Now, all he had to do was tell Mal. And he would tell him…eventually. What if Mal changed his mind then? What if it was only the thrill of the chase? How many guys had chased his mother only to run when she finally said yes? But Mal wasn’t like that. He could never be like that.
Nico thunked his head down on his desk hard enough to make his brain vibrate in his skull.
“Mr. Michaels...”
Nico looked up at Mitch, who now sat at the desk beside the lectern, organizing his papers. “Yeah?”
He gave Nico a tight smile he absolutely didn’t mean. “Get out of my class.”
Nico jolted, then shot to his feet, gathering his things. “Oh, right. Sorry.”
“Mm,” was his only reply, his attention already back on his papers.
Fuck.
Nico was acting weird.
No, that wasn’t right. Everyone was acting weird.
Everyone but Mal. He stood in the kitchen, a bakery bag hanging off his finger, unsure what to do with this revelation. He was never the normal one in any situation, except maybe during a murder. And that was only normal in his very small circle of very fucked-up friends.
Nico leaned against the counter, Shiloh hovering beside him, looking concerned. Levi lounged against the opposite wall, arms crossed over his chest like he was their bodyguard. Mal mentally ran over a list of things he could have done to cause this reaction, but nothing came to mind. Well, nothing Nico would have shared with their roommates.
Would he?
They’d all been in the middle of a heated conversation when he walked into the apartment, but all talk had ceased the moment he closed the front door. The first thing he noticed was Nico’s despondent look and the flush on his cheeks. The secondthing he noticed was his brother’s refusal to make eye contact with him.
“Hey,” he finally said—hesitantly—looking at Nico. “I brought your cheesecake.”
Nico gave him a smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “Thanks, Bunny. I think I’ll just eat it later. I’m gonna go shower.”
“Oh, uh, okay,” Mal said as Nico scooted past him in the narrow entryway then disappeared into their room. He reached into the bag and pulled out a piece of chocolate cake—Shiloh’s favorite—holding it out to him. “I got you your favorite, too.”
Shiloh’s gaze jerked to his for a split second, his cheeks almost crimson compared to Nico’s. What the fuck was happening? “Oh, thanks. It looks amazing.”
Mal wasn’t sure how Shiloh would know that, given how quickly he’d glanced at the dessert, but he didn’t push the issue. When Shiloh also left the kitchen without his cake, Mal raised his brows at Levi, who just sighed, grabbing two forks and the cake from Mal’s hand before slapping him on the back in a consoling way.
“Hang in there, man. I promise, this is good for you.”
With that cryptic message, he followed Shiloh into their room.
Mal waited until he heard Nico leave their bedroom and close himself in the bathroom before he set his cheesecake in the fridge and then went to gather their laundry, taking it to the basement alone. The laundry room was empty as well. Freakishly so. Mal separated their laundry into two machines quickly so he could at least have the hum of the washers to drown out the silence.
Once they were running, the shake and rattle of the washers dulling the ringing in his ears, he fell into one of the plastic chairs. He thumbed open his WhatsApp, scrolling backthrough his conversation with Nico. There had to be some clue. Something that would tell him what he’d done to accidentally upset him between this morning and now. They’d seemed fine. Nico had even joked with him…had kissed him.
Everything seemed normal, though. They’d texted off and on all day, just as they always did. They’d sent their usual stickers and emojis, and talked about their evening plans. Mal had even brought Nico cheesecake. He loved cheesecake.
That was when he noticed it. Their group chat.
At any given time of day, their friend group was rambling non-stop about anything from their next mission inPaladinto why macaroni and cheese on pizza was a genius idea. The chat often went so fast it was impossible for any one person to read everything. But there was a weird lull midday, a long period of silence that was so unlike his friends that he’d thought something was wrong with his cell service.
Had they created a new group chat without him? The thought sent a shock of…something through him. Mal had never been one for friendships. As a child he’d been called weird…off-putting. And he couldn’t even argue. It was true. His sensory issues had often made it hard to tolerate other children and his ever fluctuating personality made people uneasy. Add to that a suicidal mother, a psychotic older brother, and a younger brother who coped with trauma by slipping into fugue states and it was easy to see why the Mizrahi family were pariahs.
But Shiloh meeting Levi had changed all that. Shiloh had fallen in love and accidentally gave both of them a family they’d never had. Their friend group never questioned Mal’s ever-shifting mindsets, his sensory issues, his aversion to certain colors, shapes, textures. They had never questioned how Shiloh had coped with his trauma. They had just accepted both of them as they were, scars and all.
The unexpected silence of the group chat made Mal feel like there was a block of ice in his stomach. It was…disconcerting. Were they all in there deciding how to cut him from their lives? Even his brother? Had Micah been right all along? Was Mal just too weird to live in society?
The sound of shoes scuffing on concrete jerked him from his thoughts. He looked at the doorway just in time to see Nico fall through it, looking a little shaken at almost falling face-first into the room. Mal bit back a smile at Nico’s wide eyes. He was so clumsy. Mal loved him so much.
