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Liam? Oh he’s my best mate! We’ve known each other since forever.
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“You promise you’ll be careful with it!” Keith repeated probably for the hundredth time this evening. Despite all the nonchalant reassurance Liam was trying to give him, he was still scared of handing him the keys to his beautiful car he had worked pretty much all his life for.
“If I see a single scratch on that Sierra Cosworth you’re a dead man Liam!”
“It ain’t gonna have anything Flinty,” he said as he gave him yet another pat on the shoulder. “and I’m bringing it back as soon as I got what I wanted from that girl, I promise.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure…” The owner of the car answered, still reluctant of put the keys in the open hand in front of him. He looked back to his car, admired it, it’s pretty soothing blue color. Every single neuron in his mind was screaming to him to not lend this keys, to not lend the thing that was the most precious to him. But Liam was his best friend. He could trust him surely. Liam knew how precious this car was to him, he knew he couldn’t afford to fuck it up.
With a nervous sigh, he slid the keys inside Liam’s hand, who immediately closed it and secured his key (both literal and metaphorical) to this new lady’s heart.
“Thank you mate. I’ll see you later tonight” Liam said with a bright smile, already taking the few steps that separated him from his car-for-a-night.
Keith remained silent, just watching him get onto the conductor seat, which was his place. He stepped aside when he heard the engine roar. He couldn’t help but pick up the first tool his hands found to fidget with it, his body desperately trying to find a way to get rid of the stress.
Liam waved him goodbye, and he couldn’t bring himself to do the same. He watched his car leave his garage, and kept his eyes on it until he couldn’t see it anymore after he turned right at the end of the street.
“I have a bad feeling about this…” he mumbled to himself, turning away and getting back into his house, where he’ll probably stay anxious until a few hours later. And he had all reasons to be.
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Strange how I don’t feel confident, even though he’s the closest person to me in my whole fucking life.
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Keith’s home phone ringed, with a bit of fear, Keith picked up:
“Keith Flint here, what can I do for you?”
“Hello Mr.Flint, ehm… Hospital Kingston here, we’re calling you because your friend judged it… necessary for us to call you.”
“My friend? Liam? Is it that guy you’re talking about? Why is he at the hospital? Is he alright?” he quivered, sending a serie of rapid-fire questions to the other guy on the phone, his stress only growing greater as the thoughts of Liam potentially being critically hurt.
“Yes, yes, it’s kind of a miracle that he is alright actually.”
“Why? What happened?!”
“I’m getting to it.” the male nurse answered, sounding like anything but stressed, as if it was the most chill call he could ever make. “Mr.Howlett got into an accident because of the slippery road” he started. “and because he was going too fast.” he added, and Keith almost stopped listening already. An accident, that could only mean one thing. “He got out of it with a broken leg, despite the car rolling over eight times!”
“How’s the car.” Keith asked, the question purely instinctual, an uncontrollable worry.
“What?”
“HOW’S MY CAR?” He repeated, louder, angrily almost.
“Well… That’s the thing Liam didn’t want us to tell you about.” The nurse mumbled, sounding embarrassed and making it clear that the answer was not positive at all.
“I don’t fucking care about what he told you to do, is my Ford okay?”
“It’s not. Completely destroyed and unusable. Sorry to break it out to you.” The man sounded genuinely sorry, and it made Keith only more destroyed in the inside, leaving him no choice but to accept the truth that he couldn’t try to deny with the “Liam is just playing jokes on me again” excuse.
Keith refrained tears from growing in his eyes, surely there was a way to fix this whole situation.
“Did you subscribe an assurance or something for it?” The nurse quivered. Keith bitterly answered “no…”. All his economies went into the car, not the assurance for it. He had planned to take one. Later. But later was too late already it seemed.
“What’s the room of this motherfucker?” He asked.
“Visits are not allowed at this hour” the nurse answered, sensing the anger in Keith’s voice, that is a strong deterrent to the idea of letting him in the hospital anyway.
“I asked, where is Liam staying in that damn hospital?” he asked again, trying to sound calmer. The nurse sighed, and quickly chatted with someone in the background
“Sarah, am I on the night shift today?”
