Page 52 of Wants and Needs
They all laugh again, but I’m stuck on CJ’s words.
He said supportLiam, not me, and that makes me forget about how he’s been scheming with Milton behind my back.
Well not forget it, really, but be grateful for it.
“We need to figure out if Adam and Mike are going so you can tell them too—” CJ gets into organization mode and leaves the room as well.
Derek and Wolf are still shoveling food into their mouths, the sudden silence clearly doesn’t bother them in the least.
Derek’s been like that ever since Adam introduced us during our Freshman year at Cavendish more than a decade ago, and Wolf has been too as far as I know. It’s why it was so easy for them to become the best of friends when they met in LA.
I’m glad to see them back to being their usual selves now that they’re over their whole friendship breakup that happened when Wolf was in rehab. The natural order is them being grumpy together and communicating with grunts.
Which they do right now, and they even turn to nod at each other at the same time, which is creepy. Almost like they can read each other’s thoughts. I’m about to make some snarky remark, since that’s howIcommunicate with them, when Liam stands abruptly.
His chair almost topples from how strongly he pushed it back.
“I need to leave,” he says quietly, then runs out of the room.
Derek and Wolf’s weird connection forgotten, I go after him, of course I do.
“Liam, wait,” I call out just as he opens the front door—and he stops. “Are you okay? Did we do anything to upset you?” I hope he knows none of us were laughing at him.
“I’m fine,” he says, and his tone would suggest he is, but he won’t look back at me. He already has one strap of his backpack over his shoulder, so he really is ready to leave. “I just need to sleep well for tomorrow’s session with Wolf and Hawk.”
“All right,” I whisper. “You can call or text me any time if you want to talk.”
“Okay,” he says simply, then he walks out of the brownstone.
I stand there for a long time, just staring at the door and trying to figure out what we did to upset him.
“You don’t want to eat?” CJ asks suddenly from behind me and makes me jump a little. I turn quickly to look at him.
“No, Liam and I ate some before . . .”
“I hope he’s not upset,” CJ says softly.
“I think he is, but he wouldn’t tell me why,” I confess.
“Derek and I are going to their recording session tomorrow. If you want to come, you can talk to him then.”
“Maybe,” I murmur.
“I talked to Adam. He said they’re all going to this thing on Monday, so you should probably tell them.”
“Yeah.” He does a good job of distracting me. “We can have everyone over on Saturday. Milton wants more of Theo’s treats, and Mike will surely love his cooking, so it’s as good a time as any to get everyone together.”
“I’ll text them.” He does so right away, and I feel buzzing in my pants so I guess he texted in our group chat.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I ask seriously, when he locks his phone.
He just looks at me for a long moment, and I start to worry it’s something about the gallery or the brownstone. It doesn’t help when he sighs and rubs his hand down his face.
“I don’t even know why I’m nervous telling you this,” he mutters.
“Just tell me already,” I snap at him.
“I quit the residency,” he blurts, then his eyes open wide like he’s scared.
