Fifteen minutes later Liam was still on the bed, the phone up in front of his face, staring at the chat with Hayden, seeking the courage to send that simple "Hey! Would you like to meet?" Liam sighed troubled, his finger swaying on Send before deleting the text for the twentieth time.

When Theo knocked before opening the door, he was still in that position, looking at the phone. "Hey" Theo looked at him raising an eyebrow. "The bathroom is free, if you want to take a shower" Liam nodded quickly, taking advantage of the distraction to lock the phone and throw it on the bed, while sitting up careful not to make sudden movements. "I'm going downstairs to clean up" Theo added.

"No, wait-" Liam interrupted him quickly. "I mean, wait for me ... I will give you a hand."

Theo looked at him, studying him carefully before sighing, talking. "You can go back to sleep if you don't feel up for it."

"No, I can do it." He strode decisively towards him, as if to prove his point. Theo laughed, shaking his head "Okay, but- go take a shower first, please" he gave him an intense look and then a grin "You smell like alcohol and vomit and I assure you it's not pleasant"

Liam blushed, but he hastened to obey. Theo wasn't really wrong.

*

When he came out of the shower fully dressed, he felt already a little more reborn. Passing a towel through his hair, he went back into the room. His phone rang once, for an incoming message. When he unlocked his cell phone, he saw that Mason had written to him, I'm on my way (:

He threw the towel on the bed, and was about to lock the phone again and so reach Theo downstairs, when he noticed that he had received another message, 15 minutes ago. He re-opened the app and his heart skipped a beat when he saw that the message was from Hayden. With shaking hands, he clicked on the chat.

Hey, Li , are you alright? Yesterday was really crazy!

Liam hastened to answer, his heart beating fast. Hey, I'm fine, I guess. What about you?

Well I'm still breathing, so I'd say I'm fine.

Now, now was the time. Liam stared at the chat. He had to ask her out now. It's not difficult, Liam. Just do it! He closed his eyes, repeating these words mentally, a dozen times. But when he opened them again, he saw the word Hayden is typing... at the top of the chat.

His heart skipped a beat.

I was wondering ... if you'd like to meet one of these days?

His heart stopped.

He didn't know whether to feel like an idiot or celebrate for being beaten to it. Okay, now answer, Liam, come on!

I would like that , he sent trembling. Then he took courage, tapping quickly. What about tomorrow?

He waited again, his heart racing, his eyes on the chat.

It seems perfect (:

Let me know where and when!

Liam breathed a sigh of relief, throwing himself back onto the bed. He could hardly believe, he had done it. He would have gone out with Hayden. He picked up the phone again and wrote Mason a simple : I did it!

*

"You didn't have to come to help us clean up, you know" Liam said, almost guiltily, while Mason was holding a large envelope where Liam was slowly throwing the empty and broken glasses that littered the floor.

Mason was arrived half an hour before and had brought hamburgers and fries, and Liam was really surprised that he had also thought of Theo. Theo must have been of the same opinion because he had looked at his food with a deeply surprised expression, and he sat uncertainly at the table with them, remaining then strangely silent.

So after a quick lunch they set to work.

"Are you kidding? And miss your first hangover and the chance to make fun of you?"
"You're so thoughtful, Mase"

Theo laughed across the room, as he repeated the same action, holding an envelope with one hand and picking up glasses with the other.

"And then you have to tell me about Hayden, you can't just text me that you'll go out with her and not expect the third degree! I was waiting for this moment since fifth grade" then sighed dramatically.

Theo stopped laughing, raising his head. "A-are you going out with Hayden?" He asked immediately, looking at him, and simulating as much indifference as possible.

"Mase!"

"He lives with you, he would have found out anyway!" He exclaimed.

"Anyway, we'll just go get some coffee, it's not really a date" Liam protested, blushing, and throwing a glass in the envelope with a little too much, not necessary, strength

"All starts with a coffee" Mason said wisely.

"I thought it started with hello"

"Then you will pass to share some useless information like your favorite color, or your favourite ice cream flavor, and in a moment you will be making out under the stands of the lacrosse field"

"How to let her know that my favorite ice cream flavor is pistachio is making me end up making out with her? And why should I do it under the stands of the lacrosse field?" Liam asked skeptically.

"Because that's the way things work" Mason replied with a shrug.

"Ah if Mason says so" Theo muttered feebly as he passed them to go throwing the trash outside.

Mason narrowed his eyes in the direction where he had disappeared. "Mhh what's up with him? That didn't even seem like an insult, today he seems a bit ... off?"

Liam shrugged, throwing another glass into the envelope "Maybe it's the hangover"

"Then maybe we finally found out the antidote to Theo's compulsive bitching" Mason joked cheerfully. Liam snorted, but did not answer, feeling again that strange sense of annoyance in front of Mason's unflattering comments towards Theo. Not that Mason didn't have his good reasons to be angry with Theo, but ... well, Liam couldn't explain it.

He bit his lip thoughtfully as he continued undaunted with the cleaning, and as Theo stepped through the door, catching Liam's gaze.

Seriously, when did he start to feel compelled to defend Theo? When did he start to think that Theo deserved to be defended, by him, moreover?

He didn't have an answer, it's true, Liam thought, but it was like that. At some unspecified time during that month spent side by side, Liam had stopped considering Theo an enemy. Almost unconsciously he had opened up more and more, conversations had become easier and more frequent, - apart obviously for some sarcastic asshole remarks, but Liam was by now sure that nothing could be done about that.

As Theo had also said, he certainly could not stop being himself - it had become a habit to help each other study, because Liam was a nerd for history as much as Theo was a genius in biology. And sometime in the middle Liam had begun to observe the other boy, to notice things: the way Theo really listened to him carefully when he was talking about history, when instead everyone else had always interrupted him or changed the subject.

The way he saw him from time to time talking to his mother, shoulder to shoulder, a rare smile on his lips as they washed and dried the dishes with perfect synchrony, and the way his own heart cheerfully clung to that view.

The way Theo himself seemed to open up more and more every day with him, as he began to feel more and more at ease, the way he seemed to understand what Liam thought before he even spoke, like that day that had followed him into his room after that half-discussion with his mother.

And the way he took care of him, in his own way. How he had done tonight.

But above all ... he had noticed that perhaps Theo was just as much lonely as he was. Not because they didn't have people around, but for the wall they built around themselves. That wall that let others see the outside, the façade, what they had chosen to show, hiding everything was inside. Liam out of shyness, Theo perhaps out of anger. And yet that wall was there.

And for the first time in his life, Liam felt willing to lower his own, if it meant cutting down Theo's too.

*

When they finished cleaning, Mason and Liam opted for a game of Call of Duty. Liam even dared to ask Theo hopefully if he wanted to join them, but Theo refused, saying he would study a little before going back to sleep. Liam caught the lie at a distance, but didn't protest.

Somehow Theo really didn't seem particularly in himself today, he was pale and he must have felt cold because at a certain point he had gone up to his room and came back downstairs in a heavy jacket. Liam watched him disappear through the door without another word, before sighing and following Mason to his room.