I want to ask about Liam but I can see that she is shaking. “Maisie, are you okay? Is someone coming for you?”

“My mom is coming.”

“And are you okay?” I feel like she skipped the most important part of the question.

“Yeah, I’m just… I need him to be okay.” Her voice is shaking a little but I think it helps that someone is focusing on her. Adam and his parents are still not back and the guys from the team seem relieved that I am talking to her as I am sure that most of them don’t even know her name.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“We ate in a restaurant. And we had so much fun. I know it’s weird to have just one friend, and I know people think that Liam isn’t that fun, but he and I… we just get on, you know?” I nod. I don’t know why she is justifying her friendship. Especially to me. I pretty much have just one friend – I know the team is here and they are my friends, but I don’t really call any of them when I want to hang out or if I have something to share – and I understand more than most how great Liam is. Even if no one knows that.

“What happened tonight, Maisie?”

“After the restaurant… we were walking and there is this gay bar… you know the one by the library?”

I nod. I know exactly which one she is talking about. When you are starting to question certain things, there are things you can’t not notice.

“We decided to try to get in. I did, actually. Liam felt awkward about it but I convinced him. It sounded fun. And I thought we wouldn’t be allowed in anyway.”

An unpleasant knot is growing in my stomach. I think I know where this is going and I don’t like it. So as desperate as I am to know what happened to Liam, I still try to stretch the story a little longer. “Did you make it in?”

“We did. The bartender is apparently used to teenagers who just came out and he let us stay for one drink as long as it wasn’t alcohol. It was very nice, you know? We talked to a few college boys, and Liam… he was more positive than I’ve seen him in a long time. Like he finally got what ‘it gets better’ means.”

“And then?”

“And then we left and there was this group of guys…”

Maisie starts crying but she keeps telling the story. She tells me all about how they came out of the bar just as two drunk guys were shouting some vile things to a gay couple in front of the bar, how things heated up almost instantly, how they got caught up in the middle of it and the next thing she knew, for some stupid reason no one could have foreseen, Liam tried to step in between of them to stop the fight and ended up being the one receiving the punch. This is both awful and reassuring. One punch. It can’t have been that bad. Right?

But apparently, the punch landed right on his temple, opened his brow ridge, and he hit his nose falling down. There was a bit of blood but, more importantly, Liam started to feel dizzy.

This still makes me feel better. Maisie is shaken because she was in the middle of it and I think she is quite shocked. Adam’s parents freaked out because their child is in the hospital. And I hate that this happened to Liam. But I also think that he is going to be okay.

“Maisie,” I say, trying to get a soothing voice. “It’s going to be fine. You know he is going to be fine, right?”

“They said he needed a scan.”

“That’s because he was feeling dizzy. It’s probably nothing more.”

I notice a bruise on her wrist. She looks down too and shrugs. “I’m fine. Things just got a bit rough.”

I want to ask her more about it but her phone starts ringing. It’s her mom. She picks up and walks away. It was good timing though because that’s also when Adam comes back. He seems much more tired than he was fifteen minutes ago, but he doesn’t seem panicked or down, so I think that’s a good sign.

“Everything alright?” Tom asks.

“Yes. He will be fine.”

Adam doesn’t talk about what happened, he just says that his brother needed some stitches, that he hit his head and vomited so he had a scan but there is no trace of blood so everything seems fine but they’ll keep an eye on him for a night just to be safe. Then he thanks the boys for coming and they all organize their way back home.

“I’d like to stay with you,” I tell Adam. That’s only part of the truth. “Unless you think I’d be imposing, of course.”

“No, please stay. I want my best friend with me. I didn’t tell the guys, but… they have other tests to do to rule out brain bleed or other nasty side effects of being punched in the head and… I know chances are that he’s okay but I’m a bit worried. He’s my baby brother.”

“Do not call him that to his face.”

Adam smiles, which is exactly what I wanted. “No. Good point.”

“Where are your parents?”

“Talking to the police. They arrived five minutes ago. Apparently, they arrested someone. I think they need to talk to Maisie and Liam but my mom is acting like Liam is on his death bed.”

“How is he? Have you talked to him?”

“Yes, but just five minutes. He is with a doctor now to assess if he has to stay the night or if we can monitor him at home.”

“Was the punch that bad?”

“How do you know about the punch?”

“Maisie told me what happened.”

“How is she?”

“She was a bit shaken. I think it’s good her mom arrived.”

“To answer your earlier question… I wasn’t there for the punch, obviously, but it did seem pretty bad. It also was just one punch and not a proper beating down. The bouncer got there pretty quickly. He has a couple of stitches on his eyebrow, but the eye is fine, he hurt his nose but it isn’t broken, he did see blurry after being hit but that didn’t last, and he did get dizzy but he thinks that it was just nerves. They just want to make sure because… just because, I guess.”

Yeah. He doesn’t need to explain why they need to make sure his brain is alright. We stay there a moment in silence. That’s something I like about Adam. We can spend time saying nothing and it’s not awkward, and it doesn’t feel like wasted time.

The pain in my stomach is receding. I still want to see Liam through this but I know deep inside that he will be fine. But now that I am not worrying, trying to calm Maisie, and not even talking to Adam… this gives me time to think. About all those feelings that have overwhelmed me. Stronger feelings than I thought. I have known for a while that I have a crush on Liam, but… maybe this is a little more than a crush?

I look at Adam and I have this strong need to come out to him. I know I won’t. This is not the moment to make it all about me, and this is even less the time to tell him that I am in love with his little brother. But I now have the certainty that I will tell him soon. About me, at least. Probably not about my feelings for Liam. Still. It would already be a massive step for me.