Artificial Love (Thiam)

Chapter 12

"And he just walked off?"

"Yes!" Liam basically exploded, his eyes squeezed shut, laying back on his bed. "What the fuck is going on? I feel like I'm losing my mind."

Liam sat up, glaring in the direction of the far corner of the room when he heard Corey giggling about it. Mason wrapped an arm around him protectively, as though Liam might actually burn holes into him just with the power of his stony gaze.

"It doesn't sound like you're the one losing your mind here, Li." Brett spoke up. "I mean, who does that?"

"I think it's kind of romantic." Corey said slowly, and Liam threw a pillow at him. "What?" Corey defended, having caught the pillow, now holding it in his lap, "It's very... star-crossed lovers, fly into the sunset of you both."

"He literally wouldn't speak to me after, Corey." Liam reminded, brows raised. "I would call that Prince Dumbass more than Prince Charming."

"And what do you think?" Mason asked, addressing the fifth person in the room.

Hayden glanced up, dark eyes scanning over the entire group of them, mismatched as they were as a group of best friends.

"Sort of feel like I'm not supposed to be a part of this conversation." She admitted with raised brows, finally settling her eyes on Liam. "What do I think? Honestly? I'm very, very not surprised by this new development. I'm pretty sure he's been into you a long-ass time, but I also..." She sighed, thoughtful, "I also don't think you should chase him."

The group remained silent, waiting for her to elaborate. "I mean, he wasn't very nice to you growing up." She went on, "And then after doing that he runs off and doesn't talk to you more? It just seems like... if you go running after him, you set the tone for whatever relationship you guys have. That he can be a shit to you and you'll follow. I think... well, I think it's your turn to be... the shitty one for a little while."

"Oh, fuck what I said, I agree with her." Corey said quickly, nodding towards Hayden. "She's totally right about this."

Mason still looked like he was contemplating, like he wasn't sure. Brett didn't say anything, and Liam wondered if he'd zoned out, but thought it was more likely that he, too, was thinking through what Hayden said.

Liam himself had no thoughts to offer any of them. He was pretty sure his brain had irreparably shut down when Theo kissed him. Liam had always sort of had one brain cell floating around, occasionally hitting a corner of his skull and coming up with one single coherent thought (at least in his own mind), but that one brain cell had completely abandoned him now, leaving him with nothing more than embarrassment and, if he was honest, hurt.

He didn't even let himself consider whether he wanted Theo to kiss him, because that felt like unnecessary pain. It wasn't like he had any idea, even now, how Theo was actually feeling, so his only real bet was to... what? Go on as normal? Pretend it hadn't happened? He was overwhelmingly confused, and he almost felt ashamed to himself, even asking whether or not he liked it.

Whether or not he wanted to kiss Theo again. He kept trying to block his brain off from that place, from those thoughts, figuring it would only hurt him to go there, but the thoughts kept cropping back up. The feeling of Theo's hands grasping his upper arms. The way he had been looking at him. The way he had just seemed to shut down the second Liam pulled away, refused to speak to him about any of it. How angry Liam had felt in that moment, because kissing him was one thing, but shutting him out afterwards? Shouldn't he be entitled to a few questions?

"What does him being the shitty one entail?" Mason asked, probably asking the right questions. Liam snapped out of his dazed thought process, looking back up at her again. She met his eyes.