“Yes you are”
“Huh, great, thanks” he said before coming back to Keith. “Okay, I can let you in if you come, but promise me you won’t hit your friend, no matter how mad you are. It could cause me some serious problems.”
“I won’t. Thanks mate.” Keith said, grateful that the other man seemed a bit comprehensive. He hanged up, and ran to his house’s entrance to slide his boots on, and take his motorcycle jacket. He grabbed his helmet on the way to his garage, and easily jumped onto his old, second-hand, red Ducati Monster, that he was sure he would never hand to Liam.
He raced through the streets, seeing why his dumb ass of a friend had an accident. The classic English summer rain was always the cause of plenty of accidents. Keith just never expected him (who was a pretty skilled driver let’s admit it) to be the victim of one, not even a collateral victim.
But there he was, rushing to the hospital, not even because his friend was in a bad position, but because said “friend” completely ruined his life. He opened the door and stepped in after leaving his motorcycle on two parking spots, like an asshole, but he had all rights to be one just for tonight.
He walked up to the reception, and was met with a male nurse, who was probably who he had on the phone a moment ago.
“Keith?” the man quivered as his eyes left the sheet of paper with incomprehensible scribbles that he was reading.
“Yes, it’s me.” He answered, the other man now pointing to the corridor beside him.
“This way, room 022, all the way back there” he indicated, already going back to the administrative papers he had to deal with. “Just be quiet for the patients who are sleeping.”
“No problem, thanks mate” He said, trying to put on a smile to go with it, but not really succeeding. He went into the corridor, looking at each door until he reached number 22, which’s lights were still on. He didn’t bother knocking, and just opened the door, discovering Liam, laid on the bed with a huge smile on his face despite his leg being trapped in plaster. Smile was probably because of the young woman sat next to him, with her back facing Keith, rather than him being there.
They were chatting and apparently having the time of their life, but he was there to stop them in their tracks.
“Liam.” he called, just making his presence known.
“Oh… Keith.” Liam answered, his smile fading as quickly as it ever did. “Ehm Natalie, I present to you Keith which is… my best friend? Still?” He would usually have put it as an affirmation, but not this time, not with the face Keith was giving him.
“You really think so? After you destroyed my car?”
“Your car?” questioned Natalie with a puzzled look, his eyes going from Liam to Keith, and from Keith to Liam.
“You said it was YOURS?!” rose up Keith, even angrier now, even if it was obvious from the beginning that Liam would pretend it was his.
Liam was only letting out weak sounds of protestation, knowing that he was completely fucked already and had no choice but to accept all the criticism that will be poured on him from now on.
“Listen Keith I-”
“I do not give a single fuck about your excuses Liam, you promised me you wouldn’t fuck it up!” He hated to be on the verge of tears because of this, but all the overwhelming emotions he had stuck inside couldn’t be contained anymore. “You’re gonna repay that car Liam, you’re gonna find the exact same model and replace it!”
“Dude! You know I do not have the money to do that! I’m sorry, but what happened, happened, and we can’t change the situation now!” Liam fought back
“Yes you can and will! I don’t care how, you’ll work with me or whatever, but you. Will. Repay. That. Car.” Keith insisted, making it clear that Liam didn’t really had a choice about it.
“How the fuck am I supposed to work with you? I’m no mech! And you’re no motorace star!”
“You made a promise!!”
They kept going back and forth, not really keeping it quiet for the other people in the rooms nearby. They only stopped when Natalie loudly sighed and picked her purse up from the floor.
“I thought you were more… I thought you had more respect for others and the promises you make Liam.” She said, standing up from her seat.”But seeing you like this, no, this is not the kind of man I want. I don’t want someone who breaks the deals he have.” She explained as she started to walk away. But before her hand could reach the door’s handle, Liam seem to have got a grip back on himself.
“Wait!” Liam exclaimed.
Natalie stopped in her tracks.
“I’ll…” Liam’s eyes went from Natalie to Keith. “I’ll do it. I’ll work with you until I can give you that cosworth back.”
Keith saw the smile appearing on Natalie’s face. She was a smart smart girl, and she was probably the one Keith liked the most among all of Liam’s conquests. She turned on herself and went back to Liam, giving him a peck on the corner of the lips.
