Artificial Love (Thiam)

Chapter 23

The bed felt cold and less comfortable than it had before, but Theo refused to be weak about it. He'd made the decision not to go to Liam, and Liam hadn't asked him to, and that was just what it was.

He was leaving that day anyway, so he would leave this bedroom and probably never stay in it alone again.

Any time he'd come back, he would have Tracy by his side, and things would be inherently different. He tried not to care. It was probably for the best that they had been putting distance between them anyway. The coldness between them the past few days hadn't seemed to affect Liam any, but it was certainly affecting him.

And today, he would get out of bed, do the same goodbye he'd done with Liam a thousand times before, and go home. Things were different in this conspicuous, poignant way, but it didn't matter. Time healed all wounds and all of that.

He pulled himself to his feet, begun to get ready to leave. All his things were packed, and though they'd done this before, Theo had never been the one walking away before now.

He wasn't sure if they'd speak before or not, but he was totally sure that he didn't want it to end on bad terms. But he wasn't sure what the better alternative was at this point. He could try to talk to Liam about things, but what would he even say? They weren't in a relationship and it wasn't like they could continue to casually sleep together in different countries. The best they could do was text, really.

When the door knocked, Theo ill-advisedly hoped for a split second that it'd be Liam. But when he saw Jenna, he was equally as surprised.

"Hey, Theo." She greeted warmly, "Can I come in?"

"Of course you can," He nodded, and she walked into the room, sitting on the edge of the newly made bed. Things were mostly all clean, and he was basically just biding his time until they were supposed to leave later in the day.

"You're a helluva lot cleaner than Liam is," Jenna told him fondly, giving him a warm smile. "Almost like nobody lived here."

For a split second, Theo wondered if this meant that Jenna knew what was going on between them. But then he looked at her, and her smile was innocent of implication, and he realised he was reading too much into it.

"No offence, but he's always been a bit of a grub."

She laughed and nodded, "You're right, he has. He's a good boy, but he's never had his shit together a day in his life." The two of them laughed together, and it was a nice moment. A reminder of everything they'd forged over the past decade plus, and that his relationships weren't just with Liam, but with Jenna and Ellie and the other as well. Brett, Corey and Mason.

He smiled over at her, but then, after a few moments of silence, she spoke again. "Are you alright?"

He glanced up, surprised by the question. "Am I... alright? Why wouldn't I be alright?"

Again, he had the itching feeling that maybe she knew more than she was letting on, but he couldn't outright ask without exposing himself, and frankly, he was fairly certain he was just being paranoid. She could be asking for any number of reasons, and not all of them were bad necessarily. It could really be anything.

"I don't know." She paused, "You've just seemed... a little quiet the last few days, and I was concerned maybe you and Liam were fighting again. Things had been friendly for a while and it seemed like when you were teenagers again."

He blinked. If he was honest, he hadn't thought anyone was taking any notice at all of the way he'd been acting, let alone Jenna, who he had barely spoken to the past few days.

"You're a lot more attentive than I give you credit for." He said slowly, laughing a little. "We're fine, really. I think we're just both stressed about things, that's all."