Caught By What? (ONE)

Chapter Eighteen

{{TW ALCOHOL/ALCOHOLISM}}

It was early in the morning. Too early, really and yet there Bryce was at the kitchen table, passed out drunk. The situation has really been getting to him, making him stressed and upset enough to start drinking. Empty beer bottles lay on the table and floor. And he said he needed to tidy up the place. He groaned as he lifted his "head" up from the table, placing it in his hands as he slowly looked around. Airy and Texty were on the couch, typing to eachother until the lantern looks up at the soda bottle.

Ai: "Are you..okay..? Those drinks made you..weird last night.."

B: "Uh...yeah.. What do you mean weird?"

Ai: "While you were drinking..those and on the database.., you started saying some things about..Backpack and you seemed..upset when you were saying them.."

Bryce sat up a bit more. Course he said something about him in that state but what?

B: "Airy.... What..what did I say about Liam?"

Ai: "I don't..really know.. It was hard to tell.. Texty might know.."

Airy stands up with the laptop and brings it over to Bryce. He places it on the table, facing the soda bottle as he continues to stand near the two.

B: "Texty? Did I say stuff about Liam last night while I was...you know? Drunk."

T: [You said a whole lot of sh*t about him actually. Why? Do you want to know? 🤨]

B: "I mean, yeah. Why else would I be asking?"

T: [Alright, but I'll save you the embarrassment by not keeping TTS on. So basically, once you started, you were talking about him, normal stuff like "He doesn't deserve to be missing." or "I'm worried for him. What if he's hurt?" All nice things but then you started exposing yourself 😑]

B: "What do you mean 'Exposing yourself'? Texty, what did I say?"

T: ["Liam doesn't deserve any of this happening to him. He's such a nice guy and he cares about people. I-... I care about him. Like, I'd date him if I could, I mean, I wanna date him cause he's perfect. Such a perfect guy. I wanna find him so we could date. I'd give him everything he'd ever want-]

B: "Yeah, I think that's enough Texty!"

Parts of Bryce's label were noticeably redder, which he didn't think could be possible because his label is already red to begin with. Is he flustered or embarrassed at the fact that he basically just confessed his love towards the backpack in front of the two?

T: [You were the one that wanted to know, gaya**.]

B: "Yeah, well-...Uh... Whatever! I need to take a headache tablet or..or something."

And with that, Bryce stood up from the table and made his way to the cabinets and drawers in his kitchen as he searched for the tablets.

Ai: "I know that I've said this..multiple times but I think you should..really take a break from this..search.."

Bryce, rooting through a drawer, turned around, hands still in the drawer.

B: "And I've said no to that multiple times too. I've told you, I'm not taking a break from this. Liam could be in f***ing trouble and I don't wanna be sitting around, not doing anything to try and help when I can be doing that.... 'Ere they are..."

Bryce took one of the tablets before continuing to speak to the lantern.

B: "Airy, you don't need to help me with this, you do know that? Like, half the nights I've been up on the damn site, trying to get something out of it, you've been up with me as well. And also, if you and Texty combined can't get in, who knows what's actually wrong? Just lazing about won't help with that."