It was seven o'clock and Liam was going out that night.
Ethan and Julian were away at Julian's family cabin for the weekend. Morgan was out with Kyle, his latest guy, over at his dorm.
Liam had sat in the empty house for a while before he decided that maybe sitting by himself at the bar gave him a better shot at someone coming up to him versus sitting on home feeling sorry for himself on the couch. He was still in his rut and meant it when he was going to try giving his attempts a break, but he figured maybe he could get someone to come up to him at the bar. Maybe? He still wasn't going to be the one starting anything, to get rejected, and he figured worst case scenario he'd drink and get an Uber back home.
He had fixed up his dark, wavy hair the best he could on the top of his head and put on something he felt good in.
Liam walked up to the bar to order his drink as soon as he arrived.
The bartender was hot, but Liam recognized him after he turned around a few times to wipe down the countertop in front of him. Liam had slipped him his phone number once a few months ago...after getting super hammered and being dared to by Ethan. The guy was nice enough to actually text him later that night, said something along the lines of Liam being cute and all, but he couldn't do that with customers because it was against policy and that he shouldn't even have texted him at all. Liam just texted him back 'thank you' and that was that... Liam didn't think he remembered him, so he just ordered his drink, thanked the guy, and sat on the stool at the bar.
He looked back at the crowd. He'd never come here alone, to the gay bar the roomies usually hung out in. They had fake IDs, still being 20 and all, and had never been caught at this spot so it became their usual for when they felt like going out.
After his third drink, right before he decided to give this up and go back home, someone finally came up to him.
"Hey kid, what's your name?" He was tall, tan, and had on...really tight black pants and a black t-shirt. He was built like a tank.
Liam looked up into his eyes, "Uh, Liam."
"Liam... How old are you, Liam?"
Liam paused for a second... Wait, was this guy a bouncer? "Uh, twenty-one..."
The guy just smiled and gave him a look, "Yeah...okay."
Liam blushed a little. He didn't believe him. "What's your name?"
"You can call me Jack."
"...Is that your name or is that just what I'm calling you?"
Jack laughed, "It's my name... You're kinda hot headed. I like it. Hey, what are you drinking? I'll buy your next one." He sat down on the stool next to Liam and started waving at the bartender.
"Mojito."
Liam talked to Jack for what seemed like at least an hour. He did work there as a bouncer, but he said he was off for the night. Liam had to make up some job and lie that he wasn't still in college...but otherwise it was nice to talk to someone new for that long. It had been a while.
He was...kind of excited? He hadn't held someone's attention this long since...Ben. He was really drunk now, he forgot how many Mojitos Jack had bought for him, and he missed Ben so much. Now it was all he could think about. He wondered if Ben still remembered him. He wondered if Ben's old number was still the same.
"What are you thinking about?" Jack asked.
"Um..." Liam was caught thinking about his high school ex, and he didn't want to say it out loud.
Suddenly, when trying to come up with an excuse or something else he could have been thinking about, he felt Jack's hand on his. It was big. He liked it.
· · · · ·
Liam woke up the next morning. He wasn't in his bedroom. Where was he? He head was pounding unbelievably loud.
He sat up in the bed he was in and looked around. No one was there. It was a pretty empty bedroom, just a bed, a nightstand, and a weird old floor lamp in the corner. Where the fuck was he?!
He tried remembering last night but it was a complete blur. It seemed to happen so fast. He just remembered the big guy coming up to him -- Jack. And mojitos. He remembered flirting with him. Jack seemed wasted before he even introduced himself.
He barely remembered coming here and having sex with Jack, but he did remember it briefly. He had consented and willingly come here -- it had been fun in the moment...
But now he regretted it. He'd never had a one-night stand before, and a feeling of shame washed over him.
He held his head in his hand for a second. He hadn't gotten that drunk in a long time... Did he really have that many? I mean, the bartender usually cut him off before something like this happened. He'd never gotten that drunk at a bar before.
"...Jack?!" he yelled out. No one said anything.
Liam's heart started pounding really fast. His head still hurt and he was starting to feel sick. Where was he?!
Liam was panicking now.
He got out of bed and put on his clothes, wincing when he put his pants on. He was so stupid. How did he let himself do this?! Was this the kind of guy he was now?
He ran out of the mystery bedroom into the rest of the small apartment, which was just as bare. No one was there. He looked around for a second before running back into the bedroom, throwing the bedsheets around.
Where was his phone?! And his wallet?! He couldn't find them.
He ran into the living room again, turning over objects and opening drawers, but he couldn't find them. He'd looked everywhere.
Panicked was an understatement. Liam was about to have a full-on meltdown.
He rushed out of the apartment and ran down the steps out of the front of the building before he realized he was in a hotel...and not an apartment.
It was dead quiet outside, not a single car on the road, and it was freezing cold.
