Page 11 of Just a Footnote

Aiden stands abruptly. “Do you want a beer?”

“Sure.”

He takes a minute to take a deep breath in the kitchen. It’s just Liam Walsh. He’s around him all the time. Why is his heart racing? It’s absurd. Aiden grabs two beers, twists the caps off, then returns to the living room and hands one to Liam. The television is paused between games. An eerie glow fills the room as they sip at their beers.

“You’ve never asked us to spend Christmas with you before,” Aiden points out.

“It’s our senior year. Next year y’all will be in New York, Miles in Boston, and I could end up anywhere. Archer is my best friend and Miles is a good friend.” Liam shrugs before taking a long pull from his beer. “You don’t have to come.”

“Archer won’t spend Christmas without me.”

“I know, hence the invitation I extended to you.”

“Okay.”

Liam shifts on the couch, so his body is angled toward Aiden. “Okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. We’ll be there. I won’t play happy family though. Archer is my family and by extension so is Miles because I have no doubt, he’ll be my brother-in-law one day but…I’ll show up at your place on Christmas.”

“You really know how to make a guy feel special, wow.” Liam widens his eyes, then rolls them. He places his now empty beer on the coffee table. “You treat all the girls like this?”

“I treat everyone like this,” Aiden points out, smirking. “But also if you’re Archer’s best friend then you know I don’t date. Men or women. So, it doesn’t matter how I treat them in the end.”

Liam’s face flushes, looking away, but it only makes it easier for Aiden to watch the flush spread to his neck too. Interesting.

“You’re kind of a dick sometimes.”

Aiden shrugs one shoulder. “Not any more so than Archer.”

“Different kind of dick.”

“Yeah?” Aiden leans over and flicks Liam’s nose. “A dick is a dick.”

“Can we stop talking about dicks?”

“You started it.”

Liam huffs, leans back on the sofa, rubbing his hands overhis eyes. “I should get back to my place and try to sleep. We have a game tomorrow.”

Aiden realizes that Liam looks tired. More so than usual. “Sleep here. It’s not like you haven’t done it before.”

He grabs a pillow and blanket from Archer’s bed. Liam is already starting to fall asleep on the couch when Aiden appears beside him. Something in Aiden’s heart squeezes at the sight of him so tired. Every time he sees Liam like this it makes him feel the same way. Maybe it’s just his protective instincts kicking in but that never happens with Miles. If anything, when Miles is sleepy, hisgive him shitinstincts kick into overdrive. He puts the pillow under Liam’s head, places the blanket over him, backing away before he can do something stupid like kiss his fucking forehead.

Sleep eludes him for a long time. He tells himself it’s because he’s not used to sharing a dorm with someone without his brother there. But he doesn’t quite think that’s the real reason.

Finals weekalways almost kills Aiden. Every year. But this year is the hardest. Plus, he’s starting to catch a cold at the same time. He doesn’t have time to be sick when he has three lab finals to complete along with a research paper. Twenty pages on whatever the fuck his professor assigned him are due in three days and he only has two pages written. Fuck. Thankfully his paper is due at the end of the week, but he still has to suffer through his labs sick as hell.

After his second lab, he walks out of the science building shivering but he knows it’s not from the cold air. His head feels like there are chickens laying eggs inside it. The eggs might be starting to hatch even. He wishes he had a car in moments like this. The walk to the pharmacy is twenty minutes which soundslike torture to him. Finishing finals week without cold medicine is even bleaker than the idea of a twenty minute walk though.

He reaches the pharmacy despite thinking he might die numerous times along the twenty minute trek. Death will have to try harder to end Aiden Clark. The pharmacy is blessedly warm as he grabs a shopping basket. By the time he’s checking out he’s spent way too much money on tissues, medicine, cough drops, and chocolate candies that he knows he’s not going to taste.

He’s halfway back to campus when a familiar car pulls up next to him. Shit.

“Aiden?” Liam calls out as he rolls down the window.

“That’s me,” Aiden replies but his voice is so scratchy it comes out more miserable than sarcastic.

Liam’s eyebrows furrow, mouth forming a line. “Are you sick?”

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