#possible multichapter

It’s Saturday and Liam wakes up with a plot bunny. It doesn’t happen often, so when it does, Liam’s learnt to make the best out of it.

Blinking, the brunette boy jumps off his bed and practically runs across the room for his notebook. He grabs a pencil and sits down on the floor, the lone shaft of morning sun casting his small room dimly. Inhaling softly, he lets his imagination runs wild and lets his pencil dance upon the paper. Liam likes to write stories about the evil witch and courageous prince. This time, the courageous prince Walt is searching for the evil witch who, eons ago, for some reasons put a curse upon his kingdom, making everyone afraid of spoons. Walt is sick and tired of not being able properly. He doesn’t want to drink his soup straight for the bowl anymore, so he gathers his army and prepares his battleship. He goes sailing, desiring to find the dark island where the witch is rumored living in. He doesn’t forget to bring a leprechaun with him; legend has it, if you give her a leprechaun, her stoned heart will soften and she will grant you a wish.

Liam stops writing and some point and goes to the first page to read what he’s written so far. His handwriting is usually neat, but when he’s excited his writing becomes scrawny. He bites his lip and creases his forehead, eyes skimming over the words he’s written. He stares down at his lap, where the book is resting, and thinks. He needs conflict. He is staring at the stain on his sweatpants when inspiration hits him like a train. He picks up his pen and resumes writing, a smile plastered upon his face.

On the way there, Prince Walt falls in love with a girl. Lorna is a beautiful girl from the poorest village in the world. But unfortunately for him, Lorna doesn’t love him that way. Prince Walt wants her to love him badly. So when he arrives, he wishes for something else…

A rather rude knock at his door startles him out of his world. Liam jumps a little at the knocking—no, banging—and frowns. He glances at the clock and his frown deepens. That must be Louis. Who else would be rudely interrupting him at 8 am in the morning other than him? Rather reluctantly, Liam puts the book on top of his piles of paper and strolls to the door, opening it only to reveal his friend’s goofy smile. Louis is grinning so wide and doesn’t say anything for a good five minutes, so Liam moves to close the door.

That’s when Louis says, “No!” and slides an arm between the door and the doorframe, preventing Liam from slamming the door shut. Liam folds his arms and scowls. Louis’ smile gets wider and suddenly, he’s attacking Liam with a bear hug. Liam stumbles and almost fell.

“She said yes!”

“What?” Liam stammers. “Who said yes? Who is she? What happened?”

“Eleanor,” Louis breaths, and wow, really, his smile could not get any wider, because that’s just simply impossible. Liam tilts his head, confused, hands still resting on his shoulder, trying to push him out of his flat. “Brunette, brown eyes, pretty?”

“Oh, the Starbucks-obsessed one…?” Liam blinks, trying to recall her face and how she always comes every day (at least twice. Liam knows because he works there, okay, not because he’s a stalker or something), ordering the same coffee and drinking it like it’s the best thing that’s happened in her life.

“She is not Starbucks-obsessed!” Louis exclaims. “But, yeah, that’s her, and she said yes when I asked her out yesterday.”

“Is that why you’re dressed so smartly?” Liam asks, realizing his friend isn’t wearing that stupid tight red jeans and stripes t-shirt. Liam blinks when he sees that Louis’ hair is pushed up. “Wow, you’ve even styled your hair.” Liam looks at Louis’ shoes, glad to see that he’s still wearing Toms. The world must be ending if Louis decided not to wear them.

“I’m not smartly dressed, and I just push my hair up!”

“Okay,” Liam nods, knowing it’s no use to argue with him. “So why are you here?”

Louis mocks hurt. “Why, can’t I visit my lovely best friend?”

Liam snorts.

“Okay, okay,” Louis throws his hands up in surrender. He smiles sweetly (Liam wants to throw up) and asks politely, “Can I borrow your car, Liam? Because you see, Tommo is having a meltdown and he doesn’t want to cooperate, so.” The Doncaster lad shrugs. Liam sighs.

“You should dump him,” Liam says. Tommo is Louis’ old Mustang that Liam always wants to dump. He looks for his car keys in his room and gives it to Louis, who still has that stupid smile on his face. “You shouldn’t even have bought him in the first place.”

Louis looks at him. “You really don’t understand love at the first sight, Li,” he says. “I’m never dumping him. He’s my first love. We’ve been together since I was in high school.”

