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"Boys, lights out soon!" Mrs. Dunbar called from downstairs.
"Okay mom!" Liam sighed, falling back onto his bed. "Wish we could stay up longer. We're not exactly children anymore."
The taller boy laughed at Liam's exasperation.
"We're in middle school."
He could almost see Liam rolling his eyes as he scoffed, mumbling something about how teenagers should be free to do whatever they wanted. It wasn't the first time Brett had camped over at Liam's house, and it probably wasn't the last.
"Eighth grade is nearly over," Liam rolled over, grumbling into his blanket. "Nearly."
"It's barely December."
"Nearly."
"Shut up."
The Christmas dinner was full of laughter and joy; the Dunbars basically treated Brett like family since he was Liam's best friend and constantly over at their house. His parents were rarely ever home due to business, and Liam was his only company most of the time.
So they ate and told stories and laughed together.
"You two can go open presents, we'll take care of the dishes," Justin smiled warmly at the two boys.
Excited grins spread across their faces as they jumped up from the table and raced each other to the living room to open their gifts.
"Not children," Mrs. Dunbar laughed.
"Hey Liam," Brett called hesitantly into the darkness of the room. The only source of light in Liam's room were the glow in the dark stars plastered across his ceiling.
"What?" Liam groaned, half asleep.
"I got you something else too." There was a lot of shuffling as Liam groggily sat up, wiping his eyes as Brett fumbled around in the dark. "It's a weird charm necklace thing. I'm not sure if you want it..." Brett confessed, opening his palm for Liam to see.
Reaching out, he gingerly picked up the necklace as if afraid he would break it.
"Is that a wolf?" Liam squinted, examining the odd talisman on the chain. The blue jewels were the eyes; they were beautiful, piercing, and... something familiar but Liam couldn't quite place it.
"Yeah. It's a thing I've had for a while," Brett admitted. Although he was Liam's best friend, there was this one secret, one huge secret, he couldn't let him know. What 14 year old kid could tell their best friend they were a werewolf?
'Hey Liam, good job on that math test today, your form looks great, and by the way, I'm a werewolf that still occasionally loses it on a full moon, how are you?'
"It's beautiful," Liam whispered, awed, fingers lightly touching the cool metal. "Are you sure you want to give it to me?"
"Absolutely. You mean a lot to me," Brett said quietly. Liam was always there for him. For school. For practice. Everything.
"Thank you." He slipped it over his head, tucking it under his shirt. The metal was cold against his skin.
"Goodnight Liam."
"Goodnight Brett."
"Hey Brett! Did you get in?" Liam asked excitedly over the phone.
"Hell yeah, did you?"
"Obviously. Devenford Prep looks like such a good school, and their lacrosse team looks amazing," Liam sighed with joy.
"Another test, Liam? You know I have to bench you for the rest of the season, right?" The Devenford coach reminded Liam.
Liam was stoic, and didn't say a word as anger flooded through his veins.
"You did what?" Brett demanded."Liam, this is a bad joke, right?"
Liam hung his head, eyes focusing on the ground. The guilt pit was forming in his stomach, eating him alive. His anxiety was overwhelming, and Brett could feel it, but he was far too angered to even speak about that.
"So you're expelled now," Brett continued, voice clipped.
"Yeah," Liam said lowly.
"Why the fuck did you do it? It's just lacrosse," Brett added coldly.
"Just lacrosse? Lacrosse is the only thing that keeps me grounded. I have I.E.D, for crying out loud," Liam retorted.
Brett leered at the shorter boy, anger boiling within him. Liam was his best friend, but what he did was unjustifiable. "Stop making excuses."
"I- Alright. Fine, bye Brett," Liam bit out, anger and hurt laced in his voice. Blinking back hot tears, Liam walked away, fuming. He furiously wiped away the stray tears that managed to fall.
Liam tapped his pencil on his desk rhythmically, greatly annoying Mason who was trying to concentrate on the last two questions of his math test.