“How kind of you.” She commented, before finally leaving for good, waving bye to Keith on the way.
A weird silence took place for a few seconds after she closed the door behind her, Keith broke it quite simply:
“I like your new girl.”
“I bet you do…” Liam grumbled. “It’s a shame I love her… But she got me man”
“Yeah, looks like she did.” Keith smiled, looking at Liam who rolled over to face the wall. “G’night Liam, get some rest.” He added, the only hint of affection towards Liam he would allow himself to have tonight. He may be the worst person he knew, he was still his best mate, and didn’t deserved this accident.
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I hate you as much as I hate being attached to you.
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Keith’s ears were already buzzing, but Liam’s scream of joy made it worse. The other man seemed even more joyous, and pulled him into a tight, wild hug in an instant.
“YOU WON!! HOLY SHIT KEEF WE DID IT!!!”
Keith hugged him back, as strongly as he could even if his body was giving up on his after that heated race. He couldn’t control his laugh, just like Liam who couldn’t control his screams of victory. After years of hard work from the both of them, they succeeded, they did it.
Liam put his whole fucking life in learning to be a techie, him who didn’t knew shit about competitive cars. Keith tried his best to become the best fucking racer in this damn big Island that is the UK.
Liam was burying his head into Keith’s dyed hair, despite being out of breath.
“We did it, we fucking did it, holy god.” He kept repeating.
Keith was getting, calmer, somehow. He smiled, pat Liam’s back as he confirmed.
“Yep, you and me baby, we rocked that shit. We’re in the grown-ups team now”
They ignored the flashes of the camera, the interviewers trying to get a word from one of them, especially Keith. But they kept hugging for a long, long, deserved while. Keith’s dream (that was now a bit of Liam’s too now…) was about to became true and no one could take this instant away from him.
He could hear Liam’s sobs, he could feel his very own tears mixing with the sweat on his face. It was so perfect, it was just like he imagined it to be.
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You’re the only one who created those steps to success. I could have never done it without you.
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Liam pressed his lips onto Keith, out of nowhere, in the middle of the shittest pop song the club could chose to play. After a second of tasting the beer aroma, Keith stepped back in shock.
“Dude! The fuck you’re doing! You have a fiance!”
“Yeah yeaaaah…” the other lazily answered, getting close again, and forcing Keith to come back to him by wrapping his arm around his waist. “Pretty sure she has kissed other guys during our relationship, so why can’t I do the same?” He had this big, drunk-kind-of smile that always made him look very adorable. It showed his front teeth gap, and the missing tooth he had on the bottom row (and planned to fix by buying an implant one day… after paying back the car of course)
“C’mon Flinty, give your best friend a good ol’ kiss.” he asked with the corniest tone. Keith rolled his eyes. Unbelievable… He thought as he leaned closer and gave him a quick peck. Liam groaned with dissatisfaction.
“That ain’t no kiss!! Gimme a real one!” He complained with a pout, putting his glass of beer aside to hold the side of Keith’s face instead.
“You’re getting married Liam…” whispered Keith with annoyment. He didn’t had anyone, he could kiss whoever he wanted, and kissing his friends was never a thought that quite bothered him. But Liam was an engaged, taken, man, who really shouldn’t get drunk that much in a club without his girl around.
“I don’t care!” he argued again, his voice toning down to a whisper as he leaned closer to Keith again. “kiss me… please…”
“You’re a dumbass, y’know that?” Keith replied against his lips.
“I knooww…” agreed Liam, with the same whiny voice.
Keith took a quick look up, his gaze leaving Liam’s lips, just to see that he was hypnotized by his. He looked cute somehow, with his eyelids dropped three quarter of the way down. He was rarely looking that far away from the usual bitchy attitude. Keith could get used to this calmer, needier version of him. But that wouldn’t really be Liam.
With another sigh, Keith grumbled: “Fuckin’ hate you.” Before pressing his lips onto Liam’s, harder than the previous time. Liam whimpered as their lips parted open, gripping Keith’s back just a little tighter.
