Archive of Our Own

Hayden and Tracy found them right where they knew that they would be: standing next to each other at their lockers like they did every morning.

Ever since they met in freshman year and shared a mutual distrust of math teachers, math textbooks, and math in general, Liam and Theo had been pretty much inseparable. They did everything together, including skating, complaining, and eating an ungodly amount of pizza. Theo drove Liam to school every morning, Liam bought them both breakfast sandwiches in the cafeteria, and they’d head to their lockers to hang out and talk before they went to first period. After a few years of friendship, it was only natural that they’d developed a routine.

Everyone knew that wherever one went, the other was sure to follow. They were even voted “attached at the hip” for yearbook superlatives in freshman year, despite the superlatives page usually being dominated by the upperclassmen - that was just how well-known the two of them were as best friends. As well as that, they were jokingly voted “cutest couple” in sophomore year, so that version of the yearbook had a picture of sophomore Liam kissing sophomore Theo on the cheek. They both thought that was pretty funny.

However, there were definitely people who did not think that was pretty funny, namely the girls they were both dating. While Liam and Theo had laughed upon seeing the picture published, Hayden and Tracy had both rolled their eyes and pretended to smile. Obviously, they’d wanted their boyfriends to be in the “cutest couple” section...just not with each other. That was probably what marked the beginning of the end.

That Friday morning, Liam and Theo were discussing what they wanted to do over the weekend. They already knew that Theo was coming over to Liam’s place for a sleepover, but they were still trying to decide between a movie marathon, ordering too many pancakes from McDonald’s, going to a skatepark, or a combination of the three. Theo’s vote was for the skatepark and pancakes, but Liam was arguing the benefits of adding in the movie marathon when Hayden and Tracy came up and decided to interrupt them.

“We need to talk,” They heard Tracy’s voice from behind them say. Liam shut his locker in confusion and looked at Theo, but didn’t get too far before he heard his own girlfriend’s voice right next to her.

“To both of you,” Hayden said. 

Theo and Liam turned around, both a little annoyed at being interrupted in the middle of their very important pancake conversation, but polite enough to listen. Hayden and Tracy didn’t get mad often, at least not outwardly, so seeing them both with their shoulders set and scowls on their faces was an interesting sight. 

Liam looked down at Hayden, who was glaring at him. She folded her arms across her chest in a way that Liam never thought was very intimidating, but he knew she meant business.“I think it’s time we break up,” She said simply.

Theo’s head snapped to look at Liam, who looked like he’d just been slapped in the face. His eyes were slightly wider and his lips parted in surprise. Theo couldn’t even say anything before Tracy scoffed at him disgustedly.

“Don’t look at him, this is about you, too,” She snapped, bringing Theo’s attention right back to her. 

“Do you guys know how exhausting it is when your boyfriend only ever talks about some other guy?” Hayden asked, looking between the two of them. They were both smart enough not to answer that, both of them having figured out that this was a classic ‘I talk, you listen’ kind of thing that they’d seen their mothers do to their fathers. 

Tracy nodded, scowling at Theo. “Right! It’s like all I ever hear about is Liam, Liam, and more Liam. And that’s on the rare occasion that we’re alone together, because guess who you’re always with? Liam!”

“Even when we’re on dates you guys are together,” Hayden scoffed. Liam opened his mouth to stupidly try and say something anyway, but she raised a finger to shut him up. “You know, double dates are supposed to be fun on occasion . They’re not fun when it’s every single time we go out and Tracy and I have to sit there bored and listen to you talk about skateboarding or whatever for an hour and a half!”

Tracy glanced at her in agreement and turned back to them angrily. “It’s honestly like the two of you are together and not us ,” She said. “Who got voted ‘cutest couple’ last year? You guys. What the hell are we supposed to think about that?”

“Come on, Trace, that was only a joke,” Theo sighed, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder like he knew she liked, but she swatted it away. 

“The point is that we’re sick of it!” Tracy shot. “So there’s a decision to make, Liam and Theo.”

Hayden nodded, her folded arms shifting and tightening. “Yeah. We both talked it over, and we decided to give you a choice,” She said, her chin held high and her voice determined. “Something’s gotta give. It’s us, your girlfriends ,” Hayden emphasized, pointing to her and Tracy like it was the obvious answer. “Or each other.”

For the first time since the entire conversation started, Theo and Liam both looked at each other as Hayden and Tracy stood waiting. They found a similar look of confusion and incredulousness in each other’s eyes. Were they serious? Wanting them to choose them over each other? They’d both sort of known that their girlfriends weren’t the biggest fans of their friendship, but this ? This was insane.

Liam looked back at Hayden, not even trying to hide the incredulous look on his face that she’d even ask him something like that. If she didn’t want to let Liam hang out with Theo anymore, then she obviously wasn’t the one for him. “I’m choosing him,” He said, motioning towards Theo. Hayden’s lips parted in shock and anger, and Tracy did the same a second later when they noticed Theo nodding.

