Two Birds, One Stone

Liam had everything to lose. He had to tread carefully on the ice beneath his feet, or he could sink like an anvil to the bottom of an ocean that he wouldn't know how to swim out of. If he didn't watch his step, he just might fall. 

     And yet he took a chance. He stepped on a crack. He went to a place that had the potential to ruin him.

     One fun night was all that he wanted. To let loose and dance and go home with a stranger he would never see again. To feel what he wanted to feel, not what he was expected feel. To party so hard, he wouldn't even remember.

  ~~~

Jamie knew the process well enough. Sneak out, go to Vagabonds, get drunk, hook up. Some would frown upon it, sure, but he needed a way to distract himself.

      Hooking up with one of the privileged, crown-topped boys from his shitty high school hadn't been a part of his process. It wasn't in the plan. Not that he had a plan at all; not anymore.

     As it turned out, both Liam and Jamie needed to learn not to trust the dim lights and neon nights.

    It's hard to believe that a boy who didn't believe in love and a boy who didn't believe he could love himself would have much to learn from each other. But it would turn out that way, of course; with everything to gain and even more to lose.

    This is a backward love story.

++++

A/N: trigger warning for chapter 4 for brief talk of suicide (I know this should be at the start of that chapter, but I forgot to put it there, and wattpad is weird when it comes to editing my chapters after publishing, so I'm putting it here). Again, it's very brief, but anyone who's sensitive to that should be cautious.