The next few days flew by, as I was excited to have Liam staying with me. As I had expected, Larissa didn't call me. She had told Alice that she was really busy at work, but I knew it was an excuse to keep avoiding me.

When I woke up on friday, Larissa wasn't on my mind for the first time in ages. I was too preoccupied with seeing my brother.

I had to work in the morning, and finished at lunch time, when Rob came in to take over my shift.

After work, I went shopping to buy something to cook for Liam. After walking around the supermarket for twenty minutes, I had bought enough food for a month, as I couldn't decide what to make.

When I got home from shopping, I quickly showered and got ready to pick Liam up. By the time I was dressed, I knew Liam would be back from school so I immediately went to my car.

I arrived at the foster home after a short drive, and rushed inside. Tracy smiled happily when she saw me.

"He's just packing his clothes now, he will be ready any minute now," she said.

"Great," I grinned.

I decided to tell Tracy that my mother had visited me. She looked surprised, so I knew I would need to elaborate slightly.

"Our father died recently," I told her. "He had something called Marfan Syndrome, and apparently it's genetic, so Liam and I need to be checked out. I have an appointment next week, but I guess you would need to make the appointment for Liam as I'm not his guardian."

"Okay, I'll make an appointment for him, but maybe you should talk to him about this while he's with you this weekend," she replied.

"I will," I agreed.

Liam appeared in a doorway carrying a gym bag with his clothes in.

"You ready?" He asked, smiling happily.

"Yeah, come on," I replied. "See you on Sunday, Tracy."

"See you later, have fun!"

Liam waved at Tracy, then put his bag into the back seat, and got into the car. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face, I was so happy that I was back in Liam's life.

"So, what do you want to do?" I asked, while I started to drive away.

"Hmmm... alcohol...drugs... possibly kill someone?"

"How about cola, popcorn, and a movie?" I laughed.

"Sounds perfect," he grinned. "I'm just so happy I get to stay at yours."

"Me too," I smiled.

When we pulled up at my apartment, Rob was standing by the back door to the coffee shop, waiting for us.

Liam got out of the car quickly and went to hug him. Rob hugged him tightly. Rob always used to play with Liam when he was a kid, and Liam always looked up to him. I grabbed Liam's bag out of the car and went to join them.

"You coming to watch a movie with us?" Liam asked Rob.

Rob's eyes shifted to me uncomfortably. I guessed that he didn't want to intrude on our weekend.

"Come on Roberto, you can make dinner for us, too," I said.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied, taking the bag from me and walking up the steps to my apartment.

Liam and I followed him. When we got inside, Liam went to put his things into his room, while Rob scouted the kitchen to ingredients to make dinner.

"I've never seen so much food in this house," he said. "Shall we order a pizza?"

I laughed at him, I knew he would be too lazy to cook, but so was I.

"Sure, I'll order online now," I replied. "What do you want, Liam?"

"Pepperoni, please," he replied from his bedroom, then joined us in the living room.

I ordered pizza on my phone, then went to get all of us something to drink from the kitchen. When I came back, Rob and Liam were deep in conversation.

"I can't believe you finally got a girlfriend," Liam teased.

"Shut up," Rob laughed.

"What about you, Ivy?"

"No girlfriend," I replied.

"Really?" Liam frowned. "Normally, you have multiple girlfriends."

"Yeah, but now she's in love with somebody who wants Ivy to chase her," Rob joked.

"She doesn't want me to-"

"You're actually in love?" Liam interrupted, sounding surprised.

"I don't know," I frowned. "Can we just put the movie on?"

Liam saw that I didn't want to talk about it, so he put the movie on. I knew that he would question me about it later, but I was prepared to put it off for as long as possible.

We watched the TV for a while without talking, then there was a knock at the door. Liam went to get the pizza.

"Umm... Ivy..?"

I turned to the door and saw that it wasn't the delivery guy at the door, it was our mother.

"What are you doing here?" I asked angrily, making my way to the door and standing between her and Liam.

"I came to say goodbye," she said plainly, her eyes not leaving Liam's.

"Where are you going?" Liam asked her.

"It's not important. I'm going away and you won't have to see me again. I just wanted to see you before I left," she smiled. "You're so big now."

She stepped towards Liam, who backed away from her slightly.

"You can leave now," I said.

"Where's dad?"

"You didn't tell him?" My mother frowned at me.

"Not y-"

"Tell me what?" Liam interrupted.

"Your father's dead," she said.

Liam looked at me, and I couldn't work out how he was feeling.

"I'll go now. I'm sorry about everything sweetie, and I hope you have a nice life."

She turned around and walked down the steps to the street, crossing paths with the pizza delivery guy who came up to the door seconds later. I took the pizza, paid and thanked him, then closed the door behind him.

When I went back into the apartment, Liam was staring at me. I put the pizza down on the coffee table and ignored Rob's awkward glance to focus on Liam.

"I was going to tell you, Liam," I said. "I just didn't want to ruin our first weekend together."

"It's okay," he said. "When did it happen?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. She turned up on monday before the inspection and told me. She asked me for money to get rid of her, and that was it."

"How much did you pay her?" He asked.

"I didn't give her anything. She told me I had a week to give her five grand. I guess she changed her mind."

"She just left without the money?" Rob frowned.

"I didn't give her any," I said. "Maybe our dad left her some money or something."

"Or maybe she realised she had already fucked us up enough," Liam said.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

He nodded in response, then took a slice of pizza and turned back to the TV. I looked at Rob, who just shrugged at me.

I felt horrible for not telling Liam about our dad earlier, but it just didn't seem like a good time.

"So who's this girl, Ivy?" Liam asked.

I didn't want to answer, but I felt like I had to, just to move the conversation past our parents.

"Her name's Larissa," I sighed. "And she's not into me like that."

"Do you really believe that?" Rob laughed.

"She told me enough times, so yeah."

"Oh c'mon, Ivy. You're not stupid, surely you can see that she's just scared."

"Scared of what?" I asked.

"You are quite scary sometimes," Liam laughed.

"Shut up," I said, throwing a pillow at Liam, then turned back to Rob. "What is she scared of?"

"Ivy, she's been straight for her whole life, and then you showed up. Can't you remember what it was like when you realised you liked girls?" He said. "Now imagine you realised at this age, when you had only ever been interested in guys."

"Oh..." I whispered.

Suddenly, I was a lot more optimistic about Larissa. What Rob said made perfect sense, and I wondered when he got so smart.

"Just don't do anything stupid, okay?" He said. "She still needs time to get over Brandon. But don't give up on her yet."

I smiled at him, and nodded slightly. I could see out of the corner of my eye that Liam was grinning at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You're in love," he said happily.

"Shut up," I laughed, and threw another pillow at him.

I ate my pizza and pretended to watch the movie while my mind ran away with thoughts of Larissa.