Page 65 of Spring Awakening

Mali’s Titanian Fun Dayspreadsheet taunts her. It’s colour coded, because of course it is. Right now, it stares back at her, and she has no idea what she’s supposed to be doing on it because Zach turned up seven minutes ago and, embarrassingly, she’s been avoiding him for three days. Kind of. She still sees him when she makes a tea in the evening, and she’s trying not to purposefully avoid him at breakfast time. He probably has no idea she’s gone missing, but she knows.

It’s Frankie’s fault, of course. She said to make it obvious Mali wanted to fuck him, and she did. She went in guns blazing and told him she’s horny all the time, and what reason would it be other than him walking around topless and being so fucking good all the time? And then he told her something traumatic wrapped in a cute smile and fell asleep. God, he fell asleep, and by the time she woke up, she was in bed, alone. There was no dramatic leaning over the couch, no kissing as they bounced against the banister in their haste to get upstairs. No fucking anyone through their mattress.

What’s worse is he told her something because he trusts her, and she’s betraying his trust by thinking about sleeping with him every three seconds.

He must think she’s a hussy. The type of person who is only into his face, like everyone else. Ugh. That’s the worst part! She likes him—truly and to her core can’t think of a single way she would ever want to be without him—and it’s ruining her life. At the start, she was hoping it was just physical, and now she’s attached. He doesn’t want children, and she does, so she needs to drop all attachment to him that’s not friendly before it’s too late. But every time she thinks about him, she wants him to stay with her while she gets ready for work. She wants him to hold her hand when they walk together. She wants him to want her back for real.

And he just came to say hi. Just popped in, flowers in hand, to say hello. She might be falling in love with him, and he hasn’t tried to kiss her at all. Sometimes, she thinks he might like her a little bit. There’s a flirty comment or a hand against her waist or a look, and she’s so sure the feeling is mutual. And then another evening goes past, and she realises if anyone else gave him the chance to be a normal person instead of the rugby superstar they say he is, they’d see that side of him too.

And that makes her want to chop her own hand off. Yes, she wants everyone to like him, and yes, she wants him to only like her. She contains multitudes!

“Okay,” she says, after an excruciating amount of silence. Zach looks up from his phone like nothing’s wrong. He smiles at her like he isn’t ruining her life.

She smiles back. Loser.

“We just need to decide on an event. We have the friendly game, raffle, and—”

“Hey!” The door swings open dramatically. Mali looks over, but Zach barely turns his head.

“Who is that?” Mali asks.

“Oh, that’s Cam,” Zach says casually. Like Mali should know Cam. Like Cam is just someone people know. “You know, Frankie’s best mate.”

The door chimes closed behind Cam. She’s cute. Stupidly cute, if Mali had to describe her. With her caramel skin, kind dark-brown eyes, and braids that hit the middle of her back. Mali always wants to try braids again, but she has too big of a forehead, probably. If that was a reasonable reason to not wear a hairstyle. Cam has the vibe of the coolest girl Mali has ever seen. Her wide jeans hang on her hips, with a white crop top showing just a little skin. Mali would never be able to dress like that without looking like she spent seven days figuring out if it was causal enough.

Cam also has a stunning face. Her downturned lips make her look so unbothered. Mali should hate her, but Mali also knows hatred isn’t something people have for Cam.

“Hey, stranger!” Frankie shouts from her desk.

“Hey, girl!” Cam shouts back, her smile wide.

“Cam is so hot,” Mali says. Zach looks up at her from his phone. He looks over at Cam like he doesn’t know what she looks like. Like he didn’t just tell her who it was.

“Yeah,” he replies, looking back at her with a small frown. “Don’t try and ask her out, though. She’s off limits.”

“Oh. Who’s she dating?”

“Some prick, I think, but he’s not the issue.”

Mali frowns. “Then why is she off limits?”

Zach looks up at her again. “Do you wanna ask her out?” Mali doesn’t have to think about it very long. There’s only one person she wants to ask out, and she’s not doing that anytime soon because she’s terrified and she only just got him.

“No.”

Zach loosens up, his shoulders dropping as he puts his phone on her desk. “You’ll find out soon. What do you think about a friends-and-family event?”

Mali picks up her tea. It’s definitely not drinking temperature yet, but she risks it. “What do you mean?”

The door slams open, and Mali whips her head around in time to watch Ezra barrel through. His eyes are wide, like he’s trying to hide the fact he almost took the door off the hinges. Like he’s a calm, reasonable human who didn’t just leg it across an entire rugby field in the time it took Mali to take a sip of her tea and burn her tongue.

His hands are down by his sides, his fists clenching—sort of how she’d expect to see someone restraining themselves from throwing a punch. Not Ezra, though. He looks like he’s about to start bouncing on the tips of his toes, his eyes flicking over Cam like she’s about to disappear. He wants to touch her. That much is clear. To everyone in the room, probably. Maybe not Cam.

“Oh, hey, sunshine!” Cam calls. “I thought you weren’t here.”

“I was doing some kit work,” he replies. He looks the same as he usually does, face like thunder but in a hot way, but now, his hands hang by his sides instead of over his chest. Like he’s waiting for something.

Fuck off.

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