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The entire ordeal could all be blamed on one phone call to Scott, but of course nothing was that simple. Liam wanted to seem like he had his life together and was steadfastly turning a blind eye to every problem that came up between him and Hayden. Theo was somehow stuck hearing each of their versions of each argument, Liam’s oblivious play by plays and Hayden’s intense venting sessions. He knew that Liam was trying to play it off like everything was okay to Scott because he was his Alpha and his role model, even if it had been almost six months since Liam had seen him. What he hadn’t been expecting was for Liam to confess to Theo that he was planning on proposing to Hayden. It seemed like a bad idea, but it was made even worse by Liam telling Scott that he wanted to propose when the pack was getting together just a month later, before his and Liam’s graduation. It didn’t help that Theo had been in love with Liam since he’d brought him back from hell.
Theo spent the entire month trying to talk him out of it or find a way to hint to Hayden what was coming. They weren’t best friends, but they were close enough and he knew that Liam hadn’t really talked to her about getting married. Not seriously, anyways. The surprise wouldn’t end well for anyone involved.
“I want the pack to be there,” Liam said around a mouthful of pizza, “And I think it should be a big romantic thing, you know? I don’t think I’ve been putting enough into our relationship for her.”
Theo frowned. The biggest problem with Liam and Hayden, both back in high school and when they reunited again in college, had always been communication. Sure, they talked about the easy stuff. Words could always be easy to say if they were empty, which was something that Theo knew very well, but to have deep meaningful conversations, to work out problems by actually discussing them? He wasn’t sure Liam and Hayden had ever done that.
“Do you not think I should?” Liam challenged, looking across the sofa at Theo in their small apartment, both of their feet up on the coffee table, a large box of pizza between them.
“I think it’s a dumb idea to propose in public,” Theo told him bluntly. Even years later, the fact that he had reached a point where his life was so mundane that he actually had an opinion on marriage proposals was laughable.
“You think she’ll say no?” there was a fire in his eyes that often sparked when Liam prepared for an argument. It was kind of beautiful, but in a wild, dangerous way, like a strike of lightning, a burning fire, or an untamed animal.
Theo opened his mouth and then shut it quickly. He had argued with Liam over Hayden too many times to think that it was worth it anymore. “I just think that you should maybe figure out how she feels about it before you go and ask her to marry you in front of your entire pack,” he said.
“I know how she feels,” Liam told him defensively, taking an overly aggressive bite of his pizza.
Theo thought about arguing, but then shrugged. “Okay,” he said, deciding to leave it at that.
The month passed without success on Theo’s part either to change Liam’s mind or to warn Hayden about the proposal, except in that he thought that Hayden knew exactly what Liam was planning. He hadn’t said anything to her outright, but he also knew that Liam wasn’t nearly as subtle as he thought he was.
So Theo put his head down and got through finals, managing, he thought, to pass all of his classes. Less than a week before graduation, the day of Liam’s last final, the pack began to trickle into town. Corey and Mason, who would graduate a week later, were among the first to arrive at Theo and Liam’s apartment where they were staying.
Liam whisked Mason away almost immediately and Theo was left with Corey. He had mixed opinions about Corey. There was always a heavy feeling of guilt when Theo was with him, like with Hayden, but they were thrown together so often by default that, whether they liked it or not, they had become fairly close. Close enough that Corey (and he had sworn never to tell even Mason about it) was the only person in the world that Theo had ever told about Liam.
“You’re different,” Corey had said accusingly. It was probably around the end of their senior year of high school (Theo had had to stay back a year, even in Beacon Hills, for having never finished his senior year). “Why?”
Theo had tried to put it off to something else, but Corey wasn’t convinced. There was nothing else to tell him.
“Is it Liam?” he had asked as Theo climbed towards peak frustration.
“Of course it’s Liam!” Theo had snarled. The smug look on Corey’s face hadn’t helped the matter.
Now he wasn’t sure if he was glad that somebody knew or mad that he had to talk about it. Again.
“So…” Corey said, a few minutes after Liam and Mason left the apartment to do the grocery shopping. “Liam’s getting married.”
“I know,” Theo gritted out, clicking through the school’s website to see if his grades were up yet. It was McCallahan’s class, he thought. He had definitely bombed that final.
“You’re not going to do anything about it?” Corey pressed.
Theo glared at him. “What would I do? Confess my love so we could go riding off into the sunset together? That’s not going to happen.”
Corey rolled his eyes and resumed looking over the video game collection stacked underneath the TV. “I mean, did you tell Hayden? I thought you said they were having problems.”
“I can’t tell Hayden,” Theo gritted out, “First of all, because I told Liam I wouldn’t and second…”
“What would you say?” Corey finished for him. “I get it. Hayden, your boyfriend’s going to ask you to marry him, but I need you to not, because I want him. Doesn’t play off super well.”
Theo snorted. “That’s an understatement,” he said, shutting his computer. This was illegal. He was pretty sure. There was definitely a deadline for senior grades, and Theo was of the opinion that they ought to have passed that deadline the second he walked out of his last final.
