Alex
714 sycamore. Or maybe 716. Columns.
I was starting to fade my vision blurring, I didn't care.
Liam
Don't move. I'm coming
Alex
I toldd you not to
Liam
I'm coming anyway.
Alex
Just like Braden? You just do whatever you want
Liam
Yeah. I do. because I care about you and you're drunk and alone so I'm coming to get you whether you want me to or not. deal with it.
I stared at the screen.
Read it again.
I care about you.
NotI love you.Not the words people said when they were sure. Something rawer than that. Something that came from the gut instead of the heart—the blunt, honesty of a person who didn't know how to dress up what he felt.
My vision blurred. For real this time.
I put my phone in my pocket and went to the living room. Found an empty spot on the couch. Sat down. The cushions swallowed me. Someone handed me a drink I didn't remember asking for. I took it.
The party moved around me like water around a stone. Voices and laughter and the bass from the speaker and the clatter of flip cup and all the ordinary sounds of people living ordinary lives.
I closed my eyes.
I care about you and you're drunk and alone so I'm coming.
I didn't know if I wanted to kiss him or kill him. He cared about me. Don't know if I felt that from someone before.
I finished the drink. Set the cup on the floor. Leaned my head back against the couch.
And I let go.
Because everything was hurting me anyway. And the control was just another kind of cage.
The room was getting fuzzy around the edges.
My phone buzzed once more in my pocket. I didn't check it.
The last clear thought I had was of Liam's face. Not the angry version. Not the one who'd grabbed Braden by his jacket. The one from last weekend… us at the bridge together, smiling.
The party went on without me.
