( backdated to: december 07, 2015. )
“--------You’ve got to get this shit under control.”
Liam doesn’t even have the strength to argue anymore. He and Brett have been fighting — not the easy-going, make-up-in-two-hours, forgotten by the next day kind of fighting they’ve been doing. it’s the kind where skin bleeds black and blue, someone’s nose releases a heavy crunch under the weight of a fist, backed by more hatred than power, resulting in blood-stained shirts and swollen eyes — for more time than he has it in him to remember, and it’s worn them both down.
Their dorm room doesn’t look too different from the scene of a kamikaze attack, papers and clothes and bags strewn about, kicked and flung around at some time between Liam entering the room and Brett breaking his nose. Something lies shattered by the door. He thinks it’s the snowglobe Brett’s friend got him for an early Christmas present, but doesn’t know for sure. They sit on opposite sides of the room, backs pressed against walls and knees drawn to chests. Rumpled clothes and specks of blood cover their bodies, but neither of them move to fix themselves as they try to catch their breath.
He wants to tell Brett to mind his own goddamn business, but he’s exhausted and his entire body aches. The anger has drained out of him, the effects of the attack leaving him without any sort of energy at all. Thinking back on it, he feels himself getting angry again, just because he was so angry. How could he have been so stupid? He’s already in deep shit because of how much he fights, but to start fighting Brett? In their room? He’ll be lucky if he isn’t fucking expelled on the spot, fucking idiot—
Something soft but fast collides with his face. Liam rips it off, nose crinkling in disgust. It’s just a shirt, but he’s pretty sure it’s the one Brett changed out of, like, twenty minutes ago. The one he was just playing lacrosse in. Gross motherfucking—
“Calm the fuck down,” his roommate sneers. He shifts in his position, wincing as he aggravates one of his many bruises — Liam feels a smug twisting of his lips. bastard deserved it — and rests his arms over his knees. “I’m too tired to punch you again, and if you get expelled, I’m the one who has to get a new roommate.”
A twitch of Liam’s lips — almost a smirk, but not quite. “Miss me too much?”
Brett’s eyes have a way of going completely blank when he wants them to. He does it now, if for no other reason than to make Liam uncomfortable. There’s nothing to be found in his expression, other than the blood dripping from his lip, and the bruise blossoming on his cheek. “Getting used to you was hard enough. The hell I’m getting used to someone else.” There’s an underlying... something there. Something Brett isn’t saying, will never say. About him, about this, about...
Tense silence covers the room, save for their harsh inhales and exhales. Every breath Liam drags in hurts — he thinks Brett bruised one of his ribs; wouldn’t be surprised — but he breathes anyway, if only to piss the taller boy off. Not that he really needs to try. That’s the thing about Liam Dunbar: making everyone hate him is an effortless endeavor. He’s too scrappy, too irrational, too—
( he clearly remembers being in middle school with mason and hayden, not too long after the nose incident, back when he and hayden refused to be mature about things and avoid each other. back in those days, they used to go out of their way to fight each other. one day, it’d gotten really bad, and not even mason’s anchoring presence had been enough to stop liam from losing control. something was thrown, he thinks, almost hitting her in the head. he was so angry, he wanted it to.
mason stood between them, speaking in a calming tone, holding hayden back as she screamed, WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SO ANGRY ALL THE TIME? he’d felt the words deep, as if she’d etched them into his skin, leaving them there for the entire world to see and echo, with that same disgusted, judgmental expression she wore right then.
it was only natural that he wanted to scream back, I. DON’T. KNOW. ( quieter: i don’t know. i’m asking the same thing. ) but he didn’t. what would that have solved? )
“You can’t keep doing this,” Brett pants. Liam’s eyes snap to him as the boy pulls himself off the ground. It’s a slow, painful process that Liam takes entirely too much pleasure in watching. ( their friendship — if it can even be called that — is nothing short of toxic, built on them setting fires and smiling coldly as the other one burns. if it doesn’t end in his expulsion, it’ll more than likely end in one of them broken beyond repair, mentally or physically — that’s still in the air. ) “Stop giving them reasons to kick you out, dumbass. At least wait until finals are over before doing something you’ll regret.”
“Fuck you,” is Liam’s response, rather than what he knows he should say, like, You’re right, or I know. It’ll be a cold day in hell when he ever admits to Brett being right about something. Fuck you is much more their style.
Brett rolls his eyes, and staggers towards the bathroom. Liam vaguely remembers him twisting his ankle when he went down after a particularly hard punch. Liam might be sorry for that one day, but it’s unlikely. “Just get up,” the blonde says over his shoulder. The bathroom door slams shut behind him, and Liam is left alone in the wake of his destruction.
“Gotta get it under the control,” he mutters beneath his breath, pushing himself up from the floor. “Like I don’t fucking know that.”
( backdated to: december 08, 2015. )
Campus rules forbid him from leaving after curfew on weekdays, but Liam is getting kicked out anyway, thanks to that fight with Brett. ( apparently, they were loud enough to have garnered the attention of the entire floor, including their ra. brett’s suspended for three days. ) He doesn’t care about the rules or regulations anymore.
He shoves his hands into his pockets, acutely aware of the fact that he’s the only one on this street. Well, no. There’s a blonde girl in front of him, too far ahead for him to even consider speaking to, but close enough for him to easily make out her shape. Seeing her, he feels a frown tugging his lips down. Is she out of her mind? She shouldn’t be alone this late at night. With all of those animal attacks happening, she shouldn’t be out at all this late.
He’s about to just dismiss the girl entirely — ‘s none of his business — when his eyes catch onto something creeping up on her. Someone — someone he hadn’t noticed before, where the fuck did he come from? — is following close behind her. Liam is about to call out to her — danger danger DANGER DANGER DANGER — when the man lunges at her. The girl screams and Liam takes off running towards her.
The next few seconds are a blur. The man turns his sights on Liam and then charges at him. Liam doesn’t even have the time to prepare for a fight before the man is on top of him, sharp teeth piercing the skin of Liam’s neck. He screams, loud and unheard, and feels fire swimming in his veins. It seems like years pass before the man pulls away and disappears, and Liam is left breathless and in agony when he does.
What that hell just happened? What kind of asshole attacks two kids and bites th—
Liam fights through the pain coursing through his body, and pushes up on his elbows. Once he’s that far, it’s fairly easy to get to his feet. He stumbles to the girl, falling onto his knees beside her. “Hey, are you okay?” He questions the girl, making sure she’s okay, helps her to her feet. All the while, his mind is racing.
For once, he feels something other than anger. Something cold and unpleasant, pooling in the pits of his stomach and taking his heart in a vice-like grip. It takes a while, but he eventually identifies it as fear.
Fuck what Brett has to say; he prefers to be angry.