Liamnjase

It all started back when Liam and Jase were 14 and when Liam bleached his hair blonde because he hated it being brown and when Jase still wore glasses. Back when Liam and Jase were attached at the hip and were considered a package deal so people shortened Liam and Jase into just one word, Liamnjase.

Back when Jase would invite Liam over to his house to stay the night and they’d play the violent video games that Jase loved and Liam hated until Liam’s eyelids felt like they weighed a ton and he had to force himself to stay awake or risk Jase teasing him in the morning. Back when Liam would purposefully forget his pajamas and Jase would roll his eyes and stuff a pair of his gym shorts and a t-shirt that was too small for Liam into his hands. Liam loved the way Jase smelled and when the other boy was drooling all over his pillow in his sleep, Liam would sneak around his room and try to find the cologne Jase had to be using but he never found a bottle.

Jase just naturally smelled addicting.

Then Liam would crawl back underneath Jase’s old Star Wars blankets and he would smell the shirt Jase gave him and he’d think to himself, I’m in love, because to a boy who’d never actually been in love and whose only way of knowing what it felt like was the sappy made-for-TV movies his mom would make him watch with her, it seemed that way.

And damn, did he fall hard.