After receiving tutoring from Lydia, he'd understood the concepts and equations in geometry. The period was barely thirty minutes in and Liam was bored. Absolutely bored. His thoughts drifted to the last few months. The most exciting, dangerous, and awful months of his life.
First, he was turned into a werewolf. Which wasn't too bad at the moment, but when he was worth 18 million dollars on a hit list, he was losing it. He'd seen Brett after nearly 6 months, twice. Things weren't better.
First, he'd threatened to rip Liam in half on the field during the Devenford game. Then, Brett knocked him over on the field because he was hallucinating out of his mind. And after that, he gave him a two minute talk. Liam missed him. He really did.
It's been a couple weeks since he'd last seen him.
There was the sound of shoes making contact with the floor. Shoes like the type teachers and principals wore, not like sneakers. Liam glanced around the room. No one was tapping their feet. His attention was caught when he heard three voices.
"We normally don't accept students this late into the semester, but this is an exception, Mrs. Talbot," the familiar voice of Beacon Hills's principal echoed.
Liam snapped his pencil in half with an audible crack when he heard, "Mrs. Talbot," and half the class turned to him. Mason raised an eyebrow as Liam sank into his seat, heart beating erratically.
"We are honored by this exception. Honestly, the other school wasn't too good for him, and I wish we made the choice earlier." Chuckling followed.
"Brett, is it? This is going to be your first class of the day. Geometry, and then the rest as follows on the schedule. If you have trouble finding your way around, just let a student know. We're a friendly environment."
The next thing Liam knew, the door to his geometry classroom was swinging open as the principal stepped through. Liam quickly put his head down onto his desk, head accidentally colliding with the surface, a Stiles-like technique whenever the Sheriff was around. He felt Mason and about five other students' curious gazes burning holes into him.
"Students. We have a new student. This is Brett Talbot. I hope you'll make him feel at home."
"Hi there, Brett? There's a free seat next to Jimmy. Jimmy, could you raise your hand?" Liam's teacher called.
Liam mentally groaned. Jimmy was one seat away from Mason, leaving the seating chart to be: Brett, Mason, and Liam. This was going to be amazing.
"Woah, Liam, you okay?" Scott steadied the rushing boy in front of him. Liam nearly full on collided with Scott in desperation to get to lunch as quick as possible and to avoid Brett.
"He's here. Brett, he's here," Liam babbled.
Scott stared at him in confusion. "A student here!" Liam shouted, throwing his hands out, drawing more attention in the crowded hallways. He turned around, surveying the crowd to make sure Brett wasn't nearby.
Scott's eyes widened. "Why don't we get him to sit with us?" Liam could've sworn he felt the damn whiplash as he turned his head back to Scott, eyes wide.
"What?"
"How do you like Beacon Hills so far?" Malia asked, curious. Liam was stabbing his lunch with a bit too much force each time he went to take another forkful. Everyone noticed. Nobody commented.
"It's pretty nice. A lot better than Devenford," he admitted.
"Why'd you decided to transfer now?" Stiles questioned bluntly.
"Parents' idea."
Liam was surprised. His parents were usually never home. And now, his mom actually requested a transfer and came with him here. Impressive.
"Partners. New transfer student Brett, you can be with Liam over there," Mr. Harris announced, and then continued to read off his list of pairings. This day was just going great. Brett dropped his bag on the seat next to Liam's.
"Hey."
"This is the stupidest fucking assignment ever. Dammit Harris. Rather inject myself with wolfsbane and fall into a well again," Liam growled under his as his fumbled with his keys.
Brett stood by, amused by his exasperation. Liam threw the door open a bit too harshly, and it hit the wall with a loud bang.
"Where are your parents?"
"Not. Home." Liam gritted out.
"Oookay, not up for talking," Brett noted as he entered the Dunbar residence. Nostalgia hit him immediately. When was the last time that he was here? Everything was still in the same place. He wandered up to Liam's room, which had changed drastically. No more posters on the wall. No more picture frames everywhere. Instead, there were books, textbooks, somehow even more lacrosse equipment, and... chains?
