The Way We Learned to Love ✓

46 - liam

june 2020 : 3 months ago

Liam climbed the stairs to Lily's second-floor apartment, hoping that she was awake and would want to see him. The hot air, already uncomfortably muggy even though it was but nine in the morning, clung to him like a second skin. He was already weary of summer despite the fact that it had just started—it didn't hold nearly the same appeal now as it had every previous year of his life while he was a student.

She hadn't answered any of his texts since last night. That was usually an indicator that something was bothering her and she was trying to think through how to talk about it in a productive way, but he suspected that he already knew exactly what was on her mind. They had been arguing yesterday afternoon. Again.

It took almost a minute for him to get a response once he knocked on the door. Unsure if anyone had heard him, he was on the verge of trying again when Katie finally answered, looking uncharacteristically fatigued with her hair thrown up into a sloppy ponytail and a sleepy glaze in her eyes like she couldn't quite focus on him. She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by an unfortunate retching noise that Liam could inexplicably tell was coming from Lils and not Izzy.

"Did you guys get drunk last night?" he questioned cautiously as he stepped inside, immediately certain that today wasn't going to turn out like he thought it would.

He had thought about buying her apology brunch and taking her and Moosey to the dog park, but she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon by the sound of it. It didn't make a whole lot of sense that she would be hungover—he knew that the girls planned on eating out last night, but none of them were usually interested in going hard on the alcohol. And Katie seemed totally fine, albeit tired.

She shook her head. "No, she had some bad sushi."

He felt his lips turn into a small frown as his feet instinctively brought him to the kitchen to pull a glass out of the cabinet and start filling it up with water to bring to Lils. Katie followed.

"Was she up all night?" he asked.

"More or less," she sighed. "She might have fallen asleep for a couple of hours. Izzy and I went out first thing this morning and got some Pepto, but I don't think it's really done anything."

At the mention of Izzy's name, it occurred to him that she was notably absent. "Is Izzy here?"

"She has a weak stomach," Katie explained with a soft shake of the head. "She can't really handle the sound of-"

More heaving. They both grimaced at the sound of it, but Lils deserved an award for her comedic timing.

Realizing that he accidentally let the cup overflow, he quickly shut the sink faucet off. "I don't mind staying with her."

Katie loved Lils to death, but he wouldn't have blamed her if she wanted a reprieve. Listening to someone throw up for hours wasn't much more enjoyable than being the one throwing up.

"I'm fine," she shrugged and wandered to the pantry to look for something, clicking her tongue in disapproval after a moment of fruitless searching. "We should have grabbed crackers or something for her at the store. I might go back out for those."

Liam simply nodded and headed down the hall towards the bathroom. He knew she probably wouldn't want him there while she was getting sick, but he couldn't bring himself to not check on her at the very least. Fortunately, he had never been that fazed by vomit to begin with and his days of always hanging around people who drank a little too much a little too often only further desensitized him to it.

She was bent over the toilet – obviously unable to acknowledge him at the present moment – when he opened the door and slipped inside. He immediately noticed that her hair was haphazardly swept over her shoulder and carefully set the water cup down on the counter so that he could quickly comb through the drawers for a hair tie, surprisingly to no avail. Weren't girls supposed to have like five billion of those things? Then again, Lils was constantly losing them. Liam could have sworn she tossed a new pack of them into the grocery cart every time they went to the store.