Liam can’t help but laugh. He rolls his eyes, “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” He pushes Louis out of his room. “Now get out!”

“Love you, Li!” He hears Louis say before he eases the door close. Liam chuckles and goes back to his room. He sits on the floor and opens his notebook, picturing Prince Walt meeting the ten thousands year old evil witch in his head. He’s glad his muse is being nice to him that morning. His pen dances on the page freely, his imagination running wild. He writes some more until his phone rings and he has to talk with Danielle.

-

Liam has always loved writing. He likes to write, and he writes a lot. Although he is not expert at it, writing has always been Liam’s passion. It’s not anymore a hobby, not something that he does in his spare time. It’s becoming part of his life, one that he can’t let go. But what Liam likes to write may be the last thing that a boy his age would want to write. He writes typical stories for children; fairytale, some would say. He doesn’t write story about love (because there is no such thing as love story) or mystery or mystery or suspense or whatever’s booming as some boys at the college do. In his head lays a story; he sees a brave prince fighting a witch and a damsel in distress waiting to be saved every time he closes his eyes. He has thousands of colorful unicorns, battleships and an army of warriors running around in his head, fairies casting spells upon the bad guys and a wicked enchantress, or sometimes even the Greek gods and goddesses. In his head lays a fairytale. Childish, but it’s not like he truly believes in them. He just loves to entertain.

Liam has a wild imagination. He likes to stare into space and just imagines things, and he often gets lost in it. He gets jeered at for that, but Liam can’t care less. People can roll their eyes at him, but he’s not going to change. He is what he is, and he will not ever stop writing, even if everyone keeps telling him that writing fairytales won’t get you anywhere. Liam doesn’t care; he doesn’t write for people. He writes to please himself, and because it’s something that he’s good at. Sure, he is very good at running and even his coach in middle school has reserved a spot for him for the 2012 Olympics, but Liam quits shortly after he goes to high school. Running is good, yes; the feeling that he gets when he’s running, the rush of air slapping his face and how everything around him is just a blur makes him feel free, but Liam has come to realize that running isn’t what he wants to do as a career.

So he quits, and when people talk he plugs his earphone in. He tries not to really give a fuck at what people think, and Danielle loves how he stays true to himself.

Some may conclude that he is childish from the description above, but Danielle thinks that Liam is actually the opposite. It’s just the way that he thinks, really. It’s not like he truly, utterly believes in them. Liam just loves to entertain. He says he likes it when he tells bed time stories to his five-year old. Maybe it’s because of the fact that his girlfriend is nearly four years older, but Liam is mature nonetheless. Sometimes she even forgets that he’s only 19. Danielle supposes that’s why she fell for him in the first place.

“I wrote another story this morning,” Liam tells her as he leads Danielle to his kitchen when she comes over to visit him. He’s trying to make pasta. Danielle smiles, takes off her coat and puts her purse on the couch, following Liam to the kitchen.

“Yeah? What is it about?” she asks. She looks around the kitchen and is relieved when she sees that the pasta is almost ready. God, she’s starving. She leans against the counter while Liam talks. Liam gets excited whenever he tells Danielle about his writing. Danielle thinks it’s a good thing. At least he isn’t stressed out or depressed. He is fine, and for Danielle that’s all that matters. She reaches out for a glass of water and swallows it down. She hasn’t realized that she is that thirsty until she stares at the empty glass in her hand, Liam rambling in the background. Danielle puts the glass back on the counter and waits for Liam to finish. She catches a few words from his speech: an evil witch, a courageous prince, an enchantress from the poorest village in the world, blinded by love, a curse, and spoons. Don’t ask her how the last thing ends up there. She never really listens.

It’s not that she doesn’t care. Of course she does, but sometimes it’s nice to just watch him talking without listening. He looks cute when he’s excited, like a puppy, and Danielle likes the view better. Besides, the sight of Liam making dinner kind of turns her on; it makes her think of sometime in the future, where they’re married with twins, a girl and a boy, spending the weekend eating pasta and watching movies. That would be nice, settling down with Liam…

“… and so, they live happily ever after!” Liam exclaims, startling Danielle out of her daydream. She jumps a bit at that, and Liam laughs, two hands moving to rest on his hips. He shakes his head. “Sorry, I don’t mean to shout. I just do that when I’m excited, you know me.”