“-eef~” He moaned, bringing Keith closer to him as he shoved himself onto the wall, giving the other man good hints on what he wanted him to do. Thankfully, Flint was great at picking up hints. With one hand, he grabbed Liam’s thigh and brought his leg up against his hips, pressing his body furthermore into him. He used his other hand to grab the one that was holding his cheek, and pin it onto the wall, interlacing their fingers.
Despite Keith being smaller, Liam had long given up control of the situation, and was letting his best friend lead things. He was stuck in the bubble only the two of them were both in, away from the bar, and the rest of the outside world.
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I shouldn’t have this warm feeling in my stomach. Can I help it though?
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Keith’s phone ringed. The man lowered the sound of his TV and picked up. He didn’t even had the time to ask who it was that he already had his answer.
“Yo Keith, ehm… I’ve something to tell ya…” Liam said with a surprising lack of confidence.
“What’s up mate? Don’t tell me you’ve wrecked the CBR 900 I gave you for the love of god…” He replied, now afraid that his beautiful beast might be in the cemetery because of Liam.. once again.
“No, no don’t worry, it’s all fine and perfect, I even did a little check up and fixed stuff on it, for free.” Liam answered
“It’s your job, and you work for me, it better be free man.” answered Keith within a laugh, that quickly died down when he hear that Liam’s voice was still… down-sounding.
“I was calling you for something serious though… ehm… fuck how do I put it in…”
Keith’s brows frowned, this situation was getting more and more worrying.
“The… The, y’know, fuckin’ corporate guys? They don’t want me anymore. Just you. And better techies…” He sounded disappointed, though Keith couldn’t quite pinpoint if it was in himself or in their new bosses.
“What?” is the only word that left Keef’s mouth at first. “They can’t do that.”
“Well apparently they can. They want the best for your career and apparently I’m too much of a newbie for that.”
“Are they next to you right now?” Keith asked.
“Room next to where I am yeah. Why?”
“Go see them and put me on speaker.”
Liam obeyed, without a single clue of what was the idea in Keith’s head, but being pretty sure that it was a good one. He opened the door and spoke to the god-knows-how-many men in a 3 piece suits that were present.
“Keith’s on the phone, he got somethin’ to tell y’all.” He announced, pressing the button to put the speaker mode on.
“Okay, so I don’t know who had the shitty idea of separating me from my best mate, but this ain’t fucking happening. Liam stays, or you guys can go fuck yourselves! Am I understood?” He stated, making sure to show how angry he was with his voice, so he could be well understood even if he wasn’t physically there.
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You and me, lock and key, not one without the other. Never.
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“Fuck me, fuck me Keef, I need to do it with a man before I get married.” Urged Liam, using his grip on Keith’s race-jacket to bring him closer, pretty much splaying himself on the dirty table already, exposing his body in between a pair of bolt and a screwdriver.
“You’re out of your mind Liam, I’m not doing that” answered the other man, calmly, ignoring his pleading eyes as much as he could.
“I’m not, I’m being for real” Liam replied vividly. But Keith was seeing the situation much more clearly than him.
“Liam I don’t know what the fuck you took before coming here, but I’m not fucking you like this. Especially not one day before your wedding.”
Keith knew how much Liam was stressed at the mere idea of marrying a woman. Of settling down with someone. Liam had diverse ways to cope in his life, Keith knew them all, it was easy to know them after around… what, 10 years now?
Keith preferred when he just got drunk. Because drunk Liam was more or less manageable, more or less “cute”. Drugged Liam was unpredictable, overly needy, with every fucking cursor pushed at its maximum.
He was still begging his name while he was taking his belt off, opening more buttons of his dirty shirt he wore for work.
“Liam I swear you’ll be alright.-” He sighed, and grabbed Liam’s wrists “Stop fucking taking your clothes off! I’m not fucking you!” He hated this. He just wanted Liam to be well. He hated that he had to pin him down until he cried and eventually calmed down.
Well, calmed down, he was just “less horny”. He was sobbing like crazy and with each tear, Keith’s heart ached a little more.
“You’re chill now?”
Liam nodded, “I’m just so scared, I’m so fucking scared Flinty I can’t do this…”
“You can. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You love Nat’, she loves you, and nobody is gonna oppose you both getting married.” Keith said, reassuring him, and buttoning his shirt back up at the same time.