“So what are you going to do?” Corey tried again, “Just sit there and watch him propose and then go down in flames?” He wrinkled his nose. “I don’t even want to see that.”
“I don’t know,” Theo snarled, frustrated.
“You better think about it,” Corey told him, “The picnic’s tomorrow.”
Theo groaned. “I was trying not to think about it,” he replied.
“Yeah, cause that always works out well,” Corey said.
He didn’t think about it. He thought about the rest of the pack and how they would treat him this time (it got a little bit better with each meeting, but Theo wasn’t sure he could ever be totally accepted by them), he thought about what they should have for dinner, and he thought about when he was getting his grades back, for fuck’s sake. But he didn’t think about Liam proposing to Hayden.
The picnic had been the pack’s best choice of a celebration dinner before Liam, Theo, and Hayden’s graduation. It was cheaper than a restaurant, they didn’t have to try and find a table to seat thirteen, and Scott and Malia’s daughter could run wild all she wanted while their infant son could scream his head off if he wanted and only annoy the pack.
Liam’s fantastic idea of a proposal was for a plane to write “Will you marry me, Hayden Romero?” in the sky, but it turned out that writing messages in the sky with a plane was kind of expensive, so he shortened it to “Marry me?” and bought a couple extra bottles of champagne. Theo rolled his eyes.
As far as he was aware, Liam hadn’t seen Hayden in days. Not since her sister had gotten to town. If Theo asked him about it, he would just shrug and say that it was important for her to see her sister. Why he wasn’t invited to spend time with them didn’t seem to cross his mind.
She met the rest of them at the park, giving Liam a hug and then quickly moving on to talk to the rest of the pack. Theo, seeing all of the proud and significant looks that Scott was giving Liam as he stuck close by his side (more out of not wanting to piss anyone off than anything), felt sick to his stomach.
As the reunions were slowly starting to trickle into casual conversations, Hayden appeared at Liam’s side, whispering in his ear and then taking him away from the group, far enough that werewolf ears couldn’t hear. It wasn’t until they were starting to set up the food (too close to the plane’s scheduled time for Theo’s comfort), that Hayden came back without Liam. She looked a little upset but sent Theo a confident smile.
“What?” he asked quietly.
“It’s fine,” she assured him, eyes glancing around at the other supernatural creatures in the group, “He’s fine…well, he will be.” There was a bit of doubt in her eyes, but then it vanished and she moved away to help Derek and Lydia set out plates on the giant blanket.
Theo looked over his shoulder as soon as he heard Liam’s familiar heartbeat come back into his range of hearing. He was pale and looked emotionally unsteady, but he gave Theo a brave smile as he came to stand at his side again. They had broken up. Theo didn’t have to ask.
“You okay?” he asked in a low voice.
Liam waited a minute and then nodded. “Course,” he said, unconvincingly.
“Want to talk about it?”
Liam fidgeted. “Later,” he said.
Theo looked closely at him for a minute and then nodded.
“Liam!” Scott called.
They looked over at him. He was grinning and pointing at something in the sky. Theo’s heart sank. Liam was going to have to tell them. He would hate that. And minutes after getting dumped. Corey was right, he should have come up with a plan.
Liam’s face fell when he saw the words, written in neat, cloudy, white spirals. Theo didn’t need a plan. He could get Liam out of this. He had to now.
He let an astonished smile light up his face and turned towards his best friend. “Liam!” he said, giving his voice a bit of breathiness for show. The insanity of it all almost made him actually laugh.
Liam turned wide eyes on him.
“Aren’t you going to get down on one knee?” he asked, raising his eyebrows, trying to communicate the ill-thought-out plan to Liam.
“Uh…” he said dumbly, turning to face Theo and stumbling down onto one knee, “Will you marry me?”
Theo rolled his eyes. “Not if that’s the only speech you’re going to give me,” he challenged, crossing his arms, feeling the eyes of the entire pack on them.
Liam, though, didn’t seem to notice. His eyes were rekindled with their usual competitive fire and his back straightened. “Theo Raeken,” he said boldly, “You’re my best friend, besides Mason, obviously – “
“Off to a great start,” Theo told him with a smirk that edged a little too much on a full-blown smile.
“Shut up,” Liam ginned, the sadness and shock momentarily erased as he focused all of his energy on one-upping Theo, “I tolerate you sometimes. You make me laugh and you piss me off more than anyone I’ve ever known, and I don’t know how, but spending every day with you is one of the easiest yes’s I’ve ever had to say. So now maybe you’ll do me a solid and make it even by saying yes to spending the rest of our lives together.”
Theo’s heart nearly stopped. There hadn’t been a single change in Liam’s admittedly very fast heart rate from beginning to end. And Liam wasn’t a good liar.
“What do you say?” Liam ginned, looking a little less sure of himself as his competitive speech wound down. “Want to get married?”
There was really only one thing for Theo to say now.
“Yes.”