The night Liv decided to break the ongoing silence between herself and Thomas was an icy night in late December. It was Friday and Liv had gone to meet up with some friends after football practice. Huddled they had stood in a field in complete darkness, shoulders up to their ears due to the searing cold. A bottle had been passed around but it had not helped much. Before eight o'clock most people had left. Wilma had suggested they would do the same but Liv did not feel like going home, not yet.
"I said I'd meet up with Melvin", she lied.
These annoyed thoughts, angry thoughts about Thomas, probably just drunken ones, pounded inside her head.
- Why had he acted like such a dick last time he was over?
- What had she done to cause that repulsed look on his face whenever he saw her?
"I'll just go to his place and demand answers", she thought.
It made perfect sense at the time.
Half an hour later she knocked on the door to Thomas's terrace house, questioning her decision more for every minute that went by. The buzz from the alcohol had subsided and she suddenly felt really pathetic. Luckily, Thomas did not seem to be in since no one came to open. Liv knew she ought to go home but this exhausted feeling suddenly crept up on her.
"If he doesn't show within the half hour I'll go home", she thought and slid down onto the staircase, her back against the door.
Thomas got home five hours later, around 1 am. He saw the outline of a person sitting on his doorsteps from far away but didn't realise who it was until he got closer. When it registered, his insides started to twinge and ache. Confused, he quickly stubbed out his cigarette and hastened towards her, realising with an increasingly fast beating heart that something was very wrong.
Liv was all crumpled up, almost bare legged except for the training shorts and the football socks, eyes shut. That wasn't the appearance of someone who had just gotten there. Thomas, still in disbelief, started to curse and call out her name.
"Liv!? Liv, you hear me?", he pushed the door open, knelt down next to her, scooped her up in his arms and hauled her inside. She was lying motionless with her back against his chest, slouched, head falling back onto his shoulder. Her lips were slightly open, swollen and blue tinted. Her skin a blank, white, dead surface.
"Liv!? Liv, please! Look at me. Åbne dîne øjne for mig!"
Almost unnoticeably her eyelashes fluttered for a second.
"Where were you?", she coughed and he felt the alcohol on her breath.
He would have laughed had the situation been different.
"Jesus, what's wrong with you? Have you actually lost your damn mind!?"
Liv frowned slightly at him and looked like she was about to give him a snide answer when she instead began to convulse heftily and folded in her head and legs.
Liv slid out and then back into unconsciousness, vaguely perceiving Thomas's cursing in Danish over her. Suddenly a glass was put to her lips.
"Drink it."
She obeyed and started to cough again, because it made her throat burn.
"Is that alcohol?", she gasped.
"'Supposed to help. Drink it."
Something woolly was wrapped around her head and hands. Mittens and a beanie.
"What is..?"
"Don't take them off."
Liv could not help but to giggle, which only made her cough more.
"I... I think I should be calling 911 or your mother or..."
Thomas sat at the side of his bed, to which he had apparently carried her, layering blankets on top of her. The terrified strain in his voice was unfamiliar to her. He was usually never anything except tired, expressionless and somewhat bored.
"I'm fine. It was just for a couple of hours."
The chattering of her teeth was not helping her make her case.
"I'll kill you as soon as you're better. God, you're so unbelievably stupid sometimes."
"Yeah yeah. Give it to me", she mumbled and he grasped at her shoulders, staring at her with a horrified expression.
"This is not a goddamn joke Liv! I mean, what the hell were you thinking!? You get wasted, you come to my place, and when I don't let you in you just fall asleep outside my door? I can't... I can't have you doing stuff like that. Fuck, what if I hadn't... I hadn't... You wouldn't have woken up the next morning."
Liv stared up into his panicked, dark blue eyes. She noticed how they searched her constantly for signs of her being cold or in pain, and she willed herself to stop shaking.
"Hey, hey. I'm alright. I won't do it again, I swear. I just... I really wanted to see you."
Thomas looked doubtful.
"You were drunk."
"Yes, well, a bit. Please don't tell mom..."
Liv was not sure if she was out of line for asking this but Thomas just shook his head tiredly. Questions circulated in her head but she was getting more and more sleepy by the second.
"It was an icebreaker though, wasn't it?", she said and smiled.
"What was?"
"Just thought I'd break the ice between us, by coming here, you know."
Her smile was widening and he had to bite his own lip to stop himself from smiling too.
"I swear to god if you're making really bad jokes right now..."
She yawned and shifted to her side.
"Hey, shouldn't you be getting in bed with me?"
Thomas eyes widened.
"Sorry, what?"
"Don't look so appalled. I thought that was a common hack for warming people up."
"Yeah... No. I don't think that's... needed."
Liv shrugged, wrapped the sheets tighter around herself and closed her eyes. Thomas checked her temperature. She was still smiling despite probably being only half awake.