyway. The silence between us stretched.
I resumed eating my sandwich, pretending not to notice how Liam had made himself comfortable across from me, one leg stretched out, his blazer folded over his knee. He was watching the sky now, like it had answers, but I could feel the occasional glance he threw my way, like he was trying to figure me out.
Like I was a riddle worth solving, annoying, infuriating, and, worst of all, kind of flattering.
"You do not talk much, huh?" Liam asked eventually, his voice quieter now. Not teasing. Just curious.
I swallowed a bite.
"I do. Just not to people who show up out of nowhere and try to sit next to me like it means nothing."
Liam smirked.
"And what if it does mean something?"
I blinked, my heartbeat stuttering as his words echoed in my head.
“What?” I asked, not because I did not hear him, but because I was not ready to understand.
He leaned back on his hands, squinting up at the filtered sunlight through the tree branches.
"I did not want to be here, you know. Suncrest was not the plan." That caught me off guard.
"Then what was?"
"Oxford. Or Geneva. Or basically anywhere with a thousand mile radius between my father and me."
I stared at him for a second, my sandwich halfway to my mouth.
"So you are not here to dazzle the peasants with your elite education and perfectly tragic jawline?"
He laughed, short, surprised, and real. “Perfectly tragic, huh?"
I smirked.
“Must be your cheekbones. They practically scream tortured heir with a dark backstory.”
His smile faltered just a little. He glanced away, his voice softer now.
"Yeah, something like that."
I did not press. I was not the type to dig where it hurt. He did it for me.
"My older brother died a year ago," Liam said, the words falling slowly, like he had not said them out loud before. Like he was still testing how they felt in the open air. "Car accident. He was driving home from a party. It was raining. They said he did not brake fast enough. My dad, he blamed the distance. Said if he had stayed closer to home, maybe"
He did not finish. He did not need to.
"I am sorry," I said quietly, and this time I meant it, not because it was polite, but because it landed somewhere deep. Somewhere raw. "That is awful."
Liam gave a small nod, his eyes on a blade of grass he had pulled from the ground.
"Yeah. And now I am the only one left. The heir. The backup plan. My dad did not say it, but I know. I am not supposed to screw up. I am not supposed to take risks. So, goodbye to studying abroad. Goodbye to my plans."
He flicked the grass between his fingers.
"Hello, Suncrest Academy. Where everyone wants to be seen with me, and no one gives a damn who I really am."
My chest ached. Because I knew that feeling. The ache of being watched but never truly seen. The pressure of pretending you are okay when the truth is you are barely holding on. And for the first time since we met, I relaxed. Not fully. But a little. The tension in my shoulders eased, and my fingers stopped clenching my notebook.
“Well, for the record, I wanted to be as far away from you as possible right now, Liam Alcaraz,” I said.
His expression shifted immediately. Not dramatic, not offended, just… softer. Like I had surprised him.
“I know,” he said, exhaling lightly. “And honestly, I figured as much.” He tilted his head, studying me in that infuriating way of his. “Everyone else was excited to see me. To hear my story. To act impressed.” He paused, then smiled faintly. “You were the only one who looked like you would rather disappear.”
Heat rushed to my face. I looked away, suddenly very interested in the grass beneath my shoes, hoping he could not hear how fast my heart had started beating.
“That caught my attention,” he continued. “So I came looking for you.”
His gaze lingered, steady and unreadable, and I hated how easily it unraveled me. He was not just handsome or rich. There was something quieter about him, something that made you feel seen even when you did not want to be. No matter how much I told myself to push him away, I found that I could not.
We sat there like that, side by side beneath the tree, close enough to feel each other’s presence but not touching. The noise of the campus faded into the background. For a brief moment, it felt like the world had slowed down, like it had given us permission to breathe.
“I do not do friends anymore,” I said finally, my voice so low I almost hoped he would not hear it.
He turned to me, his expression sharpening.
“Why not?”
I swallowed, my throat suddenly tight.
“Because they leave,” I said. “Or they stay long enough to forget how to care. And one day, they look at you like you are something heavy. Like you are the burden they never agreed to carry.”
I waited for the usual response. The pity. The reassurance. The promises people made when they did not understand.
But Liam did none of that.
He nodded slowly, once. Like he understood. Like he had felt that same hollow kind of loss before.
“I am not asking to be your friend,” he said after a moment.
I glanced at him, surprised.
“No?”
“No.” A small grin tugged at his mouth, easy and unforced. A dimple appeared, softening the intensity in his eyes. “I am just asking to share your shade.”
It took me a second to understand what he meant. And then I exhaled, a sound that was almost a laugh slipping past my lips. The reaction caught me off guard. The bell rang somewhere in the distance, sharp and familiar, pulling us back into reality. Back into crowded hallways and forced smiles.
Liam stood first, brushing the grass from his pants.
“I will be back tomorrow,” he said. Not as a demand. Not like he expected anything. Just a simple statement.
I blinked up at him.
“Do you not have cheerleaders and golden boys waiting for you?”
He smiled crookedly, one dimple showing.
“Yeah,” he said. “But none of them look at me like you do. Like you might actually bite.”
And for the first time in a long while, I let myself feel excited knowing Liam had chosen to spend his lunch with me.
And just like that, he turned and walked away, his hands tucked in his pockets, whistling some tune I did not recognize, like our conversation had not just cracked something open between us. Like he had not just tugged at a corner of my world I thought was sealed shut. I sat frozen under the tree, my sandwich half eaten, my notebook forgotten.
I stared after him as he walked away, my eyes following his retreating figure until he disappeared into the distance. My heart was racing, loud and impossible to ignore, no matter how hard I tried to steady it.
I stood there, stunned, the echo of his voice lingering far longer than it should have. And then, slowly, almost against my will, my lips curved upward.
A real smile. The kind I had not worn in a long time. Because Liam Alcaraz had not asked me to be okay.
He had not demanded trust or made promises he could not keep. He did not try to fix the broken parts of me or tell me I was not ruined. He simply asked to stay, to sit in my quiet, in my shade.
And for the first time in a long time, I was not sure I wanted to say no.