Page 32 of Spring Awakening

“Get away from her,” he says. “You’re scaring her.”

“Bruv,” the man says with a smack of his lips, but he steps back a bit all the same. “This bitch—”

“I said get the fuck away from her De, or I will put you in the fucking ground. Do not test me.”

De? Zach knows him—the would-be thief. Though maybe he was snooping in her darkened house with no one else around with no intention of taking anything. She doesn’t care, as long as he leavesright now. He took a step back when Zach told him to, but he’s still too close for comfort. If she tried to move, she’d still touch him. A tear rolls down her cheek.

“Man, if I knew you were a pussy now, I wouldn’t have come see you.”

Zach drops his boxes on the ground, his hand heavy against De’s shoulder as he drags him out of the garden. It’s all Mali needs to run. She throws the light on in the hallway, and her breath comes too quick and short to be safe, but she manages to call out, “Buffy!”

Her feline companion comes sauntering out of the front room, stretching as he does. The tears that were threatening to come out ever since she saw the shadow spill over her cheeks, and she sinks to the floor, sobbing and heaving for breath.

Mali watches the kettle boil, then jumps as the key turns in the lock. Every time she’s heard a strange noise since she got home, she’s had to check the front door to make sure no one is there, but the only people with keys are Zach and her parents. She doesn’t mind who it is coming in—she trusts them both.

“Big stretch,” Zach whispers, and she can picture him stroking Buffy. Taking his shoes off and lining them up with hers on the shoe rack. She didn’t realise she needed the comfort of him being home until now. Mali stopped crying a while ago, and she’s only been home about an hour. That’s pretty good for her. Still, she feels the need to drag her hands down her face. There was a while where she didn’t feel herself—like she was existing outside of her body. It was fear; she knows that much. So, she washed her face and took her wig off, then threw herself into some pyjamas, and she feels better. Not good, but better. Zach helps. Somehow, despite his reluctance to talk to her, his presence helps.

She picks her favourite mug from the cupboard, and the one she thinks Zach likes the most, and makes the tea. Zach is yet to come into the kitchen. Mali wonders if he’s not going to mention it. If he’s going to hide upstairs. She wonders if she’d ever forgive him if he did.

“It’s just me,” he says, finally. She can hear him hanging his coat up.

“Hey,” she replies. “Can you pass the milk?”

He does, but he doesn’t sit down, instead pacing behind her.

“Zach—”

“I’ll be out of here by morning.”

“What?” Mali asks, her brow furrowed. She spins around, and he looks truly tortured. Tired. Like he might die on the spot. “I don’t want—what?”

“My brother—”

“That was your brother?!”

“Yeah,” he replies, running his hand over his face like Mali wants to do to her own. “And I—God, I should never have brought him here.” He takes a step closer, then seems to change his mind. “Are you hurt?”

“No. No. I just—you weren’t here, and your car wasn’t here, and there was a strange man with his hood up looking through the drawers with the door half open, and I—I didn’t know he was with you. I wouldn’t have done anything if I knew he was with you.”

Zach looks furious, and she wonders what his brother said. Fuck. He’s never touched her beyond his fingertips on her neck when he did her hair, but she’d kill to have him hug her right now. She won’t ask for that, though. He already looks like he might pass out.

“I don’t know what he said, but I—”

With a sigh, Zach says, “You haven’t done anything wrong, Mali.” He places his hands on the counter. “I’m used to losing things because Devon is… he’s difficult to have in my life sometimes.”

“You’re not the result of your brother’s wrongdoings,” Mali says. “And I don’t want you to leave.”

He rolls his neck, then looks over at her. “You don’t?”

“No. And you can have people over. Just tell me.”

“He wasn’t supposed to go in. He was supposed to help me unload boxes, but he didn’t even manage that.”

Mali reaches across the counter and runs her finger across his balled-up fists. He flexes his hand, and she counts that as a win as she pulls her fingers back.

“Want to order in?”

Zach sits opposite her at the small dining table. Their knees bump a little, but neither of them mentions it. It’s quiet, as it always is, but for once, Mali doesn’t mind. It’s not like she’s expecting him to want to talk, especially after this evening.

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