Seeing Double

Chapter 4

A/N: Hiiii I hope you have a good day <3

Theo glared at his brother from across the cafeteria, "dude you keep looking and he's going to start throwing hands," Nolan teased.

"I don't care," Theo said, his nostrils flaring until Hayden swatted him.

"Chill out," she said, opening a packet of chips and eating some before speaking. "Look, we know that Liam is too oblivious and sweet to even realise he's being mistreated."

"We got to show him he's being mistreated," Nolan said realising where Hayden was going with her words, "we can do that."

"How?" Theo asked, "I tried and almost got my ass beat." He looked to his sand-which which had been untouched, meanwhile Nolan was biting into his green apple.

"Well surely Liam wouldn't stay with a cheater," Nolan looked to Hayden with a hint of amusement in his eyes, "right?"

Hayden snickered, "I see your point, I'm in," she said with a shrug. "I mean he is bisexual right? I can lure him away and if he cheats then Liam would have to leave him."

"He would be devastated," Theo said.

"But he would be away from Asher," Nolan pointed out, "clearly your brother is a raging psychopath who belongs in the 1950's with his attitude. Liam can do better; he just has to believe that he deserves better."

Theo nodded, "fine, but I don't love this." He didn't want to see Liam hurt, especially if he was helping cause his pain. But he knew his brother was only going to hurt Liam more, he would cause him irreversible damage.

Emotional pain is the type of pain that really lasts, Liam wouldn't be able to handle that. "He really loves him, doesn't he?" Hayden said, observing as Liam fed a fry to Asher who bit into it.

"Unfortunately," Theo said, his eyes averting to the ground as he let out a huff of displeasure. "What if I'm ruining their happiness? What if Asher's really not that bad to him and I'm making things worse for them, for Liam?"

"Dude he treats Liam like a pet, you said it yourself. Asher is basically like Gabe," Nolan said with a raised brow, almost immediately did Alec join them. Sitting beside Nolan and placing a kiss upon his cheek, "hey you."

"Forever alone Theo," Hayden teased as Gwen came and sat beside her, "hey beautiful." Her fingers tucked a strand of Gwen's hair behind her ear, "party tomorrow?"

"Isaac's?" Gwen asked, of course she knew about it, everyone did. His parties were always the talk of the school, they were huge and unsupervised. It always meant trouble was coming, which wasn't always the best thing.

"Who's party are we crashing?" Alec asked, his brows furrowing as he turned to Nolan. He knew his boyfriend wasn't much of a partier so he knew it had something to do with helping his friends, "I'm in."

Nolan laughed, "you don't even know what we're doing," Nolan said, playing pushing Alec's shoulder.

"Don't need to," Alec said, opening the wrapper to his sandwich and taking a bite. He met Theo's eyes, except the other boy was facing somewhere else. Alec followed his gaze, "I'm going to take a wild guess and assume it has something to do with lover boy over there."

"Doesn't it always?" Gwen teased, holding Hayden's hand while she placed a fry in her mouth. "He's been obsessed with him for literally ever," she turned her fries to Hayden, silently offering her some.

"Yeah, then Asher betrayed me," Theo scoffed, losing his appetite as he watched Liam lean into Asher's chest "he doesn't deserve Liam."

"We know that," Nolan said, "but you need to show Liam that."

"That's where I possibly come into things," Hayden said, turning to Gwen with pleading eyes. "I was thinking I could flirt with Asher, we let Liam see it and he leaves him. I won't kiss him or anything like that, but only if you're okay with it."

Gwen paused, "fine, but no kissing and if he tries to I will personally beat his ass. Got it?" They nodded in agreement, "he's so disgusting, do you actually think he would cheat on Liam?"

"I think so," Theo said, although a part of him hoped he wouldn't. "Only one way to find out though," he groaned.

"That's why we are going to Isaac's party," Nolan said, his big blue eyes meeting Alec's brown ones "so you'll be my date to the party?"

Alec took his hand and placed a kiss upon it, "of course I will," he smiled. "Plus, I don't love the idea of you going alone. Too many weird and creepy people, I'd rather go with you and make sure you're safe."

"What if Asher doesn't go?" Gwen asked, for a moment there was silence before they all began laughing, "hey! It's a serious question."

"Please," Theo said, shaking his head. "Asher wouldn't miss a party, especially one of Isaac's. It's more a question if Liam will be there," he pointed out.

"He will want to show him off," Alec said, "everyone is going to this party, even we got invited and that says a lot."

Alec wasn't wrong, usually they didn't get invited to these kinds of parties so they usually threw their own smaller ones and watched movies and played games at Alec's house, it was a lot more fun for them anyways.

"It's going to be a big party, Liam's going to try and talk his way out of it but we all know Asher will get his way in the end." Gwen said, offering the others some of her fries to which Nolan snatched a few.

"We have to make sure Liam sees it happen though, otherwise he will try to convince himself it didn't happen and he won't leave him," Theo said, "he's attached to Asher, I can't understand why."

"He's clearly got issues," Alec said, "don't look at me like that Theo, it's obvious if he lets Asher treat him the way he does. It doesn't have to be a bad thing," Alec shrugged.

"Stop reading people," Hayden said, kicking him from under the table as the bell rang. "Well, I will see you losers after class," she said, throwing her bag over her shoulder and taking Gwen's hand as she walked her to class, like she did every other day.

"See you tonight," Alec said, pecking Nolan on the cheek before waving to Theo and leaving. Nolan doing the same thing as he walked in the opposite direction to his class, he watched as Liam stood up.

Asher stood not long after him, kissing the younger boy on the cheek before taking his hand and leading him, presumably to his next class. Theo sighed, I hope I'm doing the right thing.

Published: 15th April 2024
Word count: 1132