"From the first full moon. Didn't go too well," Liam explained when he saw Brett's confused gaze. "Wanna start the project?"
The project was mainly quiet, except for Liam's groans of frustration every now and then. Snack wrappers and scrap paper with Brett's messy handwriting littered the floor.
"That's it, I quit. I'm working on the rest during the weekend," Liam claimed, dropping his pencil to make a point. Liam collected the papers and stacked them into a pile on his desk. He threw himself onto his bed, rubbing his temples.
"How are you one of us?" Brett blurted, breaking the silence.
"Almost fell off a hospital roof," Liam answered bitterly. "Scott bit me from falling."
"So it was without consent?" Brett's voice had a harsh edge to it.
"It was that or I fell to my death," Liam defended.
"Have you found an anchor?" Brett asked. Liam sat up, a smile faint on his face.
"What is this, 21 questions? And no, there's nothing I care about." Brett raised an eyebrow.
The sound of a door opening interrupted the both of them.
"Liam, honey! We're home!"
"Oh... great," Liam groaned, flopping back onto his bed.
Mrs. Dunbar had enthusiastically asked Brett to stay for dinner, which only increased Liam's frustration. It was an awkward dinner. While the rest of them talked about Brett, Liam kept his eyes trained on the plate of potatoes.
About two weeks later, Liam and Brett had grown close again. It was a rocky start, but slowly, they began talking to each other more, hanging out, laughing, like the old times.
Old times.
As Harris passed out the graded assignments, Liam held his breath for the grade. He did not spend hours with Brett working on it to receive anything below a B. Harris placed the packet onto their desk facedown and continued on, just like he did with everyone else.
Liam hesitantly reached out and flipped the page, nearly shouting with glee when he saw the bright red A+ circled on the front.
Barely containing his excitement, he and Brett shared a grin.
"A+!" Liam cheered, scaring his friends as he slammed down the packet onto the wooden table.
"No way," Lydia grabbed the report out of Liam's hands. "I didn't even get an A+ on this assignment last year!"
"We spent days on that, okay, we deserve the A+," Brett replied, settling down next to Liam.
The pack excitedly began talking about lacrosse, and Brett joined the conversation. Although he was a bit too late to join the team, he still supported them at their games. Liam put the report away in his bag, and turned back around to his friends. Still overjoyed with his grade, he didn't participate in the discussion, but looking back at it, he wished he did. He gazed at his friends. It was one of those small moments when everyone was happy. When his eyes settled on his best friend (were they best friends yet? He didn't know) he saw him laughing, actually happy.
It was an odd thing to think, but it felt like they were back in the 8th grade, when everything was normal and they were close. But he also saw him with the sun flowing through his blond hair and illuminating his blue eyes and he felt sick for a second. Best friends weren't supposed to think that way. Abruptly, Liam stood up, shouldering his bag and mumbled a quick, "I'll see you guys later," and walked away briskly, nearly tripping over his own feet, leaving his friends confused.
Liam'd hoped it was just an odd that at a random moment and that it would go away.
Unfortunately, it didn't.
It followed him through with the rest of the day, and on his walk back home. Frustrated at his own inabilities to control who he liked, he went to sleep early that night, ignoring his parents' attempts for him to eat dinner.
Sleep was always a good way for Liam to get away from his problems. However, that night, Liam was haunted by nothing but dreams about Beserkers attacking Brett on the lacrosse field a few months ago, and he woke up at 4 in the morning with cold sweat.
Sighing, he laid on his bed, staring up at the glow in the dark stars that were still stuck on his ceiling. Liam reached under shirt, pulling out the necklace Brett had given him over a year ago. He'd never taken it off. It'd never lost its' shine.
The metal was still as polished as ever, and the blue jewels were still piercing. Now, Liam recognized them to be the color of Brett's eyes. Clenching his fist around the charm, he tucked it back under his shirt and willed himself to go back to sleep.
