Chapter 149 The space left behind

Chapter 149 The space left behind
Chapter 150: The Space Left Behind (Elena’s POV)
​By eleven o'clock, the living room lamp was the only light left on in the house. Liam had fallen asleep on the floor beside me, his large frame stretched out diagonally across the fleece blanket with one arm thrown over his eyes to block out the glow from the bulb. His breathing was heavy and slow, the deep, exhausting kind of sleep that usually hit him after a hard game on the ice.
​I didn't want to wake him up. I slid out from under his heavy left arm carefully, making sure the fabric of his t-shirt didn't snag on my watch, and stood up on the cold hardwood floor.
​My legs were stiff from sitting in one position for so long. I walked into the kitchen to rinse out our empty tea mugs, the small clink of the ceramic against the porcelain sink sounding incredibly loud in the quiet house. Through the window over the faucet, the backyard was pitch black. The neighbors had already turned off their porch lights, and the entire street felt completely abandoned.
​When I walked back into the living room, Liam had shifted. He was awake now, sitting up against the base of the couch, rubbing his face with both hands to clear the sleep from his eyes. His dark hair was messy, sticking up on one side where it had been pressed against the pillow.
​"Where'd you go?" he mumbled, his voice deep and raspy from sleep.
​"Just the kitchen," I said, stepping back onto the blanket and sitting down cross-legged in front of him. "You were completely out. I thought you were going to stay down until tomorrow morning."
​Liam reached out, caught me by the waist, and dragged me forward until my knees were touching his thighs. He leaned his forehead against my shoulder, letting his weight slump against me for a second. "My shoulders feel like lead. That ridge wind really did a number on my neck."
​"Do you want to go upstairs to an actual bed?" I asked, running my fingers through the messy side of his hair, flattening it down against his scalp.
​"No," he muttered into the fabric of my sweater. "If I get up now, I’ll start thinking about that calculus packet on the table. Just stay here for a minute."
​I kept my hands in his hair, gently massaging the base of his skull where the tension from his heavy hockey helmet usually gathered. Liam let out a long, slow breath, his large hands anchoring firmly on my hips, his fingers digging slightly into the denim of my jeans.
​Sitting like this, with the house completely quiet around us, it felt strange to think that in less than two weeks, we wouldn't be living here anymore. This living room, the creaky stairs, the kitchen cabinet that never closed properly—we were leaving all of it behind.
​"What are you thinking about?" Liam asked, lifting his head from my shoulder. His blue eyes were still heavy with sleep, but they were fixed completely on my face.
​"Just about how fast everything is moving," I said plainly. I didn't want to use any complicated words for it. It was just a fact. "Next Friday we graduate. Then we have three days to clean out this place, hand the keys back to the landlord, and load the truck. It doesn't feel real yet."
​Liam looked at me for a long moment, his grip on my waist tightening. "Are you scared?"
​"A little," I admitted. I looked down at his chest, my fingers moving from his hair to the collar of his t-shirt. "I’ve lived in this district my whole life. I know every street corner, I know exactly which teachers to avoid, and I know how to handle people like Chloe. Boston is completely blind territory for me."
​Liam reached up, taking my chin between his thumb and forefinger, and forced me to look back up at him. His expression was completely serious, his jaw set in that firm, unyielding way he got when he wanted me to understand him perfectly.
​"You don't have to handle Boston by yourself, Elena," he said, his voice quiet but incredibly steady. "We're going together. If the campus gets confusing, or if the city feels too big, you just look next to you. I’ll be right there. I don't care how tough the hockey schedule gets; I'm not leaving you to figure things out on your own."
​"I know," I whispered.
​"I mean it," he insisted, his thumb sliding up to brush against my lower lip. "You spent the last month protecting me from Maya’s family and keeping my contract alive. Now it’s my turn. Once we cross that state line, nobody from this town can touch us. It’s just you and me."
​The honesty in his voice made my chest feel incredibly tight. He wasn't trying to be romantic or poetic; he was just giving me a promise, straight and direct.
​I leaned forward, closing the small distance between us, and kissed him.
​The kiss started slow, our lips moving together with a quiet familiarity that we had built over months of shared secrets and hidden nights. But as Liam wrapped both arms completely around my back, lifting me off the floor slightly so I was sitting on his lap, the kiss changed. It became urgent, deep, and heavy with the realization that the high school walls were finally behind us. His mouth was warm and firm against mine, his tongue sliding past my teeth with a slow intensity that made my heart race against my ribs.
​I tangled my fingers in the fabric of his shirt, pulling him closer until there was no space left between us. I could feel the heat radiating off his chest, the hard muscle of his shoulders beneath my palms, and the steady, heavy thud of his heartbeat. Every bad memory from the courthouse, every threat from Chloe, and every stressful hour spent looking at computer logs simply vanished into the dark of the room.
​When he finally pulled back to let us both breathe, his forehead remained rested against mine. His breath was shallow, puffing warm air against my lips, and his eyes were dark with a quiet sort of hunger.
​"Eight days, Elena," he whispered against my mouth.
​"Eight days," I agreed, my voice shaking just a little bit.
​He smiled, a genuine, beautiful expression that split across his face, and gave me one more quick, hard kiss on the lips before shifting his weight to lie flat back down on the fleece blanket, pulling me down with him. I curled my side against him, resting my head on his shoulder while he pulled the thick fleece blanket all the way up to our chins, blocking out the slight draft from the hallway.
​We lay there in the yellow lamplight for a long time, listening to the house settle. Liam’s hand stayed locked in mine under the fabric, his thumb tracing small circles over the back of my knuckles.
​I closed my eyes, letting the quiet warmth of the living room completely take over. We had a lot of work to do on Monday—there were exams to take, teachers to face, and the final graduation clearance to sign. But as I listened to Liam’s breathing slow back down into a steady sleep rhythm beside me, I wasn't worried about Monday anymore. We were ready for whatever was coming next.