Page 11 of Spring Awakening

“I wouldn’t expect anything less. I’m sure it will look as pretty as the pink.”

Mali clenches her jaw so she won’t smile, but she’s not sure how well it works. “You think the purple is gross?”

Zach smiles a little wider, and fuck her and him, because a dimple appears. “I don’t think it’s gross.”

Mali hums, but she’s not sure she believes him. She’s trying to pretend she doesn’t care either way.

“Bye, cute stuff,” Zach says, bending down to wave to Buffy. Buff’s over him now. That makes one of them.

“See you around, bro,” he says to Mali, his hand on the door handle.

“Night, Zachariah.”

He groans, and the cold bites at her calves again. Mali smiles this time, an easy, full smile that she directs mainly at his back because he’s halfway out the door. If she goes back tomorrow, she wonders how much of that will have to do with him.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Zach looks at theeviction notice on his phone. He thought it was the law that he should have the letter in the post, but he counts his lucky stars it’s not taped to the outside of his front door. There’s no reason for his landlord to have ousted him. It says on the email it’s a no-fault eviction. Still frustrating, and still something the media will twist if they ever find out. He wonders who the PR person will be if PR girl doesn’t turn up again. He wonders if they’ll be kind enough to hide stuff from the press, as she suggested she would. Why didn’t he get her name? He searched the housing app for her profile, but it was gone this morning.

Either way, name or not, Zach still has thirty days to get out. He scoured the app all night last night, when he wasn’t having random thoughts about her. He wishes he’d spoken to her more. That he’d taken her up on the offer of a tea so he could know more about her, even if the chance she wants to be friends is about as high as him getting a new place in the next week.

Instead of worrying about that, he thinks about whether she’s going to be in the office when he’s finished with practice. If he’llmake an excuse to go through to the kitchen just to see if she’s wearing orange hair. The purple looks pretty against her dark complexion. The pink looked painfully good, and he already knows orange is going to render him mute.

“Zach,” Kai calls out.

“Yeah?”

“Do you wanna pass with me?”

Zach’s not used to being asked anything. He’s not used to being involved in the conversation. So, no, he doesn’t want to practice passing, because it’s boring, but Kai is a flanker, and yeah, Kai needs to practice, and he’s the first person to ask Zach something in weeks. “If you want.”

Lightman (the worst man in the world and only a half-decent second row) scoffs. “Why would Zachariah need to practice? He wins everything on his own.”

“Shut up, Toby.” Kai shakes his head, but he moves away from Zach.

Zach stretches his hamstrings out instead, taking the moment to feel the wet grass on the back of his neck. The steam from the heat of his body rises around his ears, and he wants to close his eyes and rest for a moment, but he knows if he dares let his guard down, someone will stomp on his face.

He stands up, stretching out his legs instead. The whistle blows while he’s mid-lunge, but his limbs are feeling looser than they were twenty minutes ago, so he doesn’t mind.

“Practice is ending early,” Frankie states, “but you can’t go home yet. Well, practice isn’t actually ending, it’s being split in half because we’ve got a new person in the office and you’ve all got to be on your best behaviour so she doesn’t run for the hills. Is that understood?”

Zach perks up. It’s her. It’s gotta be her. Toby’s chest heaves with whatever poorly thought-out insult he’s about to throw at Zach, but Frankie catches him in time.

“Zip it, Lightman. She’ll be here soon, so go towel off and meet me in the office in ten minutes.”

Ten minutes isn’t enough time to have a shower, which is rude, because Zach wants to see her while he looks decent and doesn’t smell. Right now, he’s almost definitely got a mud smear on his face, and he’s covered in sweat. If she ever wanted to look at him twice, it wouldn’t be today. He’s not even sure why he cares what she thinks. It’s not like he’d ever act on it.

As Zach removes his mouthguard and ensures his ears aren’t bleeding, he notices his chest feels weird. Lighter than he thinks it should be. Maybe like there’s butterflies inside him or something. He hasn’t eaten anything strange, and he was up in time to eat breakfast before Frankie made them run five miles.

When he follows the team into the main office, he finds himself looking for her, and he realises he’s nervous.

What a loser.

Zach finds a seat to the back, places his elbows on his knees, and desperately tries to look like he’s not waiting for her arrival. His feet bounce against the floor.

He’s not sure he’s been this excited in years, and all he wants is to know her name.

Same time, different day. Mali stands in the carpark of the Titans’ training ground. She has cigarette pants on this time, and a thin fine-knit jumper in case she gets stuck in an igloo again. She won’t stick around this time. If no one is here, she’s going.She’ll beg the football team to let her work there, or she’ll put her house back on SpareRoom. (She deleted it last night after Zach left because she got terrified another man would turn up.)

---