Can You Keep A Secret?

Chapter Thirteen

-Liv's POV-

I was already halfway home when my phone rang. It came up as "Liv," which was odd, considering that I didn't know anybody with the same name as me, but I figured that one of the boys was playing some sort of prank on me – I sighed, missing them already.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Liv? It's Rye. I have your phone, and you have mine." That would explain a few things.

"I'm guessing you want it back," I stated.

"Don't you want yours?" I did. But that would mean going back, and leaving them again would be that much harder. But, whatever. It wasn't actually urgent for me to return home soon, anyways. And, besides, I wanted to check up on Andy, see how he was doing, make sure things were good between us.

"Yeah. I can switch trains and head back."

"I'm, sorry, for, um, the extra effort."

"You don't have anything to apologize for," I said, confused. "I was the one who took the wrong phone."

"Uhm, yeah." He said. "I guess I'll meet you at the station?"

"Yeah. See you then," I said before hanging up, wondering what was going on. I'm not quite sure what made me do what I did next – Maybe it was because I had an uncomfortable feeling that I was missing a big piece of something that had happened yesterday, and that I had a feeling Rye knew what it was. I unlocked his phone, remembering that he'd once confessed he had his password set as 1111 so he wouldn't forget. I wasn't sure where to go first, and I felt dirty with guilt that I was doing it at all, so I opened his text messages with no clear sense of direction.

I went to his texts with Andy first, but I couldn't find anything suspicious there – The last time he'd texted him was days ago, and it was simply to say "Wake up lmaooo I'm bored." His most recently sent text was to Blair, so I went there next. It was there that I found what I was looking for – Scrolling up, I was overwhelmed by the new and concerning details that were flying at me. I didn't get the full story, only small, scary details that let me know the whole "heatstroke" story was just that – a story. They started around the time when Andy was taken to A&E.

Rye: ur not gonna tell them are u? bc wouldn't they put him on a suicide watch or something?

Blair: We'll just say the story he told you

Rye: Ok. I'm worried about him...

Blair: He seems to regret it now, so for now we'll just have to keep a close eye on him. Especially when I'm not around – I'll do my best to be here, as often as I can, but make sure you're watching him. He goes nowhere alone, understood?

Rye: Of course

Rye: I still don't understand why he'd do it, though. Like I can't see any reasons why he would? It's all so random to me

Blair: He hasn't told me anything new yet. Hang in there, Rye. He'll be okay

Rye: I hope so

Rye: How's Andy holding up?

Blair: Still waiting to be admitted. He's asleep on my shoulder. Stop worrying

The idea that Rye was sending those things as he lay right above me and didn't tell me, or the others, a thing, not one bit of the truth, made my skin crawl. My head spun as I tried to piece the story together, and I almost missed getting off the train. I had to grab my bags in a rush and nearly missed the doors squeezing closed after having gotten stuck behind a massive group of slow people. All throughout the entire trip back, I felt my anger and confusion grow until I was about ready to slap Rye when I approached him at the station. At first he looked glad to see me, but it faded when he realized that the feeling was far from reciprocated.

"What? What's up?" I gave him a look before firmly placing his phone in my hand.

"Tell me what really happened to Andy."

He looked uncomfortable as he said, "You already know what happened."

"No, I know what you want me to think happened." He grimaced.

"You read through my texts, didn't you?" But before I could reply, the station went into emergency mode – Every screen displaying train times and directions turned into a blinking bright red, and an alarm began to blare. People immediately broke into a panic, screaming and running about frantically.

Rye pulled me close to him, and together, we pushed our way out of the mob and into a quieter corner. The alarm still blared, so loud it was almost deafening, and I felt all thought of what was bothering me before flee from my mind completely. I was glad to have Rye holding me, grateful that I wasn't alone.

"What's happening?" I asked, nearly screaming to be heard over all of the commotion.

"I don't know," he replied. "Shit, your bags. Do you have them?" I looked down and realized that I'd let go of them somewhere in the bustle.

"Stay here," he said, gently resting a hand on my shoulder.

"No, there isn't anything important," I tried to convince him to stay, but I'd already lost him in the crowd. I felt my heart pounding rapidly, afraid that I would never see him again – The fear and confusion that I'd felt for the past day had intensified to an entirely new level. I watched the crowd, trying my best to try and spot Rye in the sea of humanity. I held my breath until I saw him again – Holding my bags up victoriously.

"Don't you dare fucking do that again," I said, gathering him into my arms. A look of pain flashed across his face as I said it.

"I won't, I won't." We stood there like that, my head buried in his chest, his arms around me, even as the panic played out around us and an announcement was made that the station would be put in lockdown, effective immediately, and that everyone should stay still and calm.

They didn't bother to explain why, but I tried to stay calm, listening to my beating heart, to Rye's, focusing on how his chest moved up and down with each breathe. We were alive. We had each other. And that was enough for now.