So sleep didn't help Liam, and the feelings and the thoughts plagued him constantly. At school, Liam kept hanging out with Brett normally, hoping he couldn't detect Liam's odd anxiety near him and overwhelming wave of 'oh my god i think i have a crush on my best friend' feelings.
Brett had made some other friends besides the pack, so occasionally Brett would be missing from their lunch table to hang out with his other friends. Those days, Liam would be bummed out but he kept his emotions under control in case Scott noticed.
One afternoon, Liam realized he left his chem textbook in his class and swore, running up to the classroom, hoping he could still make it in time for practice without Finstock making him do suicide runs.
Approaching his classroom, he heard some noises but disregarded it, as there were still some students in the school. The lights in the chem classroom were off, door closed, signalling that students should not be inside.
Liam sighed, and decided that he would just run in, grab it, and get out. So he did that. Well, the first part out of three.
He ran in, and stopped in his tracks when he saw Brett.
And a girl.
Furiously making out.
Liam felt several things at once. One was jealousy. An intense amount of jealous. Another was hurt. He felt his throat close up.
"Liam?"
"Shit, sorry, I needed... to uh, get my textbook," Liam gestured lamely to his textbook sitting on a desk a few seats down.
He grabbed it and gave them a tight smile.
"Sorry." Brett gave him a sheepish smile as Liam quickly left the room, embarrassment filling him.
The bell rang, and Liam cursed, running down to the lacrosse field. As usual, Finstock made him do suicide runs and Liam tried to get out of it by telling him he wasn't feeling well, which wasn't a lie. Finstock made him do it anyways. While doing the suicide runs, Liam pondered what was worse:
a) walking in on his best friend who he had a crush on making out with someone
b) feeling like utter shit after seeing his best friend who he had a crush on making out with someone
c) suicide runs
d) dying.
When Finstock blew the whistle, and Liam collapsed on the grass in exhaustion, he decided the answer was a and b.
"Liam, are you okay? You've been avoiding us lately," Kira noted one morning. Liam yawned.
"Sorry, I'm just really tired."
Kira sighed and nodded as Liam shouldered his bag, blinking tiredly.
It wasn't a lie.
He was tired.
And miserable.
"Alright Liam, what's going on? You haven't spoken to me in an entire week. And we're chem partners," Brett demanded after cornering Liam in the hallways afterschool.
"Brett, this isn't the time. I'm going to be late for practice and I'm going to be suicide runs 'until I die,'" Liam quoted Finstock, trying to get out of the conversation.
"I don't care. What's wrong? I can feel like 13 different layers of mental pain on you..." Brett said softly.
"Thirteen?"
"Bit of a stretch, but still."
The bell rang. "I'm late now," Liam pointed out, annoyance evident.
"Alright, so if you're late, who cares? Tell me, what's going on?" Brett persisted.
"Nothing!" Liam exclaimed, voice rising.
"You're lying. I can feel it," Brett stated, voice thin.
Fucking werewolves and their hearing.
"Alright fine, you wanna know what's wrong? What's wrong is that you just magically waltz your way back into my life and I somehow just develop a crush on you and last week, I saw you making out with some girl. That's what's wrong," Liam shouted, his heart beating loudly.
His throat hurt from yelling, and he could feel his veins pulsing as he moved out of Brett's way.
"Liam, I- I'm sorry. I don't-" Brett trailed off.
"What? You don't what?" Liam called back, voice tight as he spun around to face him. He was a good five meters down the hallway, but he could hear Brett perfectly when he whispered his words. "I don't feel the same way. You're just my best friend. That's all I've ever felt."
Liam felt his heart sink. He was suddenly aware of how his heartbeat resonated inside him, how everything just felt slow and heavy. He swallowed, feeling a familiar stinging sensation from behind his eyes.
"Course not." With that, he turned and continued to practice, the burning sensation following him to practice.
The next day, Liam was in an awful mood. He probably cried himself to sleep last night. He didn't remember. But if he did, it would've been pathetic. Crying over a guy.
He was better than that. So he walked into the building pretending he was fine but his headache, exhaustion, and sinking feeling in his stomach reminded him that he wasn't okay.