“Yeah, that’s okay,” Danielle smiles sheepishly. She looks over Liam’s shoulders, eyeing the bubbling tomato sauce. “Wow, I love that story, can’t wait to read it. Anyway, is it ready yet?”

“Yep, almost,” Liam says.

“You need help with that?”

“Nah, I’m good,” Liam flashes her smile. “So, how was work?”

Danielle perks up instantly. She loves talking about her work. Liam is 19 and still in college while Danielle works as a dancer for The X Factor. She’s constantly touring, and at first she thinks she wouldn’t be able to cope with the distance, but she finds what people say is true: distance makes the heart grows fonder. She flicks her curly hair off her shoulder and begins filling Liam in on what’s happened over the past six months. Her voice then becomes indistinctive to Liam as he stirs the sauce in the pot. It’s not that he doesn’t care about her career, it’s just she gets really excited sometimes and when she does, she talks in high speed. It’s like she has a motor mouth. He admires the view instead. Her face is slightly red and her hands moving around animatedly and Liam thinks it’s really adorable.

He turns off the stove and strolls over to her. Danielle is too busy talking about her new choreographer who obviously doesn’t know anything about dancing to notice him walking closer. She yelps when Liam pulls her close and kisses her on the lips, interrupting her speech.

“That was rude,” Danielle accuses when they part. “It’s rude to cut someone off.”

“You liked it, though,” Liam winks and Danielle groans, but there’s a smile playing on her lips. Liam pulls away and resumes working on the pasta, Danielle leaning against the counter behind him. Minutes later, dinner is ready and they’re eating, playfully kicking each other’s foot under the table. Danielle ends up staying over for the night, but it’s not like she doesn’t always when she goes to visit him at college.

-

Liam thinks it’s really weird how when he goes out the next morning, the room next door has already been occupied. The room next to his has been empty for nearly ten months now. The last resident, a nice curly bloke namely James, quits college and goes back to his hometown to start a band with his best friends (Liam has never heard of him ever since, if they’re already rising to fame or still underdogs). It’s also really weird because the room is still empty in the morning. Andy says that the new student arrives short after Louis went, but how could he not hear him moving in?

“He’s seems like a nice bloke,” Andy says when Liam asks him about this new student. “He could be a model.”

“Maybe you were too preoccupied in making me scream to notice this new boy,” Danielle winks when Liam tells her about it. Liam flushes at that, and groans, but he kisses her mouth to silence her. It’s not really his fault. Danielle just looks so sexy in his clothes, all long legs and tight stomach and nice breasts, drowning in the fabric. It’s not really Liam’s fault that he can’t keep his hands to himself. It’s Danielle’s fault.

But Liam is curious about his new neighbor. So after accompanying Danielle to the station, Liam knocks at this mysterious guy’s door and waits. He has to wait for what seems like forever before the door is answered. Liam even considers going back home. But just when he’s about to leave, the door is opened, revealing a tanned-skin man around his age behind the door, shirtless.

And Liam is speechless. Not like he hasn’t seen Louis or Andy or his friends back home shirtless before, because, hey, Liam is athletic. He was in the swimming team for a while back in high school. Seeing boys shirtless wasn’t really a new experience, but this boy… Liam would be lying if he says he isn’t smoking hot. It’s just maybe the way his hair is tousled around and the stubble on his jaw and the tattoos inked on his skin, or maybe the sleepy look in his eyes. Liam suddenly regrets even thinking of knocking on his door. He wants to go back to his room, but the guy raises an eyebrow, expecting Liam to say something. But Liam is at loss, so he doesn’t say anything.

“Hello?” the guy finally says, tilting his head. “Can I help you?”

“No, actually, um,” Liam stammers. Why can’t he come up with something smart? It isn’t every day that Liam is at loss. “I live just next door, actually. And I just thought that, um, you’d like some help with your stuff?”

The guy laughs. “Thanks, but I’m good,” he nods. He then holds out his hand. “My name is Zayn, by the way.”

“I’m Liam.” He manages a smile. The boy grins. Liam doesn’t know what this is, but when their skin brushes against each other, it’s like electric. It’s that shocking that Liam pulls his hand back immediately. Zayn looks at him strange, and all Liam can do is flash him a sheepish smile.

“Are you okay?” Zayn asks, concerned.

“I’m good, really, yeah.”

“Okay, great,” Zayn says. He gestures awkwardly at his room. “Well, do you wanna come in?”

Liam comes in.