“Yeah, me too,” He agreed, bumping shoulders with Liam. 

Tracy and Hayden stayed behind just for a second, looking at them both and giving them a second to rethink their decisions. They didn’t. They just looked at their now ex-girlfriends, completely confident in their choices, until they both scoffed and walked away from them at the same time.

They stood in silence for a second, both watching them go with bewildered looks on their faces. “Did we just get...broken up with?” Liam asked, just to clarify. “At the same time?”

Theo nodded slowly, his eyes on their retreating forms. “Yep,” He said. 

“Hm.”

“Yeah.”

Liam turned back to Theo and their lockers. “Maybe we should skip the skatepark tonight and just do the movie marathon and pancakes.”

Theo shoved a book into his locker. “Sounds like a plan.”

+++

Theo came over to Liam’s house as scheduled at six o’clock and headed right down to the basement as always. All he had with him were a few of the plastic cases of McDonald’s breakfast-all-day hotcakes, knowing that he and Liam would be sharing the queen-size or falling asleep on the couch anyway, so he didn’t need to bother with a pillow or a blanket.

Everything was pretty much normal as they settled onto the couch downstairs. Liam already had one of their favorite movies que’d up on Netflix to watch, other snacks were set out on the coffee table, and blankets and pillows were spread on the couch. As soon as Theo got settled, he put an arm around Liam’s shoulders and pulled him closer, and Liam put his head on Theo’s chest. Tracy and Hayden had always thought it was weird that they cuddled, but why wouldn’t they? Cuddling made everything infinitely better and more comfortable, and they didn’t really understand why someone wouldn’t cuddle with their best friend whenever they could.

So the cuddling wasn’t out of the ordinary, but something was definitely off. By the time they started up the first movie, they’d barely spoken a word to each other. That was just wrong. Even after spending hours at school together, Theo and Liam always had something to talk about, so while comfortable silence was okay, it wasn’t common.

They were twenty minutes into the movie when Liam got tired of it. He’d been feeling weird about everything since he got home from school, which would’ve been normal, considering he’d just been broken up with, but that wasn’t what was making him feel weird. What made him feel weird was that he felt nothing at all, and he couldn’t bear any more blank space. He needed to talk, for god’s sake.

“You okay?” Theo asked, looking down at him questioningly. Liam pulled his head off Theo’s chest and nodded, stretching.

“Yeah,” He said, shrugging and leaning back against the couch. Theo leaned with him so they were both looking at each other again, Theo with concern in his eyes. “I just...feel weird,” Liam admitted. 

Theo’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked away, but he nodded. “Me too,” He said. “It’s like…”

“Like we should be wallowing?” Liam finished for him. Theo nodded again and breathed out a sigh of relief, glad that Liam was feeling the same indifference as him.

“Yeah,” Theo agreed. “It’s like...we both just got broken up with, but I really couldn’t care less,” He explained. “I mean, I liked Tracy, but I just don’t... feel anything.”

“No, me neither,” Liam said. “I was waiting all day for some big regretful revelation, but it just never came. I’m honestly just...over it? I shouldn’t be, but I am,” He admitted, shaking his head. He sat up and scowled. “I mean, they did break up with us for a dumbass reason.”

Theo nodded, his eyes widening. “Right? They could’ve talked to us about that before they decided to throw an ultimatum at us,” He scoffed. “I don’t even talk about you that often.”

“I don’t talk about you that much, either! And if I did, who cares? You’re my best friend, how couldn’t I?” Liam exclaimed. 

Theo put his head on the back of the couch and sighed. “That was just such bullshit,” He breathed, looking up at the ceiling. Liam nodded and fell back with him, his head resting on Theo’s shoulder. He needed Theo’s warmth after all that; Theo had always been good at calming him just by being there. Theo wrapped his arm around Liam’s shoulders again and clicked play on the movie, filling the room with idle noise again.

Still, their thoughts were running rampant and they were barely listening to the dialogue. Even though neither of them really felt anything about their breakups, that didn’t mean they weren’t still thinking about them. They still felt like they should be sadder about this than they were, even if their relationships had ended for a dumb reason. Hayden and Tracy had been the only two girls who came close to understanding Liam and Theo as well as they did each other, so it should feel like a devastating loss that they’d gotten tired of them.

There was something else, too. They were both thinking about what Tracy had said about the two of them dating, and how ridiculous that was. Even though they could kind of see why people might think they were together, they were both one-hundred percent straight and were never into any other guys, let alone each other. The way they acted around each other was perfectly normal friendship stuff. Best friends play-flirted and cuddled, and in Liam’s opinion, if people didn’t, then they weren’t really best friends. 