He walked into geometry feeling sick, and when he saw Brett talking to Mason, he sighed, and promptly left the class.
However, Mason caught sight of him and shouted his name.
"Liam, wait!"
Liam ignored him and walked as quickly as his legs could carry him without running, and found an empty staircase to sit in.
He wasn't a broken high school girl over a crush. He wasn't going to let himself be ruined because someone he liked told him he didn't feel the same way. He wasn't. But then, that brat voice in the back of his mind told him that he probably just ruined everything with his best friend, ruined his second chance. Liam was too tired to cry.
After that hallway incident, Liam had been avoiding him, and apparently the pack too. When Brett went to lunch for the entire week, Liam was never there. They all looked concerned for him and nobody knew what was wrong. Nobody except him. That day, Liam had also requested a seat change in chemistry.
Harris didn't question him, but as he switched Liam's seat with a kid in the front, Brett watched with a frown.
A few weeks later, Liam felt like he was balanced again. No more freaking out about Brett, no more sleepless nights where he was haunted with nightmares of him. He had to rush out of some classes to avoid him, but he could live with that.
He'd found solace with some new friends, after taking time off from the pack. It was the night of a lacrosse game. The cheers were loud, and so was the whistle. The game began and both teams scored.
At the end, Beacon Hills had won by two points and the bleachers were in a pandemonium. Absolutely thrilled, he found himself looking at the bleachers, searching for his friends. Instead, his gaze landed on Brett, who seemed to be staring intensely at him. Quickly, Liam looked away and found Mason, Chris, Lily, and Jemma.
They were all running onto the field towards him, cheering and laughing. "Good job, Liam!" Chris congratulated, eyes bright. Liam laughed, and let his friends enjoy the moment.
"You're dating who?!" Mason demanded in geometry a few weeks later.
Liam's eyes widened as he shushed him, glancing over his shoulder to see if it caught anyone's attention. Some kids looked mildly interested but they were more focused on their textbooks, studying for their next text.
"You're dating Chris?" Mason continued in the same volume of voice, and Liam flapped his arms, a terrible attempt to make his best friend shut up.
"Yeah, no big deal," Liam tried to shrug it off as he settled into his seat.
Mason gave him a look that clearly said, "You're an idiot, why am I friends with you?"
"Who is that cutie?" Kira joked during lacrosse practice later that afternoon. Liam's eyes followed her gaze, to find Chris sitting on the bleachers, grinning at them.
Liam flushed, bowing his head in an attempt to hide his huge grin.
"Mason told me you're dating him."
Liam groaned, pulling his helmet over his head. "I'm going to kill Mason."
"You're so adorable," Kira laughed, eying his blush. "He's human, right? We don't need anymore supernatural people."
Liam laughed loudly, glad that Kira was so accepting. "A hundred percent human."
On the bleachers, Brett was watching Kira and Liam intensely, his hearing picking up their conversation easily.
"It was just something Liam was doing to try to get over him, has to be."
"Hey babe," Chris said when practice ended. Liam gave him a quick peck on the cheek, flustered from practice.
"You were great out there!"
"Thanks," Liam smiled at him. "Lemme just get changed." Quickly heading to the locker rooms in a joyous mood, his smile faded from his face when he saw Brett standing at the end of the hallway. There was no way to avoid him now.
"Hey Liam," Brett began quietly.
"Hi," Liam cursed his voice for sounding so small.
"How are you?"
"...Really?"
"What?"
"You're really going to talk to me now?" Liam asked, disbelief in his voice. He couldn't even meet his eyes. It'd been weeks since he's talked to Brett since that disastrous event.
"I heard you're dating someone," Brett ignored his question, voice tight.
"Why does it matter to you?" Liam defended. He was aware of heat building within him, embarrassment, defense, anger, and hurt all at once.
"It doesn't," Brett scoffed. "You're just doing it to get over me." Shocked by his own words, he watched Liam's reaction.
His jaw dropped, shock flashing across his face, then anger. Brett could hear his heartbeat increase, not from nervousness, but out of anger and frustration.
