The House

Chapter Four

It took months before Liam stopped feeling like a loser for being duped, after making that stupid decision to go home with Jack at the bar. Even going to the bar was a stupid decision.

Things between him and Morgan had been awkward... The incident made Liam feel closer to him than he ever had, but things were so...weird. Whatever 'game' they used to play was over for a while. Morgan had almost been completely ignoring him lately but things turned around about a week ago when Morgan had suddenly held his hand under the table during a game of cards the house one night. Since then, he seemed to have gone back to normal.

Morgan left for spring break with...what was his name? Alex?  Liam couldn't remember his new boyfriend's name, but he had come to the cabin and then been gone for about a week. 

Liam hadn't wanted to do anything crazy for spring break this year, so he had been staying at the cabin with Ethan and Julian. 

He felt kind of bad. ...Like he was intruding. He didn't expect Morgan to bolt like that once they got there. Now the only thing that had kept Ethan and Julian from a nice romantic getaway was him being there.

"What up, losers," he heard Morgan's voice say casually as the front door cracked open. He walked in with his duffel bag. He looked tired.

"Hey!" Ethan exclaimed, "...You're back early."

"Yeah," was all Morgan said when he threw his car keys onto the counter and walked into the  bedroom that he always claimed when they stayed there.

Liam just continued eating his cereal and watched as Morgan came back out in his swim trunks and a towel, heading back outside. He was probably going out to swim in the lake.

He put his empty cereal bowl into the sink and looked over at Ethan and Julian, who were talking about something on the couch in the living room. It looked like a private conversation, so he didn't want to intrude.

Liam peeked outside, watching Morgan walk out of sight before he went to go grab his guitar from his bedroom and walked out. Whatever Ethan and Julian were talking about, they didn't seem to notice him leaving.

Morgan was already in the water when Liam got to the grass, so he just sat down next to Morgan's towel and started strumming. 

He didn't think Morgan had seen him out there, but he eventually swam back to shore and walked over to lay down on the towel next to him.

"....Can you play a cover for me?" He asked, dripping water all over the place. He looked shiny in the sun.

Liam laughed, "I suck at covers... But sure."

"What do you know?"

Liam thought for a moment and then started playing chords from The Jumper, which was one of the very few covers he'd ever learned to play when he had just gotten his guitar junior year of high school. He still kind of remembered it. 

Morgan laughed, recognizing it after about a minute.

"Liam, you're not gonna sing it?"

Liam laughed and missed a chord, "...No, you know I can't sing." He tried to continue, looking at the guitar neck to remember where he left off.

"Oh come on, that one's easy..."

"It's hard to play and talk, Morgan." Liam stopped strumming and held his palm against the front of the guitar. "You already messed me up."

"I'll mess you up worse than that, if you don't keep playing."

Liam laughed at looked down at him in the grass for a second. Was he joking? Did he mean he'd 'mess him up' in bed? Or did he mean he'd kick the shit outta him?