“They really were being ridiculous,” Liam mumbled into Theo’s neck, then pulled away for a breath. “They really said that we act like we’re together .”

Theo laughed. “Girl best friends just work different, I guess,” He said. “I don’t get how girl best friends can do stuff like kiss and be naked in front of each other and have it be entirely normal, but we can’t cuddle .” Liam nodded, laughing along as the movie played in the background. “What does it even matter? If the two of us were to kiss, there wouldn't be any issue with it because we’re friends . Friends can do whatever they want and there doesn’t have to be feelings behind it.”

“Right,” Liam said, sitting up and angling himself to face Theo with a playful smile. Theo returned it, obviously seeing where he was going with this. Liam pulled out his phone, pulling up his camera. If he posted this, which he was already planning on captioning with ‘bromance ,’ Tracy and Hayden would be so pissed. “So plant one on me.”

Theo moved closer, neither one of them thinking anything weird about it. Liam held his phone up in front of them so the camera would pick up both of their profiles, pressed down the button to record on Snapchat, and shut his eyes. 

All they were thinking as Theo came closer was how funny it was going to look on Liam’s phone and the look on Hayden and Tracy’s faces when they’d inevitably end up seeing it, but those thoughts only lasted until their lips touched. For a split second, everything was normal, and they were still trying to hold back their laughs, but the next, they went silent. 

The brush of their lips was chaste, only meant to be teasing, until Theo paused for a second and titled forward to press their lips together more firmly. Liam’s eyelids fluttered and his eyebrows drew together, but he didn’t pull away. Instead, he set his phone down on the couch next to them, now incredibly aware of the rabbit-pace of his heartbeat. They were kissing . They were kissing each other, and it felt way too good.

They broke away without even a noise between them, both of them looking at each other wide-eyed. Their hearts raced in their chests, a mutual look of shock on both of their faces and the feeling running through their veins. “ Oh ,” Theo breathed, and Liam bit his lip.

“Yeah,” He said breathlessly, not entirely sure what he was agreeing to but not caring. All he knew was that Theo was coming forward again, and Liam was leaning in right there with him.

Their lips met again, this time even more insistently, and their hands reached up to touch each other in ways they’d only ever joked about before. Liam’s hands came up to touch the short stubble Theo was growing on his jaw, scratchy under his palms, and Theo reached for Liam’s hips. Liam had always thought Theo’s hands were a little bigger than they needed to be, but he’d never thought as far as the way they’d be able to squeeze him. He couldn’t help but let out a little noise against Theo’s mouth, but he wasn’t embarrassed. He could feel the way Theo was heating up under his touch way too quickly to be normal.

Theo had never felt this way with Tracy or anybody else he dated, and he really had no idea why he’d never thought about doing this with Liam before. They already spent so much time together and were compatible, so it seemed insane that this had never even crossed his mind. While he was able to cool off with Tracy pretty quick and was never really a huge fan of kissing in general, he now understood why - he just hadn’t been kissing the right person. His hands squeezed Liam’s hips one more time to make him make that noise again before he wrapped them around the small of Liam’s back, his fingers splayed out and pressing against the thin material of Liam’s shirt. 

Liam had never been kissed like this before, either. With Hayden, the only other person he’d ever kissed, he felt like he automatically needed to take control of everything and call all the shots. With Theo, he was kind of struggling to stay above the surface of full-out dizzy, and didn’t mind at all what a fight it was. He felt Theo’s tongue trace along the seam of his lips and he moaned quietly, cheeks burning hot but unashamed. Their tongues tangled and they kissed the same way that Liam had wanted to for his entire life. He’d thought that this kind of kissing, the kind that felt exactly right and sent shivers down his spine, were reserved only for romanticized retellings and stories. As it turned out, that wasn’t the case. This kind of kissing had apparently been available to him for years, and he just hadn’t known it until now.

Hayden and Tracy were right to break up with them. In fact, Theo and Liam had never been happier to see something fall apart before now.

They only broke away to breathe, and this time, there were surprised, thoughtful smiles on their faces. “... Wow ,” Liam whispered, and Theo nodded before going to press another kiss to his mouth. “Jesus, I…”

“Why don’t we not talk?” Theo suggested, starting to kiss down Liam’s neck instead of his mouth. This time, Liam had no problem with that.

+++

On Monday morning, Hayden and Tracy found them right where they knew that they would be: standing next to each other at their lockers like they did every morning. 

They’d come there, expecting to see the two of them with dark circles under their eyes or something else that proved that they were regretting their decision to choose each other over their girlfriends. However, Hayden and Tracy stood in the middle of the hallway, mouths both ajar, when they found something entirely different. Instead of standing around with looks to pity, they were holding hands with their fingers interlocked.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Hayden said to Tracy, who was already turning away to flounce off to first period.

It was safe to say that things hadn’t gone as planned for any of them.