Liam
"What color pocket square are you wearing?" Dev asked, barging into my room.
"Um. I don't know, why?" I answered.
"Well, just thought you would like to know that Randy's favorite color is red."
"Go to hell."
Devin chuckled and closed the door behind him. We were getting ready for Homecoming together. Kinda. CeCe was stationed in my room while she was doing her makeup, and Dev came in every once in a while.
I went to my collection of pocket squares, because of course I have a collection. I picked up the red one, and threw it back in. Then I chose a black one. Black, like the color of my soul. I put it down. And then I lost the battle with my brain and finally decided on the red one. And maybe a red tie, also.
"All done," CeCe announced. She turned towards me. "Oh boy, you picked the red one. You poor thing. There's people that can help you, you know."
I chuckled. "Yeah, I gave in. You look nice, by the way."
She smiled. "Thanks Li. So do you."
"Thank you. I actually put in the effort and straightened my hair, are you proud of me?"
"Very," she said with a laugh. "We should get Devie. Come on."
I followed her out of the room and then we both banged like maniacs on Dev's door until he opened it, his expression saying 'I'm gonna murder you.'
"We should go downstairs," I stated.
"Alright," he replied, and we made our way down the staircase. As we were coming down, the doorbell rang.
"Oh, that's probably Zach. Could you get the door, one of you?" CeCe questioned.
"Sureeee," I responded, and opened the door. "Hey. I assume you're Zach?"
"Yeah," Zach confirmed. "I'm here to get Cecelia."
I let Zach in, then walked over to Dev again. "He calls her Cecelia," I whispered.
"I know, and he even got her a corsage. He better treat her right," Dev answered.
"If he breaks her heart, there will be a missing persons report the next day."
"Fully agreed. The garden will be particularly chatty in the Spring."
"Hell yeah."
We watched as Zach put the corsage on CeCe and led her out the door. On the way out he turned to us and said, "It was nice meeting you, Liam. Also, I knew that you were Liam because Cecelia texted me a few minutes ago saying that you lost the battle with yourself and wore a red pocket square and tie." And with that, they left.
"So maybe I'll kill her, too," I mumbled.
Devin laughed. We waited a few more minutes until Dev got a call from Knox saying the limo was almost there. "It's go time, Li."
"Guess so."
~~~~~
Randy
I waited in the limo for what felt like forever until we reached our last stop, the McCoy house. As Devin and Liam got in, I barely noticed that Dev was there. My gaze was fixed on Liam, and for a good reason.
He looked fucking incredible.
Wearing a black suit and shirt, black dress boots, and, Oh my God, he's wearing red. Also, thin framed black glasses. Since when was I hot for glasses? And since when did he have glasses? In the fourteen years I've known him he's never had glasses.
"Hey," I greeted him.
"Hi. How are you?" He asked, sitting down next to me.
"Great." For a reason that he hopefully doesn't know. And then I realized something. "Did you do something to you hair? It looks different."
"Oh. I straightened it. I do when I don't want to put effort into my appearance but I also don't want to look like I just don't care," he responded with a laugh. My God, his laugh is beautiful.
"Hm. It looks good on you. Actually, you look good in general."
"Thanks. You do too." He smiled at me. And I melted. Jeez, I'm whipped for this dude and I only really started to know him yesterday. There's something wrong with me.
I need to show him that I have the confidence to be in a stable relationship with a guy. But how?
That's how I found myself yelling to the whole limo, with literally all of my friends and their girlfriends, "Hey, guys. Listen up."
It quieted down after a second, and they directed their attention to me. I took a deep breath, and announced, "I'm bisexual."
And then the limo got a hell of a lot quieter. I froze, thinking that I had just ruined everybody's night and my life.
That was until Knox spoke up and replied, "Okay. Thanks for telling us. That takes courage." Since he was sitting next to me, he clapped me on the back. His date for the night, Gabriella I discovered, grinned at me.
"Yeah, definitely. That's cool. You know we'll always support you, right?" Brady added.
I smiled, probably wider than I ever had, and responded, "Well, now I do."
Meanwhile, Devin's eyes kept darting between me and Liam, an eyebrow raised.
I heard from someone in the back, "Wait, does that mean that Liam is your date?" The voice seemed to be Charlie's.
"No, no, most definitely not," I answered quickly.
Liam vigorously shook his head. "I'm only coming because Randall here's parents kinda suck and pressured him to get a date, but he didn't want to, so he gave the ticket to Dev for me to use."
I turned to him. "Did you just call me Randall?"
"Yeah, what're you gonna do about it..." he paused, then continued, "Randall?"
I pushed him into the seat. "Don't you dare call me Randall, that's what my family calls me. It's weird."
"Okay, Randall," he retorted, and began pushing back.
