“What day is it anyway?” Other Micah asked.
“I have no clue.” He picked up his watch from the coffee table and snorted. “Friday. The thirteenth.”
“Oh.” Other Micah slumped against the couch. “That day.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. What happens today?”
“I don’t know.” Other Micah glanced at him with his disconcerting pupil. “Cosmo won’t say.”
His heart leapt. “We talk to him again?”
“Yeah. He’s going to text you around six this evening and say he made a mistake in breaking it off. He’ll ask you to meet him at that taco truck always parked on the corner of Clementine.He kind of threw himself into my arms. Our arms… Your arms? You know what I mean.” His lips twitched in a smile. “And we find out if it feels more than just wet.”
Micah sucked in a sharp breath then glanced at his neglected living room. Mail lay scattered on the floor, moving boxes were still unopened, and one of his pillows had fallen off the couch into a pile of dirty dishes.
Holy hell. He and Cosmo were going to kiss and this place was disgusting and so was he.
Other Micah continued. “But… Something happened that Friday before we met up. Someone did something to him while he was at the taco truck.” His nostrils flared, fists balling. “They spooked him. Maybe hurt him.”
“Who?”
Other Micah’s voice flatlined. “You know who.”
Hot anger flooded Micah’s limbs. “That motherfu–”
“I guess we can’t say for sure it was Zedd, but he’s the most likely. Also thought about–”
“Royce?”
“Yeah.”
Micah opened his mouth to continue voicing his thoughts, but there was no reason to. He was talking to himself.
Other Micah sighed and said, “Cosmo won’t give us details. Just keeps pretending like nothing is wrong. If itwasZedd, his plan backfired, because instead of pushing us away, it made Cosmo come running back to our arms. I feel completely useless though, because I don’t know how to help the situation.”
Micah’s mind reeled with the knowledge that Cosmo was hurting, wasgoingto be hurt, and the fact that his future self was sitting beside him on the–
“Wait.” He sat up straight and stared at Other Micah. “Has it already happened today? No, no, that taco truck doesn’t open until five pm.” Looking at his watch again, he confirmed that it was only three-thirty. “I can stop it. I can go find Cosmo and make sure that whatever is going to happen, doesn’t.”
Other Micah’s mouth fell open. “You have to! Oh my god. Go take a shower and get down there.” He pushed at Micah. “Go, go, go.”
Micah leapt off the couch and slipped on a piece of mail. He turned back to Other Micah. “I doubt you’ll still be here whenI get out of the shower, but if this doesn’t change anything foryourCosmo, you hold him close and tell him it’s okay not to be okay.” He paused. “Same goes for you. Be good to yourself.”
“You can’t say that to me when you haven’t showered in two weeks. Say it to yourself, then go stop whatever is about to happen.”
Micah hurried into the shower and shaved with enough haste to nick his chin. He scrubbed the depression off of himself, formulating what he was going to say to get Cosmo to come with him. It sounded like Cosmo was close to wanting to be with Micah anyway. Hopefully showing up and inviting him to go get ice cream or see an art exhibit would be an easy “yes.” And if he wanted to leap into Micah’s arms in the process, that would be more than alright.
When he got out of the shower, Other Micah was gone. He still had time before he needed to go, so he dumped dirty dishes in the sink and turned on the faucet, then swept through the living room, picking up the clutter and throwing a load of laundry into the washer. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to bring Cosmo here and be in the apartment with him at the same time, but if it was life or death, the last thing he wanted to worry about was Cosmo drowning in filth.
Maybe it would be best to start the conversation with what had happened. Cosmo would want to hear all about Micah meeting his other self, and how this new apartment had the future bleeding in instead of the past.
This complex had a serious paranormal problem, but now Micah had an advantage. This was going to fix things between them and prevent something awful from happening, if not to all the Cosmos out there in the block universe, at least to this one.
14
NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS TO ME
Cosmo - Pulling the Thread
