Page 52 of Spring Awakening

“Squat time, Azan! Arse to the grass.”

He smiles, doing what she asked, and he wonders if it’s too insane to think about doing whatever she wants for the rest of time.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Zach?” Mali calls fromthe living room. He hops off the bar stool with a quickness he’ll ignore because he’s been waiting for her to call him. They spent the evening together at the Adebayos’ a few nights ago, then he saw her basically all of Sunday while he was fixing electrics in the outbuilding, and he’s been terrified to overstep ever since.

The past few weeks have been awkward. Not a bad awkward, but a good, stomach flipping whenever he hears her walking around awkward. He doesn’t know if he can sit in the front room with her in the evening awkward.

He’s got a Herculean crush on his roommate awkward.

That’s the main reason he runs to the front room and pops his head around the door instead of just calling out.

“What’s up, bro?”

Mali frowns, tilting her head back against the armrest to look at him upside-down. She’s lying on the couch with a blanket half-covering her body, but her leg sticks out. She’s wearing his top, and maybe also his boxers. She’s going to kill him, and he’s never been so glad that their washing got mixed up.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

What was he doing? Beyond sitting in the kitchen after he put everything in the dishwasher, hoping she might come back? Zach isn’t used to doing nothing in the evenings. Usually, he’s meal prepping, or he’s going shopping for his mum, or Kai has dragged him to a club. Now, the thought of doing anything that doesn’t land him within twelve steps of Mali sounds like something he isn’t going to abide.

“Er, looking for places for Mum,” he says. It’s not a lie. He has looked at some places—a few he might even be able to afford when the sponsorships come in. Mali spins. Well, she attempts to spin. Mostly, it’s a lot of grunting as she tugs at the blanket that has worked its way around her thighs and waist.

“Any success?” she asks, like she’s not in a fight with an inanimate object.

Zach laughs and finally moves into the front room. He pulls at the blanket, lifting her calves lightly until she’s free. How is she so soft? He wants to let his hand linger, but he pulls back.

“How were you hoping to lie?” he asks, blanket in hand. She pouts.

“I was spinning to see you because looking at you upside-down felt weird, but now you’re here. I guess I’ll just take the blanket back,” she replies, with grabby hands. Zach fluffs out the blanket a couple of times, and then a few more because Mali starts laughing.

“It’s cold!”

“You were half out a second ago,” he replies, though he lays the blanket on her all the same. He tucks the corners in, and the urge to kiss her on the forehead hits him square in the face. She’s wide-eyed when he stands back up, unsure of where to go or what to do. She hasn’t asked him to leave, so he doesn’t want to, but he is standing here like a weirdo.

“Why did you want to know?” he asks.

Mali frowns. “Why did I want to know what?”

“What I was doing.”

“Oh!” she says, shuffling her feet closer. “Wanna watch Quizzickle with me?”

“Okay,” he replies too quickly. “What’s that?”

“What’s that?! Only the best quiz game in existence.”

Zach laughs and turns to figure out if the chair is too far away, but before he can move, she speaks.

“No,” she says, with a light whine. “Sit here.” She taps her feet against the spare seat. It’s not spare so much as half a cushion and her feet, but he does as she asks. When he sits, her toes don’t touch him. He spends the first three questions wondering how to move so they do.

“You know how I’m your favourite person in the entire world?” Mali asks. He can feel her toes flexing against the cushion next to him, a taunt at how badly he wants her on him.

“You already stole my top,” he replies, leaning his head on the back of the sofa. She pulls the blanket higher towards her chin like he wouldn’t let her have anything she asked for. He groans. “What do you want?”

“A tea.”

Zach laughs. “I should have guessed.”

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