Chapter Text
It takes Bryce a few rings to answer. It’s not that he didn’t want to look too desperate (well, he didn’t, but that's not the point.) It's because it took those few rings for him to process Liam’s name. He kept checking it over and over to see if it was him or someone else who happened to spell their name “L I A M” and be saved to his contacts. As he answers, a groggy, obviously just woken up Liam mutters “Bryce..?” at the same time that Bryce whispered “Liam?” (He still wasn’t convinced it was him.)
“I-.. did I wake you up?”
Liam lets out a half-hearted chuckle “Yeah, kinda.”
The phone goes silent for a bit too long
“Sorry-” Bryce finally says “It’s just that you said to call you back when I was free and, well, I’m free now! Hahaa…” his obviously fake laugh trails off as he becomes one with Liam’s silence. He allows Liam to collect himself or think or do whatever he was doing on the other side.
“Bryce.” He finally says. Great. ‘Listen. At the time, I didn’t want to say anything I'd regret, alright? But now I’ve thought about it and I think-” Liam's voice is cut off by Bryce's
“Liam, it doesn’t matter to me. It was an idiot move and I just- can we drop it?”
For what felt like the fifteen thousandth time, the phone goes silent
“R-right. Yeah, I.. I get that. I’m sorry for bringing it up.”
“It’s fine. I only just told you, so..”
“Right..”
Say something, Bryce.
“...”
“...”
“ Do you.. Remember that one time that…” Liam's failed attempt at small talk was kind of embarrassing, but kinda funny because it came from Liam.
Oh my god. Shut UP.
“You’re really bad at conversation starters, by the way.” he chuckles, making the side he was sleeping on hurt slightly.
“Oh, shut up! You say something then.”
“Remember that one time the baby got impaled by a pole?”
“That wasn’t funny, Bryce.”
“I know, but it was better than what you brought up, which was nothing.”
“Sighh”
Liam and Bryce talk. Like, actually talk. Not about anything that happened that day (or the day prior, actually.). No, Bryce was avoiding that at any cost possible. But they talked more about ONE than they had in.. a while, actually. About Scenty and Moldy and Magazine and Tomato and Airy. God, Bryce had underestimated just how much Liam hated him. He thought he was using his hate to its full extent, but apparently not. He contemplated telling him about what happened before he called but.. There was really no point. It wasn’t a sign or actually Airy or whatever, it was just a figment of his imagination. It's nice to talk about it though. Even though nobody really wants to. It's nice to talk to Liam.