Be a Little Selfish, Ruffle Some Feathers

Today, I found myself sitting at the end of a long table in a crowded restaurant. The table was filled with all of the schools’ brightest stars and a few hand picked journalists. And somehow, across from me sat Liam, looking completely out of place in a situation even he couldn’t have seen coming.

How did we get here? Well, it all started a few hours ago when I arrived in one of the school’s many conference rooms for the group interview that happens once every semester. As usual, all the captains that were available were there, as well as the few journalists that were currently attending the school, since it was meant to be a big project for them.

One of these journalists was, of course, Liam. His normally neat and tidy appearance was oddly absent. His hair poked out in an odd direction, his tie was a little off center and his normal expression full of anticipation was replaced by a ‘let’s hurry up and get this over with’ look.

“Hey.” I said, while taking the seat next to him, which had been left notably vacant by my peers.

“Good morning.” He responded in a low voice, his main focus on his newest page of notes, which was messy to an alarming extent.

“Are you nervous?”

“Not nervous, exactly. More like I’d rather not do this at all.”

I didn’t exactly get why he was opposed to something like this, since gathering all of the people he would normally interview in one place would seem like a good thing to me, but I didn’t push any more and quieted down as the meeting started.

“Thank you all for gathering here today. As you all know we won't be asking much in terms of specifics, since there’s so many people and so little time, so I hope we can all do our best.” The meeting was introduced by the current head of the journalists, which was just determined by seniority as far as I knew.

It was always that person’s job to organize the event and comb through the questions being asked of us ahead of time, which unfortunately usually resulted in dull, surface level questions.

As he spoke, I noticed that Liam’s facial expressions seemed to mirror what I was feeling inside. He didn’t appear to like the idea of limited surface level questioning either.

Maybe that’s why he seemed to be out of it?

The meeting went by at an annoyingly slow pace, and by the end of it I hadn’t remembered a single question that had been asked, even Liam’s which I always looked forward to.

As the meeting ended, a group at the front began chatting about a group dinner, and started recruiting more and more people in the room.

“Ria, you’re coming right?” Asked Julio, captain of the men's baseball team.

“Sure.”

I turned around to see that Liam had stood up and was approaching the door to leave, and suddenly my chest tightened and my heart began beating faster.

When would I be able to see him again?

Our next game wasn’t for a few weeks, and there was no guarantee he would even attend it. I wasn’t sure why I wanted him around even when nothing was going on. After all it wouldn’t help him with his responsibilities at all, if anything I would be in the way.

I didn’t want to think about the ‘why’ right now. I’m not sure I’m ready to face the truth head on yet, and I don’t know when I will be.

“You’re joining, right Liam?”

The whole room went eerily silent when I spoke. Even the journalists who would have worked with him on countless occasions turned to look at me like I was crazy. I glared back at them quickly before fixing my gaze back on Liam.

“I probably shouldn’t-”

“You should.”

“I don’t-”

“You do.”

I felt unsure about pushing him like this, but I didn’t want to let this opportunity slip past me, even if it meant being a little selfish or ruffling some feathers.

I locked eyes with him as he hesitated, trying to reassure him.

“Come on Liam, don’t make her beg.” The voice of the journalist who led the meeting rang out among the quiet murmurings that had taken over the silence.

Liam’s face turned a slight red as his embarrassment started to really show. I’d never seen him like that before, and kind of liked it for some reason as I wondered if my face was doing the same.

“I’ll go.” He said in a quiet tone, the slightest of smiles peeking out between the many emotions he seemed to be keeping in check, his composure finally slipping.

“Hell yeah!” The other guy said while giving a look across the room challenging anyone to complain about the arrangement.

The other guy introduced himself as Marcus and the three of us led the whole group all the way to the restaurant, the mood just a little lighter than before, and an exciting group dinner in our future.