Can You Keep A Secret?

Chapter Forty-Five

-Liv's POV-

I woke up entangled into Mikey – his arm around me, our legs wrapped up together. His breath was hot against my neck as I yawned and tried to stretch, looking at the dappled sunlight streaming in from my window. Mikey, still mostly asleep, pulled me closer.

"It's time to wake up," I murmured sleepily, feeling a smile stretch across my face.

"Five more minutes," Mikey mumbled, nuzzling his head against me. I let out a little giggle, giving in easily, knowing that I didn't really want to get up yet, either. We stayed like that, cuddling, until his stomach let out a ferocious growl.

"We'd better get up and get you some breakfast before your stomach eats me, eh?" I laughed, finally making my way out of both his grasp and the warmth of the bed. He followed suit soon after, looking both adorable and irresistible with his morning hair and only a pair of boxer shorts on.

He looked up at me with a goofy half-grin that nearly made me abandon the idea of ever eating again entirely and fall back into bed with him, but after a few more kisses, I used all of my power to pull back once again.

"You get dressed, I'll get washed up a bit, then we meet back up in the kitchen in ten?" I asked, although I didn't particularly mind if he never put his clothes back on again.

"Okay, Miss Liv," he said, licking his lips, and I had to turn around before falling for his games once again.

"TEN MINUTES!" I called out before entering the bathroom, briefly washing my face and brushing my hair out, laughing to myself when I reached the kitchen before him – I had already set out our bowls and started pouring the cereal before he came back.

He snuck up behind me, putting his arms around me and kissing my neck, causing me to yell out playfully and shake the cereal box out of surprise. Cornflakes went flying all over the counter and the floor.

"See what you did?!" I mock-scolded him, gathering a handful of the fallen flakes. "You're darn lucky I wasn't holding the milk!"

I threw the handful at him, and he opened his mouth to catch them – A few actually landed there. He ate them, giving me a satisfactory smile.

"Ew!" I shrieked. "You're gross!" I said, but I was laughing.

"If only you knew what you were signing up for when you started dating me," he said, beginning to help me clean them up.

We had just finished throwing the last of the runaway flakes into the garbage when my mum came out, rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

"Oh no, I'm sorry, did we wake you?" I asked.

"No, no, it was about time I got up anyways," she said, shuffling over to the coffeemaker to start making herself a cup. "Slept in later than usual due to staying up too late last night. Forgot that I can't rebound as quickly as you kids."

"Oh, really?" I asked, starting to pour the milk into our bowls as Mikey got the napkins and spoons. "What were you up for? And would you like some cereal?" I guessed that she'd found a really good movie and gotten carried away or something.

"No thanks," she said, watching the coffee slowly begin to drip into her cup.

"Tea is better," I said as I passed her on the way to the table.

"I won't fight you on that, but I need the caffeine today. Had to drive Andy to the train station late last night."

Mikey, oblivious to something being amiss, began to shove a giant spoonful of cereal into his mouth. A bit of milk escaped and made its way down his chin.

"I'm like your mother," I sighed, leaning over and wiping it off with a napkin.

"Hey, I was getting to it," he said defensively before taking another bite. My mum chuckled.

"Why did he go? Especially so late at night?" I asked, knowing that it must've been some time after I'd fallen asleep, and feeling a little guilty that I hadn't noticed that he had been missing yet.

"Said something about going to Rye's. He said he'd call when he got there, so he should be ringing us any time now. You can talk to him then." My mum said. Mikey's eyebrows crinkled a little bit, and my heart began to pick up its pace.

"Is Rye okay?" Mikey asked, and I could feel him questioning his decision to leave him.

"As far as I know. He didn't give me many details." She paused for a moment before adding, "He did say that Rye's family had called him, though."

I could feel my palms go slick. My cereal further disintegrated into the milk, left untouched.

"He never got a new one after the crash."

"Wait, what do you mean?" My mum asked, beginning to come upon the realization at the same time that I was.

"How would they have called him? As far as I know, nobody else knew that he was here. So they wouldn't have rung our home phone."

Mikey stopped eating, starting to get worried himself.

"Well, let's not freak out quite yet. Why don't you call Rye and find out for sure?" My mum asked, trying to keep things positive. Shakily, I went back to my room to call Rye, feeling more and more at unease as I waited for him to pick up.

No feeling of relief surfaced when he finally did.

"Liv?" He asked, and I wanted so desperately for him to say that Andy was with him.

"Hey Rye," I said, trying to keep my voice casual, but failing, sounding highstrung and panicky instead.

"What's up?" He asked, starting to catch on that something was wrong.

"Is...Is Andy with you? Or, like, contacted you to say that he would be?" I asked, praying that he would prove me wrong.

"No," he said cautiously, almost as if knowing that that was the exact opposite of what I had wanted to hear. "Why? Is he okay?"

I remembered that he also knew – That he had been there – When Andy had tried to kill himself.

"I really don't know," I said, trying not to give way into hysterics. "He disappeared and said that he was going to your place. He doesn't have a phone with him, and he told me what happened the other day, and I'm worried." The other side of the phone was silent for a moment.

"Shit. Maybe he is coming here? I'll call you if he shows up," he said, knowing as well as I did how unlikely that was.

"Thanks," I said before hanging up.

"He's not with Rye. As far as I know, he never had any plans to go there," I said as I walked back into the kitchen, trying hard not to cry.

"I'm sorry, I'm just trying to understand what's going on here," Mikey stated. "Why is that...such a big deal? He can take care of himself, right?"

"You don't understand," I said, almost yelling. My sister came out to the hallway, confused, and my mum moved to hold me from behind. "Andy tried to commit suicide the other day. He may not even be alive right now," I said, chest heaving, and the room went silent with the shock of the new information.

Just like that, once again, seemingly in the blink of an eyes, the world had been flipped upside down.