"This isn't about you!" Liam shouted, his eyes flashing yellow. "Get over yourself." He shoved Brett out of the way, continuing to the locker room.
For the next two weeks, Brett watched Liam's relationship with the other guy develop, and he felt something within him. Something like... jealousy... something like hurt.
That was ridiculous, he didn't even like Liam.
Did he?
"Liam."
"What?" Liam asked, eyes focused on his shoes, refusing to meet his friend's (were they friends anymore?) gaze.
"We need to talk," Brett said simply.
Sighing, Liam looked up, and he almost regretted it. Brett looked exhausted, sleepless. Liam almost asked him what was wrong, but he told himself that he didn't care.
"After the game."
"It's okay guys, we just need to practice a little more and get them next time," Scott finished his speech after the team suffered a major loss. Liam sighed.
The words of his alpha couldn't bring him up. Losing 4-7 was awful. Plain awful. They'd played strategically, but couldn't seem to win.
"Go get changed and get home safely."
Liam made his way to the bleachers, finding Chris immediately, who wrapped him in a hug.
"It's okay. You did great out there. They're just brawn and no brains," Chris reminded. Liam didn't reply; he usually didn't have much to say after losing. Pressing a kiss onto Chris's lips, he whispered, "I'll be back in a bit."
Chris nodded as Liam made his way to the lockers. The team was silent while changing. The only sounds were the loud slamming of lockers.
He forgot that he was supposed to talk to Brett until he caught sight of him while leaving.
"What do you need to talk about?" Liam asked, too tired and disappointed to act tough in front of him.
"Us." With that one word, Liam felt something break within him.
He'd missed Brett, but he reminded himself constantly that he'd broken his heart, and he didn't feel the same. Plus, he was with Chris now. Someone who cared for him, someone that returned his feelings.
"Don't do this. I'm in a relationship, and I don't-" Liam gritted out.
"I don't care. I... I like you," Brett confessed.
A month ago, Liam would've been thrilled to hear those words. Over the moon. Ecstatic.
Now, he was just frustrated, annoyed, and broken.
"I'm. In. A. Relationship," Liam repeated each word.
"Liam, please. I messed up, and I want to try again." His voice was pleading, begging, for a second chance. Liam stared into Brett's eyes, deeply saddened.
He took a slow breath. "Brett, I can't just wait for you to change your mind. It's never been the same since the car, admit it. You came back into my life, and maybe it was a mistake for me to like you, and that drove you back out. And you can't just come knocking again. I'm sorry, I can't do this anymore."
Brett opened his mouth, ready to argue, to plead, to beg, anything to help change Liam's mind.
"I-"
"Don't."
With broken eyes but no tears, Liam reached behind his neck and unclasped the necklace that Brett had given him so long ago. The one he never took off. Ever.
Brett's mouth fell open slowly. He still had it. After all this time.
Gently taking Brett's hand, he opened his palm and carefully pushed the necklace into it.
"Yours again." Liam smiled, but sadness evident in his blue eyes. "Never thought I'd ever take it off."
"I gave this to you as a gift," Brett tried to reply calmly, but he felt the fear, hurt, and anger course through his veins.
This necklace had been a gift for Liam. He meant so much to him years ago, and he still did, and he completely fucked up if Liam was returning it to him.
He tried to grab Liam's hand, tried to hand it back to him.
"I don't want it anymore," Liam said quietly, jerking his hand away.
Brett did not hear a skip in Liam's heartbeat.
No lies. No more.
"Goodnight Brett."
Just like the night so long ago when Brett gave him the necklace.
He tried to find something to say.
Anything. Anything to make Liam stay. But his mind and his mouth failed him.
There was nothing he could possibly say to make anything up. He watched Liam until his back was out of his sight. He looked at the necklace, the blue eyes and the metal still vibrant as ever.
He felt a burning feeling behind his eyes, and before he knew it, tears were streaking down his face as he closed his fingers over the necklace.
"I'm sorry Liam."