Liam sniffed, and found the energy to sit, instead of laying down. He (kind of pathetically) watched Keith dress him up again. He always felt safe with Keith. He could act like the worst fucking idiot, his friend would always end up on his side someone. Which was needed, because Liam was way more insecure than he looked.
“My head hurt…”
“What did you take?” Keith asked, calmly, finally done with Liam’s shirt, and now getting busy with his undone belt.
“Cocaine…”
“A lot?” Keith looked up to Liam, who’s eyes were still red.
“Dunno… Don’t remember.” Liam admitted, and the other sighed. The latter’s hands left his body, as he was done with fixing his appearance.
“At least don’t take it without me next time” smiled Keith, patting his shoulder. Liam returned a faint smile, that had still a bit of sadness in it. His friend was able to take a step back, but he pulled him into a tight, tight hug.
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I’ll be there, always. In your bad and good moments. I’ll be there. Because I love you.
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Keith was sat in the front row of his tiny, little, (cozy looking even!) church. He was watching his friend at the altar through the slight blur. He looked awesome, and so did his… fiance. She was still just this for now.
He was very much uncomfortable in his costume was uncomfortable, his shoes too tight because he got too lazy to buy new ones. The atmosphere was overwhelming, but he had no choice but to be there, and witness something his heart was fully against.
He wasn’t against, no. He would have preferred another timeline that’s all. He was all in favor of Liam being happy. Him getting married wasn’t the issue. This white dress was though.
“Speak now, or forever hold your peace.” he heard the priest say, and he felt an urgent spasm in his legs, as If they were about to make him stand up without reason. No, not now, he couldn’t fuck it up. It took him everything to refrain that urge, and stay sat, clapping as Liam and Natalie kissed.
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The word “Congratulation” left a bitter taste in my mouth.
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Keith completely forgot how they got there. They were sober that’s all he knew. And that he was having this butterflies in his tummy that he hated to have about Liam. But how could he resist to this very tempting and dangerous feeling of kissing his married best friend.
Liam had been all over him all night, and finally decided to take it a step further and break the invisible wall in-between them right as they started to watch a movie.
Keith wondered for a while, letting the culpability that was clutching his guts aside for a minute:
“Do Liam moan like that was it was Nat’ kissing him? Does he have the same urges to touch her arms and hands? Does he even let himself have urges with her?”
He liked those moments, just raw, sincere affection, that seemed like nothing wrong while it was happening. It shouldn’t even feel wrong to kiss Liam, Keith was intimately persuaded of that. No one should feel wrong about making out with a close friend, it’s just one proof of love among others, and friends deserve this rush of dopamine as much as lovers, don’t they?
Liam deserved it at least. So Keith kept going, his lips leaving Liam’s to go kiss the sweet spot on his neck, nearby his adam apple, in between two moles…
“Ah~… fuck you know me by heart man…”
Maybe Keith had a little hope that Nat’ didn’t know about this spot yet.
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Sometimes I think at how sad it is that you aren’t mine.
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Another regular party Liam liked to throw out twice a month for… absolutely no occasion. Keith went to each of them, dancing with a girl or two and then sticking to the buffet.
First because he loved food a lot.
Second because it was the best place to observe Liam being the happiest man in the world, with his ring reflecting the lights of the stroboscopes.
He had this specific, unique smile reserved to Nat’, smile he never flashed at him ever. Liam had gestures he never did to Keith, even at their drunkest points. He never held him by the waist, held his hands tight like that, kissed his palms, whispered a silly joke in his ear in this very loving manner.
He wasn’t jealous. He could get tons of people to do those exact things to him now that they were a tinsy bit renowned. He wouldn’t though, he wasn’t the type of guy to do that.
He’ll just wait ‘till next weekend, or next time they’re both alone in the garage where all his motorcycles are stocked. He’ll wait to make him feel loved again, to show him how grateful he is to have him by his sides.
In the meanwhile he’ll be grumpy a little, hateful deep down. But that’s just for himself. He wouldn’t even dare to admit that, yes, he too, had completely lost control.
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You make me wanna love someone else. If only I had the choice…
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