Page 67 of Spring Awakening

“It’s the one on Friday,” Ezra says, like he’s told her that before and he’s trying to act chill but he desperately wants to see her there.

“Oh, yeah. I’ll be there!” Cam says. “I overheard you saying you need an event, and—”

“Cameron, shh,” Ezra says, pulling her away, but everyone in this building knows he’d do whatever she wanted. She doesn’t move at all, but Ezra’s hand lingers against her wrist.

“Listen, ages ago the old manager bought cheerleading uniforms but didn’t hire any cheerleaders. They’re in teamcolours, so you just gotta get someone for each player! I think Toby has a bunch of sisters. Imani is always down to embarrass Frankie, so she’d definitely don a skirt.” Mali laughs at the thought of Frankie’s mum wearing a cheerleading outfit, but she could see it. “And you could do it for Zach.”

“Oh, that’s cute!” Mali says, typing the idea onto her spreadsheet. “I’m absolutely going to force everyone to wear the names on the back.” She thinks about a risky question, but really, she needs to know if Cam is anywhere on the same page.

“Ez, who do you want?”

“Me!” Cam shouts, as Mali expected. “Ezraaaa, let me do it, please. I’d be so good.”

“If you want,” he replies, but he smiles as Cam does. A true smile. Anot a robotkind of smile. Mali almost squeals, but she squeezes Zach’s thigh instead.

“Yay! Okay, I gotta get back to the shop. I just came to say hi to my favourite guy.”

“You came to say hi to me,” Frankie shouts from her office.

Cam shrugs. “Two things can be true at once. Nice to meet you, Mali. Text me! See you, chatterbox,” she says, waving at Zach. She drags Ezra away, and Mali wonders if Cam has any idea how badly he wants her. She wonders if maybe she does now, but there’s something stopping her. Maybe she wants children and Ezra doesn’t. Maybe Ezra simply hasn’t tried to kiss her yet.

“I’ve gotta go check out a house,” Zach says. He’s up and out of his chair before Mali can pout, but he does kiss her forehead again. “See you later, baby.”

“Bye, honey.” Mali watches him walk away. He turns as he gets to the door, his eyes wide like he wasn’t expecting her to be looking at him, and she screws up her nose.

Mali is feeling a sort of way. Like she doesn’t have the energy to pretend she doesn’t want to jump Zach’s bones. So she goes on his Instagram. He hasn’t posted in months, but she’ll scrollthrough old photos because no one can see her. Besides, she liked them all months ago before he knew who she was, so there’s no risk of being outed as a stalker now. Her heart thumps as she sees the ring around his icon. He’s posted something. Just to his story, but she’s been trying to get him to be active on social media for weeks, and he’s finally listened to her.

When she clicks, she groans. He’s topless—as he should always be, but it should come with some kind of warning when she’s at work—and Buffy is sitting on his chest, fast asleep. Is it weird to be jealous of a cat? Perhaps, but no one is in her mind, so she can do what she wants.

She taps out a message, sending it before she can remember she’s basically just a fan because he definitely doesn’t follow her back.

Mali-Ali-Oke:how r u stealing my cat

Mali-Ali-Oke:did Buffy consent to a thirst trap?

Mali-Ali-Oke:he deserves seven treats minimum

Mali puts her phone back down and wonders if it’d be weird to set that picture as her background. She needs to order the food from Cam before she forgets and there’s no pastries next week.

Her phone buzzes before she has a moment to calculate how many cookies they’ll need. She frowns because she’s not used to having her phone on vibrate, but she changed the settings when her mum took Miriam to bingo, just in case anything happened. (It didn’t, and now they have a walking group and a book group, neither of which they’ll let Mali into unless she commits to three in a row, and she won’t because she wants to sit on the couch with Zach.) Her Instagram notifications stare at her. Could beFrankie leaving eight comments under her newest photo? (A selfie because she did buy the green wig and then decided she didn’t need to wear it anywhere if she took photos in the house.) Could be Zach calling her a stalker.

She ignores it until she’s written the food list. It’s messy at best, and she’ll have to go over it again before she texts Cam because there’s no way they only want one type of sandwich.

Instagram takes a moment to load, and she almost throws her phone away, but then the one notification stares at her in her direct messages. She clicks, smiling when she sees the name.

ZachAzanRugby: buffy begged me to take this photo

ZachAzanRugby: you begged me to take this photo

ZachAzanRugby: how have you got me triple-texting on insta

ZachAzanRugby: nasty behaviour

ZachAzanRugby: how’s the spreadsheet?

Mali-Ali-Oke:needy

Mali-Ali-Oke:and the spreadsheet is great, everything is coming along flawlessly

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