Page 69 of Spring Awakening

Mali-Ali-Oke:she forgot she had a meeting, but now I’m doing a session!

Mali-Ali-Oke:indoors

Mali-Ali-Oke:if you wanna go home, thats okay!!!!

Mali-Ali-Oke:but what if i miss you?

Mali-Ali-Oke:dont tell anyone what i said about frank!!!!

ZachAzanRugby:you always miss me

Mali smiles at her phone. If Zach doesn’t come back, she’ll survive. Then she looks down at her phone one last time. There’s a new notification, but it’s not in messages.

ZachAzanRugby requested to follow you.

“What’s got you cheesing?!” Frankie shouts, and Mali feels everyone turn to look at her. She didn’t even realise everyone had made it into the office.

“Nothing,” she says too quickly, but it’s no use. Frankie stalks towards her. Mali wonders what her chances of ducking and weaving past an ex pro rugby player are.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Zach’s nervous, and he’snot used to it. There’s been times where he’s stood in front of thousands of angry rugby fans (some of them kids, but they’re savages, so it counts) and he was only sweating because Frankie makes them do drills in the changing room so they don’t cramp up. He’s gone home with a handful of people before, and his legs have never been shaky in the way they are now. All over a few possibly flirty, possibly friendly Instagram messages.

He sits in his car outside the office—despite the fact he’s late—and scrolls through Mali’s Instagram. She’s so pretty. It’s kind of his favourite thing when she takes a photo because she looks hot. Like she knows she looks so good people must see it. She’s never been wrong. He looks at the recent ones. The photos by the riverside. He stops in his tracks when he sees himself. It’s the back of him, probably from one of the days he’s been lucky enough to walk to work with her. He can imagine a child with him so clearly that it’s a little painful. He knows she’d want them to wear matching holiday outfits, and he’d be in them so fast his head would spin.

Mali is ruining his life.

And it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

Still, he shakes it off as he strolls into the office. The meeting isn’t mandatory, but Mali asked him to go, so. The office is buzzing when he walks in, groups of players huddled like they’re in the middle of a game.

“There he is,” Kai calls out, and everyone turns to face him.

“Champ!”

“What?” Zach asks, looking around for Mali. The answer always lies with Mali, but she’s not here.

“Finally followed her back.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Mal,” Toby replies, like he is in fact on a nickname basis with her when he is not. Zach frowns.

Kai laughs. “She’s been blushing about it.”

Zach doesn’t know how to feel about that. Mali isn’t his girlfriend, nor is she a girl he picked up at a club, so how she feels about him as a rugby player shouldn’t matter. And yet something in him sinks when he realises that might be the thing she likes most about him. Still, he sits on her desk and waits for her. When she finally comes back in, the place erupts, and she starts frowning.

“What?” she asks, and then her eyes fall on him, and he’s never seen someone so adorable in all his life. The blush rises on her cheeks, and it’s so deep he can see it, and it’s his favourite sight in the world. He doesn’t care if she only likes him because he’s a rugby player. He’ll run and catch a ball until his knees give out.

When she reaches him, she’s pouting, and he’s smiling so brightly she groans and throws her hands over her face. Then her hands hit his chest, and he wraps his arms around her as if this is something they do. He pulls her closer, as if this is practiced, something they’ve ever done outside of home. Shetakes a deep breath, leaning further against him when he moves his legs apart.

“They’re so embarrassing.”

“Is it their fault you were so excited I followed you back?”

Mali groans. “Stop.” He wonders if she’s about to stamp her foot. He thinks she might pull back when she drops her hands, but he doesn’t give her a chance, grabbing her hands and placing them around his back. She looks up at him with a small pout. He could kiss her.

“It’s weird.”

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