Dickson looked up at the sky for a long while before speaking again.
"Besides…" he said quietly, the usual joking tone absent from his voice for once. "I kind of like being this way."
Liam turned his head slightly to look at him.
"Being what way?"
Dickson let out a small chuckle as he folded both hands beneath his head and stared at the endless morning sky above them. The clouds drifted lazily overhead while the rising sun slowly painted the world in warmer shades of gold and orange.
"This."
He shrugged.
"Being the idiot. The screw-up. The dumb guy everyone laughs at."
Liam raised an eyebrow.
Dickson smiled faintly.
"When people expect greatness from you, every mistake becomes a disappointment. Every failure becomes a burden. Every weakness becomes something you have to hide because people are counting on you." He paused for a few seconds before continuing. "But when everyone already expects you to fail… there's freedom in that."
Liam said nothing.
