After the gunshots, the smashed radio, and relieved hugs in the empty hospital, Liam had said, “Let’s go,” and Theo followed wordlessly.
The wetness in his eyes stuck around. He didn’t care to wipe them; the dam could crumble if he did. There was some kind of fragility to Theo in that moment despite his strength, endurance, history, and everything else. Despite, despite, despite. He couldn’t even be frustrated at himself because of it. Something heavy covered his mind, threads of sorrow and grief sewn into a blanket of numbness. It almost scared him, feeling like that. Distress tied a knot against his sternum. Instinctual masking—a skill ingrained too strongly to abandon now—kept his hands from shaking, kept his heart from racing, but it didn’t feel like enough. Echoes of phantom pain crept up his forearms as if the black veins were still there. They weren’t. He kept glancing at the skin anyway, following the stretch down from his hands which somehow sat relaxed against his steering wheel.
Theo didn’t remember the drive to the school; he parked his truck mechanically, auto-pilot keeping his body moving when his mind wasn’t following along. It was concerning. There was safety in awareness, and yet he started missing everything.
He didn’t notice Liam’s gaze until a moment too late for it to seem natural. A foot already over the blacktop, Liam paused halfway in his attempt to climb out.
“Let’s go,” he repeated, and Theo didn’t follow. Instead, his eyes flicked away.
When he found his voice, it still sounded as stilted as it had when he spoke to Gabe. “You go ahead.” Liam’s pack—Scott’s pack—were surely waiting inside, and Theo had enough sense to know that the pardon they’d briefly granted him for the sake of a war wouldn’t last. It would be a pack reunion, a celebration, and Theo already felt disconnected enough without standing on the sidelines for their touching moment.
Liam stayed silent for a few beats. In the quiet, Theo glanced over to be met with an unreadable expression. Maybe he could’ve figured it out if he tried harder. He didn’t, instead waiting until Liam spoke. Almost abrasive, almost cold, but not quite there: “Are you leaving?”
Whether he meant the parking lot or Beacon Hills in general, Theo wasn’t sure. Either way, he answered honestly. “I don’t know.” Why would he stay, yet where would he go? The internal back-and-forth wasn’t unfamiliar.
Liam pressed his lips into a line then, looking at the school before turning to him again. After seeming to debate himself for a moment, he asked, “Are you okay?”
It caught Theo a little off-guard. Before he could try to think of any real answer to give, though, a response came out automatically. “I’m fine.” His steady heart concealed the lie, of course, but his low tone betrayed it. Still, he vaguely remembered digging the bullet out of his own shoulder at the hospital; physically, he was fine. That was what really mattered anyway. “Are you?”
With a slow nod back—even though Liam didn’t see it—Theo said, “Makes sense. You went through a lot.” Too soft. There was a hum in response. “…you should get in there before they think something bad happened.”
That seemed to wake Liam up, as if he’d forgotten where he was. “Right—“ He finished climbing out of the passenger’s seat, holding onto the edge of the door instead of closing it. A moment of hesitation followed before, “I need a ride home.”
A family full of people able to drive Liam home stood in that building and they both knew that. Part of Theo didn’t want to see any of them, including Liam, ever again. Another part couldn’t say no to their requests, as if that would ever mean anything. The same part always won out. “Yeah, I’ll drive you, Liam,” he said, quiet and knowing.
tell me about both of your gavries fics rn please and ty <3
I KNEW U WOULD BE INTERESTED IN THEM HELP
gavries lowercase edition is mostly Ray having his lil internalized homophobia moment featuring “well my mommy said gay people are bad” Ray and “lol who cares” bi icon Pete (NOT REAL LINES. Just the vibes LMAO).
A snippet:
“You have a secret, Ray?”
Garraty did not like the question. He didn’t want to answer. He stared down at the twigs that had fallen out of the bonfire, kicking some around with the toe of his shoes.
McVries didn’t back down from the silence. “It’s not bad if you do-“
“I don’t have shit,” interrupted Garraty, sharp and harsh, his foot snapping one of the twigs. “I’m not like that.”
“Would it really be that awful if you were?”
Gavries pt2 the squeakuel is supposed to eventually be about Ray getting over his break up w/ Jen and getting closer to Pete (I say supposed to bc I’ve barely written anything aside from a bit of introspection from Ray’s pov)
Tiny snippet since it’s for real not that long to begin with:
Garraty was on unsteady feet and McVries shook the Earth around him. He didn’t know if the rocky world was therapeutic or making everything worse, but it certainly fostered a kind of codependency that Garraty didn’t care to break.
I’m so bad at finishing things but don’t worry if I ever do finish either/both of these, u will be the first to know ❤️
