Artificial Love (Thiam)

Chapter 30

Liam blinked his eyes open against the brightened room. He glanced around, expecting to find Theo, but found himself alone. He could see dust floating in the shards of light from behind his curtains.

He knew, logically, that the flickering and floating particles were bits of dust and debris in the air. Yet, somehow, Liam could still see it the same way he had when he was a child. The shimmering of some kind of magic in the glowing light that cascaded down like a tangible entity. When he was young, he'd imagined some sort of fairy floating there in those pretty moments. He knew better now, but maybe some part of him still believed in fairytale worlds.

He yawned and stretched, tried to wake himself up properly, shake off the stars in his eyes.

And then it hit him. Like a tidal wave. Suddenly, he was suffocating. Fighting against herculean tides, slammed by water so hard it felt like it was made of concrete. Suddenly, he was gasping for the surface he couldn't even see. A sun so far away it felt abstract and impossible.

He was getting married today.

He was going to stand at the top of an altar in a tux more expensive than most peoples' cars (that he didn't even like) and wait for one of his best friends to come down the aisle, so that they could have their jail sentences signed together. It felt so wrong, and so tragic, and he knew that Hayden would be feeling as sick as he did. They were friends, and as far as a friendship, it wasn't so bad. Maybe it wouldn't have been. Maybe if they had both been emotionally available, it wouldn't have been anything. But it was something. Because there was Theo and Tracy, who would be there too. Tracy, who would stand behind Hayden, and Theo, would stand behind Liam, and watch them marry each other, when it was so clear it should be the opposite way.

It was a peculiar kind of torture, and he wondered sort of idly whether anyone knew as much. For the first time in months, Liam was inclined to check. He reached across, fingers stretching across the bed to find his phone, pulling it from a charger and watching it light up far too brightly in his face. And then, he did what he sometimes did when he was feeling particularly masochistic. He went onto twitter.

His name was the first trending thing in the world. Theo's was the second. Then, #RoyalWedding and finally, Hayden's.

The rest were to be expected. It was Theo's name that he found mildly troubling. Had he done something? Been seen this morning?

He clicked on it, went to the top tweets, and read.

It was unexpected, and weirdly emotional. Because no, Theo hadn't done anything. This was worse. This was... painful.

As he scrolled, he came across thousands upon thousands of tweets, speculating a truth they couldn't possibly know. That Liam and Theo were in love. There were countless tweets of people arguing that the public were disrespectful for disbelieving the nuptials for the day. There were many people defending it by saying they didn't really believe it, that it was a meme. But mostly, people seemed to genuinely believe it. Countless pictures of the two of them.

Liam and Theo, five and six years old, both small and sort of chubby, locked in a hug. Liam remembered that day so well. You look stupid today. You look ugly today.

Liam and Theo, seven and eight years old, sitting side by side in a carriage, glowering at each other, Liam's cheeks puffed out like a little squirrel, his hair uneven around the sides, where Theo had cut it in his sleep.

Liam and Theo, ten and eleven years old, wearing their little suits. This time, they were both smiling. Funnily enough, Liam couldn't remember it. He remembered that year being a particularly bad one. He remembered Theo in his shark pyjamas, Liam running off down the hall because Theo had brought up his father.