He stood there at the curb by himself with his arms crossed and heart racing, trying to get his brain to piece together what he needed to do next.
He didn't know where he was. He looked around and had no clue where he was.
He couldn't believe his very first one-night-stand had just decided to take his stuff.
He put his hand over his eyes and just started crying for a few minutes before he could get himself together and start walking down the sidewalk.
He had to find a phone. Or a cab, but the streets were dead.
He couldn't stay there. He had to get out of there.
It was probably closer to three in the morning when Liam got to a small 24 hour diner on the side of the road that only had one customer inside drinking coffee.
The short, wide-set waitress greeted him, called him 'hun' which brought more tears to his eyes for some reason. She pointed over to the hidden payphone on the side of the counter by the restrooms when he asked for a phone.
He picked up the receiver and realized he didn't have what he needed to pay for the call. He also didn't know who to call.
His first thought was Ethan, but he wasn't even physically around and was probably fast asleep next to Julian at the cabin. He didn't want to panic him for no reason and he didn't even think he'd wake up for the call. He was a heavy sleeper.
The only other number he had memorized was Morgan's. Fuck.
He really, really didn't want to call Morgan for this.
Morgan was also probably sleeping over at Kyle's dorm, and if he wasn't sleeping over there then he was definitely busy doing something else with Kyle.
It was still his best shot and having someone pick up the phone to help him.
"Hun, you okay?" the waitress peaked over the side of the counter at him.
"Um... I don't have any money to make my call... I'm sorry." He didn't know why he apologized.
"Oh, don't worry about that, sweetie. Here..." she grabbed some change from her tip jar and slid it down on the counter to him. This mysterious angel was making him tear up again.
"Thank you..." Liam mumbled, wiping his eyes and taking the change off of the counter.
He put the change into the slot and took a really big breath in and out before he recited what he hoped was Morgan's phone number correctly memorized in his brain and he punched it into the buttons.
He wasn't going to answer. He totally wasn't. He was busy with Kyle and this would pop up as an unknown number at 3am... There was no way.
"Who the fuck is this?!"
Oh my god. He answered. Morgan's deep, angry voice was music to Liam's ears.
"...Morgan..." Liam slapped a hand over his mouth to stop himself from crying on the phone but failed, he started bawling quietly into his hand. He didn't know where to start, he was still in full-on panic mode and so many thoughts were racing through his head right then.
"Liam?!"
"Morgan, I don't know where I am..." he managed to get out between quiet sobs.
"What?!"
"Please don't hang up... I'm not drunk and I'm not joking. I don't know where I am."
"I'm not gonna hang up, Liam... How do you not know where you are? What number are you calling me from?!"
"I'm at some diner -- I don't know what happened... I went to the bar. I was talking to some guy. He was hot. I'm pretty sure I slept with him. But I have no fucking idea where I am. I don't recognize this place at all. I woke up in a bedroom in a really weird apartment, it was actually a hotel room, and I couldn't find any of my stuff, I think he took it all. He was being so nice to me, I can't believe he took it --" Liam was rambling now.
"Liam, what the fuck?!"
Liam could hear from the wavering in his voice that Morgan was running around doing something and heard keys jingle in the background. He really hoped that he was coming to get him, but he didn't want to get his hopes up.
"Can you please come get me, please?"
"What the hell do you think I'm doing right now, Liam?! Tell me where you are."
Liam put his hand over the phone and leaned back out to look at the waitress to get the address before repeating it to Morgan.
When he got off of the phone he felt his heart start to beat normally as he sat down on a stool at the counter. The waitress, Martha, gave him pie and a water on the house. He really wished he had his wallet. He wished he had something to say thank you to her.
When he saw Morgan pull up to the curb through the window he thanked Martha and gave her a really big hug over the counter before he ran outside.
Morgan was getting out of the car, which Liam wished he didn't do. He just wanted to go home. Morgan ran around the front of the car onto the sidewalk and grabbed him way too hard on his shoulders.
"Liam, what the fuck?"
He was so embarrassed looking into Morgan's eyes, he wanted to straight up disappear into thin air in that moment.
"I..." he couldn't finish the sentence, so he put both hands onto his face and pretended he was invisible. He felt Morgan's arms pull around him and hug him really hard, which started the water works again. "I'm sorry," Liam finally managed to speak out.
He could hear Morgan's heart beating really loudly in his chest. It almost felt like it was beating right up against his ear.
"...What the hell are you sorry about?"
"That you had to come here at three in the morning... That you had to leave Kyle, because I slept with some random guy in some random hotel room and...he took my stuff."
Morgan didn't say anything but he felt his hand rub in circles on his back.
"...I just want to go home," Liam finally grabbed Morgan back then, pressing his tear-filled face into his chest and holding handfuls of Morgan's jacket in his hands.