Chapter Text
I am dating someone! I am dating someone
so
hard, that I am bringing them to Michelle’s wedding!
Even months later, the words played in Liam’s head again and again. He had felt backed into a corner, and with his parents sharing their concern for his post-Beacon Hills love life, he had panicked, and he had lied. He had had plenty of time, he had thought, to make it true. How hard could it be to find someone in Boston to date? Someone that he could get serious with enough to bring to his cousin’s wedding...in Hawaii?
Easy enough, he had told himself, but he had tucked it away, and forgotten about it, until that afternoon, a week before the wedding, when his mother had called to tell him that the rooms were all booked, but Michelle needed the name of his date for the events and place cards.
Liam had panicked, and hung up the phone, telling her that he had Mason on the other line and it was urgent...and then he had thrown his phone away from him like it was a poisonous snake, because oh, he had stepped into it now.
He had only a few hours to dig up a date for his cousin’s wedding, or risk embarrassing himself in front of his entire family, and he didn’t know what to do.
Truth be told, Liam hadn’t really dated since Hayden had left. It wasn’t that he was still wildly caught up on her or anything like that - in fact, they still talked regularly, and maintained a friendship. He wasn’t pining for her, or hoping for a future there. God, that would be insane. He was 26, it had been a full decade, there had just always been other things. First, a million things trying to kill him and his friends at every turn, and then college, and then grad school, and then by some miracle, a tenure track history position at a Boston college that he was only a year into, and he didn’t want to blow it.
After all, it was tenure
track
, not tenure
guarantee,
and so he had spent a lot of his time focusing on school, and keeping in touch with his friends, and as a result, pursuing any sort of romantic relationship had sort of fallen by the wayside. There had been one night stands, the occasional fling, but nothing lasting. No one that he could take to a family wedding, let alone a destination family wedding.
With a sigh, Liam reached for his phone, scrolling through his contacts. He was only 26, how was it possible that everyone that he knew was coupled up? Hell, his best friend was already
married,
but Liam supposed that the bulk of his friends had been involved in the supernatural. They knew how short life could be, so it made sense in a way, but that didn’t change the fact that it left him with very few options.
He was almost to the bottom of his contact list when a name caught his eye, someone he knew was still single, or at least not in anything serious.
Theo Raeken.
“No, thank you,” Liam said to himself. “I would rather die.”
He continued to scroll, but by the time he reached the bottom of the contact list, there was really no one else that he knew well enough to take to Hawaii that was still on the market.
It was Theo Raeken, or his entire family learning that he had lied, and worrying about him all weekend. While it wasn’t an easy choice, it wasn’t his wedding, it was Michelle’s, and he liked Michelle, and her fiancee, Grace. He didn’t want to start shit at their wedding.
With a heavy sigh, he pressed call.
“Are you dying?” Theo answered.
“Well hello to you, too,” Liam said, rolling his eyes.
“For real, though,” Theo said. “You never call.”
To be fair, Theo was right. They kept in touch, and saw each other every time Liam was in town, but it was entirely over text, and the video chats the pack had.
“Right, well, I was going to - fuck, nope, nevermind.”
He moved to hang up, but Theo stopped him.
“Well now you
have
to tell me.”
Liam could practically hear the smirk in Theo’s voice, and he wasn’t sure that he would ever get used to the fact, that even from 2000 miles away, he could still clearly picture that smirk on the 28 year old’s face, and it was infuriating.
“I don’t have to do shit.”
“Feisty today, aren’t we? I thought you had largely outgrown that.”
Again, Theo was right. Liam had calmed down a lot since his high school days, but he was flustered now, and older habits were coming into play.
“What can I say? You bring out the worst in me.”
Wow, that is
not
something you say to someone you need a favor from…
“Why are you calling, Dunbar?”
“I…” Liam sighed, tugging a hand through his hair. “I kind of need your help with something?”
“Rival pack?”
“Er, no…”
“Wendigos?”
“No, I-”
“Hunters?”
“A wedding.”
“What, like a vampire bride situation?” Theo snorted.
“No, my cousin’s wedding.” Liam felt pained even thinking about asking. “I need a date.”
“Look, I know I meet a lot of women working as a bartender, but I can’t just like, blind date you with one for-”
“Not a blind date, Theo.
You.
”
There was a long pause on the line before Theo spoke again.
“Dunbar, are you asking me out?”
“What? No, no. God, no.” Liam sighed. “I mean, yes but not for real, I’m just...I sort of fucked up, and I told my mom that I was dating someone, and that I was bringing them to Michelle’s wedding, and I am very much not dating anyone, and I know she worries about me, and David does, too, and I just...don’t want that kind of attention at the wedding, so I need you to be my fake boyfriend. It’s just for a weekend.” He paused. “Next weekend.”
“Liam, I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“I would not be asking you if I weren’t desperate.”
“Wow, way to make a guy feel special,” Theo said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Theo…”
“Sorry, Liam. It’s not a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“It’s just not.”
“
Why?
”
“Because.”
“Because
why?
”
“Why are you like this?”
“Theo, just please come to the fucking wedding with me. Aren’t we past this bullshit of pretending we aren’t friends? Friends have each other’s backs, and despite all of our nonsense, we have always been good at that part. The uh, the back...having...part.”
“Wow, you’re really flustered over this, aren’t you?”
Liam could hear the amusement in Theo’s tone, and he wanted to call him out, but he also needed Theo to say yes, so it seemed for the best to just...can it.
“Please, Theo.”
“What’s in it for me?”
“A weekend in Hawaii?”
“Hawaii? Liam, it’s a
destination
wedding?”
“Yes, but look, it’s just the weekend, okay? We’ll be flying out Friday, and flying back Monday, it’s really nothing at all.”
“A weekend in Hawaii with your family breathing down our necks?”
“Um, I mean, yes, but no one is going to be paying any attention to us. It’s Michelle and Grace’s weekend. The focus will be on them.”
“If I do this,” Theo said. “I am gonna call you one day with a favor, and you are not gonna have any right to say no, you realize that, right?”
“Yes, I totally get it,” Liam said quickly.
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“But you’re buying my plane ticket. You’re paying for everything.”
“Yeah, yes, of course!” Liam nodded. “God, Theo, thank you so much! I will book you a ticket to Boston Thursday, and then we can fly out of here on Friday so we can arrive together. God, you really are saving my life. I’ll e-mail you your ticket. Pack sunscreen, bye!”
“Liam, wait, I-”
“Gotta go!” Liam hung up before Theo could change his mind, and sighed, flopping back on his bed.
He opened up a text to Michelle.
Hey, Mich, mom said you wanted my date’s name - it’s Theo Raeken! Can’t wait to see you soon!
And as he watched the text send, seeing it in writing, he knew that he couldn’t take it back. This might be a bad idea, but at least it was better than the embarrassment that would come with his entire family knowing that he had made up a relationship.