"Woah, hey, woah, we don't need any fights inside of the limo. Feel free to go at it once we get out and can safely watch from afar," Knox said, shoving me away from him.
"Ugh. Fine. What's an embarrassing nickname you have?" I asked Liam.
"I don't have any."
"Lili," Devin answered.
"Oooooo," I responded. When I looked back at Liam, he was sporting the best RBF I've ever seen. Thankfully it wasn't directed at me but instead at his brother, who started cracking up.
Soon enough, we arrived at Gallagher Hall, where the dance was being held. We got out of the limo and headed inside. The theme was Under The Stars, because they couldn't be bothered to come up with something semi-original, but it still looked pretty. One kinda cool thing was that even though it was a cool night, they put heating lamps outside so you could sit and see the stars.
"So, food or sit?" I asked Liam.
"Food. Unquestionably food," he affirmed, making a beeline for the food line. I chuckled and followed him. Once I got behind him, he said, "So, some of my friends are here. Is it okay if at some point I go visit them? They know I'm here."
"Absolutely. You don't need to ask that."
"Also, you know that if we're together the whole night that's pretty much outing us both, right? Of course, we're not actually each other's dates, however it'll seem like we are. I mean, I'm mostly okay with people knowing about me. I'm good at ignoring stupid people. What I'm worried about is you. If the school finds out, your parents could find out," Liam warned.
"Oh. Didn't think about that. Honestly, I think that my parents are beginning to get the clue. Last night they asked me my thoughts on LGBTQ and if I knew anyone that was. They also asked if there was anything they should know about. I really just kinda sat there and nodded and smiled. Not sure how they found out. I doubt Thomas told them. He wouldn't do that."
"Hm. You may want to figure that out. What about everyone here, though?"
I thought about it. Do I really care? I don't know if I'm ready to proclaim it to the whole world tonight. "Uh, yeah, we should probably stay apart for most of the night. Sorry."
"That's more than fine. I didn't feel great about you coming out to your friends and the whole Goddamn universe in the span of four hours," he replied. He took a hefty scoop of green beans.
"What the fuck, man? Save some food for the rest of the party, will ya?" I joked.
"Hey, I like food, and I am not ashamed to admit that. There's plenty more. Everyone's paying attention to the macaroni and cheese, anyway."
"True dat."
Finally, we got our food and sat down at a table with my friends. "Hey, I don't know much about you other than the fact that you're a polyamorous gay gray-romantic. Tell me the kindergarten shit. You know, what's your favorite color and animal? Do you have any pets? What is the best way to kill someone? What is the best place to hide the body?"
He snickered at the last two. "Um, my favorite color is probably gold, my favorite animal is a frog, and I have two pet fish named Pyro and Ninja. They're cute. Anyway, the best way to kill someone is with poison, and the best place to hide the body is in the forest. Or in the middle of nowhere. Like, the mountains or the forest or something."
"Funny you should say that, because every once in a while I go to the woods and look for bodies. Strange habit, I know, but it seems interesting in my opinion." I continued to eat my food like I hadn't just talked about the weirdest possible thing somebody can do.
He stared. "Honestly, that's kinda awesome. Definitely something I would do. What are your answers to those questions?"
"My favorite color is red, favorite animals are cats and crows. Not birds, but crows. And I don't have any pets because they're not aloud in my house. I think that the best way to kill someone is with a gun and I agree with you that you should hide a body in the middle of nowhere."
"Hm. Interesting."
"Hey, since when did you have glasses?" I asked. Even though it was a very awkward and random question, I was genuinely curious.
Liam looked up at me from his food. "Uh, I've had them since I was like ten or something. I just don't normally wear them. I did today because they make me look ever so slightly nicer and they're even less effort than contacts. Think smarter, not harder."
"Amen to that. So, once you're done eating are you gonna go sneak off with your friends?"
"Probably. Is that okay?"
"I already said it was, Liam. It's fine. I want you to have fun here."
He smiled. "Thank you."
We finished our food and Liam went on a hunt for his friends, who are apparently Bailey and Mack, while I stayed with Knox and Ethan to have a very serious discussion about if hotdogs are sandwiches or not. "No way, the opening is at the top, not at the side."
"But the meat is in between two pieces of bread. It's a sandwich," Ethan argued.
"Oh my God, why are we friends?" Knox said with a facepalm. "A hot dog is not a sandwich. Like Randy just explained, the opening is at the top."
"So? It's still in between two pieces of bread. It's a fucking sandwich. You two are abominations."
"We're the abominations? Oh please, we're the mentally stable ones. You, my friend, are the abomination," I answered. "We should probably stop talking about this unless we want a documentary titled 'Murder at Homecoming' released in the upcoming year."
"Probably. I'm gonna go get some of that raspberry ice cream. Y'all want any?" Knox questioned, getting up from his seat.
