The Rebound Agreement ✔

twenty

[unedited;
please leave some comments as you read!!!]

Liam slams the door as he climbs in the driver's side of his truck. "Let's go," he says as he pulls out onto the road, the usual smile on his lips, except today it doesn't quite seem quite the same as usual.

We were on the way to Liam's old college and my brother's current college. Today was the day of the get together that Liam's friends planned to make up for the one he missed when he was sick and my brother and I's lunch date. And Liam didn't seem to be in the excited mood that I would have expected from a guy about to hang out with the friends he misses.

The silence sits between us for a while, and I take the opportunity to watch him, trying to put a finger on what is wrong. His hands, both of them, shockingly, grip the wheel so hard that his knuckles are white and his eyes gaze at the road emptily, seemingly lost in thought.

I want to ask him what is wrong, but part of me wonders if it's just me overthinking things. He had seemed to at least mostly be his normal happy self when he first knocked on my door and picked me up. Maybe, I was just reading into too much into his silence and slightly creased eyebrows.

But I know Liam enough by now to be doubtful that I'm just overreacting. In all the time I've been with him, he's rarely outwardly seemed to be overly upset, even when I know he is. He likes to keep his negative feelings veiled, and I'm wondering if this is what he's doing now.

I pull my legs up onto the seat and cross them, leaning over to rest my right elbow on the arm rest and my head on my hand. The filled in cracks on the road make a thumping sound as we drive over them, and I get lost in thought staring at the white line out the window roll bye.

Liam has the radio tuned to a pop station, and today it is cranked up louder than usual. Part of me thinks this is his way of saying that he doesn't want talk, but another part of me wonders if he's trying to drown out his thoughts with it. Based on his vacant expression, if the latter is true, it's not working very well.

Liam switches the station and lets out a sigh, loosening his iron grip on the steering wheel and dropping his right hand to rest on the console between the seats. I study him the best that I can from a side view of his head that seems to be permanently faced forward. But it's hard to try to figure out what he's thinking when I can't see his eyes.

Hesitantly, I set my left hand on the console less than an inch from his so that, if he wants to, he can hold it. I don't know if whatever is upsetting him is something big or small, but either way, I want to give him the option of my support if he wants it.

But apparently he doesn't. If anything, his hand seems to slowly migrate away from my hand, not towards it. I stifle the bit of me that is disappointed because of this.

After another ten minutes or so, I take my hand off the console, defeated, and set it in my lap. Once ten more minutes has lapsed, I can't stand the silence between us and the worry anymore.

I reach up and turn the radio down. "What's wrong?"

Liam stares straight a head, not answering for so long that I start to wonder if he heard. "Nothing. I'm fine," he answers flippantly.

Worry creases my brow as I turn to face him. "Are you sure?" I ask, afraid to push him.

"I'm sure." He glances over at me momentarily before quickly turning back to the road. "Well," he pauses, apparently rethinking not telling me and sweeping a hand through his hair, "I found out earlier today that Amber and Jaxon broke up."