A Rhapsody Of Sorts

10- Yellow Daisies

September 15, 2012.

Liam and I had a weird heart-to-heart on the night before Felicia's luncheon.

"I'm sure Harry will drive you if you ask him to," Liam had said pointedly, a cup of tea clutched in his hands as he huddled down on his sofa.

"I'm taking the Tube so that I can get wasted at the open bar."

Scrunching his features up in disapproval, he'd narrowed his gaze at me. "How is taking the Tube home pissed out of your mind a better idea than letting Harry drive you?"

He'd made it his purpose in life to spend the evening annoying me for skipping out on Niall's birthday celebration the night before — even though I'd made it perfectly clear to him from the moment he told me about the impromptu party that I couldn't go if I wanted to be coherent for my ten o'clock appointment with Dr. Liddle the morning after.

"Shut it, Liam. You're being weird." I shot him a glare and took a long sip of cold tea. "Are you jealous that you weren't invited? Because I could always ask Felicia if I could bring you as my plus-one."

"I can't go anyway. I'm taking Mae out for lunch." His smug smile spread across the expanse of his face.

"God, please don't take her to Eggs & Begs."

A disappointed look came across his face. "Why not?"

"She won't like it." I slumped in my seat. "Can we start the film please?"

"No, why won't she like it?" he asked curiously, turning to face me.

I sighed. "Liam..."

A goofy smile broke out on his face. "Are you jealous?"

"No!" I slammed my mug down on the coffee table.

"Then what?"

Crossing my arms over my chest, I gave him a stern look. "It's just — this Mae girl knows who you are, yeah? That means she's probably seen the photos of you and me at Eggs & Begs, not to mention read some of the articles about us, and she might think there's some truth to them if you haven't set her straight yet. Don't give her any ideas that you're, like — I don't know — just going along with the same old routine you take all the girls on, you know?"

His smirk shrunk into an uncomfortably endearing smile. "Rosie...are you looking out for me?"

"Christ, shut it." My eyes rolled into the back of my head and I dropped my head onto the backrest.

His eyes lit up. "No way, this is sort of pivotal to our friendship. You're giving me advice about girls. We're real bros now, aren't we?"

I scoffed.  "Fuck off, I was lying — I just don't want her to tarnish Eggs & Begs for us when you inevitably screw this up."

"Liar," he sang and then he reached over and tapped me on the nose. "I love it when you pretend like you don't care, because we both know that you're full of shit."

I glared at him and snatched the remote out of his hand so that I could start the film.

"Your silence speaks in volumes. You can't even pretend like you don't care about me after the way you babied me after my birthday anyway. Blueberry pancakes, you absolute sap." The stupid grin on his face grew steadily.

I was thrown when he brought up the aftermath of his birthday party. We hadn't mentioned it even once so I had assumed he didn't want to talk about it. The way he brought it up with an easy smile on his face seemed off to me. Seeing Liam so emotionally clingy and upset like that had been a déjà vu, so I knew how to take care of him when it happened — but when I had actually gotten the time to reflect on the fact that he was Liam and not my Matthew, I felt what could only be described as daunted. Daunted in the sense that Liam was a normal kid who, as far as I knew, didn't need to be coddled, held, or kissed on his hairline just to be assured that he was alive and safe in the way that Matthew had needed; yet, comfort had been exactly what Liam wanted for seemingly no reason at all.