Jake & Liam

This story is one of love, of woe and danger. Well, mostly just love. Read at your own risk, as shit's about to get real.

We start our story in a deep wood, with a group of friends. Their names are unimportant at this moment, as we will get to know them at a later time. There are two boys and three girls, each coming out tonight to find a taste of adventure and maybe even a little bit of danger. Well, maybe not all of them.

"Guys, seriously. It's not funny anymore, I want to go home," The one named Violet complains. She was always the scaredy-cat of the group, and the boy Jake never lets her forget it.

"Vi, you're being ridiculous. You're only scared because it's dark. If it was daytime, you'd be perfectly fine," he says.

She ignores him, instead focusing on not tripping over the branches littering the ground. Jake and the other boy, Liam, fall behind the group, talking in hushed whispers. Violet turns to Lilly and asks her what's going on with them. Lilly just shrugs and keeps walking.

"Maybe they've realized they're madly in love and are talking things out," the jokester, Bianca, tells the other girls. Bianca said this as a harmless joke, but she didn't realize just how right she was. At that moment, Jake and Liam were in fact talking about their love for each other. Just two days ago, they had figured out that they liked each other. In that  way. 

Two days ago... 

Jake and Liam were sitting in Jake's room playing video games when Liam suddenly stopped and sat there, staring at Jake while he kept playing. He noticed how cute he looked with his tongue poking out of his mouth in concentration. He'd been thinking for months, and he'd come to the conclusion that he needed to tell Jake, and soon. He weighed the pros and cons of telling him right now. The cons won, just like every time he thought about telling Jake just how in love with him he was.

They've been best friends for as long as Liam could remember. He couldn't possibly ruin that now with this huge piece of information. But then Jake looked at him and smiled and suddenly Liam couldn't take it anymore. 

"I have to tell you something, and it's like a really huge thing that I've wanted to tell you for a long time now." He looked at Jake to see his reaction. Jake gave him a reassuring smile, urging him to go on. He took a deep breath and had an internal panic attack before he actually went on. 

Now Liam knew this would change everything as soon as he figured out that he had a crush on Jake. They were 14, sitting in Jake's room like they had before a million times. Liam had been thinking for a while that he was starting to think boys were cute, and it was majorly freaking him out. He hadn't said anything to Jake, but he had spilled his guts to Lilly, who helped him figure it out and was extremely understanding. She told him to think about a boy and decide if he could actually see himself in a relationship with one. 

So that's what he was doing, looking at Jake, seeing if he could actually see himself dating a boy. He asked Jake if he could draw him, something he had done countless times when he was first learning how to draw people and needed practice. Jake agreed, of course, and he sat on his window seat, which he hated because it was girly, and stared out the window as Liam drew him. As soon as he got the paper out and looked up at Jake, he knew he was completely fucked.

Jake sat there, unknowing that his friend's heartbeat skyrocketed when he looked at him. The sun was hitting his face just right, showing off his perfect complexion. Even at 14, Jake was utterly perfect. Liam knew then that he was in love with Jake, and he always would be. He loved the way he would smile when he saw a bird outside, and then drop his face the second he remembered Liam was drawing him. He was beautiful, and Liam was in love. 

He knew then that he most definitely could see himself in a relationship with a guy. He came out to his friends and family as bisexual two months later. Jake never got weird after he came out, he didn't change the way he treated Liam and he didn't watch the things he said in case Liam would get the wrong idea (Xavier wasn't part of the group anymore, for obvious reasons) and this utter respect that Jake had for him just made Liam fall even harder. 

He only ever told Lilly about this hopeless crush, because Vi would make a huge deal out of it, and Bianca couldn't keep a secret for shit. Lilly was supportive through the entire three years of his crush and she never got annoyed at his incessant babbling and lovestruck whining. Jake would always ask when he was going to get a boyfriend or girlfriend, but Liam would just shake his head and ignore the question. He was good at dodging Jake's love life inquiries. He had become something of a professional. 

So here they were, sitting in Jake's room, and Jake was anticipating the information Liam was so nervous to tell him. He saw the terrified look on Liam's face and scooted closer to him.

"Hey, you know you can tell me anything. What's up? Tell me," he said. Liam looked up and saw those damn green eyes and the concern written all over Jake's face and almost fainted on the spot.

He stuttered as he tried to find the words to say. He took a deep breath and just said it.

"So basically, I've had a crush on you since freshman year, and I thought it might go away but it seriously never did and I hate myself for it because you're so straight and I'm so hopelessly in love with you and it actually hurts me to think about it because I know you'll never feel the same way and that hurts so bad," he blurted. He scrunched his eyes closed and prayed that, oh god he could just die right there and never have to open his eyes again. He heard Jake scooting closer and suddenly felt a hand on top of his own that were twiddling furiously. 

"Liam. Open your eyes," And he did. He opened his eyes and saw Jake sitting impossibly close to him with an unreadable glint in his eyes. 

"You know, I was supposed to be the one making huge confessions today?" 

Huh? What did he mean by that?

"God, I was so scared to say this but thank you for making it ten thousand times easier for me. Liam, I've been in love with you since you came out to me in freshman year. Something about the way you were so nervous and just wanted my approval of you screwed me up and I've never been the same since. I was going to tell you that today, that's actually why I invited you here," he said, much slower than Liam's fast-paced confession.

The two boys looked into each other's eyes and knew that the wait had definitely been worth it. 

And so here they were, walking behind their group of friends in the woods, talking about what they were doing that weekend, their first official date. The girls walked in front of them, wondering what they were whispering about. They were going to tell them, someday soon. But as of right now, all they needed was each other. That's all that mattered. 

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The End