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“Are you copying me or summat?” Liam asked his brother from his spot on the couch. Noel took a seat across from him and cracked open a beer bottle with the little opener Liam offered.
“Me copy you?” Noel asked incredulously, taking a sip. “That’s ridiculous.”
Liam laughed and raised his own beer. “Cheers.” The older brother raised his bottle and took a sip. “You’re not gonna say it back, Noely?”
“Piss off,” Noel retorted. The drink went down smoothly and a silence settled over the two brothers.
They were both sat in Liam’s empty house, now devoid of most of the pictures the younger had with his ex-wife Patsy. A few photos of her and Liam with their child Lennon were scattered about, and Noel took his time looking at them on the wall.
“Enjoying my decor?” Liam asked.
“Something like that, our kid,” Noel replied.
Liam put his hands behind his head. “We’re both single men now, innit?”
Noel sighed and took another long sip of his drink. “Seems to be that way.”
“You were just copying me, huh? Choosing to get a divorce one year after me?” Liam laughed. Noel just rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, whatever.”
“You got married the same year as me, too.”
Noel hummed. They’d gotten married the same year as each other, Noel right after Liam, and all their other major life events happened almost simultaneously too. Liam had his child Lennon in 1999, and Noel had his daughter in 2000, then Liam got his divorce that same year and Noel followed right after in 2001. Lately, it really was like Noel was copying his brother and all his life choices.
“You’re going to write some more tunes, yeah?”
Thank goodness for Liam’s voice breaking Noel’s train of thought. “‘Course, what, am I going to leave it to you or Bonehead? We’d go bankrupt.” Liam laughed again and tilted his head to smile at Noel. Noel felt a frown pulling at his lips so he raised the bottle to hide it behind a swig of beer. Liam didn’t say anything and instead seemed to be admiring Noel. “What are you lookin’ at?”
“You.”
Noel pulled the bottle away and really tried to figure out what was going on in Liam’s head. The kid was looking at him like he hung the stars and it made Noel uncomfortable. “Stop that, look at the wall.”
“Don’t want to.”
Noel scoffed and continued drinking his beer. There were four more in the case to share between them and a pack of reds if he felt like smoking. Then, before Noel could calculate how much he should be drinking tonight, he felt Liam scoot closer to him on the couch and suddenly there was an arm on top of the couch behind Noel’s head. It wasn’t around his shoulders–and thank goodness for that too, because Noel would have shoved Liam away–but it was just close enough to simulate the feeling.
“Are you feeling clingy, our kid?” Noel asked.
“Nope. Not even a bit.”
Noel rolled his eyes and finished, putting the empty bottle down. “You’re a grown man now, Liam, you’ve got a kid and an ex-wife, and here you are clinging to me. You’re too grown for this.”
“You always say that,” Liam replied, looking off at the wall. “You’re grown too, shouldn’t you stop tolerating clinginess from your brother?”
Noel rolled his eyes again and Liam thought for a moment that his brother would shake him off. Instead, Noel grabbed another beer. “I should.”
“Then do it.”
A beat of silence.
Noel cracked open the bottle in his hands and sipped it, allowing Liam’s arm to remain behind his head on the couch before it slowly slipped to Noel’s shoulders. The older man snorted but made no remark as he felt the arm tighten the slightest bit around him.
“You’re not going to leave, right?” Liam asked.
Noel looked up to the ceiling. “No.”
“Dunno what I’d do without you, Noely.”
Noel hummed.
Truthfully, the songwriter didn’t know what he’d do without Liam. Where else would he have gone if not here after his divorce settlement? There was nowhere else Noel would have even wanted to be than here with his brother after the breakup with his ex-wife and Noel felt a pang of sympathy for his baby brother when he had his own divorce the year previous.
“Something on your mind, our kid?”
Noel shook his head. “Nothing.”
He needed to stop thinking of Liam as his baby brother. The man was an adult with a divorce and child under his belt. But when Liam looked back at Noel and caught his gaze, Noel couldn’t help but look at Liam like he was that little boy in their shared bedroom again.
"I'm not going anywhere."