"As long as you're not going to poison it, absolutely," Ethan said.
In a few minutes, we were stuffing raspberry ice cream into our mouths. "Holy fuck, I need to tell Mom to put this shit on the shopping list."
"I know right? This stuff is incredible," Knox mumbled.
The speakers crackled, and a voice sounded through the room saying that the Homecoming King and Queen were being announced. The three of us rolled our eyes and made our way towards the front of the room.
"Hello, Rockefeller High students!" The principal addressed. "This year's Homecoming King is," she stopped to look at a sheet of paper, as if she didn't know who it was already, "Randall Rockefeller!"
Then a voice called out, "Rigged," and it sounded a hell of a lot like Liam.
"Hey," I yelled back. "Are you getting a fancy crown, Liam? No!"
The room filled with laughter as I went up to receive a crown and sash, which are literally the cheesiest things in the history of the world, but I chuckled and put them on anyway.
As the Queen got revealed, I stared at Liam. I had become quite good at that skill. When he caught my gaze, he winked at me. The Queen was Georgiana Bradford, the most popular girl in the school. Thankfully, they stopped doing the dance between the King and Queen a few years ago because it was so damn awkward, so all I had to do was smile and wave and get the hell out of there. I swiftly made my way over to Liam. "Hello."
He turned around, appearing a little startled. "Hi."
I then paid attention to the two guys that were talking to him. "I assume you're Bailey and Mack?"
"Yep," one of the two responded. "Congrats on being named King."
"Thank you, thank you. Such an honor," I teased, putting my hand over my heart. "Which one of you is which?"
The guy who didn't reply to me the first time said that he was Bailey. Hm. He's hot. Liam has a lot of hot friends, too, apparently. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet the both of you. Could I possibly steal Liam for a moment?" Liam raised an eyebrow at me.
"By all means," Mack assured.
I took Liam by the arm and led him out the door.
"Dude, where the hell are we going?" He asked.
"Outside."
"Why?"
"You'll see." I ran around to the back of the venue, where I knew we weren't supposed to go but I did anyway. We were never allowed to go back there, however since I had been to Gallagher Hall more times than I could count, I knew that nothing could actually happen to us. And no one went there, so we were alone. "Here we are."
"...Okay. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this looks like a lot of trees and not much else."
"You are right. But, what it also looks like is zero people. They can't see us back here. That's why we're not given permission to come here. Anyway, I wanted to get away from the people, and I thought I would take you with me because I know that people are not your cup of tea."
"No, most certainly not." He paused. "It's peaceful."
"And beautiful. Just like someone here."
He pivoted in my direction. "Huh, so you like the bad pickup lines too."
"Obviously."
"Alright. Well, it's a good thing I have my library card, because I am totally checking you out," he taunted, moving closer to me.
"Your hand looks heavy, can I hold it for you?"
"You must be exhausted. You've been running through my mind all day."
"I seem to have lost my number," I started, then took out my phone and handed it to Liam, "Could I have yours?"
He stared in shock, but put his number (or what was hopefully his number) in my phone. "Fine. There. I have one more; your eyes are bluer than the Atlantic Ocean, and I don't mind being lost at sea."
I snickered. "Knock knock."
"Wh- oh screw it, never mind. Who's there?" He questioned crossing his arms over his chest.
"When where?"
"When where who?"
"Whenever works for your schedule, Bernadette's Branch, you," I answered.
This time, his jaw dropped. "Um. Were you joking or did you just ask me out?"
"The latter."
He seemed to have stopped working for a few seconds, but regained his composure quickly. "Yeah, sure, I guess. I won't turn down food."
I scoffed, and replied, "Okay. Was the number that you put into my phone actually yours?"
"Yup."
"Promise?"
"Mhm."
"Alright. I'll text you. Think about when you wanna go and let me know," I said, then walked away. "Come on, don't stay in the woods, you're gonna get kidnapped or something." Liam smiled and followed me out.
The ride home from the dance was pretty enjoyable, but it was hard trying to keep Devin away from our plans. Me and Liam ultimately decided we wouldn't tell him about the date for right now, but instead wait to see how it went. Liam also punched me a few times, but I had discovered that's how he expresses that he is comfortable with you.
"Night everybody," I hollered as I left the limo. Last minute I turned around and nodded at Liam. Then, I closed the door for good.
~~~~~
A/N: well, I wrote that pretty quickly if I say so myself. Sorry if there are some grammar mistakes here and there, I don't edit before I put the chapter out.
Fact four: this story is very loosely inspired by the TV show Gilmore Girls. If you've seen that, you may understand where I got some of the personality traits and such. Again, VERY loosely inspired. But in this case, Randy would be Logan.
see you all next time :) have a lovely day